X-NEWS: spcvxb alt.folklore.computers: 17448 Relay-Version: VMS News - V6.0-3 14/03/90 VAX/VMS V5.4; site spcvxb.spc.edu Path: spcvxb.spc.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!rpi!pratta Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: CE / Repairman stories - New thread(s) Message-ID: From: pratta@aix01.aix.rpi.edu (Anthony Edward Prattico) Date: 18 Dec 91 23:58:26 GMT References: <1991Dec16.160050.12879@mdms.moore.com> <555@wookie.dbaccess.com> Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY In-Reply-To: steve@dbaccess.com's message of 17 Dec 91 21: 04:54 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: aix01srv.aix.rpi.edu Lines: 37 This gets my vote as the best use of food to repair a printer: RPI uses two Xerox 8790 laser printers to handle high volume output. One usually is filled with three-hole paper, the other has standard paper. Today, when I went in to work, the 3-hole printer was making a very loud, very low rumble that was shaking everything near the printer. The operator said that something was wrong with the blower motor, and that Xerox had been called. Shortly thereafter, a repairman showed up, but not to fix the printer. It seems that a programmer had called Xerox because he was unhappy with his printouts. So this repairman went to work on the software. A few minutes later, another repairman showed up, this time to fix the printer. He heard it running, and asked if the noise he heard was the problem. When we said yes, he turned to the first repairman and asked, "Did you bring the popcorn?" Popcorn? He then put his jacket back on and went out, saying he had to go back to his car to get his popcorn. And sure enough, he came back with a jar of it. Gourmet popcorn at that. He went to work, cleaned a few things, then calmly poured some popcorn into the blower duct. He turned to me and said, "you're going to hear a loud noise. Don't be concerned about it." He then turned the printer on, sending popcorn through the blower, and yes, it did make a very loud noise. He did it a second time, while commenting on the price of the popcorn. Sure enough, the rumble disappeared. He said that the only other fix was to take out and replace the blower, which would take half a day and be very, very expensive. Turns out, the problem is caused by toner on the blower blades. Now, what happens when the printer runs for a while and heats up? POP!!!!! Wonder if that will quiet my PS/2? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anthony Prattico, pratta@rpi.edu Shall I melt some butter for the disk drives?