Copy Machine Setup and Repair

A few weeks ago, our church was blessed when the district office decided to give away its old copy machine. I jumped at the chance, and when I traveled that direction a couple weeks ago for a meeting, I took the opportunity to snag the thing.

Well, okay. I say “I,” but in reality, it took a couple of others. And there was a little more to it than just snagging the thing. Thank you to Mark J for helping me load it into the van, and to Tom K for helping me unload it! There is no way I could have done either of those tasks myself!

For the last several days, then, this copy machine has sat in the church library, waiting for me to set it up. And since I finished my seminary coursework yesterday, today was the day. So I went in and turned it on.

Error.

Actually, the machine’s display said I needed to shut the machine down and call a service technician. But because I’m both cheap and dumb, and I knew a service call would be a couple hundred bucks and a few days, I thought I would save both money and time by seeing if I could fix it myself.

So I spent some time researching the error message on the internet, and right away, I found a site that claimed to know how to fix it. It’s really simple, they said. So I was hooked. I pulled out a few tools and started taking the back panel off. Something like 10 hex screws later…

The insides didn’t look like the picture.

The instructions neglected to mention that there were covers on the inside of the outside cover. So I pulled out a different screwdriver and started removed about 10 more screws. Then about ten more. And then three more with the first driver, followed by two more with the second.

Finally, the insides of the copier were right in front of me, and it was really just the inside of a computer tower. So I pulled out a couple of connectors and reseated them. Then I pulled out a few cards and re-installed them. Then I unplugged and re-plugged a couple of cords.

All following the directions I found on the internet, mind you!

And when I threw the switch, the copy machine came to life! Success!

So then it was time to replace all of covers and panels, along with the forty-ish screws I had removed, and the copy machine was ready for setup.

Little did I know that I had just done the easy part!

Anyway, the moral of the story is that a pastor wears many hats. Some of these hats, he/she was trained to don. For instance, Bible study, and even preaching to an extent. But I totally missed the “copy repair and setup” class in Bible college, and I haven’t seen it in the seminary catalog.

Add it to the long list of things I forgot to learn in Bible college.