Tuesday, March 6, 2018

To print or not to print

How often do you use a printer? It seems that it's all or nothing for us, our printer either sits there for weeks on end without being used, or Cindy finds a bazillion recipes to print out while I sit there with the photo paper waiting my turn to print out a picture.

A couple of weeks ago Cindy found a recipe she liked and hit print, the printer made the normal printer start up sounds and started pulling the paper in, suddenly there was a loud rattling sound like gears being stripped, and the paper wadded up sideways from being pulled by only one side.

HP printer pulling a sheet of paper into the device by one side.
Our printer being bad.
Paper jam! I was thinking, so I pulled the paper out, looked inside, and loaded new paper into the tray only to get the same result, "rattle, rattle, rattle, clank, clank, bruzzzz"

I did this like three times while opening all the little doors and cubby holes and looking into them with my flashlight, only to see nothing wrong but also not able to get the printer to work. This printer/copier/scanner is about nine years old so I made the hard decision to declare our printer dead, I pulled the plug and slowly closed it's lid with a sideways slide of my hand and stood in silence as the sounds of the printer shutting down slowly stopped.

"We need to pick up a new printer next time we go to town" I told Cindy, and a week later we still hadn't bought one, but I had bought us both a new set of ear muffs to protect our hearing when we go to the race this year, I got them online from our favorite site that sells everything from A to Z and these were supposed to be top notch.

Well folks in my opinion they looked like cheap plastic and hardly blocked any noise at all; they looked nothing like their picture. I made a phone call and was told to place them back into their original package and they would send me a return label to attach to the box, all I had to do was mail them back at no cost to me, and my money would be refunded.

"So you are going to mail out the return label to me today?" I asked, "No Sir, I have already emailed it to you, all you have to do is print it out and then tape it to the box." the representative explained to me. "Perfect, I'll get it mailed back today then." I said and hung up the phone.

This is when I realized that I'm not going to be printing anything with our dead printer.

A trip to the Best place to Buy computer stuff and more money than I had planned on spending later, we brought home a new printer/copier/scanner. With our old printer we were able to print from either Cindy's computer, or mine with no problem. I removed the old printer and hooked up the new one, added the ink cartridges, and loaded the paper, Cindy's computer sits next to the printer so I clicked print to get a test page from her computer first, this new printer is really quick and quiet also, it worked like a charm.

I stepped across to my desk and my computer is not recognizing a printer other than the old one at all, so I uninstalled the old printer program and again searched for the new one...nothing, my computer was now no longer seeing Cindy's computer either, so now I am troubleshooting the networking and home group settings, while trying to load the new printer too. A couple hours later and it was time to shut down my computer for the night.

Jimmy's desktop showing keyboard, monitor, mouse and accessories search screen for printer setup help.
A peek at my desk while I search for printer help.
The next day I had the same luck, now I am searching the web for a solution. I have a whole group of pages opened and am about ready to pull my hair out when Cindy gives our son Tim a call. Tim answers the phone and Cindy says, "Hey Tim, we have a new printer, Jimmy's having trouble, here talk to him." And then she handed me the phone

About forty five minutes later, after Tim walked me through the settings on both of our computers, check this box, unclick that one, write down that new password, now add it right there on the other computer, put your right foot in, take your right foot out, put your right foot in. All of a sudden everything started working like it is supposed to. I thanked him profusely and would have given him a big ole Man Hug if he had been here, our work was done so I gave the phone back to Cindy, and it was again time to shut down our computers for the night.

The next evening (three days later) I started cleaning up the cardboard and Styrofoam from our computer room. I picked up the old printer and started to stuff it into the printer box when I heard a rattle, thinking it was a loose gear I turned the printer upside down and shook it, a white piece fell to the floor followed by a red one, I shook the printer again and there was still something loose inside, so after a few minutes of opening all the doors and cubby holes and doing some more strategic shaking one more white piece fell out.

Box ox Good and Plenty candy with a pile of red and white candies lying next to it.
Good & Plenty Candy (Image Source)
I picked up the red and white pieces from the floor and handed them to Cindy, she looked at the pieces in her hand then over to the Good and Plenty candy box on her desk, and back to the candies in her hand, Oops was all she had to say.

While looking for something on her desk Cindy had evidently sat her candy box on top of the printer, and before she had a chance to pick it back up three little Good and Plenty's took it upon themselves to attempt an escape. Rather than jumping off the front side onto the floor like any normal escaping candy piece would have done, this trio of rogue Bad and Sneaky candy pieces jumped off the backside, thus trapping themselves inside the printer.

As you have now figured out, I have two printers that work just fine; one is just older and sweeter, and oh yeah, Cindy is no longer going to use the printer as a table...

What is your favorite snack while playing on the computer?

