Most Ridiculous Reasons to Call Tech Support

[Pedersen]

...the support tech I used to work with who didn't believe that Windows 3.1 existed...

Whew. It's a good thing those memories of mine about Windows 3.1 are simply implants by the CIA. I'd hate to think something like actually existed and, even worse, that I actually did tech support for it.

Make sure to thank that tech for clearing that up for me, wouldja?

[draggar]

He also was told, by his college (Chubb) that DOS was obsolete.

Really? Troubleshoot a HDD without DOS then. (Hell, remember the days when you could choose who your DOS was from? MS-DOS, DR-DOS etc..)

[Pedersen]

Oh, I got something you're gonna like Draggar, in case you didn't already know about it: FreeDOS. Completely free re-implementation of MS-DOS. And includes some add-ins (better networking support, for instance) that make it even nicer in many ways.

Of course, it's still DOS, but there are times when you really really need it.

[Der Cute]

Oi!
Draggy, Pedersen, stop the pissing contest here....I'm old enough to know smoke signals.

Back on topic:

I had to help a friend yesterday to burn files. I'll be taking her a puter and installing & updating, and I said You Have To Back Your Stuff Up.

Well, she had no idea on how or what to backup. Ugh.

Turned into a 2 hour ordeal:
Put disc into drive
Open 2 windows, D: and the My Documents folder
Drag the stuff from My Dox to D:
File
Burn these to CD

Notice who's got the blue bar? The blue bar is the active window! Yeah!!!

I think her puter is the only one so far I've not seen porn on. Really.

Cutenoob

[Naaman]

I'll raise you a 'cant tell the difference between LEFT click and RIGHT click and the support tech I used to work with who didn't believe that Windows 3.1 existed.

L & R click - I learnt after the 4th or so time I tried it that as far as SCs where concerned the R mouse button didn't exist

Oh, and your Support tech....

[ta2ooed1]

Silliest reason for a call to tech support I've had so far is the mysterious beep.

User called with a strange beeping noise in the background, everything worked just fine but the beeping was driving her crazy. Had her shut down everything thinclient, router and printer and still she had the beeping. It was loud enough I could hear it through the phone and it didn't sound anything like any type of computer equip I had ever heard before.

It took 10 minutes to convince her that I had no idea what it was and couldn't help her with the issue, in the back of my head I was half conviced it's one of those gadgets they sell on thinkgeek to drive office workers nuts with a random beep but this was too regular.

This was a medical office franchise so there are about 200 offices around the country with the exact same setup, by the time I got the third call I knew something was up. Started questioning the third called for details of what all is in the cabinet with the thin client and the router and come to find out there is a small black box with and on/off swith and a label reading something along the lines of temperaturecheck.com. Had the user turn it off. Voila beeping gone and mystery solved, the automatic monitor alarm for the temp in the fidge used to store medicines was going off.

[technical.angel]

I had one like that.. No idea what the beeping was. Went to the office and started rooting around, and found a UPS that no one was using. There had been a power outage that set it off.

[sms001]

Now walk them though making a shortcut. You might want a hard drink and a gun before you attempt that.

I've often wished there was a "Create a Shortcut to this Program on the Desktop" selection in the context menu for exe's.

[Banrion]

I've often wished there was a "Create a Shortcut to this Program on the Desktop" selection in the context menu for exe's.

There is, only it is under the "send to" selection. When you send to desktop, it creates a shortcut.

[bob the goat]

Let me start by saying that I do NOT work in IT. I work in a department that does customer interfaced design work. Meaning, I talk to the customer, and design their product in a way that meets their design needs within our manufacturing limitations. Being 28 and a life long gamer, I am also a geek. Geek enough to have built a computer, but not geek enough to know the difference between DDR and DDR2 (other than price and speed).

I am his Go-to geek for the VP of sales. I help him format things in Excel. I changed his monitor resolution to “make things easier to read”. I un-jam his printer when he tries to print on cardboard. I bought him a PS2 extension cable so his mouse cord had some slack. All in all, nothing too technical.

I get a call that his printer is starting to print lighter and lighter. I told him that his black ink is running out. He has a $150 HP printer. HP does that REALLY nice think by having big bold black numbers on the cartridge telling you what it is, and what you need to replace it with. I tell him “Flip the top up, flip up the little green release bar, pull out the black cartridge, take it to the store, Match the number to the number on a new box of ink, cal me when you get it and I will show you how to install it.” Apparently I was not sitting at my desk when he tried to install it. It did not fit. I get there. Here are the problems that I noticed, in the order I noticed them:

1) The cartridge was still wrapped in plastic.
2) The large orange cap was still on the nozzle.
3) The pull tab was still in place.

For some reason it still would not fit. I reach into the garbage can and pull out his old cartridge. There is the problem. I held them up next to each other. I say “See how they are different numbers? That means that the new one will not fit.” His response “but they both end with an 8.”

The scary part…THIS MAN IS A V. Frekin P. He is responsible for making the company I work for make money. His decisions drive this company. This company is being driven by someone that CAN NOT MATCH A TWO DIGIT NUMBER, even when specifically told to make the numbers match.

[Shabo]

My coworker got this call the other day:

CW: Coworker
SL: Silly lady

CW: *standard greeting*
SL: This isn't a computer question, but do you know what a dually attested testimonial is?
CW: Um, hold on just a moment... (puts her on hold, proceeds to tell the rest of us who adopt the same expression, then after we laugh about it for a good minute or so, he goes back and tells her he can't help her with that.)



And she clearly knew who she was calling, too!

[Shironu-Akaineko]

Not an IT, but since my grandpa raised me to be a geek, I'm the house IT.

Geeking obviously skipped a generation.

Me: Eh.
Mom: oh boy.

Mom: "Shiro? I deleted my garbage can!"
Me: "How the HELL did you do that?"
Mom: "I don't know! Come and bring it back!"
Me: "I don't know how to retrieve the recycling bin!"
Mom: "How come????"
Me: "I'm not stupid enough to delete MY GARBAGE CAN!"
Mom:

She eventually found it back. No idea how. (I'm on XP, she's on Vista. anyways...)

This is one of my favorites.

Mom: *panicked voice* "I KNOW HOW TO SAVE MY OWN PICTURES BUT NOT MY FRIENDS' PICTURES!!!!"

Same woman who would send herself her own pictures through email in order to save them on her harddrive...

[LizaMarie]

I once frantically called my IT guy at work because my keyboard suddenly stopped working. He came by, took one glance at my keyboard, then explained the problem.

I had inadvertantly hit the num lock key.

[tollbaby]

How would hitting numlock make your keyboard stop working?

[MacPrince]

How would hitting numlock make your keyboard stop working?

It does if it's a laptop keyboard where the numeric "keypad" is overlaid on the QWERTY keyboard (U becomes 4, I becomes 5, O becomes 6, etc.)