"I was working in the [Fayerweather Hall] study room, and about seven people came down to print something," Lilian Wang '10 said. "They were really frustrated and were hitting the printers."
Over the course of last week, GreenPrint stations were broken in the Collis Center, Berry Library and the Fayerweathers, students said. As of Thursday, GreenPrint stations at Collis and the Fayerweathers were out of commission, said Michael Hogan, manager of Machine Room operations.
Computing Services plans to replace eight of the 19 undergraduate GreenPrint stations in July.
According to Hogan, the GreenPrint station at Collis has not been fully operational since Jan. 8. Hogan was unable to estimate when Technical Services would fix the computer, because the printer's new parts have not arrived.
The GreenPrint station in the Fayerweathers has been down since Monday because the release station, the computer connected to the GreenPrint station, needs a new part, Hogan said. Technical Services will either fix or replace the station depending on cost. An existing GreenPrint station will likely temporarily replace the broken machine by Tuesday, Hogan said.
Problems with GreenPrint stations are generally due to high traffic, according to Hogan. Typically, about 4,000 jobs circulate through the system a day and users printed over 7 million pages last year.
"They're just machines," Hogan said. "They break depending on usage. They wear out, pieces get broken."
Several of the older GreenPrint stations across campus have recently worn out, Hogan said. Printers typically last around five years and many printers on campus are more than five years old.
"They get old and abused and tired," Hogan said. "That's what's happening to some of these printers, they're reaching the end of their lives."
This week's switch to the Dartmouth Secure wireless network from Kiewit Wireless further complicated printing, as students who were unable to connect to Dartmouth Secure could not send documents to the GreenPrint system.
"GreenPrint wouldn't work, and it really annoyed me since I had a lab report due," Neel Joshi '11 said. "Then I blitzed it to a friend's computer but he couldn't print it out either."
Funding for GreenPrint stations is generally provided by Computing Services, although students have also sought funding from alternative sources.
The College's operations staff monitors the status of GreenPrint stations through software that reports when printers are not fully functional, Hogan said. The staff also responds to calls from the library and Collis staff and is available for assistance from 6 a.m. until 3 a.m. daily.
