Customer Reviews

Canon PIXMA MP240 All-In-One Photo Printer

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I received this printer as a freebie when buying a laptop during the 2008 Black Friday sale. For the price, can not beat it. It replaces an older HP Deskjet 5550. The scanner works great and printing on paper is fast. I would not rely on this for photos. The technology today for photo printing is far superior than what this printer has available but then, this printer is not intended for that. If you are looking for a low cost multi-function printer, I would not hesitate.

If you're a student, avoid this printer! Four out of five of my classes require printing and bringing articles that the instructor uploaded online, and after about a week of use the ink runs out! At $15 for a cartridge, that's ridiculous! If you have $60 a month you can throw away on ink, then by all means buy this printer. On a positive note, if you ever accidentally kick it in the middle of the night and it flies off of your desk on to the floor, it will work in the morning.

I am a light user. I'd printed maybe 200 pages over the 6 months I've owned it. Documents only. When it worked, it worked well enough -- no complaints about the print quality; mainly text.

BUT -- two weeks ago I printed a few pages with no problems, turned it off, turned it on a few hours later, and was greeted by the main green display blinking an alternating "3" and an "E". It could not be reset and it would not accept any print jobs.

The supplied software diagnosed a paper jam and suggested I clear it. The thing is, there was no paper in the printer at all, not even a jammed scrap, so there was nothing to clear.

The online help suggested turning it off, unplugging everything including the power cable, and waiting a while. (???) I did so, waiting 3 hours. Problem remained.

Emailed Canon, giving them all the details, including of course the printer model. Four days later they write back asking me to give them the model name again. I did, and that was the last I've heard from them.

Maybe mine was defective. Still, Canon is not doing much to remedy the defect. Meanwhile I can't print.


UPDATE

Remembering I'd bought an extended "whatever happens" warranty from the retailer (Currys Digital), I took it back to them. They gave me a new one without any hassle. The new one worked fine a for a few months (printing some 300-400 pages), but then the very same problem happened. Seems like a design flaw rather than coincidence. Avoid this one.

A readers' response to another 1 star review suggests my problem isn't unique.

I bought this printer in October 2008 after reading several positive reviews. I would like to offer a strongly dissenting opinion!

The printer barely lasted a year before the paper feed broke. Mind you, I used this strictly for the occasional home print job. No photos, just text. I doubt I printed more than 100 pages in the year I had it. Yet it still broke. When I contacted tech support, they told me it would cost more than the printer was worth to fix it.

I contacted Canon "customer service," but was informed that it only has a 90-day warranty. Clearly, they expect this to break quickly. I don't consider a printer a disposable item, but Canon sure must. Worse than the useless warranty was the fact that Canon didn't offer to rectify the situation at all. My last printer was an Epson. It also broke after the warranty had expired, but when I contacted THEM, they agreed that the printer should not have broken under such light use. Epson provided me with a replacement printer free of charge. Even shipping was included. Canon, on the other hand, wouldn't even admit that it was ridiculous for a printer to break so quickly. Their only response was to offer me a 'Loyalty Bonus' of 15% off my next Canon printer. As if I would ever buy one of their shoddy products again! No thanks.

BTW - The scanner is useless, as well, producing images that are absolutely unreadable. All in all, a disappointing piece of junk. I will NEVER buy a Canon product again after dealing with their incredibly poor customer service.

Printer worked sporadically from the get-go. Contacted Canon support and they sent a replacement (rebuilt) printer. It, too, worked erratically. Couldn't print at all from some programs (like Outlook 2007) or only text or graphics (but not both) from others.

After wasting far too much of my time, I bought a comparable HP printer. After fifteen minute set-up it has worked flawlessly right out of the box.

Don't bother buying extra ink cartridges because the machine won't last long enough to use them. Worked fine one day, the next, all it would do is flash error messages. POS

I owned several Canon PIXMA (MP240 and MP270)during the past two years. They are inexpensive and have two large ink cartridges, one for black and the other for color, which are reasonably priced and last longer than similar Epson or HP cartridges. Other reviewers have described the many features of this scanner/printer. I want to alert the MP240 owners to an error message and solution that is not described in the MP240 printer manual.

The scenario goes like this: You turn on the printer and it does not print. After making a lot of noise, it displays P8 on the printer display and Error code 5200 on your computer screen suggesting that you turn off the printer, unplug it and restart the printer. After trying this several times and searching the Internet for answers, you may think about junking the printer and buying another. Before you do this, try replacing the ink cartridge. My MP240 is set for gray scale. I only use it for black and white text printing. I have another photo printer for my color prints. But the MP240 printer seems to need a functioning color cartridge.

So before you throw out this otherwise good printer or pay for a repair, try replacing the color cartridge. I have not encountered this problem on my MP270 yet. Perhaps Canon improved the software.

I got this printer as part of a package with my Gateway computer. My trusty HP printer had been working perfectly for over 7 years when I gave it away to make room for this one. Needless to say, I was disappointed when this printer broke after only 2 years. It started flashing an E3 error message, which indicates a paper jam. However, there was no paper jam. I did everything I knew to do from attempting to update the driver to various other solutions I read about on the Internet. Nothing worked. To make matters worse, I'd just put a brand new $20 ink cartridge in the printer.

I bought this product at best buy in 2009 and it's the best printer I've owned. Fast setup and easy to operate. As the cost is low I was able to afford to purchase one for a friend as well. We've both had them now for over 2 years and it has not failed us yet. I am very pleased with the operation and results.

First off, I want to warn everyone that this printer DOES NOT COME WITH A USB CABLE. I even contacted Canon directly and was told that these don't include the USB cable! What a crock--I had to buy a cable before I could even test it!
Next, I finally got it going, and after all of the noise of the unit resetting itself several times it, finally, reliably prints out great and at a fast speed.

So, this printer would have gotten 5 stars if it a) came with a USB cable; and b) doesn't have to reset itself so many times before printing the first page of each print. However, reading the reviews of other printers, these are the best you can find around the $50 mark for an all-in-one so I'm moderately happy with my purchase.