(no subject)

[neferde.livejournal.com]

My mom works in a lawyer's office. Yesterday she had to go down to work and decided, since I wasn't doing anything important, to see if I'd go with her and fix one of the office computers. It's a 98SE which, due to network issues could only print to one of the three networked printers in the office. That printer broke about a month ago and since it's been replaced that computer hasn't been able to print. People are getting angry, my mom's boss was to the point of throwing things at the computer because it wouldn't print, and the lawyer's furious because he's "wasted money" on two local techs, including the Twit of previous postings, who came in to try and fix the problem. Apparently everything was hooked up correctly and they just couldn't figure out what was wrong.

Perhaps if they'd bothered to check the driver for the printer they were trying to install they might have figured out that, when a driver is listed as nothing more than odd character map symbols instead of nice descriptive English, there might be something wrong with the driver...

Fifteen minutes and one downloaded driver later he's up and printing perfectly to the office copier/fax/scanner and I'm basking in the praise from both my mom and the lawyer, all the while wondering how anyone could have missed something that obvious! *shakes her head in disbelief*

Comments

[darkblade1.livejournal.com]

Kudos! That's a classic example of techs being overzealous and troubleshooting over their heads.

Regardless, that's pure and basic stuff. That's the first thing they needed to check. These are the techs that make us look bad.

[neferde.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Check the drivers! It's a basic step of doing any sort of printer troubleshooting. I'm still baffled by how they missed it.

It's not so much what they did that makes them look bad as much as what they didn't do. They looked at everything in the office and, when it wasn't something they knew instantly, they didn't even call up their bosses and ask for advice. They just left it, not even saying something like "I'd like to research that and see if there might be something I've overlooked." It's like they just didn't care that the problem wasn't fixed.

[sketchydave.livejournal.com]

I agree, thats really weird. If its a printer you always check the drivers. Because thats almost always the only thing that can be wrong as far as the computer goes. Other than that the possiblities are a bad cable or the printer itself is damaged. I *hate* printers. So many moving parts, so many places to go wrong, and they do where out.

Printers and fax machines are the bane of any tech.

"PC Load Letter, what the *%#$ does that mean?!"

[sketchydave.livejournal.com]

where = wear...is been a long day

[neferde.livejournal.com]

Right! My personal printer bane at the moment is friends and family who keep deciding that picking up printers at surplus or garage sales is a good thing! I mean they're so cheap! Sure they don't come with software or cables, but that's not a problem, right? *stabbity stab stab*

[lions-tambua.livejournal.com]

well ;)
1 new printer = 100$
5 hour onsite for not solving the problem = 1000$
to know what youre doing and fixing the problem within 15 minutes. PRICELESS!

[neferde.livejournal.com]

*grins* Is it bad that I'm not sure which I'd rather have, my intact reputation or that $1000?

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

I'd rather have a contract to fix all future problems at the lawyers' offices for $200 an hour. First one's free...

[lions-tambua.livejournal.com]

TAKE THE SURPRISE BEHIND GATE-3 !! :)