Communal printing
I went off and bought myself a printer over the weekend.
First of all, I had difficulty finding the shop as it was in an office park that I swear wasn’t there last week. It’s in an area that I know very well, as I use to hand out in the local pub there in my younger days. However, there is nothing left of the old area, and I mean nothing. Everything has been dredged away for motorways and new roads, and anything that once looked green has now been concreted over with endless apartment blocks, office parks and industrial estates.
I found it in the end, and took a stroll in.
I never realised there were so many different types of printers, so I poked around for a while until a sales bloke took pity on me.
Luckily, I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted a printer, a scanner, a fax and a scanner all in one. I also wanted it to be wireless, as I was sick of trying to print things only to find that the PC in the office wasn’t switched on.
The sales bloke obviously had never worked in a DIY store, because he was very helpful and found a machine that was exactly what I wanted. What’s more, it was less than €120 which wasn’t bad.
I brought it home and that’s where my problems started.
There is an old cliché in the computer world that the solution to all problems is RTFM. If you don’t know what RTFM is, then Google it. My problem was that there wasn’t a FM. There was a guide on connecting it, which was fair enough. I had to use its cables rather than the old ones that I had been using, so I got myself tied in knots running wires and stuff all over the place.
I then installed the software.
Even though it was a wireless printer, I had to connect to it with a wire, which was tricky as there wasn’t a spare desk near the printer, so I had to work off the floor. I got it set up; disconnected the cable and it worked!
I then ran tests to see if it was OK, and the printer worked, but the fax didn’t.
Not having a FM, I was a bit stumped. The trick I discovered was to reinstall everything, only this time connecting using the wireless.
I sent a fax this morning.
There were no instructions on how to do it, so I don’t know whether it worked. They probably got a blank page as I probably put the paper in upside down.
The printer works well though.
One of my neighbours has accidentally hooked up to it and is printing off all his accounts.
I like wireless.
RTFM Hahahahahaha! I haven’t heard that one in awhile. I’m glad to hear there were no PEBKAC errors or the dreaded id-10-t error.
Good luck–if you start getting Ministers’ bar tabs etc, be sure to let us know?
It sounds as if you were better off without the FM anyhow. I once bought a car with a manual and it was all in Japanese, mostly in comic-book format. There was a panel with a car on fire and a red X through it (don’t burn up your car) and another panel with a car in a starburst, with a red X through it (don’t blow up your car). Etc.
DUH, ok…
Enjoy printing!
Brianf – We don’t have PEBKAC arrors in Headrambles Manor. The problem rarely exists in the C so it is always down to the K and the stuff attached to it.
Susan – I normally don’t believe in FMs. They just confuse the issue. This was one time I needed one and it wasn’t there. What kind of useless car did you get that you couldn’t set it on fire or blow it up?
i don’t trust anything that’s multi-purpose – except my laptop, but I keep a very close eye on that.
my mobile is /just/ a mobile. I have a separate digital camera in case I want to take a photo. I have a standalone CD player, and a standalone vinyl player.
my experience here is that if you have a multi-purpose thing and one of the things on it breaks – that’s it, time to replace the whole thing.
in the office here, I have a separate printer and scanner, and that’s how I like it.
If my router starts making toast, I will replace it with a new one…
Kae – I would agree normally. My mobile phone is a phone, and while it does have a camera, I prefer to use a camera. However, when you add up the cost of a printer, a scanner, a fax machine and a photocopier, I think you’ll agree that €120 isn’t much to pay for a single unit? I used to have a separate printer and scanner but they did take up a lot of room which is another factor.
I too managed to set up the printer (but fax was an issue) but then came the scanning part – have you tried to scan anything yet?
Also just interested, is your neighbour a member of the government or working at Anglo Irish Bank?
Irish M – The scanner worked perfectly, once I relaoded the software three more times and rebooted twice more. I will keep an eye on my neighbour’s printouts, as I’m not sure where he works. I’ll soon find out though 😈
i noticed it has that @#$%^&* HP logo on it. i have cussed HP and cussed and cussed trying to get my all-in-one contraption to work. i’ve had it two years and have only gotten it to print and that is if i feed each page manually. grrrr. oh, if you ever get the message that there is a paper jam, never ever pull the paper out the front, even if you can see it and even if that seems like the logical thing to do. will screw up your rollers forever and you’ll have to manually feed the paper from then on. did i mention that my hp all-in-one is the devil reincarnate? 🙂
Prin – It does indeed have that @#$%^&* HP logo on it. I had some initial teething problems, that would have been somewhat lessened if I had had a FM, but all aspects of it are now working perfectly. The only crib I would have about it is that I keep knocking the paper tray which projects quite a way out front.
I hope you appreciate that on foot of my printer purchase, HP are to create 500 new jobs?