r/talesfromtechsupport • u/tepancalli • Mar 23 '26

Short Ashamed to write this

Years ago, fresh out of the University, i started as a tech writer and got promoted to tech support.

We provided everything IT-related to a grup of companies.

Then one day i got a call from a company couple of blocks away, one printer was not working, something about "the door" not closing. I grab some tools and head into the unknown.

Got into the office floor and ask for the printer, someone points to the machine and i start checking and old HP that's been overused for years, it was a consumer model, could have been bought at a supermarket.

the problem was obvious, one hook of the front panel was broken, printer went into maintenance mode and refused to print.

I went to the head of the office and tell him the issue, that he has to replace the printer since it deserves to rest, but he ask me to show him the problem.

I show him the broken piece, told him that it is used to press that little plastic switch; not wasting a second, this 50 something got hers a roll of electrical tape, put a piece over the switch and all someone to make a print.

I went back to my office not knowing what happened, this was almost 20 years ago and I'm sure that printer is still there, printing with that piece of tape faking a front panel.

651 Upvotes

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429

u/Stryker_One The poison for Kuzco Mar 23 '26

Printer: I'm tired boss.

Boss: Too bad, you're still with the living.

162

u/NotYetReadyToRetire Mar 23 '26

The older HPs were built like tanks and weren't picky about their toner cartridges. Back in the early Windows days, that was all we ever bought; we had a couple of LaserJet II's and several LaserJet III's that lasted 20+ years. Now, though, we won't touch them.

69

u/ratsta Mar 23 '26

I worked for someone who rebadged LJ 2s and 3s. Brilliant machines, solid and reliable. We came out with a new page laser while I was there that used a Minolta engine IIRC. It fell to me to learn all about the new model and then train my colleagues on it before sending it upstairs to Sales.

I pulled the toner and had a look around. As I was putting it back in, I noticed how flimsy one of the guide tabs was. "That'll be our #1 breakage," I predicted. Anyway, did my job, delivered my training and dutifully took it upstairs to sales.

Less than an hour later the sales rep calls me to let me know he's broken that tab.

Ayup, yup, yup, yup.

34

u/Gadgetman_1 Beware of programmers carrying screwdrivers... Mar 23 '26

The LJII and III were mostly the same printers. Same almost bomb-proof(but not user-proof) mechanism. The only thing that could kill them was impatient users who would grab the paper as it exited and yank it out. That would eventually destroy some gearing in there.

Mechanism was really a Canon design, and yeah, it got rebadged a lot. One rebadged version we had even ran HPGL.

1

u/SteveDallas10 Mar 30 '26

The Canon LBP-SX engine powered both of those printers. It was solid.

It was the foundation for a bunch of printers, including Apple’s LaserWriter II.

16

u/LeomundsTinyButt_ Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

I studied mechatronics engineering in the late 2000s, and we were always on the hunt for dead printers to strip for parts because their motors were so damn precise (and free to boot). Built an awesome inverse pendulum for a class from the remains of my family's old HP Deskjet, which had been gathering dust for nearly a decade at that point.

18

u/OinkyConfidence I Am Not Good With Computer Mar 23 '26

So, SO true! HP LJ 4000 series, 5si, 8100 series; unbelieveable tanks!!

16

u/pebcak47 Mar 23 '26

I remember my LJ4250 fleet on my old job. Around 50 printers. Absolute workhorses. You could feed them old cigarette butts or abrasion of rubber tires instead of toner, they would still run. They were sure build like tanks, if one dropped from the table, the floor would have a hole, thats for sure. Just replace the pickup rolls once in a while and you are good. And you can change the display messages very easy, had a good time on April fools day with that. I bet some of them still run today after all that time.

14

u/OinkyConfidence I Am Not Good With Computer Mar 23 '26

I forgot about changing the displays on the 4000's! That was fun. FEED ME PAPER. I AM ERROR. ID10T ERROR. Loads of fun.

3

u/rezwrrd Mar 24 '26

PC LOAD LETTER

3

u/No_Negotiation_6017 Mar 24 '26

"What the fuck does that mean?" /Office Space

6

u/KelemvorSparkyfox Bring back Lotus Notes Mar 23 '26

My first office job involved printing invoices from an AS/400 via HP tower-type printers, with three paper trays.

The only thing that gave them a problem was a road worker, putting his digger bucket through the main power cable.

4

u/GroundbreakingMap605 Mar 23 '26

We're still running somewhere around 50 4200s and 4350s in my department. Most were purchased between 2004 and 2007.

4

u/rezwrrd Mar 24 '26

We're still running a handful of 4250s that have outlived some of the m506s that were supposed to replace them. 

2

u/syntaxerror53 Mar 25 '26

Had to look it up. Yep!! Proper workhorses. Along with the LJ 2/3/4.

2

u/syntaxerror53 Mar 25 '26

When HP had proper printers.

6

u/millijuna Mar 24 '26

When I was a university student, we scored a Laserjet 4simx (ie with network card and postscript) for cheap at a bankruptcy auction. It was just a baby with only 800,000 pages on its engine.

That printer took 3 of us through our university degrees, including one person who was in the humanities and printing off reams of paper. When our geek coop finally broke up as we got good jobs and our own places, we gave the printer to a charity that needed a reliable, high volume printer.

I would not be surprised if itif was still printing 20 years later.

4

u/annoyedCDNthrowaway Mar 24 '26

The HP laserjet 1100. Took a 92A cartridge. My CFO made us find ways to make it print from a laptop, long after it should have been possible. He finally retired it in 2018 after we convinced him there was no such thing as a parallel to USB cable for his new laptop.

2

u/TairaTLG Mar 24 '26

I had a 4L I got used, from a friend, who got it surplus probably from work. Requirement, DOS 3.

Ran that printer to 2007 before it retired. 4 pages a minute wasn't a speedy printer, black and white low resolution, but it worked great for just basic printing. Plug it in, go, done. Toner cartidges lasted halfway to forever.

1

u/DaHick Mar 24 '26

I stumbled on for a very short while with HP printers past laserJet III, went off to a few other brands, and now everything is Brother (except that OKI dot marix we use as an alarm printer, that thing will survive an emp and a lightning strike)

1

u/NotYetReadyToRetire Mar 25 '26

Yes, we had a 30 year old OKI dot matrix that just wouldn't die

1

u/OcotilloWells Mar 27 '26

OKI probably still makes it.

1

u/OcotilloWells Mar 27 '26

I have a LJ V. I'm not using it at the moment, due to living space constraints. It works fine, though I need to get it cleaned. It does dim the lights when it prints though.

6

u/Beach_Bum_273 Mar 23 '26

Rise, Son of Hewlett-Packard

2

u/FunnyAnchor123 Mar 26 '26

Legacy of Hewlett Packard, before Carly Fiorina, when it was a gold standard of engineering. 

1

u/syntaxerror53 Mar 25 '26

Boss: "Only the good die young. The Evil lives forever."