Sunday, March 09, 2008

Ctrl-Alt-Del-ARGH!!!!!

Some days I really, really, REALLY hate computers.

Today's Really Stupid Problem started innocently enough when I made a completely mundane request of my computer: print a form from a web page. Normally this occurs almost immediately and I move on to other things. This time, nothing happened. I checked all my connections and didn't find anything suspect. So I opened up Print Manager (PM) to see what it had to report on the status of the print job. Nothing out of the ordinary, except PM was under the impression that the file was printing, yet the printer was most definitely NOT doing any sort of printing. It didn't even look like it was thinking about printing. It was just sitting there like a bump on a log, except with pretty LED buttons all lit up like things should be working. So I sent the file to the printer again. And now there were two jobs stuck in the queue not printing. So I told PM to delete all print jobs. PM continued to display the canceled job with status (deleting-printing). And continued. And continued. So I told it to delete again. And it continued to say it was deleting, but never did it. Liar!

After much cursing and bitching, and attempting to stop the delete process using Task Manager, and restarting the computer, and reinstalling the driver, and a whole bunch of other crap, the frikkin' file was still in there, NOT being deleted!!!! So I uninstalled every damn bit of the HP software. Then I deleted the printer completely (which got rid of the print job that wouldn't delete, my only success out of the whole afternoon). Then I reinstalled the HP software. Then I plugged in my "plug and play" printer. And...

Nothing happened. Nothing at all. My computer SHOULD HAVE recognized the new device and automatically installed it, but FOR WHATEVER STUPID REASON chose to completely ignore it, as if HP and MS are having some ridiculous feud and refuse to acknowledge each other's existence. I went from having an installed and formerly functional printer, to having an installed printer that wouldn't print anything, to not having a printer installed even though it was CLEARLY connected to my computer. I give up.

I need a drink. Or a Mac. Or both.

8 comments:

Dave said...

I think my printer has been talking to yours. Sorry.

One thing you might try is to go to HP.com and download a driver. Microsoft does indeed not like HP or maybe it's the other way around.

LL said...

Mac? Are you serious? I think PDM has been having a bad influence on you... :P

I gave up on HP printers last summer. They're fraught with problems...

Jeni said...

I'm on my 2nd HP printer -over a 10 year span, that is. I have occasionally had problems along the same line as you described here -I never went so far as to uninstall and then reinstall my printer though. Usually, if I shut down, leave it sit a few minutes - give it time to clear out I guess then on its own -and start up again, it has worked ok for me again. But every now and again, some file I am trying to print just seems to get stuck there and yes, it can be frustrating as all get out too when that happens.

fermicat said...

dave - what kills me is that everything with the laptop and printer has been hunky dory for over three years. Why do they decide to fight with each other now?!?

ll - PDM doesn't seem to have many of these issues with his Mac.

jeni - I tried the "shut it off and wait" strategy and it didn't work out. Now I am wondering if I will ever be able to print again. I guess I can if I do it from the dang Mac... but then I've got to go to the trouble of transferring the file and all.

Stupid computers.... hmpf!

Anonymous said...

buy a mac!

wa11z said...

I also need a drink and a mac. A Big Mac.

Kathleen said...

When I have problems like that I always start with shutting the printer off and then back on. It usually does the trick.

I have a Mac at home...no printer, however.

One day last week the network at work was down. I couldn't do a damn thing, except work e-mail. Days go by very slowly when that happens.

fermicat said...

labwench - I have a Mac. Well, PDM does, which is just as good. It just isn't hooked up to the printer because they are in different rooms.

wa11z - I haven't had a Big Mac in years.

kat - one of my favorite tricks also. Didn't work this time. :-( I ended up printing it at work.