Diabolical

No canine incidents today (so far) but an incident this morning that was far more annoying.

Last night I printed something from my computer on our Hewlett Packard definitely not cheap laser printer. This morning, having not used printer or computer since the previous evening, attempts to print a single page document totally failed. On all devices attempts to print produced an error message saying the printer could not be found.

Well, I managed to find it, in its usual place.  It was switched on with its usual light blinking. I switched it and the computer off and on again. Still no good. I printed a diagnostic page from the printer menu which mentioned two errors, neither of which made any sense at all. One said it was detecting more than one network and later said it had found 15.  They must be all the wifi networks in our neighbourhood. That hadn't;t changed overnight. The other message referred to a "changed WPA authentication method." Three problems: I don't know what that means; I haven't changed anything; the online manual instructions are of no help in fixing it.

Why are printers so unreliable? We've been through about 8 in the last 15 years.  All turn out to be unreliable. A cynical person might think the manufacturers build-in a degree of irreparable unreliability, in the expectation that people will feel they have to buy a new one.