Why Printers Are the Final Boss of Tech Support (Even for Computer Teachers)
There’s a saying in tech support: The only thing more mysterious than a black hole is a school printer. One minute you’re breezing through a setup, the next you’re sacrificing your sanity to appease the gods of PostScript and PCL. But what happens when the person on the other side of the help desk is a computer teacher—a supposed digital sage? Turns out, even the “experts” aren’t immune to the arcane curses of printer technology.
Let’s dive into a laugh-out-loud tale from r/TalesFromTechSupport that proves, once and for all, that printers are the great equalizer. Whether you’re a seasoned IT pro, a computer science teacher, or just someone trying to print out a permission slip, the universe has a way of humbling us all—with a little help from a machine that spits out paper like it’s prepping for a ticker-tape parade.
The Setup: When Confidence Meets Cable
It all started with a simple ticket: set up a printer for a staff member. Easy, right? The OP (u/TechieJay23) was riding high—activated the network drop, added the printer to DHCP, everything seemed golden. The kicker? The user was a computer teacher, someone you’d expect to have at least a passing familiarity with the dark arts of printer installation.
But, as TechieJay23 quickly discovered, IT life loves a plot twist. When testing the patch cable, things went sideways: “not properly terminated.” The computer teacher, undaunted, replied, “Oh well it worked for me earlier.” Did it, though? Did it really? As any tech support veteran knows, “it worked earlier” is up there with “I didn’t change anything” on the list of infamous user claims.
The Real Battle: Drivers vs. Hubris
With connectivity confirmed (thanks to a working wall drop), the OP offered to finish the setup. But the teacher, channeling maximum confidence, waved off the assist: “Oh no, I got it.” Cue the suspenseful music. As TechieJay23 watched, the teacher navigated to the printer driver selection and… selected the Generic PostScript driver for an HP printer.
What happened next? In the OP’s own words: “She runs a test print and the printer starts shooting out paper like a machine gun.” That’s right—sometimes printers don’t fail quietly. Sometimes they go full Michael Bay, turning a simple print job into a confetti cannon. At this point, TechieJay stepped in, installed the correct driver, and restored order. Crisis averted, lesson learned (hopefully).
Printers: The Arcane Art No One Truly Masters
The story’s punchline isn’t just the teacher’s overconfidence, but the universal truth it reveals—nobody, and I mean nobody, is safe from printer chaos. As u/AdreKiseque summed up to thunderous agreement, “Printers are an arcane system not known to the usual class of computer wizards.” The whole thread erupted into tales of ritual sacrifices (animal, technician, and sanity alike) and the superstitions techs develop to keep printers in line. One user confessed their printer only started working after they “cut themselves on some metal swapping out a printer part,” leaving their blood as a permanent offering.
Others, like u/Firedcylinder, pointed out that “Printers have been around for a VERY long time, and they’ve never just worked.” Even among IT veterans, printers are the recurring nightmare—each model a new puzzle, every error code a fresh riddle. As u/3lm1Ster hilariously lamented, “Even if you only work with HP printers, every different model has some setting that has to be different from every other HP printer in existence.”
Can You Really Blame the Teacher?
A few commenters (like u/Olivinism) were quick to defend the teacher: “They absolutely can be a good computing teacher, but that doesn’t mean they have to know every last thing about their equipment.” And it’s true—knowing how to teach coding isn’t the same as knowing which of HP’s 37 slightly different drivers to use. It’s a point even the OP later acknowledged, clarifying that the real issue was the “I don’t need help” attitude, not the mistake itself.
Many readers shared war stories about being the unofficial IT help for their schools, confessing that even seasoned techies dread printer tickets. As u/lugasamom put it, “It’s one thing to be able to teach kids the basics of using a comp, quite another to make a recalcitrant printer behave. Printers are a special level of evil.” And for some, this “secret” IT competence becomes a lifelong sentence: “That’s what happens when you reveal IT competency. You’re it—and IT—for your remaining career,” as u/udsd007 quipped.
Printer Problems: The Great Unifier
Perhaps the best part of this story is how it unites the community in shared suffering—and humor. There’s the classic joke, as u/Fit_External7524 reminded everyone: “You’re in a room with two horrible humans and a printer. You have a gun with two bullets. What do you do? You shoot the printer twice.” And who can forget the XKCD comic referenced by u/KelemvorSparkyfox: “User: Selects universal PS driver; Printer: ‘No, the other universal PS driver.’”
The deeper lesson? As u/Geminii27 wryly observed, “Computer science has nothing to do with actually making computers stop being broken, any more than astronomy knows anything about repairing telescopes.” Expertise is relative—and when it comes to printers, even the experts are amateurs sometimes.
Conclusion: Share Your Printer War Stories!
Printer woes: they humble the mighty and unite the masses. Whether you’re a grizzled sysadmin, a plucky computer teacher, or just someone who’s ever watched a printer spew page after page for no apparent reason, you’re part of a global brotherhood (and sisterhood) of the baffled.
What’s your most ridiculous printer story? Did you ever have a “machine gun” moment? Share your tales, tips, or confessions below—because if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s this: printers may be the final boss, but at least we can laugh at the game together.
Original Reddit Post: I love helping people but come on...