Let's perform a system update in an airport Tech Support |
- Let's perform a system update in an airport
- An angry professor and his coffee-damaged laptop gave me enlightenment (and laughs)
- "We’re going to test the Hydrazine"
- Please bring your computer.
- Don't Troubleshoot It, Just Fix It
- doubles trouble
- Computer gnomes
- I know you're busy (as a designer), but...
- What do you mean it’s all gone?
- We love printing issues, even better when the user delays the submission of the workorder
- Funny Story about Elderly Clients
| Let's perform a system update in an airport Posted: 03 May 2018 11:02 PM PDT Had a customer bring in an Apple laptop today. They had been putting off updating their OS to High Sierra for a few months and they were waiting at the airport to get on a flight. So they decided to download and install the update over the airport's free WiFi. With that news all the staff who overheard gave a collective wince. Full system updates are a delicate task at the best of times, but downloading it over a free airport hotspot... not a good idea. The update had apparently downloaded fine and the system had restarted to apply the update. The amount of time they must have spent downloading a 2-3GB update must have been a long layover, but if it downloaded fine, there might have been hope. But then they got the call for their flight and instead of closing the unit and putting into sleep, which may have been ok, they powered it off with the power button. Now that would be bad at the best of times, however the latest macOS has a new file system for flash storage, of which all current laptops have. Updating to that new OS means that the whole partition has to be converted from the previous file system to the new one. This apparently happens at the same time as the new system files are written as well, which is why the laptop fails to boot after updating 1 in 10 even at the best of times. After explaining why each of her decisions probably wasn't the best choice. Thankfully she was happy enough to book it in so we can take a look at whether any information is going to be recoverable, then fix the thing. Unfortunately half failed updates need reformatting the partition if it's caught halfway in one file system and half in the other, so I'm not looking forward to the results. [link] [comments]  |
| An angry professor and his coffee-damaged laptop gave me enlightenment (and laughs) Posted: 03 May 2018 06:15 AM PDT Me: The green and keen PFY (jr. sysadmin/support person) in the Computer Science dept. at a large state university, a couple decades ago. My first real job! Prof: The one rude and surly professor in a department otherwise full of wonderful people. Ph. D. in computer science, but known for printing out his emails before reading them. Had two moods: yelling, and yelling loudly. Boss: Sr. sysadmin, my boss, and effortless genius at solving bureaucratic and people problems. Unflappably polite, but also didn't take crap from Prof. Scene: The CS lab. I was hard at work on something or other when Prof burst in. (He never just entered quietly. He always burst in without any pleasantries and left with a <SLAM> of the door.) Boss was respectful to Prof, but didn't take crap from him. So naturally when Prof wanted to yell and badger at someone, I, being the PFY, was an easier target. This particular incident occurred about a week after he had used some grant money to buy the fanciest, most expensive laptop anyone in the department had ever seen, which he used for the arduous tasks of running notepad and printing emails.
I wasn't super worried. Boss knew this guy. And how often his printed-out emails had coffee stains on them. I looked closer and, before thinking, blurted out -
Prof finds Boss, calls him over, and angrily escalates to Boss in my presence.
Boss lets him dig the hole nice and deep.
Exit prof. Now I am a green and keen PFY. What would Lassie do now?
Boss gets a sly smile.
Boss's smile deepens.
And so begins my enlightenment. Off goes the laptop. Prof stops by every day for the next week or two, asking if the laptop's back, if we've heard anything, etc. I'm sure the pain of having to print his email from a mere average computer was really getting to him. Finally we get a package back from Gateway. I was about to open it, but boss says no. He calls up Prof to tell him his laptop is back. Prof, of course, rushes over immediately.
Prof almost looks excited as he opens the box. There's the laptop, with a repair order on top, reading:
It also, to add Prof stood there staring. He literally got red in the face. He yelled some more. Loudly. Boss and I just sat there, trying hard not to grin too obviously. Finally:
Prof then looked at each of us intently, in an almost threatening manner.
