I don't know if it happens to everyone, but I have noticed that every time I go on vacation I come back to some form of disaster that I have to fix or find a fix for. That happened this last week as upon returning I was told that both of our printer were down and that the only thing we and the patrons could print to being the copier. I tried everything I knew to get the big color LaserJet printer to work and nothing worked. I talked to a board member who is our handyman and he said that he would see what he could do. So Monday night after the annual membership Friends meeting, he and the board president went to work on the printer. They followed the step-by-step instructions given by the machine which I and my assistant had done repeatedly to no avail. They then proceeded to try to take the machine apart this again was to no avail. I had called the company that serviced the printer for the company that had donated the printer to the library and they wanted $184 for the first hour service call and $46 for each 15 minutes after that with no other information told to us. I then tried Allen Business Machines which is where the library bought the copies and has a service contract with. After being transferred repeatedly I was told that I needed to speak to their IT serviceman who was out. He did call me in a timely manner and I was told that they charge $125 for the first hour service call and $34 for each 15 minutes after that. I told him what the problem was that we have a 54.6 error and that we have gone through the help steps, cleaned it, and replaced fuser kit but the error was still there. He said that since I could give him the error number and the exact problem he would not have to trouble shoot so he knew what the problem was—we need a new drawer. He quoted me at $654 to buy the part and replace it in our printer. He suggested though that instead of doing that it would be more cost effective to just buy a new printer. He said that often once a problem like this happens it leads to more and more problems and turns into a money pit.
I have been comparing fixing that printer both through ABM or the library buying the new drawer and installing it ourselves or buying new printer. I used the areas of initial cost, capacity of the printer, speed of the printer, cartridges needed, cost and life of cartridges (color and black) and whether it has duplex capabilities. I also have to factor in if we get a new printer that we would have to have the tech guy come to network it in. I have an email in to him to find out that quote.
I was lucky as the other printer that was down was just because it was not plugged into any computer. On the Monday before I left we had a board meeting. The board member I mentioned before came early to look at one of the new donated computer was telling me that there was a problem with the CPU fan. When he opened it up, he found that the inside of the computer was very full of dust and that the fan was clogged with dust. Once he cleaned the inside the fan and the computer worked fine. He thus went and cleaned all the donated computers figuring that they would all be dusty inside. He was right. Evidently when he was reattaching he did not reattach the printer. We didn't notice it since the big printer was the default and the one everyone used until it went down so we didn't notice the problem right away. I glad that was so easy to fix.
One other problem happened too. The OPAC computer that we use for the scanner too wouldn't go on the Internet. It would try but would immediately shut it down. I explained to the tech guy as a flick or like it was taking a picture. I again had tried everything I could think of to get it to work including having one of my patron who is technically good with computers try what he knew. Again we had no luck. The tech guy even had trouble finding the problem but finally did. I had updated Internet Explorer to 7 from 6. In that process or sometime after the program became corrupted. The tech guy took Internet Explorer back to 6 and now it works fine.
I sometime wonder if vacations are worth it, then I wake up and know THEY ARE!!!!
4 comments:
I have found over the past couple of years that if my husband cannot fix it (he can fix anything mechanical) then the bill will be way to expensive and it is just easier, and in the long run cheaper to buy a new one. Unfortunately, not to eco friendly but, cheaper.
Vacations are always well worth it.
I understand completely. It is always that way, when on thing goes wrong, there ends up being a landslide and everything seems to come crashing down. These are the types of situations which inspired Murphy's Law, you know. Sometimes things like this happen. But remember this too... Everything happens for a reason. Who knows, maybe that old printer would have caught fire or something horrible next. It breaking down now may have saved your library from a real disaster in the future. I have a motto that keeps me going and it's proven to be true many times... "It all works out in the end."
You might be able to find a printer second hand with the part that you need (at Goodwill or something). That might take months, but it is possible. My sister once bought a printer at Goodwill for $3 I think (an ink jet) before the Senior discount (she was cheap enough she had a senior citizen co-worker buy it.) The only reason she bought it was that it had the right printer cartridge for her printer -- which worked.
Aargh! This brings back so many memories of printer problems - always the bane of my existence as a systems librarian. Sometimes it is just easier and cheaper to buy a new one. The high school girl's soccer team had a fundraiser a few months ago where they collected old computer equipment to take to a recycling place. I gave them the printer that I used for my dissertation, a machine I was overly attached to but one that had sat in the basement for over a year.
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