44 comments:

  1. In the electronics world:

    I need you to do this for me

    PC: Okay

    Smartphone: Okay

    Roku: Okay

    Video game console: Okay

    Printer: You can't tell me what to do, you're not my real dad.

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    1. I think my printer has actually said that before Adam LOL

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    2. Adam, you're too funny! RO

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  2. OMG, I would have been in a right state if I ended up with two working computers. One is bad enough!! I used to love electronics but no longer. Now they have become a worry when things go wrong. However, you got a good post out of the entire incident .. and how. I daren't say too much about my printer 'cos I swear it has ears and will go all out to upset me lol.

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    1. The computers and printers are really useful when working correctly, but when they mess up they can be really frustrating to fix. Now that you mentioned your printer having ears makes me wonder if this mess up with ours wasn't Cindy's fault after all, but the printers for eating Cindy's candy when we weren't looking and getting them caught in it's teeth.

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  3. So now you have a printer for each computer...no more waiting...

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    1. Very true Delores, I'm just scared to hook it up to mine now that everything is working. Ha ha!

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  4. Mystery solved. Candy can be the culprit in so many instances. Too funny.

    I don't snack at the computer. I learned long ago that my hips pay the price for snacking. Bugger.

    Have a fabulous day. ☺

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    1. Yes indeed Sandee, candy has been found to be the blame for many things. Like you I rarely snack at the computer, but if I do want something there are always some sort of goodies on Cindy's desk.

      A great day to you also.

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  5. Haha, well a back up printer is always good. I'll eat just about everything at the computer including a 3 course meal! Ha. I use my printer every day, but I think it's about to die, everything works fine unless I want any image to have yellow in it. :D

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    1. I thought that too Joey, if nothing else I can use it to make copies and save ink in the other one, or even hook it up to my computer directly. You sound just like my brother, I believe that he has more meals at his computer than at the dining table. Ha Ha

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  6. That's really funny. Pretty sure you would need a new one soon anyway, now you've got past that nasty set up stage

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    1. Joe, That was one of the worst setup sessions I've been through with a printer, I'm sure happy that Tim talked me through it.

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  7. Cindy owes you! Of course, that assumes that you've never done anything similarly preventable . . .

    I hope your old printer gets a fitting funeral. Let us know how that goes :)

    I eat at the computer more than I should. It saves time! When my husband is home I eat with him, though :)

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    1. Jenny, I won't go so far as to say that I've never done anything similar, I bet we all have at one time or another ha ha.

      For now the old printer has come back to life pushing it's potential funeral off to another time...

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  8. Printers are the source of way too much stress at my house. Love them when they work, hate them when they don't.

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    1. Jean I can relate to that, a printer is really handy when they are working, but really a pain when you need something printed out like a return label and then realize that you can't do it.

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  9. Oops indeed. It is cat fur which gums up our printer. And I don't eat anywhere near it. Or drink, having learning the lesson when I poured a cup of tea into my keyboard years ago.

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    1. Oh Lordy EC, I can just imagine what a cup of tea did for your keyboard, they usually don't survive accidents like that! Have you been able to clean the cat fur from your printer, or is that impossible?

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  10. Heh, heh! Now you have good (and plenty of) printers!

    I spilled about 30 oz of Diet Coke (with added Cherry Limeade powder) at my computer two nights ago. Lucky for me, I had a folded towel that I sit on (to even out my spine) on my lopsided old rolly chair. I soaked it up before any damage was done to the tax file manila folders. It seeped under my computer tower, but only a small puddle. Thank goodness my printer is more than an arm's reach away, sitting up about 8 inches on an elevated counter.

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    1. Val you really lucked out having that towel right there when your magic elixir tipped over, that could have been ugly. Nice job catching it in time.

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  11. My PC won't let me reply to you. The printer works ok(ish) with the patina of cat fur. At intervals we pull it apart and clean it.
    And I was lucky on the spilt tea front. I quickly turned the keyboard upside down so the tea dripped out. Some keys were sticky afterwards but it continued to work. Just as well. I was at work. And shouldn't have had the cup of tea anywhere near my desk.

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    1. You were really lucky with your keyboard, it was very smart of you to flip it over so most of the tea ran out of it, I have seen others that didn't come out as well.
      I wonder if you could use the hose from a vacuum cleaner to remove most of the cat hair from your printer? That's something I would try, you never know it just may work. It's funny how pet hair can creep into the darnedest places.

