Dec 07 2005
(L)user Error
This is pretty embarrassing. You would think that this kind of thing wouldn’t happen to an IT professional, but it does. At least it does to me.
My HP LaserJet 1012 which has been serving me faithfully for about 2 years now suddenly stopped printing. Whenever a print job was received, the printer would fire up, rollers would spin, click 3 times, and give up, unable to pick up a sheet of paper from the tray. I figured maybe the rollers had worn out since I had sent some high volume print jobs for my last few classes, pumping out the equivalent of 3 textbooks on that little low-end consumer grade printer.
Luckily, I work in IT and am friends with a vendor that repairs office machines. I told him about it and he instructed me to bring my printer in to the office where he would take a look at it.
Well, I brought it in today. He had a befuddled expression on his face as he disassembled the printer. “Have you ever seen this before?” he asked me, holding up a comb that I had lost track of some time ago. Incidentally, it was of the same color scheme as the printer.
A blush rose to my cheeks and I laughed nervously, “uh, yeah… that’s my comb.” I mumbled some lame explanation about how it was sitting next to the printer and how I had no idea how it got inside the printer.
He said that it’s common for foreign objects to get mysteriously sucked into printers. I’m guessing that the comb got placed on top of the manual feeder, pushed inside inadvertently and sucked in when I tried to run a print job. It was funny because he was just about to consult his manual to identify this strange part. After all, it looked almost like it belonged in there with the same colors as the printer itself. Maybe that poor little comb thought he was returning to the mother ship.
Now I know how our computer users feel when they realize that their problems are a direct result of “user error.”
A 30-something Christian girl, blissfully wedded to her perfect match (the yang to her yin) of 14 years. A new mom to her miracle baby, born on October 4, 2008. Living life in Hawaii, less than 5 miles from her hometown, a slave to her mortgage payment, but seeking balance in her pursuit of family, faith, recreation, and rest.
I’m glad that I am not the only one who “pulls” stunts like that hehehehe. Nice blog. You are a good writer also.
great now i really gotta get that cup holder checked out
LOL! This is too funny!!!
This same sort of thing happened to me, too…complete with the clicks and grinding to a halt. Only the culprit in my case was a D&B PowerCard! At least your comb would have been hard to notice falling into your printer, as it looks like it could belong. D&B’s bright orange cards, on the other hand, look nothing at all like the gray of my HP Deskjet!
And, funnier still, is that *I’m* in IT, too! I love your title. I’m thinking we’ll adopt that as the “official label” for such problems in our department!
You made my day!!!
Watari Goro (yup, the same one as on Flickr)
Ozonr9999: Thanks for the kind comments and thanks for stopping by the site.
Matsu: You never know when you’ll need a working cup holder… call the Geek Squad, quick!
Watari Goro: I’m glad that a fellow IT professional can relate to this experience. Embarrassing as it is, I guess it even happens to those of us who should be in the “know.” (L)user error - pretty appropriate, eh?