“Hi I’m just ringing about the printer. It’s not working.”
It was the printer just over the partition from me. I had taken it on myself to try and fix it. But I was not a desktop support person any more. I had:
Printer
Checked the printer had paper, no jams and enough ink
Stopped and restarted the printer queue
Deleted the print job
Cleared my temp files
Switched the printer on and off and, of course
Rebooted my PC .
The first-support information technology person walked me through all the checks. I had done all her suggested steps and perhaps more. Sigh!The next day the printer man arrived. He:
Checked the printer had paper, no jams and enough ink
Switched the printer off and on, and of course
Ran a printer self-test.
I forgot that one. But after he left I leant over and checked the test results. The printer had passed. So all was good. It still didn’t print though.The next day, the network cable guy arrived. He:
While he was doing this, I peeked over and checked. I’d used such a magic box before. The lights were blinking in sequence. The network connection had passed. So all was good. It still didn’t print though.
I waited to see what happened next. It was the printer support person again. And again, he did the same tests as he had done two days ago. He got the same result. The printer passed the test. So all was good. But the printer still didn’t print though.
It was looking like a game of diagnostic ping-pong. So I rang back.
“I know it’s not my job but…perhaps you could try this…just check to see if you can get the printer to talk back to you over the network (I had tried this in my old job). Or do a printer network test. Maybe it’s the network card. Or even the connector.”
There was a long, long pause and then, “I’ll add that to the notes for the call.”
Another day passes. It’s the printer guy again. He does a network test. He looks behind the printer at the network connector. It has no lights and is damaged. They get a new connector and life goes on. Sigh!
Andrew James Whalan 
One response to “This Printer Isn’t Working (Diagnostic Ping-Pong)”
Reblogged this on Geek Free Consulting and commented:
It’s a true story but it shows how diagnosis works at the boundaries of problems….
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