Sometimes we should take a moment to stop and think. How often have we gotten the answer to a question, slapped our forehead and thought to ourselves that if we had just taken a few seconds to think about the problem, the answer would have probably jumped up and smacked us in the face. For example, a few days ago I changed the password on my wireless network. I had my reasons at the time and everything was fine. The next day, I suddenly could not get a print job to go to the printer. No error messages it just wouldn’t go. I checked the printer, I made sure the print spooler service was running, I checked that the wireless print server was working; I verified the IP address of the printer and then began to question the parentage of first XP, then Linksys, then HP and finally the cable makers.
Those who know me will find this hard to believe but I was even approaching a state of being peeved. As I sat there thinking about methods of exacting revenge on whatever or whoever was preventing me from printing, it dawned on me that I had changed the password to the wireless network the day before. Since the password to the wireless network was changed, the wireless print server that attaches the printer to the network was attempting to connect to the wireless network with the old password. Stop and think. Since the whole point of a password was to prevent connection to my network with anything other than the correct password, my printer was no longer part of the network. Consequently, no print jobs were being sent to it.
A few moments went by as I whispered the new password to the print server and suddenly dozens of sheets of paper started spitting from the printer and I slapped my forehead along with a specific description of my lack of intelligence.
Let’s see if some recent calls I received this week offer some other opportunities to stop and think.
I recently received a call from a gentleman who proceeded to tell me that his printer wasn’t working. (Martha, is there a pattern here?) I began the standard interrogatories to see if I could narrow down the problem. Was the printer plugged in? Yes. Was the power light on the printer? Yes. Was the printer connected to the computer? Yes. Could he see the printer when he went to Control Panel – Printers and Faxes? Yes. What was the result of sending a print job to the printer? He said the printer made noises like it was printing and a blank sheet of paper came out of the printer. “Ah ha, “I said, “it sounds like the ink cartridges are empty.”
“Double ah ha,” he said, “I just installed brand new ink cartridges!”
“Ok,” I said, “let me ask if you took the tiny pieces of tape off the cartridges that prevents ink from spilling during shipping?”
“I have used printers for a long time and I have never, never taken the tape off the cartridges and they have worked fine.”
“Humor me,” I said, “and take the tape off that PREVENTS ink from coming out of the cartridges during shipping and try printing something. If it doesn’t work call me back.” I received this email about an hour later.
OK, you've made my Christmas card list. I feel like the woman that used the CD drawer as a cup holder. I'm sure I'll appear in an upcoming column (no name please). I don't have to replace ink cartridges very often and my aging brain has trouble. For the record I don't remember EVER taking off the very tiny transparent tape over the hole on the bottom of the cartridge. I DO remember taking off a piece in the past that wrapped around the edge of the cartridge and covering the hole. As I recall it was colored not transparent. Is this small piece new or have I been just cramming the things on? In any event, I thank you for the clue for the clueless. (see Jim, I didn’t use your name)
Another client recently called me to get his PC back up and running. I like to try to determine what was going on just before the computer began to misbehave. In this instance, my client had a friend who is a “computer expert” come and “clean” up the hard drive. They removed all these pesky files that were not recognizable and low and behold, instead of the computer working better and faster, it didn’t work at all. Stop and think. I’m sure there is a moral to this story. I’ll let you figure it out.
Stop and think.
Learn even more tips and tricks from my book listed below.
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Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer (9781467985895): Courtland Nederveld: Books
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Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks! (9781456561734): Court Nederveld: Books
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