Thursday 12 November 2020

The Joys and the Perils of Modern Technology

Modern technology is supposed to make life easier, but does it in fact create more  problems for us all to solve!  I received the following message on our Apple computer when I endeavoured to do some printing via our HP printer.


When something like this happens, I just don't have a clue as to how to deal with it. My husband immediately jumped on the fact that the day before we had coincidentally received a telephone call warning us that we had a problem on our computer - a scammer. We reassured each other that they could not possibly know what was taking place on our computer.

The next step was to look on an Apple forum discussion page where I found pages and pages of people all experiencing the very same problem - many, particularly business people, were extremely angry. 

Apparently HP said that they had unintentionally revoked credentials on some versions of Mac drivers causing a temporary disruption for those customers. "We are working with Apple to restore the drivers, and in the meantime, we recommend users experiencing this problem to uninstall the HP driver and use the native AirPrint driver to print to their printer."  

I, personally, have never heard of a native AirPrint driver, and suspected that my printer is far too old anyway for that advice to be applicable.

A few people had managed to resolve the issue, but they all had varying and different solutions as how to do it. However, why should computer owners have to correct a problem that had inadvertently been imposed on them - why couldn't HP or Apple resolve the issue? 

In the end our eldest son came to our rescue. We shared screens and after 30 minutes with plenty of new downloading etc the problem was finely resolved. What a relief, that's one less thing to worry about.



22 comments:

  1. Oh dear oh dear...I'm so sorry that happened, and can certainly imagine it happening here any day of the week!

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  2. Hello Rosemary, These problems recur frequently and cause a lot of stress, not to mention using up our valuable time and sometimes money. And then Blogger had to throw in its two cents, changing how it works and making it difficult to use. As you intimate, the end-users are the last to be considered by the tech companies.
    --Jim

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  3. But we don't all have eldest sons to help, Rosemary. Nothing causes my anxiety level to rise more than computer issues, about which I have no clue.

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  4. Dearest Rosemary,
    Yes, those are the present day headaches that are often times caused by others.
    Just had this happen to me with some outside app that wanted me to sign in to my keychain. Which I tried to cancel of course, as I had not used it. Then my iMAC stalled and since Wednesday morning till today, Thursday a week later, I had to do without it. Will have to make the one-hour drive to fetch it later. What a stress. My MacBook is not good due to my eye problem but I had no choice. You're so lucky that your son could solve it for you.
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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  5. . . . . . we need to adopt your wonderful son Rosemary!!!!!

    Yes, this modern life is full of bad things. Our Google Fiber TV service disappeared last night and is still not back (probably because we're ready to float away with torrential rain falling). This morning Bob got another phone call from someone saying he was our 'grandson' and needed money as he was in accident and now in prison - this happens often! Bob replied in gobbledegook until he hung up! Our printers seem OK but thanks for the heads up - hopefully nothing else will happen on this dreary, damp day.
    Mary x

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  6. Dear Rosemary,
    I love how easy it is to correspond via "Team Viewer" shared screen. I have always worried about asking for computer help from a person with an accent that I can't understand. I also don't like to give out sensitive information. With Team Viewer you can pick a trusted person or relative who is computer literate and you will both be able to work on the problem at the same time.

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  7. How wonderful that your son came to the rescue and was able to solve the problem. It's maddening to have computer issues!

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  8. Indeed why should you have to fix something a company messed up. Frustrating to say the least. If that happened to my computer my sons wouldn't know how to fix it, they would ask me, computer would probably be taken down to a technician.

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  9. So pleased your son could sort your problem. I would not have had a clue about sorting it out.

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  10. You speak out of my heart, Rosemary! If you get such a message, you become very nervous...
    How much time I wasted on my Macbook... Newest problem is loading Huawai smartphone photos onto the Mac -- hahaha (bitter laugh), even a session with their helpdesk did bring no solution. I
    now had the idea to put them on a stick - and thus smuggle them in... we'll see...

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  11. I hate it when that kind of thing happens. Half the house phone calls I get now are scammers. I can deal with them easily enough but many older folk are completely at their mercy, often too worried/confused to even answer the phone which is now just a pester device sitting in the hall, yet we pay for it. I've also came to the conclusion that smart phones make the general population of users LESS smart,and more easily brainwashed, given the last four years of history and a growing preference for fake news/wild conspiracy theories/ false faces/ sofa sized lips and body sculpting associated with recent times. All of which are normal events seen now on UK TV programmes as entertainment with facts and science on the decline. Makes you wonder what the next 20 years will bring?

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  12. Luckily you solved the problem , but as you rightly say, modern technology often creates more problems than it should. I for example haven't yet found out how to use the new blogger , miraculously I only succeed in posting my new works , but descriptions or titles...haven't found out how to :-(

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  13. Printers are so sophisticated these days. Some have their own software which connects to the net, which I really don't like the idea of.

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  14. My HP printer won't scan. It prints and copies but all of a sudden when I want to scan it's asking for me to register, each time I try it just shows irritating happy smiling people using HP products!! I'm going to leave it and hope it rights itself, if not my son-in-law can probably sort it out.

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    Replies
    1. PS forgot to mention that when I tried to install their photo creations it says 'unable to install please check network connection and try again'. We pay for this stuff!!

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    2. Do you also have an Apple Mac? The problem I had was between HP and Apple. My son and I went through a complicated procedure removing the printer/driver etc completely and then reinstalling it anew. We began by using www.123.hp.com/setup if that is of any help to you when your son-in-law is around to help you.

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    3. If you happen to have windows there is another link here that might be helpful.
      https://hp.care/2JyaC93

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    4. Many thanks Rosemary. I have windows, I will have a look and if I can't do I will ask my son-in-law.

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  15. Oh dear..We all depend on our devices for so many things these days. Happy that you were able to fix it Last year my sister got a scam call and she believed them. She followed their instructions step by step while they were on the line and they crashed her computer. she lost everything!

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