Oops, now why doesn't that work?
Isn't technology fun.
Friday, May 30, 2008 by Philly0381 | Discussion: Personal Computing
Well another slow Friday here. 
If you read throgh the forums you will see lots of desperate calls for help and assistance from members of the community who attempt to play around with their tech toys. Most of us can say, "been there, done that". 
Lets hear your story about your best tech moment.
Mine is your typical classic. My current computer is going on six years old, may have not been top of the line when I got it, but it was better than anything I had up to that time. I read everything I could, made sure it had a good sound card, and a video card, you know the man thing. When I get it home everything is jumping out of the box, I'm setting everything up on the desk, hooking everthing up. It was one of those off the shelf models, didn't have to load software. Instructions, I don't need no stinking instructions.
All hooked up, turn it on, nothing. Well not quite, I see that the lights are on the unit but nothing on the monitor screen or no sound. Check connections, got power, nothing. So I look for the instructions, start reading, nice big pictures of where to connect sfuff. I look at the back of the computer, look at the instructions, look back at the computer.
I then slowly turn around to see if anyone is watching, turn off the computer, reconnect the monitor and speakers from the motherboard connections to the expansions cards. DOH.
So lets hear your story.
Why doesn't software work on the first try?
This by far and away seems to be the biggest problem topic in the forums. If any of you are like me (I don't need no stinking instructions) 
You know why, the brain is not connected to the hand. I don't have time to read on screen notes, I'm pressing keys and clicking the mouse, lets go, show what you got. Doesn't work, what went wrong?
I have only had a few problems here and things like, "Did you uninstall the trial version before loading the full version" come to mind. Or how about, "Oh it doesn't work with my OS".
So, got any stories to tell?
Now to make this even more interesting, lets hear for you IT folks. That should make some interesting reading.
While we are at, I bet the support folks from Stardock can give some fine examples also.
Reply with whatever you wish, just keep in mind, no griping, whinning or can you change this. Also, no names, we don't want to make people go and hide or feel bad.
Just though of another example. A member was having problems with the mouse, just wasn't working right. Replies suggested that it might be the batteries that needed to be changed. Person replies back that they just couldn't find where to put the batteries. Then someone asked, does your mouse have a tail. Oops.
Lets have some fun here folks.
Reply #4 Friday, May 30, 2008 6:31 PM
Reply #5 Friday, May 30, 2008 7:13 PM
It took an hour on the phone to India to straighten the mess out.Reply #6 Friday, May 30, 2008 8:09 PM
"wtf? i dont remember installing this??'........DELETE........... LOL
i got her going again, with help........ i soon learnt quick to stop deleting things....
serious LOL at cupholder....omg!!!!!!!
Reply #7 Friday, May 30, 2008 8:16 PM
Her office had recently converted from mainframe to PCs.
So she calls and says she can't get her fish.
"Her fish?" Thinks I
Her fish.
So I talk with her for a bit and we finally go through these steps.
"Ma'am, is the 'TV thing' in front of you?"
"Yes"
"Is there a box with buttons on it next to the 'TV thing'?"
"Yes"
"Push the top button"
"Nothing's happening"
"Push the bottom button"
"Oh! It's making noise!" "The TV thing is turning on!"
"OK Ma'am. Everything should be working now"
It turns out that she had never turned off her PC and had never been trained how to tun it on. Every morning when she came in the screensaver would have activated and her 'fish' would be on the monitor. She'd hit the spacebar and start to work.
Reply #9 Saturday, May 31, 2008 11:27 AM
As he was walking away, I called after him, 'So, what was wrong? He replied, 'It was an ID ten T error.'
I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, 'An, ID ten T error? What's that? In case I need to fix it again.'
Eric grinned.... 'Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?'
'No,' I replied. 'Write it down,' he said, 'and I think you'll figure it out.'
So I wrote down:
I D 1 0 T
I used to like Eric.............
Got this today in my e-mail..Don't know if it's true,but it's still funny:
Reply #10 Saturday, May 31, 2008 11:40 AM
Reply #11 Sunday, June 1, 2008 11:50 AM
Anyway, a short time later my sister turned up and, after mum told her of the printer woes, that I couldn't get it running either, proceeded to try and fix it. Within moments there was uproarious laughter coming from the room where mum's PC was, and the next thing I knew was my sister was taking the mickey out of me big time...
"Durrr Freddy... so you really expected the printer to run with the power cord plugged into a screw hole??? Well I'll know who NOT to call when I need something simple done to mine...
hahahahahaaa.... power cord in a screw hole...hahahahaa...wait 'til I tell the kids about this one.... hahahahhhhaaa... power cord in a screw hole.... hahahahaaa... I might even put it in the local rag (newspaper).... hahahahhhaaaa!!!!!"
