Sometimes old technology still works
I got my favorite printer, a Canon BJC 2110, in 2001, as a tie-in to my then-new Gateway PC. Much like the Gateway itself, it was beige with a gray underside.
When you turned on the BJC-2100, it wasn’t automatically ready for printing. It would make a high-pitched sound; then its cartridge would shuttle back and forth a few times. This was called “initializing.” The cartridge itself was unusual–it contained two smaller ink tanks, one black and one for colors. The one for colors “went” very quickly, was more expensive, and we learned to print in black and white except when we really needed color.
In the third or fourth year we had the BCJ-2110, it started to drag the paper toward one side or other, causing printing jams. A few times, I pulled the paper out but it merely ripped, and I had to open up the printer door and pull out little scraps of paper, one by one. I oiled it, just like the manual told me to do, but it still didn’t help. I called the computer guy and he told me, in so many words, that ink-jet printers were very cheap and weren’t worth fixing.
Reluctantly, I bit the bullet, went to Staples and bought another printer, an HP. But as I was about to hook it up, something told me to look at the Canon one last time. I opened it up, felt around inside, and pulled out a mail key that had somehow fallen in. Now, it worked fine. I assigned the HP to my new laptop instead.