Posted on 02/11/2012 1:33:46 PM PST by CARTOUCHE
So I'm on the phone with Samsung Tech support in SOUTH CAROLINA - not Bombay or Sri Lanka, (thank you very much Samsung) to troubleshoot the connection problems with the other half's inability to print wirelessly from across the room to our recently acquired Samsung Color Laser Printer CLP-325W. (The HP 6300 was a gross waste of time, talent, and energy, NEVER AGAIN as they say in Tel Aviv))
And I'm musing that the process is not much different than when I would accompany my long past Dad with a paper bag full of Philco TV tubes to the local drug store where a TV tube tester was available. And, where replacement tubes were sold at exhorbitant prices for the TV denied family.
And I'm thinking with a wry smile, how little has changed in the human condition. And the Samsung 325W, while working perfectly for a week with crisp color laser printed images, including some from this website, is in need of some tube testing at Thrifty Drug's tube tester.
Fortunately, I paid for the extended warranty so that the Samsung 325W will assume room temperature back at Office Max and we'll try again next week on a hopefully fully competent new Samsung. Imagine trying to describe 2012's screen shots, printed in laser sharp color of a 1958 Honeymooner's episode from TV Land to a frustrated father whose tubes wouldn't light-up in Thrifty's tester?
What will I expect my grandkids to say of grandpa whose frustration with an actual American English speaking young man from South Carolina is expressed in this archived 2012 FR Treatise? Granpa, that is so 2012. What is Tech Support?
As a Unix admin who has debugged a million technical problems, the most common causes are hardware defects or human failings.
Setting up a wireless printer is simple. Might try RTFM or paying someone who knows how. Save yourself some frustration.
If you talk like you write, I can understand why phone support didn’t help you.
Yes, it’s supposed to be quite simple, somewhat like Kirkwood. Oops. But I digress. It worked fine last week but it aint working fine this weekend. The Tech guy gave up. So methinks it’s the hardware as oppposed to operator error, like Kirkwood. Whoops, another misstep. Thanks 6162.
I’d imagine these things will all soon be done automatically via internet connection before long.
Mr. Kirk, if you thought this an attack you didn’t understand the lament of the post. It wasn’t an attack on Tech Support. It was a lament on how little has changed between 1958 and 2012.
I have a samsung ml2525w. I had a problem getting it to work. 2 things to look at, is the ip address correct. you should be able to address the printer by a webpage. 192.168.x.x. look in your router and see if you can determine the correct address. On my printer the software didn’t work and I had to manually get it into setup mode which was to push and hold one of the buttons until it went into setup mode
the most common cause is overwhelmingly lusers mucking about with settings, and sometimes hardware.
There, fixed it for you.
/johnny
FWIW, Samsung tech support is located in Geeenville, SC. Spoke with them yesterday. Not terribly impressed but they did set up a call back with a specialist for next Wed. That to accommodate my schedule, not theirs.
Thanks Wayne. Been there done that. I think that’s why tech support told us to return the machine to Office Max for a replacement. One of its tubes is dim or something.
We are in our computer dark ages. They don’t do jack compared to what they could and should do. You should NEVER have to add a driver for any peripheral whatsoever. Never. If you have an internet connection every peripheral should be completely 100% self-installing and should be as simple as plug it into a running computer and it does all the work. All of it.
Every facet of your graphic interface should be capable of infinite customization by your grandmother who never saw a computer before in her life.
Every file or folder that is moved should automatically tell every program and piece of hardware where it was moved to. You should have to manually reassign names of links for anything. It should be automatic.
I could go on for a month with what computers SHOULD be able to do.
We are at least 50 years away from computers that work the way they should. Right now, we are still in our computer dark ages where advanced features are inaccessible to normal people and almost every task requires user judgment to perform.
Don’t believe me?
Go buy a computer and pull it out of the box and go sign up with your favorite Internet service provider, and see how far you get if you don’t know how to set up your pop and smp addresses. How freaking idiotic is that in 2012???? Unless you are on at least your 2nd computer, you still need a technician or savvy friend/relative to set you up. Good luck if you want to do something newer like set up a wireless router on your computer. My mother just had to call the Geek Squad to have that installed and they still took 2 hours and had trouble with it.
The internet is brilliant. It does 99% of the work for you.
Computer operating systems are still like tiny infants that can’t do anything beyond point and cry and shout because they can’t communicate yet in words.
We are in the computer dark ages. I don’t know how long we have to stay here until somebody like Apple gets a clue and takes ease of use to the next level.
Apple’s Macintosh was a huge leap from C:\shoot\me\in\the\head\if\I\can\ever\master\this\idiotic\DOS\syntax.
We need a new leap where computers do all connecting and backing up and installing and uninstalling and trouble-shooting on their own. Sure, a lot of support tech will be out of work, but then so will a lot of doctors who treat hypertension.
I still hate computers like the devil spawn they are. Not a day goes by that I am not frustrated by them in some way, shape or form.
Computer Dark Ages. We need an Enlightenment.
If the printer was working, and no config changes were made and the printerstopped working, and you obviously must have restarted the pc, router and printer to reestablish a link, then, yes, it is most likely hardware.
ps
I have found that updating security software like Norton interferes with printer operation. Did you update your security software at all?
My hubby told me something "wouldn't start" and I automatically asked him if he was sure it was plugged in. He gave me such a look. But half the time at work when someone would come to me with "it just won't turn on" the problem was that something wasn't plugged in.
I finally got fed up with one that had cost us several truck rolls for HIS problem, and took the call over from my crying Level 1 girl, and asked when it would be convenient to de-install him.
LOL! He backed way off. I gave him the name and number of a mom&pop computer repair shop, and told him that if it was our problem, we would pay them.
They later said that he was the biggest PITA they ever took a bunch of money from.
/johnny
Thanks Larr, from one Larr to another. U phunny for a white boy.
If Tech Support couldn’t help him the fault probably isn’t in the manual. Which is likely why...
...he
...called
...Tech Support.
I was trying to find an “Amish tech support” picture but didn’t get far. “Hello, this is Obadiah. May I help you?” :-)
Still happens. I couldn’t get a document scanned and kept turning the scanner on and off until I finally checked the usb cable which someone had accidentally pulled out.
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