That was about 6 - 7 years ago, yet to this very day she still delights in telling everyone when computers come up in conversation. In fact, not long ago, she even went out of her way to tell Pat at my local PC store (Iwas already inside): "Just passing and saw your door open... didn't come to buy anything... but figured you just had to know about the time...
, leaving me standing there and feeling like a proper gooseOh, and she did find the power socket... it was underneath a protective plastic cover of the same colour and facing awkwardly from left to right instead of facing directly towards the back of the machine (completely different to the previous model), so it wouldn't have been obvious to someone who was short-sighted and unfamiliar with PC related gear
Reply #12 Monday, June 2, 2008 10:35 AM
The thing is, I had installed CPUs before and supposedly knew what I was doing. I had just started studying for my technician certification, too! Ha. Ha. Ha.
If anyone bends pins on a CPU, the best fix is a credit card and a stiff needle. The needle can separate pins that are mashed together or bent over too far, and the credit card straightens rows back. As long as you don't snap any pins off you can get them all straightened again with some patience, and the CPU should be perfectly fine after that. Man, was I ever relieved.
Here's to taking your damn sweet time when messing with sensitive equipment.
Reply #13 Monday, June 2, 2008 11:00 AM
Seems a good rule to follow, but we are always in a hurry for some reason.
Reply #14 Monday, June 2, 2008 7:13 PM
Sometimes its difficult to remember the obvious when troubleshooting tech problems. It isn't working and you run through either software, connections or other stuff only to usually find out they hadn't even done the obvious, plugged it in!
Reply #15 Tuesday, June 24, 2008 5:12 PM
i was 16. it was summer. so you may already have guessed i was bored. so was a good friend of mine. so we spent about 2 hrs putting together a little fake program using Apple HyperCard and loaded it only my Mom's computer.
it was harmless. just a simple little toy that would have only have scared her a little if I were present to fix it. but my friend and i were at his house.
this little tiny app did nothing but load at startup and flash on screen saying WARNING HARD DRIVE FAILURE in 30, 29 , 28. You get the idea. We thought it was SOOOO funny right until I had to come clean and was grounded for a week from my computer.
Good times...good times...
Reply #16 Tuesday, June 24, 2008 6:01 PM
Reply #17 Tuesday, June 24, 2008 8:49 PM
I don't think you must have read the topic correctly. Please don't derail a topic, simply start with a new post.
If you are getting that error message you must have a corrupted or incomplete download. Please uninstall, restart, reinstall to correct it.
Reply #18 Tuesday, June 24, 2008 9:21 PM
While many of the companies we deal with are large enough to have their own IT staff who can give me all the info I need quickly, some of the companies we deal with are very small; have no IT staff or support and know very little to almost nothing about computers or networks.
Upon talking to one lady after a few minutes, I realized that she didn't have a clue what I was talking about so I asked "Ma'am do you have a network?" ...
She replied .. Oh no, we have Netscape!
I think she was delighted to be able to answer at least one of my questions.
Reply #19 Monday, July 28, 2008 5:48 PM
In the beginning these were actual prepaid cards (with PINs and bar-codes) that were physically shipped to us. We'd scan them into our inventory system, and after selling them, we'd ship them to the stores. Later on, when we finally convinced the TELCOs that electronic format is the way of the future, they converted to sending us spreadsheets containing electronic PINs via e-mail. It was much easier, faster and cheaper this way for obvious reasons (no physical inventory, no shipping charges, etc.) It was great... Of course this meant that we'd have to deal with often computer-illiterate reps that were in charge of selling airtime to resellers like ourselves.
One time I'm loading an order we got from Verizon and notice that the amounts they sent us don't match what we ordered. Obviously the sales rep sent us someone else's order. It happens from time to time and usually isn't a big deal. What the provider usually has to do is deactivate the ePINs sent to the wrong address (to prevent them from being sold twice) and generate a new batch.
So I call them up and tell the rep (let's call her "Sarah") that she mixed up the orders. To this (after the "Oh sh*#!) she tells me to e-mail the file back to her immediately... You know, so that I won't have it anymore. At that point I decided not to argue. I just knew that there was no way I would've been able to keep a straight face while explaining to her how e-mail works. I e-mailed the file back to "Sarah" and spent the rest of the day making my co-workers laugh.
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Reply #1 Friday, May 30, 2008 3:10 PM
After about 3 months of fielding various questions such as "No matter what I do it won't turn off" (unplug it then!) I had to ask her to put a CD in to "reinstall" some program she messed up. She assured me that the CD was broken so I made the 45 minute drive to her house.
The computer was an HP with a CD storage bay on the top.......guess where she was trying to run the CD from.....sooooo I booted up the computer and pushed the drive button.....the little tray popped out and she said "well I thought that was a cup holder"