Tag Archives: usb printer

PC tries to boot from printer!

Computer Aid Posted on by

I fixed an unusual printing problems with a Brother MFC-665CW multi-function… while diagnosing the fault, I power cycled the printer (probably the first time the printer had been off for many months).

Two days later, the customer calls in a panic: My computer won’t start!

Since the PC was running slow a few days earlier, I suspected a motherboard issue.

Once there, I could see the bios screen, and then a blank screen with a blinking cursor in top left of the screen.

I go into the bios, and I notice that the boot options show an unusual order: USB printer first, then the hard drive, then the DVD drive.

It looks like the PC assumed the printer was a hard drive, tried to boot from it, and just sat there, waiting for a response from the printer.

The fix was easy: just change the boot sequence to be: DVD, then HDD, and remove the printer option.

printer problem (and some competitor feedback)

Computer Aid Posted on by

I get called out to fix a printer that won’t print.

Once there, I find out that the PC had previously been taken away to have an infection removed (by another company… a competitor, of sorts).

I manage to setup the printer by unplugging the usb port before installing the drivers.

But while I’m there, I notice the PC doesn’t work very well… strange errors from the firewall, and it tends to lock up when trying to open up the antivirus application… and its quite slow for a 2.8 Ghz P4 with 512MB RAM.

I’m surprised that this is a PC that has been cleaned of an infection… and some things are obviously not working correctly.

The customers are friendly and talkative, so I get to hear a few things about my competitor.

It turns out that the PC was away (being worked on) for over 2 weeks, and the customer got charged for about 5 hours of work (over $400).

So the customer was not overly pleased, as the technician was not as super as his name would imply :-).

I do some extra checks, but I admit to the customer that the PC has some strange problems… and it probably needs some work done (partly to prevent the lockups, and other errors when the PC starts)

I leave after 1 hour and I’m sure they’ll call me when they need their PC running faster.