The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

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Work today:

Client - Two of the dozen monitors in our cube farm won't power on!
Me - Which monitors? Have you checked that they are plugged in and the AC outlets are live?
... crickets...
Me - (having 20 minutes free, while preparing 2 new laptops for someone. checks site)
Me - One monitor is plugged into a dead set of outlets. I plugged it into the ones that are literally next to them, that work. Call Facilities to check the breakers. The other monitor doesn't have a power cord. Get one.

 

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Work today:

Client - Two of the dozen monitors in our cube farm won't power on!
Me - Which monitors? Have you checked that they are plugged in and the AC outlets are live?
... crickets...
Me - (having 20 minutes free, while preparing 2 new laptops for someone. checks site)
Me - One monitor is plugged into a dead set of outlets. I plugged it into the ones that are literally next to them, that work. Call Facilities to check the breakers. The other monitor doesn't have a power cord. Get one.

A few years ago, I responded to a call that a mouse wasn't working. I told her - a sweet little old lady - to double check that it was plugged into the laptop. She checked, chuckled, and told me it wasn't plugged in and that she would do so. Problem solved!

A few minutes later I get another call from her, telling me the mouse still wasn't working. Strange, I'll be right over. I get there and find the mouse plugged into the wrong side of the laptop. Uh oh... In fact, she'd somehow managed to squash the USB plug into the ethernet port.

I think she must have been quite a bit stronger than she looked to be able to crush it like that.
 

A few years ago, I responded to a call that a mouse wasn't working. I told her - a sweet little old lady - to double check that it was plugged into the laptop. She checked, chuckled, and told me it wasn't plugged in and that she would do so. Problem solved!

A few minutes later I get another call from her, telling me the mouse still wasn't working. Strange, I'll be right over. I get there and find the mouse plugged into the wrong side of the laptop. Uh oh... In fact, she'd somehow managed to squash the USB plug into the ethernet port.

I think she must have been quite a bit stronger than she looked to be able to crush it like that.
When my dad had a stroke he was having trouble using a mouse, so got him a trackball. This worked great for a while, but then it started not working intermittently. Now, my dad had bought full support from Dell when he bought his computer, so he calls up their tech support line. Of course, the trackball is not Dell equipment covered by his plan, so he lies to the poor tech support guy, who is diagnosing problems with an entirely different device. Finally my dad calls me over, and after looking at it for a few minutes, I'm like, "Having you tried changing the batteries?"

"Batteries? What batteries?"

"It's a wireless trackball, dad. How do you think it's communicating with the computer?"

This from a guy who used to be tech savvy. He owned a VAX-11/780 when I was a kid.
 

A few years ago, I responded to a call that a mouse wasn't working. I told her - a sweet little old lady - to double check that it was plugged into the laptop. She checked, chuckled, and told me it wasn't plugged in and that she would do so. Problem solved!

A few minutes later I get another call from her, telling me the mouse still wasn't working. Strange, I'll be right over. I get there and find the mouse plugged into the wrong side of the laptop. Uh oh... In fact, she'd somehow managed to squash the USB plug into the ethernet port.

I think she must have been quite a bit stronger than she looked to be able to crush it like that.
The printer end of a USB printer cable (USB 2.0 Type B) fits exactly into an Ethernet (RJ45) port. I have had enough people accidentally do this, when connecting their new printers, that it's my first question when someone says their printer isn't working.
 

A few years ago, I responded to a call that a mouse wasn't working. I told her - a sweet little old lady - to double check that it was plugged into the laptop. She checked, chuckled, and told me it wasn't plugged in and that she would do so. Problem solved!

A few minutes later I get another call from her, telling me the mouse still wasn't working. Strange, I'll be right over. I get there and find the mouse plugged into the wrong side of the laptop. Uh oh... In fact, she'd somehow managed to squash the USB plug into the ethernet port.

I think she must have been quite a bit stronger than she looked to be able to crush it like that.

I a past life, I did a stint with Dell Support. I had a guy call in, mind you I worked the night shift, so its like 3AM, swearing up and down that his keyboard was broken. He refused to check if it was connected for like half an hour of various troubleshooting steps. Finally (Dell has scripts you followed back then) I said "Listen please check if its plugged in."

To the surprise of nobody, it was not plugged in.
 

I a past life, I did a stint with Dell Support. I had a guy call in, mind you I worked the night shift, so its like 3AM, swearing up and down that his keyboard was broken. He refused to check if it was connected for like half an hour of various troubleshooting steps. Finally (Dell has scripts you followed back then) I said "Listen please check if its plugged in."

To the surprise of nobody, it was not plugged in.

"Could you please unplug the USB connection, wait 30 seconds, and replug it for me? Sometimes the capacitance in the cable can build up a small charge that interferes with communication. Dissipating it might solve the problem."
 

"Could you please unplug the USB connection, wait 30 seconds, and replug it for me? Sometimes the capacitance in the cable can build up a small charge that interferes with communication. Dissipating it might solve the problem."

I'm not smart enough at the best of times, forget at 3am, to come up with that.

Another one I had was a woman, a nice old lady, who called in with her monitor broken...for the 4th time. I looked over her prior cases, and same thing every time, the power button was broken.

We had a nice chat, and I was able to determine that EVERY time she stepped away from the computer, she was powering off her monitor. Like, every time she got a drink, whatever.

I told her that was not required, and sent her a new monitor lol.
 

I'm not smart enough at the best of times, forget at 3am, to come up with that.

Another one I had was a woman, a nice old lady, who called in with her monitor broken...for the 4th time. I looked over her prior cases, and same thing every time, the power button was broken.

We had a nice chat, and I was able to determine that EVERY time she stepped away from the computer, she was powering off her monitor. Like, every time she got a drink, whatever.

I told her that was not required, and sent her a new monitor lol.

Might have been somebody in her younger days who'd had a bad case of screenburn (which could be a thing Back In The Day) and developed a tic about it she'd never lost.
 


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