Emeralis00 she/her Posted April 26, 2012 Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 Share your ridiculous stories about maintaining the computers of people. You know who I am talking about. Those situations where you have to guide a person step by step on how to turn the computer on. I have a few gems from my dad. He worked as a computer specialist over the phone several several years ago. These are some of the conversations he would have. Person:Why isn't the computer turning on? Dad: did you press the power switch? Person: Nooo... Dad: Press It. Person: its not working. Dad: Is it plugged in? Person: Does it have to be? dad: Yes. another one. Person: Why isn't the computer talking to me? Dad: It can't talk. Person: But I saw a movie where a computer talked. And another. Person: I keep trying to install windows on my mac and it isn't working. Dad: (My dad referred this one to his boss) This is one of my own, this is the point where I learned that phone operated tech support is a futile endeavor. Person: OK. How do I turn it on. Me: press the power switch. Person: OK. Wait, it says BIOS. That is the virus that was on my last computer. %^&* I have to replace this one too. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfhscoobydoo he/him Posted January 6, 2017 Report Share Posted January 6, 2017 Ahh yes these stories. Me: Okay whats wrong Aunt: Last night when i was done working i shut off the computer and now it freezes when i turn it on. Me: Okay here hmm. (I go get the windows install disk to do a restore to a sytem restore piont) and i find that the day that it stopped booting was the day windows did a critacal update. So my aunt had forced shut off the computer was updating. *facepalm So i continue try to boot into safe mode do system repare try to do a systtem restore nothung works. So her boot partition is wrecked, great now i get to reinstall windows. but while getting linux ready to get her files the computer was booting and it sucessfuly did and her computer hasn't had trouble booting since. True story. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Invested Beard Posted January 6, 2017 Report Share Posted January 6, 2017 As someone who has worked in this field for ten years I have more of these than I can shake a stick at. For brevity I will contribute one of my favorites, which isn't necessarily about me knowing more about computers...well you'll see. Me: Hello this is Justin, how can I help you? ER Nurse: Yeah I need my [random system] password reset. Me: Okay one second while I get that done for you...And you're all set. I have reset your password to the word "Hello". Once you put that in you should be asked to reset your password. ER Nurse: Hello?...It's not working. Me: Okay one second let me try again...Okay try one more time with the same password. ER Nurse: Still not working. Me: ...Okaaaaay. You're using the password "Hello" right? ER Nurse: Yeah. H-E-L-O. Hello. Me: [Internal Monologue] You're an ER NURSE???? PEOPLE'S LIVES ARE IN YOUR HANDS AND YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO SPELL THE WORD HELLO???? Me: [Out loud] Um, no that should be H-E-L-L-O, Hello. ER Nurse: ...Oh...okay. It works now. Thanksbye. *hangs up* Me: 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just another guyn he/him Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 I apologize for thread necroing, but my dad got a Mac mini, and to save space, wanted to Velcro it to the bottom of the desk upside down. Velcro. upside down. It lasted for about a day, fell and the hard drive, airport card and ram shattered. He still hasn't replaced the whole thing, just some of the parts. It's slower then a raspberri pi trying to run adobe aftereffects. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Massik he/him Posted April 21, 2018 Report Share Posted April 21, 2018 So, I was troubleshooting this PA that was drawing too much current, burning filters and popping transistors, and I start looking down the RF path, and notice a transformer turn that doesn't look quite right on the grounding. I got to unsolder it to move its placement for better grounding. I'm using flux and a fat solder tip, but the center wire/solder just isn't getting hot enough for the wick to suck up the solder. I look closer, and..... yep, they put a transformer with the wrong bent on. Basically, the center wire and shielding are all on the ground plane, effectively taking the turn completely out of circuit, causing and imbalance and super poor efficiency. No wonder making power was impossible to do without burning up components...... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mulk he/him Posted April 23, 2018 Report Share Posted April 23, 2018 This happened a couple of months ago. It sounds like an internet meme or something but this actually happened: Hey, my computer won't come on Oh, sorry about that, what happens when you try? Nothing, screen is dark, won't do anything. That sounds bad. Would you double check the power cord is plugged all the way in? Hard to tell, it's dark in here. ...what? You have no power? No. Is that why it won't turn on? SIGH 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voidus Posted April 24, 2018 Report Share Posted April 24, 2018 Times like this I'm glad I moved on to programming, now I only have to deal with people making simple mistakes... actually it's pretty much the same as when I was on phones. "Hey, I found a bug." "Bet you didn't." "Well I tried to log in as my boss and the app isn't loading properly." "That's because you're not your boss. You're not supposed to be able to sign in as other people." 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonrise Posted April 25, 2018 Report Share Posted April 25, 2018 I do not have a turn it off/on again story, but programming indeed has its own bugs... "My new Matlab function won't work" "You are using FunctionName inside the script for FunctionName. It doesn't work because it doesn't exist yet. Why do you need it here anyway?" "But how is FunctionName supposed to work without FunctionName inside it?" "That's why you are writing FunctionName in the first place" 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenod Posted May 8, 2018 Report Share Posted May 8, 2018 To be fair, that one could be because the person with the issue was used to languages that allowed for recursions. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonrise Posted May 10, 2018 Report Share Posted May 10, 2018 On 5/8/2018 at 0:38 PM, kenod said: To be fair, that one could be because the person with the issue was used to languages that allowed for recursions. I have been teaching Matlab for a while , and believe me that was not the case. I helped the student figure it out so now there is just a mildly entertaining story. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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