Thursday, July 2, 2015

A Love Story - How I Sorted Out My Relationship with my Printer

My HP Laserjet 1020 has been with me for some 10 years now I guess. She's sturdy, reliable and gives me little room for complaints. It's a big part of my life obviously as she prints out stuff that I write non-judgmentally, again and again. Rarely has she misbehaved or broken down or asked for anything. Naturally I treat her badly and with disdain.

Last week she started misbehaving. She just went quiet. I would give a print order and she would stare at me silently. No familiar, yes master, kind of sounds. Pure silence. I switched her on and off, opened the cartridge and shut it. Nothing. Then I looked at the power cable, the data cable. She printed one page and then went back into silence mode.

Some sort of a protest? What was wrong with her?

I called in expert help. Sagar checked control panel and troubleshoot, cables and stuff. Once again she printed a sheet and went back into silent mode. He gave up, called his cousin and fixed up a technician to help me. I was to meet him today and handover my loyal, silent 1020. I could not help overhearing Sagar's conversation with his cousin. He said that she's printing one page and was silent thereafter. The cousin said that the sensors may be the problem area. While leaving Sagar also told me that the fine dust that floats around could be an issue too.

After he left I looked at 1020. She looked back silently at me. I fiddled a bit and then gave up.

Somehow it struck me that 1020 needed some TLC. I wanted to give her that much TLC before I handed it over to the technicians. This morning I carefully took 1020 out from her dusty place near my feet. I took off the cables and put her right on the main table. Then I got some clean cotton and carefully cleaned all the insides. There was much dust and it came off slowly. I blew into the insides and some more dust flew out. I cleaned the outsides next, the nooks, dusty as ever. She looked much better. I cleared up her space where she resides. I fitted the cartridge back, plugged in the power and data cables, switched on the power. I gave a print command.

She responded as she did on her first day and delivered a first class printout.

I guess that is what many old relationships need. A bit of TLC. Some bringing back on to the table, giving the attention it deserves, clearing the dust and the cobwebs, showing that we still care. Just that twenty minutes of TLC, of attention and she's back. I could have complained, shook my head, taken it to the technicians. For one wild moment, Sagar also hinted at getting a replacement.

I could also choose to give it attention and love.

If a printer can respond, surely people can. Anyway, suffice to say, me and my HP Laserjet 1020 are back together in a loving, supporting relationship. Life is blissful. The love story is alive and kicking.

2 comments:

Rajendra said...

may be useful. I have an HP Laserjet too.

Harimohan said...

Oh yes Raja, works like magic. You can use it on human printer-types too. Works for all - wonder cure.