Printer Woes

Five years ago I bought the printer that was going to last me the rest of my time. A Canon Mega Tank Pixma which with its mega tanks is extremely cheap to run, said Lance Green, writer at RENEW Magazine.

Unfortunately I became ill before I even opened the box, and the thing stood unused for two years.

Finally I unpacked it and started printing the backlog. It was every bit as good as Lance Green said it was.

The ink that came with it lasted me for Two! Years! and I was able to top up the tanks twice with its 70 mls bottles.

All good things come to an end and a couple of months ago that ink ran out. I sent for a new set of bottles from the Ink Depot. Filled the tanks.

Could not make the printer work. I’m sure you already all know this thing we do when our tech refuses to work … first the troubleshooting. Not a sound out of it. Just the blinking lights.

Then the forum. OK, someone about ten years ago had the same pattern of lights blinking. Did anyone know what that meant. No answer to their post meant no to my question too.

Then the manual. Downloaded that, all 563 pages, and gloss through it for the pattern … on/off combined with ink supply light, 7 blinks fast 2 slow. Or the other way round.

The manual told me that was an xyz error … I’ve forgotten the number … and that the machine should be wrapped carefully and taken to the service people. No explanation!

I found a local fixer who might come to my house but that wasn’t going to happen. The call-out fee alone is over $100.

Back to the Web. That number had to mean something.

Finally, on an obscure Reddit forum, the meaning of the number …. Taraaaah! My machine needs a new ink drip pad or some such thing.

A brand new Canon MG3660 costs $67 this week! It uses cartridge ink. Fine by me.

The amount of running around needed to access sustainable resources, and the amount of energy to fuel the internet are themselves not sustainable.

PS I shall use the ink making art