Printer only works in the morning
Sometimes - the user isn't lying.
When I first started working in IT support in the late 80s, we got a call from one of the remote office that their printer would stop working every afternoon. Thinking this was some form of practical joke, the boss sends me (the young fall guy) out to fix it.
I went there in the morning (luckily it's the closest depot - only about 5km - 3 miles away) and check everything is working as expected. Remember this is the days of DOS and WordPerfect and dot matrix printers using paper with holes down the sides. I check everything out, make copies of some important files and ask them to call me when it stops working.
Sure enough, at about 2pm they call to say the printer stopped working. I drive there and discover that sure enough, it won't print. I notice the "On line" light is Off. I check all the cables and drivers and so on. I look around expecting to find some guy with a remote switch with a big grin on his face but there's literally nobody there - the admin person went to lunch when I arrived.
I lean over to check the cables again (remembering the golden Rules) and out of the corner of my eye see the online light turn on. I stand up to look around for the joker and the light goes off. Nobody is around. I slowly lean forward and the light turns on. I spot my shadow moving across the printer. I now start waving my hand above the printer. I soon discover the sunlight coming in the window is shining right in to the light detector that ensures there's paper loaded - so it doesn't print on the rubber roller when the paper runs out. I reach up and close the blinds (curtains) and the printer is now working. The admin person comes back from lunch and I show her my solution - to close the blinds in the afternoon when the sun is shining in the window.
We called the manufacturer who admitted they had several other unsolved calls from people whose printer worked intermitently. The developed a piece of plastic that fitted over the paer empty detector and fixed the problem. Still can't believe I figured this one out - but it sure was fun.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
