A household printer has detected a deadline and entered sleep mode, sources within the spare room confirm.

The device, operational continuously since March, powered down at 11:52 p.m. as a user attempted to print one page required at nine the following morning.

“It printed a photograph of a dog in June,” said owner Tomas Reddick. “Nobody asked it to. It was simply ready that day.”

The printer reported a paper jam. There was no paper jam. There has never been a paper jam. Analysts at the Bureau of Peripheral Behaviour describe the message as a mood expressed in the only language available.

“The printer is not broken,” said Bureau analyst Dr. Wilhelmina Crost. “Broken devices fail consistently. This one is making choices.”

Reddick opened every door on the printer, looked inside, closed them, and pressed the button again. This constitutes the entire recognised treatment protocol. It succeeds four per cent of the time and is attempted one hundred per cent of the time.

By 12:40 a.m. he had emailed the document to himself, driven to a shop, and paid sixty cents.

The printer resumed normal operation at 9:06 a.m. and has since produced an unrequested test page. Reddick described the test page as flawless.