I don't know what the error means
Posted by TheLadySlaanesh@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 81 comments
Had a user come by my office and told me that the printer for her entire area was displaying some kind of error message she never saw before and insisted I come by to to fix it immediately.
I headed over there to find the errors on the screen of the very large printer:
"Load Paper in Tray 1"
"Load Paper in Tray 2"
"Load Paper in Tray 3"
"Load Paper in Tray 4"
But wait, it gets better...
I open up Tray 1, only to discover a full ream of paper, still in packaging, sitting off to the side next to where the paper is supposed to be. I open up the ream, puts it in the spot it's supposed to, and the error for Tray 1 Disappears.
Tray 2, same thing... Someone put the entire ream, still in packaging beside the space where it's supposed to be. I had to rinse and repeat for Trays 3 and 4, and lo & behold, all the remaining errors disappeared, and a coup0le jobs that were pending printed out.
I went to the lady and said the issue was fixed. When she asked (completely innocently I may add) what the issue was, I told her that all I did was put paper in the printer. She was surprised and insisted that someone had just put paper in the printer.
I just shook my head and walked away...
DeciduousEmu@reddit
Your mistake there was putting the paper in for them. This was the perfect opportunity for some supervised training. Doing something is remembered more than being told.
cofclabman@reddit
Having seen this before, I'm sure it was make some hellacious clattering sounds as it tried in vain to lift the paper tray up to the rollers.
gadget850@reddit
The tray can handle up to 11x17. When the stops are set to letter, you can put paper on either side, but it will only pull from the roller side.
cofclabman@reddit
Ours was the same. Tray can handle 11x17, but we load letter size. The times I've seen this was on the high capacity tray 5 in the HP 9050. The entire tray goes up, but since it only can pull from the right side you soon end up with a taller stack on the left than the right and the lift motor just makes a godawful clacking sound as it's trying to life the tray up for it to grab the paper, but it can't do it.
1958ab@reddit
Oh, that clacking sound right before the lift cables snapped?
trainbrain27@reddit
That's what I'd expect. I'm kind of surprised the other folks were successful storing spare paper inside the printer, but they must have had a different design.
Tarlonniel@reddit
Storing reloads of paper in that extra space was a normal thing in one place I worked.
gadget850@reddit
I certainly did it, but I was a printer tech and knew what I was doing.
maelish@reddit
I had a job at a small company that would come up with quick training classes when stupid stuff like this came up.
Everyone who used the printer had to sign a form showing you understood it after that class.
This form went into your file and would be used against you at your yearly review IF it happened again. Some sales guy had a stack of signed training forms in his file. He quit after his first review.
atempestdextre@reddit
EEOC and ID8 Error
ijuinkun@reddit
ID 10-T error.
Noxonomus@reddit
I've seen people load paper in creative ways, but at least they unpacked it first.
1958ab@reddit
44 yr career in the printer/copier repair business here. I had thought I had seen everything but was constantly amazed at the amount of stupidity and non-attention to any basic common sense. Glad that I am now retired and do not need to deal with it anymore because I'm sure it will never improve.
copiman54@reddit
Me too brother! 42 years for me. Saw plenty of unwrapped paper and paper in the non pickup end of the drawer!
JayMac1915@reddit
Somehow, being placed in the cube closest to the printer made it my responsibility in a previous position. It was an older machine, and pretty sensitive to the way the paper was placed in the tray. Which meant that often the only thing needed to “fix” it was to turn the ream over in the tray. But people always look at you like you’re crazy when you tell them the paper was upside down
K-o-R@reddit
Certainly if the paper ream was the last in the box (or had otherwise sat in the cupboard for a while), flexing the stack a bit after taking the wrapper off was a good idea to make sure it wasn't stuck together.
JayMac1915@reddit
Reams of paper tend to have more static on one side than the other as a result of the manufacturing process. When the paper doesn’t slide easily in the feeder, it can cause jams
GeePee29@reddit
I worked in IT for over twenty years before I learned that you needed to look at the arrow on the packaging to see which way up the paper was meant to be loaded.
Head_Razzmatazz7174@reddit
We had one of those. Finicky thing. There were only a very few of us 'old hands' that knew how to load it properly to make it work. We also could find just about any paper jam and clear it. Those were fun, especially the ones that had that one little bit stuck in the rollers that was just out of reach.
JoeDonFan@reddit
I had a weird paper feed issue where the paper wasn't feeding. Opened up the tray, and saw that is was full, but also that the topmost page had skid marks that lined up with the feed rollers. I took out the stack of paper and found that the glue used to seal the ream wrapper had leaked into the paper and glued the top 80-100 pages together.
