February 27, 2010

• Fixing the Printer

  (the following is based on a true story)

  A certain 3-in-1 printer-copier-scanner owned by Jimbo had not functioned for the past month. To protect the manufacturer, the company's name will not be revealed, but it does rhyme with crap-exmark. Jimbo saw no reason to repair it; he had no need for his printer. Come this afternoon, however, the need suddenly arose. The first order of business, he thought, was to determine the problem:

  • None of the printer's functions worked
  • The printer's display showed the COVER OPEN message

  "Not a bad start," thought Jimbo. This information alone told him that the problem had nothing to do with the computer it was attached to. He was most thankful for this, since the computer has enough of its own problems. Next came the standard troubleshooting steps: turning printer on and off, opening and closing the cover, and hitting it a few times. Nothing worked.

  The time had come for drastic measures. Jimbo opened the cover and, with a clean, upward application of force, could not move the cover much further from its default up position. This would require tools. Pulling some pliers from his tool box, he lightly squeezed the restraining arm that held the cover open to pop the pegs out of the holes that held the arm in place. Finally, the pegs snapped off and he was able to remove the arm and fully remove the printer cover. Granted, the arm was rendered unusable, but no success has come without minor failure.

  He could see what the problem was. The small plastic switch that triggers when the cover is closed had fallen off and into the printer's bowels. Even with the cover off and the only tweezers in the household, he could not reach the small doodad. The paper tray was in the way. Being very careful, Jimbo slowly maneuvered the tray up, to the side, and with the snap of broken plastic, it was freed. Again, the tray will never be able to return to active duty, but Jimbo could at least reach the switch.

  After some two-handed action with a flashlight in his mouth, Jimbo successfully reattached the switch. He proceeded to return the cover to its original position and give the printer a test run. All was successful.

  • 4:16 pm
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