PC Load Letter

PC LOAD LETTER is a technology meme, originally a printer error message, which has grown into popular culture as a reference to a confusing or inappropriate error message.

Origin

PC LOAD LETTER is an error message encountered when printing on older HP LaserJet printers such as the LaserJet II, III, and 4 series. The error is always displayed fully capitalized.

The actual meaning of the message is convoluted: "PC" is a two-character status code that stands for "Paper Cassette" [cite web |url=http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=110&prodSeriesId=25484&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=25484&objectID=bpl03568 |title=One of many official Hewlett-Packard technical documents defining PC as a short-form of Paper Cassette |accessdate=2007-03-30] , the tray that holds blank paper for the printer to use. These two-character codes are a legacy feature carried over from the first LaserJet printers, which could only use a two-character display for all printer status and error messages.

"Load", in this context, is an instruction to refill the paper tray. "Letter" is the standard paper size used in the United States and Canada. Thus, the error is instructing the user to refill the letter paper tray. A variant is PC LOAD LEGAL, meaning that the printer requires legal size paper be loaded.

The non-intuitive message confuses people for several reasons. The abbreviation "PC" is misleading because it is widely understood — especially in the context of electronic office equipment — to mean "Personal Computer", suggesting to many that the problem lies in the computer, not the printer. The word "LOAD" is also ambiguous, as it can also refer to the transfer of electronic data between disk and memory. Furthermore, in many non-US countries the word "LETTER" is not associated with paper size as A4 is the standard size used. Thus, users encountering this message may believe that they are being instructed to transfer the data or "contents" of their letter to the printer, even though they have already sent the job to the printer.

Older LaserJet printers do not automatically resize a page when the page size of a document does not match the paper that is loaded in the printer. When trying to print a document whose paper size is set to "letter" on A4-sized paper the message occurs. The error PC LOAD A4 does appear in countries using this paper size; however, as many programs use "letter" as the default format the confusing message is often encountered by non-American users who are unaware of the recovery procedure (empty print queue and printer buffer or press "Shift/Continue" [cite web |url=http://lis.newport.ac.uk/computing/helpdesk/printer_problems.htm |title=Instructions for solving printer errors. |accessdate=2007-04-23] and in extreme cases, restart printer and repeat). The LaserJet 5 introduced an easy-to-find "GO" button to override the warning message.

Popular culture

The phrase is a long standing joke and cause for confusion for computer users because most users could not (and still cannot) decipher its meaning. The term was popularized by the comedy cult film "Office Space". Michael Bolton (David Herman), one of the three main characters, reads the error message from the VFD status display on a fax machine, after which he asks, "'PC Load Letter'? What the fuck does that mean?" This message appeared on the display just after Bolton filled the printer's cassette with blank paper. Frustrations such as this led the main characters of the film to take revenge on the malfunctioning printer by destroying it in a vacant field with a baseball bat.

Since then, the phrase has appeared in numerous guises: on T-shirts, on the Internet (particularly in blog entries), as a 2005 Seattle band name [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/bands/band.asp?bandID=493 PC Load Letter] , Seattle Post-Intelligencer] , and referenced in the "System Administrator Appreciation Day" song by Canadian comedy troupe Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie ("He's the only one in the building who knows what PC Load Letter means"). This message is also displayed in the game Doom RPG, on a computer terminal next to a broken door. [http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Sector_4_(Doom_RPG)#Trivia Doom RPG - Sector 4] ] In the MMORPG "The Matrix Online", the printers in the office structures also display the " PC Load Letter" message.

References

ee also

*lp0 on fire

External links

* [http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.sys.hp.hardware/browse_thread/thread/81c766c16a38de9d Usenet thread on how to change the default message on an HP Laserjet]