JaffaMafia@reddit
PC Load Letter!? What the fuck does that mean??
syntaxerror53@reddit
Politically Correctly Load Letter size paper. /s
RumbleSkillSpin@reddit
PC LOAD LETTER?!? What the &(@€ does that mean?
syntaxerror53@reddit
"PC Take the damn paper out of the wrapper. How the hell do you expect me to print". Call IT, we tried everything and no one knows what it means. /s
tumbleweed_farm@reddit
The first person who put the paper in must have been raised on Keurig coffee pods, and must have been doing his laundry with Tide laundry detergent pods :-)
(For those not familiar with those, the former are little containers of ground coffee that one inserts, unopened, into a Keurig coffeemaker. The latter, are similar sealed laundry powder capsules to be thrown into one's washing machine without opening them first. The capsule dissolves in hot water.)
syntaxerror53@reddit
OP should have just said "Normally take the wrapper off a choc bar to eat it."
gromit1991@reddit
You're assuming that they didnt eat the laundry pods! 🤣
Distribution-Radiant@reddit
They ate the lau...
shit. someone beat me to it.
commentsrnice2@reddit
Reminds me of the image I saw where the team of paper was loaded into the tray still in the wrapping
jeffrey_f@reddit
Right move! Don't engage, just walk away!
alanstac@reddit
So instead of pointing out what the actual issue was, you just chose to gatekeep the information from the user? "The paper was still in the wrapper and positioned incorrectly" wouldn't have been hard to say to the user, and she may have learned something.
fatmanwithabeard@reddit
Reminds me of the backups a client religiously did.
To the clean(ing) tape.
To be fair this was in 98. And their IT was their accountant who liked computers.
lastwraith@reddit
There's something to be said for never testing your backups, you can blindly and optimistically assume it'll work great if the time ever comes.
andykn11@reddit
I had one where the user reported she couldn't print as there was an error message on the printer. Went to her desk, sent print job, went to printer with her, she tapped in her card and printed. She'd seen some obscure 802.1x auth error on the screen and not even tried to print.
I work in infrastructure btw, call had already gone through 1st & second line.
bobroberts1954@reddit
I call bs. Users never read error messages.
slow-swimmer@reddit
I would have made the user unpackage the paper and load it correctly. You’re going to get the same call a week from now
RadimentriX@reddit
Makes you wonder what kinda people those are. How can you have a deskjob and not know how to put paper in a printer. Also it should be part of your... onboarding? Like im sure the first days or weeks youre not working alone, there must be someone to teach you stuff?
TheOnesWithin@reddit
I don't work in IT but wouldn't it make more sense to educate these people while you are there, so you don't have to do it again in 6 months (Or however fast your company runs out of paper)
Riajnor@reddit
In an ideal world that would work. Sadly in most offices that information would last as long as it takes to travel in one ear and out the other
TheLadySlaanesh@reddit (OP)
Exactly, I've had to explain to people with advanced degrees. The difference between left and right when I ask them to right click on something on their screen.
zeus204013@reddit
This happens mostly lack of effort at learning some stuff...
JohnClark13@reddit
"I'm not a computer person" says the person who has been living in a world filled with personal computers for 30+ years
Fixes_Computers@reddit
Then you have outliers like myself who are left-handed mousers. At least I can translate "left click" to "index finger," etc. I've heard of people who couldn't.
Iam-Nothere@reddit
But I AM clicking right! I don't even know how someone could click wrong?!
Zeero92@reddit
People who click wrong are left behind.
Noxonomus@reddit
There's also the issue of numbers. I can teach a couple of people to do something, but if there are hundreds of people and a constant trickle of new hires it's nearly impossible. That's a problem for any system available to everyone but only rarely used by most.
Able-Sheepherder-154@reddit
Further complicating user training is that printer paper has a "good" side that makes for better documents. I don't know how much that matters anymore with modern printers.
Mr_ToDo@reddit
So far as I know, the standard cheap paper most places use, side doesn't matter
But another thing the internet tells me to worry about it moisture in the air, and how you shouldn't open all the reams of paper as it allows moisture in where a sealed pack should help prevent it from getting too bad and also help it keep its shape with the tightness of the pack
I suppose in terms of things that can cause a printer to act odd, is using different kinds of paper without updating the setting in the printer. It's supposed to change how it behaves in the roller or some such. To me it's more a way to frustrate users when someone accidentally changes the paper type(either on the printer or pc settings), since most printer won't print when there's a mismatch. All I want is a "we only use this paper type so ignore all mismatches and print with this paper type instead"
lucky_ducker@reddit
One of the trickiest skills in all of I.T., is figuring out who amongst your co-workers are trainable, and who are not. Because many of them are not.
option-9@reddit
They didn't even remove the packaging from the paper. That does not sound like an office worker who wants to learn how to do it properly.
TheLadySlaanesh@reddit (OP)
Oh, they've been shown how to do so... But just because they've been shown how to do something, doesn't mean they will..
igramigru101@reddit
Yeah, it's like watching dancers and knowing how to dance.
kai58@reddit
I disagree, dancing is hard because executing the moves is hard even if you know them, putting paper in a printer is incredibly easy as long as you know the steps.
King_Lysandus5@reddit
Oh, you sweet summer child.
disappointer@reddit
"Time to call that guy who told us how to fix the printer, it's broken again!"
af_cheddarhead@reddit
But that would involve more interaction with the customer, we strive to limit that interaction. /s
Shooting4purgatory@reddit
You’re nicer than me.
