Printing problems on public PCs in the library

I'd like to add my two cents to Rita's post yesterday about a student's printing troubles.

If a student tries to print on a public PC and never sees the window that asks for the Baruch user name (it appears after the student clicks "Print" on the print window), one solution that sometimes works is to reboot the computer. My theory (and I can't vouch for the validity of it) is that somehow the computer has gotten itself disconnected from the networked printer. Many of the machines get all kinds of error messages or freeze up throughout the day--they get a lot of (ab)use--and it may be that over time a machine's connection to the printer disappears. Rebooting the machine often restores that connection. Another solution is to try another machine.

I don't have any theories about why the document printed out so poorly at the reference desk printer, which had been reported here on this blog earlier this week in regard to reserve materials for another class (ENG 3720).