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When daylight-saving time starts on March 11, people will reset their clocks, DVD players, VCRs and many other devices that have internal clocks.
But most people wont necessarily think about is how DST (daylight-saving time) will affect their printers and peripheral devices.
However, people and IT departments are giving this a lot more thought this year because due to the United States EPACT (Energy Policy Act) of 2005, DST is arriving early and has been extended for four weeks.
To help consumer and IT departments deal with the time change, printer vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, Xerox and Konica Minolta have set up support pages that tell users which of their printer devices/peripherals will need to be manually adjusted and how to adjust them.
On HPs Web site, HP users are provided with information regarding which HP printers, imaging, multifunctional devices and fax machines will be affected by DST.
Most of HPs printing and imaging products do not have internal clocks, therefore, no changes or updates need to be made. However, those products that do have internal clocks will need to be adjusted manually as they do not automatically adjust for DST.
Internal clocks in HP multifunction and all-in-one products automatically adjust for DST. Therefore the clocks in these devices must be adjusted manually on Sunday.
Like HP, Xerox has provided its users with a Web site that gives users information on which of their products need to be adjusted and how to adjust them.
To overcome potential DST challenges, Xeroxs CentreWare Web allows businesses to update the time on many devices at one time as this platform helps system administrators manage assorted printing environments from a single location using a Web browser to perform several administrative functions.
Konica Minoltas support page for DST also tells its users which products/devices need to be updated and provides instructions on how to make the adjustments.