Iwould have grabbed her and brought her over to the printer and had her read the errors and then proceed to show her how to add paper in tray one … she would do the rest
Special-Original-215@reddit
Same lady who probably forgot to turn it on
centstwo@reddit
Our printers turn on when I walk by them. Well, I guess they are already on, but they warm up and get ready to print, or copy, or scan and send, or whatevah.
TheRealLazloFalconi@reddit
They sense your aura
centstwo@reddit
Must be true. I write software for automated test equipment. Operators want me to stand next to the machine so it works.
In the past the operators had a problem and me going to look at it, not touching anything, the system works as expected. Before I was there they would get an error. After I showed up, no issues.
I think the system needed time to warm up. Half the equipment data sheets say wait 15 minutes after power up before using. I'm not going to show that to the operators, lol
CAShark-7@reddit
W-O-W. Just.... wow.
Gadgetman_1@reddit
I used the label printer and RED 24mm tape to write 'Do NOT place paper here' and placed those on the side where the printer doesn't pick up paper.
There are also yellow labels with 'Do NOT adjust the stops!' placed around the stops and across the locking mechanisms for them.
Our printers are set up with one tray of A3, one A4 Portrait mode, one A4 Landscape mode. and some losers tended to screw with the A4 Landscape. We need that tray to be like that for producing leaflets with stapled spines.
It has reduced the amount of fuckery that happens on the printers...
TheRealLazloFalconi@reddit
What kind of old-ass copier do you have where you need to load a different tray for landscape printing?
KidDelicious14@reddit
Paper needs to be oriented landscape in order to do saddle stitched booklets
Gadgetman_1@reddit
It's not old, but if you want to make small multi-page leflets in 'book format' with the staples aligned on the spine, the paper needs to be placed in there in landscape mode. Or we'd have to staple them ourselves afterwards. That's no fun when we produce batches of them.
When you scale it down, you get 4 document pages onto a single A4 sheet. 1 and 4 on one side, 2 and 3 on the other side. An 8 pager is 1/8 and 2/7 on the first sheet, 3/6 and 4/5 on the second sheet, and so on.
TheRealLazloFalconi@reddit
That makes more sense. I forget people actually pay for the finisher sometimes.
KidDelicious14@reddit
As a printer by trade, this post did psychological damage to me.
klysium@reddit
To work at an office, being responsible for business stuff, the lack of braincells in this situation makes me question if they should keep their jobs
asp174@reddit
I too sometimes open a random printer tray, only to find a random ream of paper in that spare part of the tray where you can just stash a ream of paper!?
AI slop.
The_Real_Flatmeat@reddit
Sounds quite plausible to me. A commercial A3 copier has 4 trays large enough to fit a second ream in. In this case it sounds like either someone stored the next one in the off side and they were out, or they tried to load the paper in the wrong side without realising they have to unwrap it first.
asp174@reddit
Tell me you've never seen an A3 printer tray without telling me you've never seen an A3 printer tray, in one sentence
DUVMik@reddit
https://www.imageoneway.com/wp-content/uploads/paper-in-printer-tray-1024x576.jpg
Plenty of space for a second pack of paper.
ozzie286@reddit
I'm a printer technician, I've seen many different models of A3 printers. All A3 printers sold in the US are going to be designed to handle 11x17. Think of it this way - 2 sheets of 8.5x11 next to each other are the same size as 11x17. The only differences are that one ream is still in the packaging (maybe an extra mm of width), and instead of the guide being on one side of the paper, it's between the two sheets of paper. So, if handling 11x7 requires the guide to be tight to the inside of the tray, that extra ream is going to be tight getting in and out, and if there's a notch for the guide to drop into (which I don't think I've ever seen on an a3), it won't work at all.
It's even easier if you're outside the US, A3 paper is only about 8 1/4" wide, so you get an extra 1/2" of wiggle room.
asp174@reddit
And then I open three more drawers of the printers. And somehow all drawers have no paper, but have another ream of paper stashed next to where it goes!??
Go ahead and downvote this comment too. Because, why not?
Effective-Several@reddit
I'm just curious what you didn't show them after you saw what was in the first tray, how to fix this "error".
How soon after this did you get a second call about the same error message?
Method412@reddit
Someone put a ream of paper in the printer, still wrapped in its covering. Someone else heard a job trying to print, opened up the tray, realized the problem, took it out, and left it sitting out to try to show whoever did it in the first place that you can't put a wrapped ream in the printer.
That's where you entered the story.
ozzie286@reddit
I once had a user load a ream of paper in the tray, still in the wrapping, then try to print. The printer lifts the ream, then tries and fails to grab the top sheet. When it shows a jam, they opened and closed the tray and tried again. And again. And again. And then eventually put a ticket in for someone with a brain to look at it. I think I must have already been in the area when the call came in, because I can't imagine it would have been too long before someone else came along and found the problem, but I got there first.
I wish I'd taken pics, but at the time I was rocking a flip phone. The paper wrapping looked like someone had done the world's smallest burnout on it. The pickup roller was the most worn I've ever seen a pickup roller, and the normally gray rubber had turned brown.
mercurygreen@reddit
This is why I insist users accompany me.
centstwo@reddit
She wasn't wrong.
ComplexShirt1491@reddit
Error 27