A story about my very bad tech day...
I have a Rollo thermal printer for labels.
Today when I went to print ~30 labels the printer printing ONE label (the first) and then spit out the other pages blank.
Every time I put a new label in after that, it would print the first label again.
I restarted the printer and the computer.
I uninstalled and reinstalled the printer drivers.
I try a different USB port.
I tried to recalibrate the printer. It didn’t recalibrate properly.
Turning off the printer, clearing the print queue, and turning it back on again stopped it from printing the same label over and over again. BUT when I go to print more labels it prints the first one and then proceeds to spit the rest out blank. The process repeats.
I call Rollo. They walk me through support. They can see it’s not calibrating right. They check ALL my settings and do a ton of tests. They install A DIFFERENT DRIVER. They say they are stumped and will escalate the ticket.
My friend down the street has a DIFFERENT printer. She says, “Borrow mine! So you can keep working!” I drive over and get the printer, the USB, and power brick. I’m feeling very good about myself. I think my day will improve.
I install her printer’s driver. I set it all up. I confidently print my 40 labels.
It does the same thing.
I move everything to ANOTHER LAPTOP. I log into my account and try to print the labels on my friend’s printer. IT DOES THE SAME THING.
I open a text doc and keyboard smash for a few pages then try to print that.
IT DOES THE SAME THING.
It prints page one and then spits out blanks. If I put another label in without restarting the printer it prints Page 1 again then spits out blanks. If I turn everything off and back on again I can print ONE (1) label at a time but it will always and only print that label until I turn it all off again.
This happens the same way on two different computers, with two different BRANDS of printers, using two different USB cords and bricks, USING TWO DIFFERENT PROGRAMS TO PRINT FROM. The only common denominator left is Windows so when my husband is done work I'm going to try this on his Linux machine.
Honestly I am just impressed at this point that I've wasted a WHOLE day on a seemingly impossible to solve problem.