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  12. Ha Ha on the candy, what a sweet problem :)
    my favourite snack used to be ice cream or chocolate, but those are off limits right now, so there's no snacking at all. my printer is at the far end of the coffee table so not handy for resting snacks on, and that isn't something I would do anyway. Mine is also a print/copy/scanner, and the computer recognises the print part and I can photocopy on it, but the computer doesn't recognise the scanner part, so I can't scan anything into the computer. It's probably about eight years old, so it's close to obsolete and ink cartridges can only be bought at one place now, luckily close to home. Most of my printing is photos for myself and other people, although I've had to discontinue for other people now that ink is hard to come by, I also print out images that I really like, 4"x6" size, some that are funny and I back them with light cardboard then cover the whole thing with clear contact and use them as book marks.

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    1. A sweet problem indeed River ha ha. Your computer not recognizing the scanner part of your printer sounds like a software problem to me, it may be as simple as deleting your printer and reloading the program or unplugging your cable and moving it to a different usb port, but with the setup problem I had with our new printer I don't know if I'd even listen to me...

      The price of ink is ridiculous in my opinion, I know there are places on the internet that sell ink at a reduced price so if yours gets any harder to find this may be an option for you. I really like your bookmark idea, printing out a favorite or funny picture to use as a bookmark is priceless.

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    2. Some of my bookmarks are copies of the jacket picture if it's fabulous enough.

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  13. My goodness, what a nightmare! Good and Plenty will never look the same I bet. (lol) I used to have a printer hooked up, but usually I just need to print out coupons or important documents maybe twice a month, so I head to the library in most instances. Thanks for the great post! Hugs...RO

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    1. Using the printers at the library is a win/win for you RO, this gets you out of buying printer ink and also gives you a good reason to go to the library...you can't go wrong there.

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  14. We have two printers as well. The newest one is a wireless printer and it has caused me endless problems (keeps losing the connection). I never eat in my office!

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    1. If your wireless printer continues to be a problem you may have to get a cable and plug it directly into your computer, but this would defeat the wireless purpose I believe. I rarely if ever eat at my desk, but I think most people do.

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  15. Looks like a good mistake that cost you plenty. I don't keep snacks by the printer, but I've been known to scan photos and forget they're in there.
    We have a network printer that always malfunctioned. I disconnected it from the network so it only prints from my computer now. But that's better than not printing at all.

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    1. "Looks like a good mistake that cost you plenty" now this is funny Abby ha ha, I like what you said here.

      I don't know how many photos and documents that we have misplaced only to have them turn up on the copier. I think this is where my problems began, when I removed the old printer it somehow disconnected my computer from the network, wasn't really a problem with the new printer but a networking problem with Jimmy. Our only other option would have been to do what you did and only print from one computer.

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  16. This happened to my daughter when she was in college. She calls us up and tells us her printer will not work. Something was jamming it. Being an experienced printer jammer. I told her to keep looking and shaking it. I was not about to buy another printer. It ened up being a bobby pin.
    Lisa

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    1. Oh Wow Lisa, a bobby pin can be your best friend or worst enemy, just how many things have been fixed with a bobby pin, or in this case by removing one ha ha

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  17. this is always great peace when our children help us out with such problems Jimmy!

    i MISS my eldest son who always helped me when i was new in blogging (2009)..

    I can realize how much relief you must have felt when your son fixed it for you

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    1. You are correct Baili, it is a great blessing for our children to share their knowledge with us, and to fix our computers when we can't figure them out. I was very happy with Tim when he helped me with this problem.

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  18. I can see something like this happening to me.

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    1. John it seems to happen when we least expect it...Our son thought it was really funny.

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  19. I really dislike having to figure out what's wrong with anything tech. Lately, I just want the throw the nasty thing out the window. My previous printer ran out of ink, got new ink, and it said I had the wrong ink in it. (I didn't) I ended up having to get a new printer. Had a similar problem with having to print out a label. Argh!

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    1. Yes Sharon, Any of our gadgets can be really frustrating, especially when you have done exactly what you are supposed to do and it still doesn't work, like you adding the correct ink and your printer thinks that it's the wrong ink...

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  20. My old but very expensive vacuum cleaner broke. I did not check it for Good and Plenty candy but perhaps I should have. Meanwhile I ordered a new one on Amazon and it arrived broken. The same problem I had with the old one. Returned it for a refund to Amazon. Went to a Vacuum shop and bought a used sweeper with a one year warranty. New stuff doesn't last so we just throw it out and buy new.

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    1. It sure seems like anything new is built to be thrown away rather than to be fixed.

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  21. My favorite is Good and Plenty of course!
    Printers suck! At least they are cheap for the basic models.
    A while back we bought a not-so-cheap model that printed, scanned, copies, and was wireless. It was so complicated to use that we usually didn't. It's just sitting in a shelf in a long term "time out" as punishment. Maybe it will cooperate next time we try to use it.

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    1. It seems everybody's printers are against us doesn't it, I hope the long term time out works on your printer, but next time you go to use it don't be surprised if it acts like a...printer!

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