3240 How many hours are wasted

messing with new software and technology? I should have been prepared; this is my fourth printer, more if we count the ones I had to hook up when I was working. Last week I pulled a jammed piece of paper from my HP 5550 and apparently ran the print heads off track. My daughter worked on it and couldn't get the case off to get to the belt; then my husband tried it, but managed to really break it.

I called around and discovered that labor costs are about $70 an hour to fix printers, and there was no guarantee they could fix it. So off to Staples I went to shop for a new printer. First, however, I did look for a cartridge for my old, reliable workhorse, the LaserJet 4L, gasping on it's last taste of black-only ink, but the cartridge was over $90 (it lasts forever). Now that I'm used to color with my blogs, I really needed the color.
I picked one out, an HP C3180 that will print, copy and scan. Fine, I had 2 printers and a scanner on my small desk, so I figured I'd replace them with one machine. I'm a value shopper, not a quality shopper, and it had a floor discount of $20, making it $79.99. But I did go home and look on the internet for reviews. They were pretty good. So I took back my unopened $45 print cartridge (for once in my life I found the sales receipt), and my 6 used print cartridges which are good for $3 off a new purchase. It doesn't come with a USB cord--but I already had one. "Won't do," said the salesman, "the data will travel very slowly and you'll miss the best features," so without really thinking that misinformation through, I paid another $20 for a USB 2.

When I finally got it all hooked up I discovered my computer is old enough that it won't take a faster data transfer, and the USB 2 cord is doing nothing the old one wouldn't have done. Then I spent about 10 minutes in the cold garage going through the garbage and bags of soiled cat litter looking for the USB package, finally finding it in the kitchen trash.

I didn't check ahead to see if it would take card stock, and although it will, it is very cranky, and wants to reformat to note size cards, and I'm not doing that--I'm printing my own on 8.5 x 11. Also, if you don't put the little extender out on the paper tray, it shoots the paper across the room like a paper airplane.

When I tried to scan a photograph, I could find no command to "Save" or "save as" to MyPicture file on my computer. Oh, it scanned fine--but then proceeded to create a whole new set of photo files (hundreds) already stored on my computer which I didn't want and so far the only way I can figure out how to get to them is to send them to myself with e-mail. Why do these people think we want digital scrap books everytime we hook up new equipment. I have them in my genealogy file, my digital camera file, and something else, now here's a fourth one.

Also, discovered I can't turn it off (lots of lights eating up electrical current), or it will run through its color testing when I turn it on. I'm sure if I call the 800 number I'll sit and wait for an hour.

So I hooked the old scanner back up until I can figure something out that makes sense, and am rethinking my desk arrangement. Right now I have no place to put down anything I'm copying.

So don't cross me, folks. I'm really, really crabby tonight.