[link] [comments]  |
| "We’re going to test the Hydrazine" Posted: 03 May 2018 04:02 PM PDT Years ago I was working as an IT contractor doing desk side support for a large jet fighter manufacturer and one of my assigned areas was the outlying hangars. Had an issue that I couldn't resolve remotely so I grabbed a golf cart and headed out. This particular computer was the only one against the wall out in the hangar itself, while there were two or three others inside a small attached office. Got to work on the system and by the time I was sure I was only a few minutes away from a fix, the crew had begun preparing to run an engine test on a new jet that was about 12 feet / 3.5 meters or so behind me. I could hear them getting busy so I started to hurry. I knew that thing was going to be loud! Engine fired up but I pressed on. As it got louder I eventually ended up squeezing my right ear into my shoulder so I could still use my right hand while pressing my left palm against my left ear. It was deafening and I'm sure I looked ridiculous. Before it started, I could see the entire crew had moved into the attached office wearing their ear protection and by the time it was at full volume, they were even pressing the earmuffs against their heads it was so loud. During the first lull, a crew member took pity on me and brought me some hearing protection which I greatly appreciated. The engine eventually powered down and I pulled off my earmuffs and tried to wrap up. A minute or two later, the nice guy who loaned me the ear protection walked up and said, "Here in a minute, we're going to test the Hydrazine". Being an IT guy and not knowing the first thing about aircraft, I came back with, "Oh great. So how loud is that going to be?" He replied, "If you're sitting here when we do that, it'll kill you." Can't imagine the look I had on my face but I told him that the machine wasn't fixed yet but I'd be back to take care of it later. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 May 2018 02:13 AM PDT So, this happened yesterday, and I'm kind of shocked that it happened at all since our users normal can follow guides and simple instructions that we send them. Most of our users are competent. But some are slagging.
Me - Technician with Cherry keys stuck in his head. CU - Clueless user
At this point I'm having issues remoting into the computer. Happens sometimes when users are not at the office.
We are located in a open office environment with other departments. we are not allowed to sit in our IT room in the basement because we need to be "Visible". Sigh...
Headdesk That is when i found out that I'm not protected from incompetent users.
I have not seen the user yet, but i hope that she brings her company laptop and not her own when she decides to show up. Dealing with internal users is at least better than customers. but i sometimes wonder how the life of a user like this is? Is every day a grand new adventure? [link] [comments]  |
| Don't Troubleshoot It, Just Fix It Posted: 03 May 2018 11:03 AM PDT Tech: Thank you for calling XYZ Help Desk get initial information; user has an existing case that was escalated to a team that handles the in-house program she's having a problem with User: When will they call me? Tech: No ETA - they will get to you as soon as possible. User: Look, I know there's some rudimentary troubleshooting you guys have to do. I don't want to do any of that. I just want the problem fixed, and I want it fixed now. Tech: I've noted your case - you want to skip all troubleshooting and just have the problem fixed. Was there anything else I can help you with? User: Why do you have to do those basic troubleshootings anyway? They just waste time. You guys should just fix the problem first. Tech: Noted - was there anything else I can do for you. User: When will they call me? Tech: I don't know - I'll send them a reminder as soon as we're off the phone. User: Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 May 2018 01:51 PM PDT So, in its heyday, Singer made a lot of machines. A LOT a lot. They issued serial numbers in batch lots of 10,000-15,000~, every six weeks. There were frequently only a few models in production at any one time, especially in the early days, and some of those models stayed in production for decades. The decal sets changed over the years, but the mechanics are identical (except in a few models where they added a reverse) from beginning to end. That means it's not unusual for me to have two or more of the same machine in at once. I'm anal about paperwork, and that includes the check-in tags; there's space for name/contact info, make/model/serial number, plus intake notes. My tags are numbered; the claim check goes with the customer, second