Quality of our coworkers.

[subaro]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

When i first started in this line of work, i found it difficult to get help from other techs as to explanation and willingness to help out his co-worker. I was not one to really ask for help untill i hit the wall or pressing for time. These guys had 10 or more years working there and the " i don't know ", or ask this or that one was the replies i got. I had one thing that most of them was not into and that is my previous job was computer repair and know how to use and navigate easily. At that time they used hard copies and the service software cds just sat there. I showed my boss that i can use the computer for lookup and i took matters in my own hands and never looked back. I on the other hand will give my honest answer when asked and sometimes with it's in the service manual which they don't like.
Still in this business, you really can't be a lone ranger, but a team player, and when the team is playing well you hit home runs.
The theme here is to help one another in all honesty and don't be like the chin*** and horde information that you can share.

[NeoMatrix]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

The smart phones are great, but I believe techs are dumbing down by not analyzing the problem, and figuring out the repair. I believe we thinking techs will soon be out of work (except to repair those 'monkeys').

.. Aren't you retired ...?

I know where you coming from. I tell my adult kids how to fix something. While at the same time they're on their smart phones looking up the intenet to check that their old-man is not spinning them a yarn/tale.

They usually reply with that is simple. How come it took you so long to find that, figure that out, get the job done. That's because dear buddy(all boys) ,I cleared the way for you to find it easy. I cleared the jungle full of trees with all the confusion, and hand laid down the bitumen road of knowledge, so you cheeky twats can walk down the easy road and laugh at how long it took me to do the job. The corns on my hands are from the school of hard-knocks, not from pressing mobile phone screens.

I tell my boys ,everything is simple once you know how to do it. Give a tad of respect to those who made it simple for you to understand.

[ZOOTECH]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

.. Aren't you retired ...?

Thank you, Mat - yes, I am retired, but that won't stop me from commenting when I feel the need.
Unless, I get shamed out of CTN, I will continue stalking, and inputting snarky posts.

[NeoMatrix]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

Nothing surprises me anymore, techs who order a buffet of parts with no real idea, then leave another tech to replace them, tech's who don't answer their email for hours, techs who replace the fuser cleaning web, and leave the worn fuser roller, don't or won't reset counters on durables, vague notes to finish calls,no communication regarding problems or accounts. I've went to customers with parts ordered by another tech only to find they weren't required, but required ones skipped. They cause more work for everyone as well. I wonder what some guys are thinking sometimes.

Re: Refit someone else's pull-down job.

Reminds of a new product training coarse. I went to a particular coarse and watched the instructor completely pull down a colour printer, I mean pull down every thing to a bare frame. The instructor(nice bloke) then gets a phone call from someone and decided to leave the room for around 2-3 hours. After the first hour of waiting, getting bored, I decided to put the printer back together. I just get the last of the machine back together and he walks back into the training room. To his suprise he said "oh you got it all back together."

To quote the instructor, "don't ya just hate having to put someone elses machine back together , especially when you didn't pull it down." Except for one board plug in the wrong place the machine worked like a charm.

He turn to me an said I can't see you having any problem working on our products.

Putting someone else machine back together when you didn't disassemble it, is nothing short of a PITA. Especially trying to locate where they put all the screws , clips etc.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

Re: Refit someone else's pull-down job...

A couple of years ago (he, he) I went to the main office to pick up a Mita DC-111 (without the C) for a new placement. When I arrived, I was pointed towards three boxes. "It's all there."

And it was all there ... a day later. The drum was a tad light-shocked, but I only had to provide a handful of screws, and entirely re-assemble the machine from the frame up. I was totally surprised that it actually worked. It's hard to imagine that you can get so many parts into a small tabletop copier. =^..^=

[banginbishop]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

A couple of years ago (he, he) I went to the main office to pick up a Mita DC-111 (without the C) for a new placement. When I arrived, I was pointed towards three boxes. "It's all there."

And it was all there ... a day later. The drum was a tad light-shocked, but I only had to provide a handful of screws, and entirely re-assemble the machine from the frame up. I was totally surprised that it actually worked. It's hard to imagine that you can get so many parts into a small tabletop copier. =^..^=

Must admit i it I do feel good after I've butchered a machine to its shell & it still works after putting it back together😂 More often I'm crying because it won't work after I've touched it🤔

[fixthecopier]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

Must admit i it I do feel good after I've butchered a machine to its shell & it still works after putting it back together😂 More often I'm crying because it won't work after I've touched it🤔

Only a tech gets truly excited when a machine boots up after a hard repair. I had an HP T510 today that booted to a paper jam. I found this unusual because my knowledge of plotters is that the one paper detect sensor jut tells the machine if paper is there or not. I never had a plotter say paper jam. They had called HP first and got quoted $1000 to get someone to show up. I looked and could not see anything in the machine. I decided to start taking it apart. But first I decided to do something I would do to a laser printer with the same symptom. I took a sheet of paper and managed to force a corner through far enough to grab it with some stats. I pulled it through and at about half way I saw it. A small square piece of paper with two small pieces stapled to it, like a tag or marker. I assume the piece was thick enough to jam the platen roller and cause the encoder wheel to show a fault for not moving. Not only did it make my day but I also seem to have a new loyal customer after charging them $80.

