SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO: [email protected] OR FACEBOOK.COM/T3MAG
IL
LU
ST
RA
TI
ON
S:^
ST
EP
HE
N^
KE
LL
Y
A
Little 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 inkwarnings 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.Why doesn’t my printer work?
FRANK NORTH, HUMBERSIDE
There’s so much that could be
the cause, but check to see if you
have a waste toner bin that
might need replacing
24 T3 MAY 2020Horizon
T3’s tech titan hits Control P and
delivers yet more wise words
ABOVE
Hammering it, or
plugging it in? It’s
a tech-support
choose-your-
own-adventure!