GADGET GURU
Put right your printer, nix noxious gasses and tinker with your toilet
THERE’S SO MUCH THAT COULD BE THE CAUSE, BUT CHECK TO SEE IF YOU HAVE A WASTE TONER BIN THAT MIGHT NEED REPLACING
ALittle known fact: GaGu spent two miserable years doling out user-level technical support on behalf of a company that made labels for pre-packed sandwiches. Obviously his life has spiralled wildly downhill since then, but it has left him with just the teensiest bit of knowledge of printer maladies. Let’s run through what he learned on the job. Is it plugged in? Yes, it needs to be plugged in. And switched on. At the wall, yes. Is it connected to your computer? The computer. Not the screen, the box bit underneath it. Look, we’ll send an engineer; this is beyond Guru’s upsetting pay grade. Got an inkjet? When was the last time you used it? Whether by nature or (cynically) by design, the ink nozzles can get gummed up or dry out – particularly if you’re using third-party replacement cartridges, which are unquestionably a great thing given the horrendous price of ink but which can also circumvent low ink warnings and print themselves dry. Give them a replace, and run whatever head cleaning routines your printer offers.
Laser printer? There’s so much in that complex path that could be the cause, but check to see if you have a waste toner bin that might need replacing (not emptying – again, you’ll need to buy something) or a sheet of A4 jammed in the guttyworks somewhere. If it’s not that, let’s remember a fundamental truth: printers are the worst. Sometimes they just don’t work. GaGu would love that not to be true, but here we are. Consider percussive maintenance sanctioned.