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and doesn't even get dinner.
OR... How TA MIGHT HAVE unwittingly helped to kill another student laptop.
SO, here at the Helpdesk, we have a new policy. When a student computer comes in with a "virus" (meaning virus or malware), one of the student workers is to run the scans. (
's manager for making said decision)
Well, a laptop comes in. Student says it has a virus, and asks for AVG to be removed and our corp AV be installed.
One of our more technical students takes it in and starts working on it. For some reason still unbeknownst to me, he decides to handle the AV part before running scans.
As probably to be expected with his order of priorities, one of the two AVs starts throwing up errors. I was never clear on which one.
He comes to me and asks for a boot disc. I don't have one with me, so I start the process of updating my tools and making one. I don't manage to finish it before the end of his shift.
He comes back in the next day and asks if I have anything for him. I hand him back the laptop. He groans. I burn the boot CD (network problems+multiple programs to update=eh.) Now this is the important part. Before I hand over the CD, I ask, "Do you know what you're doing with this?" "Yes." "Are you SURE?" "Yes." I hand him the CD and head to lunch. Probably not my wisest ideas ever, but eh. Nothing more is said about it during the rest of the day.
First thing the next morning, my manager comes bursting into my office, "I can't get this laptop to boot!!!!"
So I take out the boot CD, and it doesn't boot. Hu.
I try all the modes... crap.
Manager is slightly freaking out. So I take the computer into my office and play around with it some more.., and get NOWHERE.
Said student worker comes in later on and we both jump in, interrogating him as to what he could have done. HE claims that all he did was start one of the AVs pre-installed on the boot cd. Manager claims that all SHE did was remove the items and restart. VERY helpful.
SO, first thing first, I pop back in the boot cd and check the HD. And the boot CD freezes. Tries again, same thing, rinse and repeat. Finally I unplug the power, take out the battery, let it think about how bad it's being, and tried again. It then, penitent, let me into the boot cd. HD shows files. I fight with it a little bit more, finally turning it off and letting it cool down for awhile, as it was getting warm.
Being lost, I called in my server admin. After poking around a little, we find safe mode is hanging up on the supposedly uninstalled AVG files. After a bit of work, we get an XP disc (which the system is running) and get into the recovery console. We disable the AVG crap, and then it hangs on MUP.sys. Sever admin calls it dead and leaves.
I explain everything to my manager, who explains everything to big boss. The final decision is that we'll find a XP home CD and do a repair. So, next morning, we start the Great XP Home CD search... and fail. Then, I happen to look at the bottom of the laptop.. it's Media Center edition. D'oh.
Boss comes down. We go through everything again.
He decides that, since the trouble we're having with the students already (a little thing about wireless and two of our buildings...), that he'll pay for the recovery media (which the student didn't have), just so she doesn't go around telling everyone IT "broke" her laptop, even though, we've struck out the Boot CD from causing the problem, and narrowed it to something AVG or hardware, or both.
So, I order the media.. overnighted. They arrive the next day, but due to a small problem of a laptop that kept getting forgotten by another student worker (Trend Micro, log files, yeah.), I wasn't able to get to it.
So the NEXT day, I sit down to do the one thing Manager demanded before I went further with the student computer.. backing up the files. After ****3.5**** hours of fighting, I get the files copying. I run a work order, come back, and see the error message I was expecting... out of space on the external hard drive.
Try again... cyclic redudancy error.
TRY AGAIN, minus the folder that was having trouble, and run out of space AGAIN.
TRY AGAIN, backing up first My Desktop, then Favorites, and failing again at My documents.
I grab my personal external and finish it up.
:: pant, pant ::
So, at this point, I HAPPILY toss in the first recovery CD.., only to find out that there IS no recovery console on the HP cd.
So, Manager calls student and verifies that we can just reformat.
I do battle again, and 4 reboots later, get back into the boot CD, and start writing down programs. Wait.. what's this? QUICKEN???
I can't open it up to see if it was actually being used, so I leave a message for the student to call me back about it. Then there's a side battle involving alot of phone calls for a mystery second phone number going to a security system at one of our remote sites.. I go to lunch, no word from the student.
When I get back, I have an IM from the admin asst, saying the student came in, has NO idea what Quicken is, and to go ahead and reformat.
So, in comes the potential for screwage. Who wants to put money down that, after getting her laptop back, the student will fly off the handle, demanding to know where all her financial information is? "THAT'S WHAT QUICKEN WAS????" and all that?
I know my boss and grand boss will have my back, but still. Big boss has already caved once on this laptop where my boss and I was pushing him not to...
Now, off to go reformat..., and potentially cry.
