Not exactly an issue but...

[Charismatic]

I was wondering...
When you do not know the answer to a technical troubleshooting question, what sites do you guys use for help? (excluding search engines)

Also, if you were troubleshooting a printing problem in a business environment, what would you want to know other than the obvious things like it being out of paper, etc?

[The Stig]

I was wondering...
When you do not know the answer to a technical troubleshooting question, what sites do you guys use for help? (excluding search engines)

Also, if you were troubleshooting a printing problem in a business environment, what would you want to know other than the obvious things like it being out of paper, etc?

For technical troubleshooting, I find that there's no best single site to go. It really is better to use search engines and just whack in the error messages and pull out relevant forum posts/articles to resolve it. Unless you want to pick a particular forum and post there, I find that unless your problem is unique and no one else encountered it before (unlikely), then it's best to stick to a forum where it's active, live, everyone's friendly, etc.

As for printing, from my experience if it's not out of paper it's:

Paper Jam -- needs unblocking
Printer Spooler Service misbehaving : just restart (assuming you can remote desktop)
Printer queue "jammed" (system) : go in, delete the print queue (or printer doesn't print) and refresh print spooler if needed

Those 3 are the most common problems I've dealt with. The others are quite obvious, such as lack of ink or some literally threw the printer on the floor and think it'll work, or lacking drivers.

To be honest I still can't see why people fuck up with printers. I've had one and never encountered problems. I understand there's heavier usage at work, but surely can't cough up a problem everyday.

"Users" I suppose. -__-'

[mootsfox]

Google is the single best site to search for help.

For hardware issues I use mostly just my head. I've dealt with enough problems and have enough understanding to troubleshoot most problems. I'm also a member/mod of other computer forums where I'm extremely active and pick up a lot of info and news.

[Day]

Yeah, honestly Google is your best bet. If you can get specific error codes, or error verbage word for word, it helps a lot to narrow down your results.

Usually for specific hardware you can have some luck if the company has forums on their site. (Nvidia for example)

I deal with printers in our business a fuckton, I work tech support for a company with about 50 Retail stores across the country all with 2-3 printers in each store, and about 8 associates in each who can somehow fuck them up day in and out.

You'll want the Model, IP (if networked), and any status lights on the printer.

This is my "fixitall but hardware/jams" routine:

Remote in to PC, put all spool files on hold, and pause printing.
Start running ping on IP. (If you can't ping, network/cable troubleshooting starts here)
Have user power off printer.
Stop printer spooler service.
Have user power on printer.
Wait for Ping. Start spool service. Unpause printing, release spooled files.

I'd say this resolves 99% of our printer issues that aren't hardware related. Can be adjusted slightly for non networked, and if you can't dial in you can walk the user through. Pretty much what thestig said, just expanding slightly.