From: One of my "Special" Users

[Geek King]

From the email I just recieved:

The computer screen here at <Off-Site Location> continues to go in & out. This started when the phone number at <Off-Site Location> was changed. Can you please repair this? I already check the screen display in the control panel & the time is set at 20 minutes not every minute like the time clocks. Thank you

The scariest thing? I think I have this diagnosed as a loose power cable on a flat-screen monitor. I'm getting good at reading crazy.

[Geek King]

Bad News: I was right.

Geek King learned a new skill!
Read/Write Gibberish
Your party found 6 gold!

[technical.angel]

What scares me is that the user knows how to get to the control panel.

I"m trying to decipher the "time" part. I can't think of any setting that would have a 20 in it...

[Rapscallion]

I'm more scared that they're allowed access to it. Our IT team lock down anything where I could do any good.

All we're allowed is 'add remove printers' and that's about it. I even once tried for cmd, since I was curious - admin blocked.

Rapscallion

[Shalom]

I think he's talking about the buttons on the screen itself, with which you can change the color balance &c, not the Windows control panel.

[Geek King]

We don't lock down the control panel or display properties because users are allowed to customize their settings. Some of them need to adjust things under accessability options for various reasons. If someone can't deal with the responsability of that access, we limit them individually.


I really don't know where the happy horseshit about the display or clock mentioned in the email came from. Everything else was in good working order when I poked around. This user tends to string together random bits of of their computer with buzzwords they've heard recently to make it sound like they can't do their work. The managers that have been in charge of theis person (who gets bounced around my organization on a regular basis, favored-idiot-style) are aware of these little hi-jinks, and mostly just roll their eyes at it.

[noone]

Bad News: I was right.

Geek King learned a new skill!
Read/Write Gibberish
Your party found 6 gold!

Bump bah da daaaah da da duh dadaaah!

[PepperElf]

what's scary is that the user had access to the control panel
when they clearly thought it was somehow related to the phone

[SuperDan]

Was he looking at screensaver or power management settings? Those are the only things off of the CP I can think of where 20 minutes would come into play.

[ApolloSZ]

Superdan beat me to it.
I'd bet 20 to 1 (heeheee see what I did there?) that they were looking at the timedelay for the screensaver.

[Dreamstalker]

This user tends to string together random bits of of their computer with buzzwords they've heard recently to make it sound like they can't do their work.

I get that as a freelancer a lot. One of the main reasons I generally don't diagnose or TS over the phone unless I know the user and/or system already; no way to know if they're telling me what's actually happening or the latest buzzwords they saw on Yahoo. Also no telling if they're actually doing what I tell them or what $article says they should do.

(once I was in the middle of a convoluted scan/uninstall/reboot cycle of removing some embedded malware...I got up to hit the bathroom for under a minute, came back and moron was in the registry "what you were doing is too slow and this article said I should do this!". Luckily, I had backed it up)

[IT Grunt]

I like how they assume the phone system has some arcane influence over how their computer monitor works. Had one user accuse me once of making his screen all fuzzy simply because I installed a new printer. The reason it was fuzzy? LCD flat panel set to a low resolution, that he'd set himself. However because I touched the machine, I'm suddenly the reason why it's fuzzy.

Not as bad as an old co-worker though. We worked for a bank, and he stopped in at a branch to cash a check. An hour later the server crashes. He is blamed because he cashed a check. Behold! We now wield the power to crash machines with our mere presence!