OR... How TA MIGHT HAVE unwittingly helped to kill another student laptop.
SO, here at the Helpdesk, we have a new policy. When a student computer comes in with a "virus" (meaning virus or malware), one of the student workers is to run the scans. (
's manager for making said decision)Well, a laptop comes in. Student says it has a virus, and asks for AVG to be removed and our corp AV be installed.
One of our more technical students takes it in and starts working on it. For some reason still unbeknownst to me, he decides to handle the AV part before running scans.
As probably to be expected with his order of priorities, one of the two AVs starts throwing up errors. I was never clear on which one.
He comes to me and asks for a boot disc. I don't have one with me, so I start the process of updating my tools and making one. I don't manage to finish it before the end of his shift.
He comes back in the next day and asks if I have anything for him. I hand him back the laptop. He groans. I burn the boot CD (network problems+multiple programs to update=eh.) Now this is the important part. Before I hand over the CD, I ask, "Do you know what you're doing with this?" "Yes." "Are you SURE?" "Yes." I hand him the CD and head to lunch. Probably not my wisest ideas ever, but eh. Nothing more is said about it during the rest of the day.
First thing the next morning, my manager comes bursting into my office, "I can't get this laptop to boot!!!!"
So I take out the boot CD, and it doesn't boot. Hu.
I try all the modes... crap.
Manager is slightly freaking out. So I take the computer into my office and play around with it some more.., and get NOWHERE.
Said student worker comes in later on and we both jump in, interrogating him as to what he could have done. HE claims that all he did was start one of the AVs pre-installed on the boot cd. Manager claims that all SHE did was remove the items and restart. VERY helpful.
SO, first thing first, I pop back in the boot cd and check the HD. And the boot CD freezes. Tries again, same thing, rinse and repeat. Finally I unplug the power, take out the battery, let it think about how bad it's being, and tried again. It then, penitent, let me into the boot cd. HD shows files. I fight with it a little bit more, finally turning it off and letting it cool down for awhile, as it was getting warm.
Being lost, I called in my server admin. After poking around a little, we find safe mode is hanging up on the supposedly uninstalled AVG files. After a bit of work, we get an XP disc (which the system is running) and get into the recovery console. We disable the AVG crap, and then it hangs on MUP.sys. Sever admin calls it dead and leaves.
I explain everything to my manager, who explains everything to big boss. The final decision is that we'll find a XP home CD and do a repair. So, next morning, we start the Great XP Home CD search... and fail. Then, I happen to look at the bottom of the laptop.. it's Media Center edition. D'oh.
Boss comes down. We go through everything again.
He decides that, since the trouble we're having with the students already (a little thing about wireless and two of our buildings...), that he'll pay for the recovery media (which the student didn't have), just so she doesn't go around telling everyone IT "broke" her laptop, even though, we've struck out the Boot CD from causing the problem, and narrowed it to something AVG or hardware, or both.
So, I order the media.. overnighted. They arrive the next day, but due to a small problem of a laptop that kept getting forgotten by another student worker (Trend Micro, log files, yeah.), I wasn't able to get to it.
So the NEXT day, I sit down to do the one thing Manager demanded before I went further with the student computer.. backing up the files. After ****3.5**** hours of fighting, I get the files copying. I run a work order, come back, and see the error message I was expecting... out of space on the external hard drive.
Try again... cyclic redudancy error.
TRY AGAIN, minus the folder that was having trouble, and run out of space AGAIN.
TRY AGAIN, backing up first My Desktop, then Favorites, and failing again at My documents.
I grab my personal external and finish it up.
:: pant, pant ::
So, at this point, I HAPPILY toss in the first recovery CD.., only to find out that there IS no recovery console on the HP cd.
So, Manager calls student and verifies that we can just reformat.
I do battle again, and 4 reboots later, get back into the boot CD, and start writing down programs. Wait.. what's this? QUICKEN???
I can't open it up to see if it was actually being used, so I leave a message for the student to call me back about it. Then there's a side battle involving alot of phone calls for a mystery second phone number going to a security system at one of our remote sites.. I go to lunch, no word from the student.
When I get back, I have an IM from the admin asst, saying the student came in, has NO idea what Quicken is, and to go ahead and reformat.
So, in comes the potential for screwage. Who wants to put money down that, after getting her laptop back, the student will fly off the handle, demanding to know where all her financial information is? "THAT'S WHAT QUICKEN WAS????" and all that?
I know my boss and grand boss will have my back, but still. Big boss has already caved once on this laptop where my boss and I was pushing him not to...
Now, off to go reformat..., and potentially cry.
's are fatal again?
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