tear-off tag goes on the case or table if they brought one, name/model number/tag number goes on the parts bin, and the main tag stays with the machine head. I have never, in the years I've been doing this, gotten machines mixed up and given the wrong machine to the wrong person. But Mr Ellison sure thought I had. I currently have four Singer 66s in the shop-two are mine, two belong to customers. Two of those-one mine, one a customer's-have red eye decals. The other two have variations of plain gold decals-similar to, but different from each other. Last week I had five; those four, plus Mr Ellison's, which also had yet another similar-but-different plain gold decal set. This all started several weeks ago, when Mr Ellison brought in an absolutely filthy 66. It had apparently been sitting in his garage, for "at least" 40 years, without a case. Dirty doesn't begin to describe it. But it was in pretty good condition under the grime, and he wanted to give it to his daughter in good working order, so I checked it in for a full refurbishing. Part of this process is cleaning up the finish as best I can. Singer used varnish over the decals, so sometimes there's just not a lot I can do, (although if you're adventurous, there are ways) but often, a good cleaning does a world of good. Once I'd gotten most of the dirt off, I oiled the hell out of the finish. Pour it on, let it soak, hit the ugly spots gently with a toothbrush, wipe off, repeat. The end result is a clean, shiny, bright black and gold sewing machine. It began innocuously enough. Mr Ellison came to pick up his machine and said, "Wow! Are you sure that's mine?" laughs "It doesn't look anything like the one I brought in!" I assured him that it was indeed his, gave him a brief rundown of my tag tracking, explained the cleaning process, and continued on. He paid me, left, then called me the next day. "Are you sure this is mine?" Yes, Mr Ellison, I'm sure. He had the tear-off carbon copy receipt from the tag (I keep the other half), so I read him the serial number on my half (which matched his half) and encouraged him to go ahead and double check with the machine. He said he would. What he did was spend the weekend stewing about it. When I came up to the shop Monday afternoon, he was waiting for me, his machine on he floor by the door. "Now, I'm not accusing you of anything-mistakes do just happen. But I think you made one, and you gave me the wrong machine back. I'd like to get it straightened out." In the end, I had to line up all five machines on the triage table and go over them, one by one, serial number by serial number, my half of the tag-with his signature on it!-to prove that the machine he took home was the machine he brought in. He still clearly only half believed me. "Are there more than one set of numbers on the machines you could have gotten mixed up?" No, Mr Ellison, it's not like a VIN on a car, where the numbers are everywhere. That one brass plate is it. "Well, if you say so. It sure doesn't look like mine, but I can't figure out how it can't be after all this. I guess maybe it was dirtier than I thought. I just knew it was black and gold." He did finally take his machine back home. But I'd bet he still doesn't believe it's really his. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 May 2018 07:08 AM PDT My wife went into labor last weekend to deliver our firstborn. It wasn't a fun experience, but not an awful one either. After the duty nurse confirmed that the day had indeed arrived, we were moved from the observation room to one of the delivery rooms along with a pair of nurses who were assigned to look after mom and the baby (and dad too!). The new room had a workstation that had an issue. It did not want to wake from sleep or had locked up. Fans on, but no input response, no activity LED, no keyboard indicators or mouse optics, just the power led. The nurses pressed some buttons, gave up and left to get a spare. My wife was pretty much exhausted from the contractions and out of it. I was now left alone with a piece of equipment that was interfering with my wife's care, so as a technical support professional decided to take matters into my own hand. A quick diagnosis showed I was right and the usual remedies did not appear to work. I forced an unexpected reboot by removing the power lead, waited 10 seconds, then reinserted. The machine booted and proceeded to load as normal. I took my seat by my wife again. When the nurses returned they were a bit befuddled at the now functioning machine. They asked me what happened. "It came on right about when you came back. Must be computer gnomes". Mom and baby are healthy! [link] [comments]  |
