One job I was handed when I was working in a small office was to fix the haunted printer that kept on trying to print extra copies of a big report (hundreds of pages each). The user had cancelled the job and even power-cycled the printer all to no avail. As soon as it was powered up again it would start printing more copies... They even tried disconnecting the computer's printer cable, no luck.
After tracing the wiring I discovered a small "intelligent" buffer/switch box plumbed in between the computer and the printer (this was before ubiquitious networking and printer servers). The user had requested 22 copies of the report. What I think happened was their fingers slipped and they ended up typing in 222 or worse. The intelligent buffer stored the requests and fed them to the printer, even after the job was deleted from the PC's print spool. Powering down the printer did no good, of course -- once it came up again the buffer started feeding it more pages.
Resetting the buffer box made the problem go away, but for a while I was considering performing an exorcism and wondering where I could lay my hands on a chicken at short notice.
The haunted printer...
After tracing the wiring I discovered a small "intelligent" buffer/switch box plumbed in between the computer and the printer (this was before ubiquitious networking and printer servers). The user had requested 22 copies of the report. What I think happened was their fingers slipped and they ended up typing in 222 or worse. The intelligent buffer stored the requests and fed them to the printer, even after the job was deleted from the PC's print spool. Powering down the printer did no good, of course -- once it came up again the buffer started feeding it more pages.
Resetting the buffer box made the problem go away, but for a while I was considering performing an exorcism and wondering where I could lay my hands on a chicken at short notice.