Don’t run on empty! IT Support Episode 44

So this week the Captain is focusing on printing.  Despite the aims of the computer to remove paper from the office, we still need to print.

This week’s episode is inspired by one of our clients.  She got into a corner and had an idea of how to quickly solve it, and wanted Christian’s input.  So watch to find out more, and to learn a lesson to avoid the same issue!

If you prefer to read, rather than watch…

“Don’t run on empty” – IT Support Episode 44

This week I want to talk printers.

Hi, I’m Christian from “Northstar IT” and this week I want to talk printers.

So this week I had a really unexpected voicemail left on my phone. It was one of my clients calling asking for a printer toner order to be sent over urgently. She’d run out of toner and needed to print some documents really quickly and urgently.

She said, “is there any chance you can get them up to me this afternoon?”

Unfortunately where she was, there was a load of snow on the ground, and she’d even left it a bit late in the day. We did have stock however and we offered her, she could come and collect it same day and obviously then she’d be able to print quickly. But she said, she didn’t have the time, so she pitched an idea.

She said, “the document I need to print off I don’t need to send to a client. I just need to be able to print it off, read it and make notes on it.”

So she said, “even though I need a black toner”, she said, “I do however have a blue toner”.

I might add, it’s not called blue it’s called cyan by the way and I challenge you, if you were able to print in this colour which you can technically do if you set it up correctly. If you would’ve print in purely cyan toner onto white paper. I challenge you to be able to read that.

However, more to the point, what she was suggesting is being able to force this toner into where this one goes.

Thankfully the printer manufacturers are one step ahead, these won’t physically fit in this range of printers even if you try and force them in, physically won’t fit.

However, talking to one of my friends he confessed to a fact, that in an hour of desperation and in similar need needing to print something did manage to force one of these into the hole where one of these belonged. Yes, he broke the printer and he said he had to roll out the red carpet, every ounce of charm he had on his manager to make sure he still had a job at the end of it. It was an expensive printer, which he left broken.

Do remember, the right colours go in the right holes.

Until next time.

And a bit of good advice here, if you are in a position of needing to print things urgently keep a spare set of toners or ink cartridges, you know it makes sense.

Until next time.