[Iowatech]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

Well CTN suppose to have all the answers, so why the analyzing. There are tons of walking manuals here, so just send a one line post, someone will respond in record time. CTN is great, but the basics in how the machine works must be understood for a tech to achieve a measure of independent analysis.

The main problem with that is the lack of troubleshooting means wrong and unusable tech info is shared along with the correct.
A secondary problem is that without troubleshooting we may be overlooking new problems that none of us have heard of before.
I've railed about this before on CTN, so I'll just shut up now.

[ZOOTECH]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

The main problem with that is the lack of troubleshooting means wrong and unusable tech info is shared along with the correct.
A secondary problem is that without troubleshooting we may be overlooking new problems that none of us have heard of before.
I've railed about this before on CTN, so I'll just shut up now.

And with end users that don't know the basics of photocopying trying to fix things; that is what keeps techs employed (or retired).

[banginbishop]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

The main problem with that is the lack of troubleshooting means wrong and unusable tech info is shared along with the correct.
A secondary problem is that without troubleshooting we may be overlooking new problems that none of us have heard of before.
I've railed about this before on CTN, so I'll just shut up now.

True, how many posts have said jamming & the replies are jam code? Log? What have you done so far? Its like the Spanish Inquisition at times to get some simple answers.

one that stands out for me was a post on a firmware request. Machine doing a soft reboot & wanted firmware? First question I asked was what was the log showing? 🤔

[fixthecopier]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

And with end users that don't know the basics of photocopying trying to fix things; that is what keeps techs employed (or retired).

I was on a Ricoh with an 899 code. When I ask operators to clear their Que, you would have thought I ask them to invent time travel.

[TheBlueOrleans]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

[language warning, for all those with sensitive sensibilities, or corporate espionage over the shoulder]

Yesterday I got excited because a bizhub 501 came back to life after I replaced the OACB (some shiny happy person decided to bang a door into the network cable, broke the port, and network connectivity was at best one out of six pings returned), swapped the memory cards, swapped the NVRAM, and the little black chip that loves to stab me under the fingernail, I think it's an eeprom, reseated all connectors, fired it up and did the ISW, reconfigured the network settings and it worked. I became happy because that son of a bitch machine worked after I replaced its brain.

I try not to post replies to threads when I do not understand the problem mentioned. I figure that's like giving bad directions, you just don't do that shit (to quote my uncle). I was looking up the xerox 003-318 error code for the "need help" post, I couldn't find anything because I don't know xerox machines, don't have access to service manuals for them. So I didn't reply. Easy thing to do would be "Hello, I.T. Have you tried turning it off and on again?" but what would be helpful about that?

I thoroughly appreciate all the help I've gotten here, and I try to help others when I can.
Now I have to replace a CCDB on a bizhub 364e because that's what SSD said might fix the fax image rotation. It's not the ADF.
So there's my afternoon.

[theengel]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

I try not to post replies to threads when I do not understand the problem mentioned. I figure that's like giving bad directions, you just don't do that shit (to quote my uncle). I was looking up the xerox 003-318 error code for the "need help" post, I couldn't find anything because I don't know xerox machines, don't have access to service manuals for them. So I didn't reply. Easy thing to do would be "Hello, I.T. Have you tried turning it off and on again?" but what would be helpful about that?

I don't mind that kind of advice. Most of the time I ask a question, it's because I've run out of things to look into. So even bad advice might get the gears in my head turning and I'll think of something else to check.

[NeoMatrix]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

I don't mind that kind of advice. Most of the time I ask a question, it's because I've run out of things to look into. So even bad advice might get the gears in my head turning and I'll think of something else to check.

It's quite surprisng at how and off the cuff suggestion from one person can lead to a lightbulb moment in another. That same lightbulb moment can lead the thought process and problem-solving skills off to a solution.

Teach the guy to fish and....

I must admit, I'm guilty with a tad of apathy at times. I'd rather post/talk to someone preferrably than plod alone in the brain-fog of the problem. It's good to soldier on but it can make you battle weiry with "carer's fatigue", especially if the time-line is a factor.

The joys of being a solo indepandant Tech has it's ups and downs...

[subaro]

Re: Quality of our coworkers.

It's quite surprisng at how and off the cuff suggestion from one person can lead to a lightbulb moment in another. That same lightbulb moment can lead the thought process and problem-solving skills off to a solution.

Teach the guy to fish and....

I must admit, I'm guilty with a tad of apathy at times. I'd rather post/talk to someone preferrably than plod alone in the brain-fog of the problem. It's good to soldier on but it can make you battle weiry with "carer's fatigue", especially if the time-line is a factor.

The joys of being a solo indepandant Tech has it's ups and downs...

With you on that. The second pair of eyes sometimes untangles what you have thought have been through already or even the youths that has the eagle eyes you once had. The internet has changed approaches radically and is my go to first besides the machine manuals. I use to be very sharp and so called proud when i dropped pins ect. and find them easily, now it takes longer.