The continuring printer saga

[susandennis]

My Microsoft technician has gone to pee.  They call it 'looking for additional information that will help with this problem.'  But I'm cool with taking a pee break.

I've been on the phone for an hour so far.  The guy seems nice and he's being good about not making me redo every single thing I have done.  And he's explaining stuff as we go along which is interesting.  But, so far, no joy.  The drivers install fine but XP is just not willing to admit there is a printer out there. 

One little insight will tickle you Microsoft bashers out there - davmoo, are you listening? - I have a Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse.  It has this very annoying option that ignores function keys as default.  Once you are up and running, you can hit the F Lock key and get the funtion keys but until XP is all up and running, you got no function keys.  SO you have no way to get into safe mode or into BIOS.  Nice, eh?  Guess I'd better find me a backup keyboard. 

Oh pee break over - stay tuned.

Edit: Figured out how to toggle to function keys before the boot takes hold - whew.

Edit: No joy, we're on another pee break. Time of call so far 2.5 hours.

Comments

[estis.livejournal.com]

I assume you turned your cams off for the time being...if not they aren't working. So much for Microsofts vaunted plug and play crap...would tell you to buy a mac but know you wouldn't do that so I won't.

[susandennis]

Oh yeah, I forgot that you would be happy to hear about a Microsft problem, too! No cams for a while - had to turn off must everything.

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel better (and thanks for the star billing in your entry, by the way) I have a similar issue.

The main machine I use is an older (about 4 years) Sony Vaio desktop. I use a USB keyboard with it. But since the machine has a very old spec of USB, the USB ports do not become active until an OS that supports them is almost fully booted. So I keep an old PS/2 keyboard under the desk for the rare times I need to either change BIOS settings or boot in to safe mode.

This same machine also cannot find my USB trackball until its booted. And even then, if it was a hard boot from a powered-off state, it can't find the trackball until I let the OS fully boot, then unplug the trackball, count to 10, and plug the trackball back in. And its a very common Logitech Marble Mouse, its not like its something weird.

[susandennis]

I figured out how to get into safe mode. Not sure about BIOS, tho. I got no business in there anyway.