I think maybe I've had enough of this job.

[ethereal-dusk.livejournal.com]

Benjamin Franklin once defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". Today, insanity actually worked out for me.

All day today we've received hundreds of phone calls in regards to HP LJ 4345 network printers because a "push" last night messed-up printing just to this particular model, but not for all of the workstations-- so network and printer issues were obviously ruled out. All day we were coming up with different methods to fix them, and each workstation was different. For some it was as easy as deleting the printer, turning the print spooler off and back on, deleting the driver, and remapping. Those were the easy ones. Then the whacky ones started coming in. It got to the point where we were having to delete cookies and temp files out of IE to be able to print to the network printer. There wasn't any correlation, it was like cats and dogs living together-- mass hysteria!

I just worked on one of these monsters for over an hour. I started off with the basic delete mapped printer, stop and start print spooler, delete driver, remap the printer. Nope. Reboot (it was running really slow, probably hadn't rebooted since 2003). Synchronized the box. Nope. Deleted temp files, cookies, history, reset defaults in IE. Nope. Deleted all unused printer drivers. Deleted all used printer drivers. Reboot. Remap. Still cannot print. Ran gpupdate. Reboot. Nothing. In frustration I actually said outloud "I just don't know what else to do." The guy started laughing and stopped abruptly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. You must be very frustrated after an hour." I said "Ya... let me try one more thing." So... I deleted the mapped printer, stopped and started the print spooler, deleted the driver, and remapped the printer. It then printed a test page without an error. These steps are *exactly* the same steps I started all of this off with.

So I wonder what word would define "doing the same thing over and over and actually getting different results".

Comments

[techieb0y.livejournal.com]

Technically, the word you're looking for is "non-deterministic"; I think "WTF?" will work as an acceptable substitute.

[ethereal-dusk.livejournal.com]

Ya, I think I am going to have to go with "WTF" here. But I will definitely remember "non-deterministic", for that will come in handy around here. :)

[fixerkitty.livejournal.com]

I was thinking 'Microsoft' but yeah, wtf? or 'non-deterministic' are dandies too...

[ethereal-dusk.livejournal.com]

:) Ya, I used that joke in the same conversation with $guy. He said "maybe it is a virus" to which I flatly replied "It is, it's called Microsoft." He thought that one was great.

[manuka.livejournal.com]

I don;t know what in the hell Microsoft is doing with drivers, but I had an HP LJ4200 series driver come down the Windows Update pipeline last week that took me a week to fix.

[ethereal-dusk.livejournal.com]

Now *that* doesn't make any sense at all. Their drivers lately have been absolutely horrible, especially for the 3055 and 7130 printers. It took our engineers over two weeks to figure out why we couldn't install the 3055 on our image. And as much as HP is in bed with Microsoft, one would think everything would be just perfect...

[manuka.livejournal.com]

You know, now that you mention it, our 3055s were buggered up as well.

For what it's worth, HP just released a new version of the UPD on Monday. Methinks that one's gonna need some testing.

[wyrdrune.livejournal.com]

"doing the same thing over and over and actually getting different results".

The word is "Windows".

[ethereal-dusk.livejournal.com]

Isn't that the truth...

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

So I wonder what word would define "doing the same thing over and over and actually getting different results".

"Tech Support"

[ethereal-dusk.livejournal.com]

I would usually agree with you on this, but our 177,000 workstations are suppose, oh I use that term kind of loosely, to be identical. All of these boxes are suppose to be identically built and the like... but we all know about the ghost in the machine... and now that I think about it, we all know how lusers try to tweak that which they are suppose to leave their fat fingers off of.

[kait-the-great.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I was going to say.

Probably half the time I walk to look at a user's error, my threatening (5 foot, 2 inches) approach has solved the problem.

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

So I wonder what word would define "doing the same thing over and over and actually getting different results".

Microsoft.

[greylady.livejournal.com]

Oh well, that's what I was going to say...

[neferde.livejournal.com]

I'll agree with all the "Microsoft" and "Windows" responses since I'm on my 17th hour and 8th XP reinstall on one client's laptop and every time I repeat the exact same steps I'm getting completely different results.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Congratulations... you have discovered proof that it's not you that's insane, it's the world.

[hiroe.livejournal.com]

A fish.

[commonsensehere.livejournal.com]

luser error

[heidl.livejournal.com]

FUCK YEAH !!

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Heh. The other day a user caught me in the hallway, and lured me into her office to fix a printer problem. "This is sunburn," she said to her new intern, also present. "He'll probably fix this in 3 seconds." It took more like 15 seconds, but I did have somewhere to be.

She can't access the features of the printer, in order to command it to print on larger paper. Well, I open her printers and see that she's printing to... a printer that hasn't been onsite in about a month. In fact, all of her printers should've been deleted since we swapped printer vendors and got a buttload of new copiers in. Somehow her jobs have been basic enough that the new printer at the same IP as the old printer (despite the different brand of drivers, and the fact that the old printer was just a color laser, the new one is a color laser MFP).

"Didn't you read the email from IT-Boss? We have all new printers. None of these printers are here anymore." *blank stare*

So I deleted her printers, set up the color printer (which defaults to force-B&W-only unless otherwise instructed-- thank god) as her default (as it had been before-- meaning that anything she printed with a speck of color cost us about 50 times a B&W printout-- criminy!) and only printer. She can send her intern upstairs to collect printouts until she's ready to use the B&W printer immediately outside her door.

"I'm sending you a copy of the email from IT-Boss. Please read it this time." A befreckled visage can only get you so far with me.