"The following story is true..."
(Those of you who may not want to hear the rantings of the where-I-work in-house computer geek may want to skip this.)
Names have been omitted to protect the ridiculed.
I'm sitting at my work computer, trying to finish a spreadsheet for one of the Sales guys, when my intercom beeps at me.
"I can't get this computer to print." Eyeroll, deep breath, count to five, take sip of tea. "I'm finishing something up. Give me 5 minutes, okay?" I save the document I'm working on, start printing it. "All right." Intercom hangs up.
Five minutes later finds me at a makeshift desk in another department, staring at one of our newer laptops. Someone had been setting up it up for one of the guys. "I just can't get that thing to work", is the response I get from the other desk she is currently at, "and I'm not sure what the problem is. Everything is hooked up."
I look at the printer. It has power, cables are hooked up, the ink low light is on. I open the lid, shut it again, the ink light goes out. First problem solved. So I look at the laptop. There are two documents in the queue for a printer that is not the one the laptop is supposedly printing to. I delete the documents and change the default printer. Second problem solved. I print a test page.
Nothing. So I start looking at the cable connections....
...and realize that the printer's USB cable is somehow plugged into the laptop's NETWORK PORT. Which is most definitely not a USB port.
I wish I would have got a picture. Most people I told this to can't believe someone actually managed this.
"WHO PLUGGED THIS IN?" (yes, I did say that as loudly as you may think) No answer. Guess I shouldn't have expected one.
I move the cable to one of the FOUR USB ports. I tell the laptop to print a test page. And it does.
"It's working now."
"OK, thanks." They all go back to work. And I wander back to my little cubicle...and make a fresh cup of tea.
The lesson from all this? The next time someone yells that their printer isn't working, I'm checking the cables first. Just to make sure.
Names have been omitted to protect the ridiculed.
I'm sitting at my work computer, trying to finish a spreadsheet for one of the Sales guys, when my intercom beeps at me.
"I can't get this computer to print." Eyeroll, deep breath, count to five, take sip of tea. "I'm finishing something up. Give me 5 minutes, okay?" I save the document I'm working on, start printing it. "All right." Intercom hangs up.
Five minutes later finds me at a makeshift desk in another department, staring at one of our newer laptops. Someone had been setting up it up for one of the guys. "I just can't get that thing to work", is the response I get from the other desk she is currently at, "and I'm not sure what the problem is. Everything is hooked up."
I look at the printer. It has power, cables are hooked up, the ink low light is on. I open the lid, shut it again, the ink light goes out. First problem solved. So I look at the laptop. There are two documents in the queue for a printer that is not the one the laptop is supposedly printing to. I delete the documents and change the default printer. Second problem solved. I print a test page.
Nothing. So I start looking at the cable connections....
...and realize that the printer's USB cable is somehow plugged into the laptop's NETWORK PORT. Which is most definitely not a USB port.
I wish I would have got a picture. Most people I told this to can't believe someone actually managed this.
"WHO PLUGGED THIS IN?" (yes, I did say that as loudly as you may think) No answer. Guess I shouldn't have expected one.
I move the cable to one of the FOUR USB ports. I tell the laptop to print a test page. And it does.
"It's working now."
"OK, thanks." They all go back to work. And I wander back to my little cubicle...and make a fresh cup of tea.
The lesson from all this? The next time someone yells that their printer isn't working, I'm checking the cables first. Just to make sure.