Wednesday, April 21, 2004

My printer is driving me nuts

I have printed out many things in the past few days and at some point in the last 24 hours, my printer (Lexmark x83) though printing fine, keeps making the same clicking noises it does when I start printing something- when I am finished printing. The cartridges move and and then lock into resting or starting position or whatever position they move to between jobs.

This is happening now about once every twelve to fifteen seconds or so. The noise is driving me crazy. I am almost expecting it, but the startle factor is very high (yes, I am a little high strung right now, but I am always fairly sensitive to noise- especially within certain frequencies)!

I have tried opening and shutting the cartridge door, which causes them to move to center position and then back when I close it, but still move a slight amount again and again every fifteen seconds. I have tried shutting it off and then turning it on again in varying lengths of time including overnight so I could sleep. I have tried gently nudging the cartridges and the carrier thing, thinking that maybe it/they were out of line or sync or something -real technical jargon here; expect thing-a-ma-bob and gizmo terminology any second ;-).

Nothing seems to work. And it is printing just fine. I just printed a 21 page handout that I needed for class tonight. (The color cartridge is empty, but still in its proper place). The troubleshooting program says there is nothing wrong except being out of color ink, and that has never made it do this in the past.

Any suggestions? Anyone?
Until I figure it out, I guess I will just turn it off. It is amazing how something making a noise it isn't supposed to make, can interfere with thinking.

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