Ok, while I am a genius, I am much better at analyzing what even greater genius has to say on subject and applying it to the real world. Especially when it is from multiple people on the same subject.
We have a few industrial caliber printers where I work. They can be pretty touchy. Of late our $1400 label printer has been very liberal in it’s chewing up of label stock. We might get 1 good label for every 5 we attempt to print.
Label stock isn’t that cheap.
So in comes my involvement. Seeing the abuse that the label printer goes through I do some research from various sources online and suggest upgrading to the heavier duty model from the same company at a cost of $2300.
The original printer is over 6 years old and has surpassed the manufacturers listed duty cycle, and the new heavier model has a much better designed printhead and supports RFID stock if we ever go that way in the future.
The boss orders the printer, it comes in while she is on vacation, I set it up and lo and behold it is exhibiting the same label wasting shennanigans of the old printer.
Of course the initial reaction on my part is ,”Oh Fuck.” I have just wasted $2300 in company money on a piece of shit. All the research on paper in the world doesn’t do any good in a case like this.
I spend 2 hours testing various settings on the printer, double checking internal settings and driver versions.
No luck and I’ve just deprived a user of their computer for 2 hours.
Double Fuck.
I resign myself to the fact I will stay late on Monday to go over a bunch of things and do a little more research on the issue before giving in and calling in a contractor that will probably be charging between $75 and $100 an hour. This is a specialized industry and help don’t come cheap.
After 5 downloads and a lot of meticulous settings I am happy to say the new piece of shit seems to be working on all cylinders and has been upgraded from piece of shit to merely a pain in the ass.
“upgraded from piece of shit to merely a pain in the ass” I think this can also apply to several people we work with….it’s a great tag line!
I like this line. Hmmm how to incorporate that logo into my daily email
You know that they do that deliberately David. They make you spend all that money to have one of their techs come in to fix it where it will only be a loose screw or something like that and they’ll charge you $200 for what, 5 minutes work?
Never mind online research, read the printers manual that has the pictures, find the problem and fix it yourself!