Senior programmer says his printouts are striped, and replacing the toner cartridge didn’t help, reports a pilot fish on the scene.

Junior tech is dispatched to help, sees the striped printouts, and is fairly confident that it’s a problem with the toner cartridge.

And when she opens the printer, she finds that the cartridge has a long plastic ribbon hanging off the side. Problem solved, she figures, and she begins to pull the plastic strip off. But the programmer tells her, “Stop! That’s supposed to be there.”

The tech, feeling especially junior, returns to the IT area and explains all to a senior tech, who tells her she’s right. “In fact, there are instructions molded into the plastic cartridge telling how to remove that strip.”

Back goes the tech to remove the strip and reinstall the cartridge. Result: perfect printouts.

But back in IT, she has to wonder aloud: “If the previous toner cartridge that he replaced was having the same issue, did he throw out a perfectly good toner cartridge?”

Sharky wants your perfectly good true tales of IT life. Send them to me at sharky@computerworld.com. You can also subscribe to the Daily Shark Newsletter.