A Job Well Done

A few nights ago when I went to print some information, my printer gave a growling sound. A notice came up saying the printer was jammed. I took out the paper in the tray, opened up the printer and removed the jam. I tried again and this time along with the growl came a screeching sound. I could tell something was stuck inside the printer. Again, I removed the wrinkled paper causing the jam, checked all the hook ups and still the printer would not work. I tried making a copy but the printer would not copy because the paper continued to get stuck in the same spot.

Since my printer is old, at least ten years of service, I figure it would cost more to try to get it repaired than a new printer. I checked printers on the Internet and found one that was in my price range and putting on my mask, (in Colorado we are in lock-down due to the Coronavirus and should only be out in emergencies, therefore the mask) I headed to Costco because of their return policy. I entered the store with all the other masked shoppers and went directly to the printer area.  A turquoise and white printer was the only one I felt I could afford so I purchased it.

Now comes the hard and interesting part of getting it hooked up to my lap top! The first major problem was getting the printer out of the box. It was tightly packed and no matter how much pushing or pulling I could not dislodge the printer from the white Styrofoam arms holding it in place. I opened the bottom of the box, placed the printer on the floor and using all my strength I managed to slide the printer out of the box by shoving it from one end. My next move was getting the printer off the floor without hurting my back!

After a lot of huffing and puffing I placed the printer on the desk next to my lap top. There were no written instructions other than one sheet with pictures. I followed the pictures as closely as I could and when I got stuck I reviewed the picture over and over again. The good thing was that it only had one cable to connect to the outlet. It was so far so good until I came to the part where I needed to insert the ink cartridges. That took more time as I looked at the picture, fooled with the cartridge, looked at the picture again for a hint of what do next while trying to figure the instructions. Finally, I got one red cartridge inserted and even though I struggled with the yellow, blue and black cartridges I managed to get them all installed. Each cartridge had an orange handle-like object on its side of the cartridge that had to be yanked off by sheer force and that was not easy.

Next, I was instructed to contact 123.hp.com to complete the setup. From then on it was following the instructions on the screen and what a wonderful feeing when I printed my first sheet. The whole process took about two hours and twenty minutes! I believe I deserve a pat on the back for getting my printer set up because I am not very good at following instructions to assemble anything!

"I get moral satisfaction

out of putting things together."

Eldora Welty