A Help Site for Dummies

That means me. I had my first paper jam in my new printer today. My wife had asked for a copy of a receipt and therein lies this tale.

It was a narrow receipt but I put it in the copier anyway and pressed copy. The receipt moved into the bowels of the machine and stopped. A warning light came on urging me to clear the jam and press OK. Problem was I had no idea how to clear the jam.

I turned to the manual. Turns out the “manual” dealt only with installing the printer and how to use its various elements. Nothing about troubleshooting.

I glared at the device. I opened this and I opened that. But no sign of the jammed receipt. Getting really annoyed now. At one point I uttered an expletive deleted and my wife fled the room, feeling sorry she started the whole thing.

Finally, it dawned on me to seek help on the HP website.

It took a few clicks before I got to “clearing paper jams."  But there were no written instructions. Instead, there was a video. No narrative, mind you, just a video showing three different places paper could jam in this printer-plus and how to get to them. Who knew?

Mine was the last displayed. By the time I located the receipt it was deep into the mechanism and torn. I tried tweezers but couldn't get a purchase. I looked at the video again and finally discovered another part of the printer that could be opened, giving me access to the back end of the receipt.

The extraction was successful. I scanned the receipt into my PC and printed the copy for my wife.

Maybe HP's website should have a video showing its new CEO how to get out of its corporate jam.