Plug it in and test it before you call me!

[Apallo]

When I work on a computer, be it a hardware or software problem, I always test em before I let em off of my bench. When you call my boss and bitch that it doesn’t work, you piss him off, and he then comes down on me for it. I had to drive 50 miles today because this happened. I got the computer back on my bench; it fired right up, nothing wrong with it at all in any way. This kind of madness drives me absolutely insane, because it makes my boss think I am an idiot. I swear, if this happens again, I am going to quit my job and start farming turnips.

[Dawnchaser]

I work in IT as do some of my friends. We often talk about joining up with one of those Alaskan fishing boats...

Pays well, wouldn't have any technology to troubleshoot, we'd "forget" our cell phones, and we'd get plenty of exercise and lose some weight.

Well...it's a good theory anyway.

[earl colby pottinger]

Errors again.

I had to drive 50 miles today because this happened. I got the computer back on my bench; it fired right up, nothing wrong with it at all in any way.

And that is why I ranted the other day.

You should *NEVER* just pick up a machine, always get the customer to show you the error first. Problems you will *NEVER* find at your work place.

1) The customer never plugged it in.

2) The customer plugged it into a socket that just happens to share the same power buss of the building's elevator or heavy duty photo copier/laser printer.

3) The wall socket is dead, Dead, DEAD!

4) There is a major power routing on the other side of the wall that computer rests against.

5) The monitor is bad. The printer is bad. Something else plugged into the computer is bad.

6) Something else plugged into the computer is not properly plugged into the computer or has no power.

7) The customer lied, the computer works fine, just not the way THEY WANT IT TO WORK, so they reported it as broken. Related, a past user (temp usually) changed the configuration of some program.

I have personally had all the above happen on my repairs.

[earl colby pottinger]

Hard error to find.

The worse error I had to find because it seemed so silly, and I thought the customer did not know what they were talking about (they did), was the lady complaining that the printer worked fine in the morning, but just before lunch and especially after her lunch break the printer would not print.

I arrived at 11:30 AM, self-tested the printer fine. Did some other tests, still worked fine. Waited to noon for her lunch break (she stayed to watch and confirm I saw the problem). Tested printer - NO PRINTOUT, just blank sheets.

Stared at evil printer, had to squint my eyes as it was so blinding white! Stared at the sunlight! Looked up! Stared at the skylight! Looked at the printer's slots on it's top bezel. Placed a wide book on printer. Self-tested OK!

Moved printer and explained that the sunlight from right above could enter certain slots and interfere with the sensors and photo-drum. Tested OK still.

Left customer wishing I had kept my mouth shut for the first half-an-hour that I had been there as I had repeatedly said "The printer can not just fail at noon, there is no clock in it".

Learnt lesson, when the customer really sounds crazy and you open your mouth to tell them so, you are just warming up your jaws so to ease inserting your foot later.

[BravoOrig]

When I worked at a local pc shop there was a computer that always experienced some premature shutdown or whatever, but never did it while on the bench. I could not find a reason to charge for having it there if I couldn't find anything. Finally ran a full scandisk and found some bad sectors. I'm not sure if it still happened after that as I left there but atleast I could tell them something.

On another note, this topic reminded me of a call a colleague took where the guy hooked up a new computer to the modem, and wanted to know what to do next. His answer? Open Internet Explorer. Lesson: Try something before calling tech support and waiting on hold for no reason.

[technical.angel]

I have a fun issue I'm trying to troubleshoot.

After ****1**** hour of turn over, I became the telecomm admin, by virtue of the fact that I was already stuck with the title of voicemail admin. Last summer, we got a new voicemail server that we put faculty and staff on, leaving students and our 1-800 number on the old server.

I was recently ordered to move the 1-800 # to the new server. Well and good.

While I was getting everything ready, I started getting harrasing emails and calls from two people. For some reason that I, the company that works with our PBX, and the people that deal with our new voicemail server, can not figure out RANDOMLY calls from the 1-800 # to the admissions department get routed over to the Athletic trainer.

Now, anyone in tech support knows how horrible the word "random" is in relation to an issue. And, of course, every time I call, I get routed correctly.

So, yeah, either moving it to the new server will fix it, or I'll be able to use tools from the program to follow the path the calls make and find out where the call is going astray.

Earl, the printer thing is a very odd problem, and one I will keep in mind.

[sms001]

1) The customer never plugged it in.

It happens so often that when the shoe is on the other foot, (When "Bob" in Calcutta starts in on his cookie cutter troubleshooting tree.) I take the opportunity to unplug and plug back in. Hasn't been the problem for me (yet, fingers crossed ) but just to save myself that embarrassment:

"Yes Mr. Sms01, is the device plugged in?"

"Of course it is, haha! I've been working on computers for over twenty years. Let's move onnnn......... Oh. Wait. It's not plugged in. Nice talkin' to you Bob."

[Sandman]

Had that problem today, both another tech and I (I don't really do tech work at all anymore, mostly my choice as I told them I'm getting fed up with the customers lying and managers NOT telling me when computers were in and NOT giving me time to do them) could not get the diag PC to connect to the wireless network. We thought it was software based, but we believe the slot on the mobo died so we just moved the card over to the other.

[Seshat]

Also, always try to get the customer to demonstrate the problem.

Something like 'letters mysteriously appear' can be the customer having something on the keyboard. Their wrist, their belly, a book....

Of course, there's always the traditional problem: they call everything by the wrong name. So when they say 'whenever I open Outlook I don't find my emails', they might be opening Word.

[Geek King]

I have a fun issue I'm trying to troubleshoot.

While I was getting everything ready, I started getting harrasing emails and calls from two people. For some reason that I, the company that works with our PBX, and the people that deal with our new voicemail server, can not figure out RANDOMLY calls from the 1-800 # to the admissions department get routed over to the Athletic trainer.

Hmmm...do you have access to the people who wrote the software? Not knowing what has been done, I kind of suspect a queue overflow issue that is handled by shunting the overflow caller to the next number on the list. Definately would talk to the programmers if at all possible. "Random" problems often end up being something in the code.

[technical.angel]

Well, the company that made keyvoice has been gone for YEARS. When it starts happening, ALL her calls from the 1-800 start going to the other person. So she only knows when she stops getting a lot of calls.