| I know you're busy (as a designer), but... Posted: 03 May 2018 12:41 PM PDT I used to work customer facing, level 1 and 2 internet, TV, and phone support. So I'm not some network guru, but I know my way around a computer and I'm a blackbelt in Google-Fu. I got sick of that life, got a degree in graphic design, and now I'm a designer. I work for a fairly low-key company. We have computers, a big switch, a hardware firewall and a business class internet connection. No IT person. We kind of just self manage our own computers, which is great for me. I don't have to ask to install VNC so I can remote in from home, I just do. I have Steam installed for the slow days. It's nice... at times. People at work have caught on that I'm "good at computers." So now I'm defacto IT. I accept it. That is, until my primary job gets busy. Today, a chicken-pecker walked up to me. He knows I'm busy. I've been running around talking to clients and vendors and I'm sitting at my large format printer prepping files for print. I have bags under my eyes, my hair is frizzled, I haven't had lunch. He starts in, "I know you're busy..." I should have shut him down there. "... but my (desktop) printer isn't working right. Can you come uninstall and reinstall?" I know the irony in my next statement, because I'm sitting at my Cannon, 8'x10' printer. "Dude... I hate printers..." I really do. Printers and I don't get along. "Can you ask Lady?" Lady is the other "ok at computers" employee. She set him up in the first place. "Well... the black isn't working right." I tell right then, "Oh. It's not a software issue. It's a printer issue. You need new ink, or to clean the print heads, or it's broken." Nevermind that printers come broken by default... It's all a racket. He then starts in with all that he's done and why he thinks I'm wrong. I'm now getting flashbacks from when I was a back on the phones being accused of lying, as if it would benefit me in some way. I eventually got him to go see Lady, but I was real close to going on a tirade on him. Why do they ask for help if they don't like the answers? e: somewords [link] [comments]  |
| What do you mean it’s all gone? Posted: 04 May 2018 04:05 AM PDT A quick story from my father years ago. He had just got done installing $proprietarysoftware that ran off of a server/dumb terminal setup at a hospital. So my dad gets the terminals up, users are starting to test, then suddenly everything goes wiggly then dead. Turns out that 3 floors down they were having the opening ceremony for this brand new thing called an MRI scanner. MRI's and their interaction with tech hadn't been fully studied by the hospital when they had done the install so the room wasn't properly shielded. I think it was a year before they could use the machine. The MRI managed to wipe or damage all of the drives (those big washing-machine units of years past) as well as smoke half of the terminals. The hospital management was at least sheepish about the whole event and did pay for a reinstall. [link] [comments]  |
| We love printing issues, even better when the user delays the submission of the workorder Posted: 03 May 2018 07:30 AM PDT Just yesterday I received a ticket that a user couldn't print PO's in batches, only one at a time. Huh that's weird, no other users are calling at all either. No updates have been made by our software vendor for that part of the system recently. Nothing wrong with the printer queue for that system. I finally go down to the user's desk (there was celebration cake available in that area so I didn't do it remotely). She showed me how she is printing it (types in the date and PO#) and everything looks fine. When she hits print though nothing happens instead of the normal print preview being shown. It was then that she hit me with the good old "Yeah, this actually hasn't been working for a couple of months but I just never reported it. I figured I should report it now since we're getting busier." Sweet, so this workorder went from new minor inconvenience to an older issue that could slow work down now. I get my piece of cake (chocolate with white frosting, edge piece because I love frosting) and go back to my desk to investigate. I go into the database to confirm that she did actually create the PO's. I look in the folder where a copy of the print jobs are usually stored, nothing. I look at the user's session log and see that no records are being selected at all so of course nothing is going to print. Finally I resort to going into the system log to get the actual query that is being run and convert it to SQL so I can poll the database directly. Yup, still no records. Well at least I know what the problem is and I didn't have to dig into the code to figure out what is happening this time. In the end I finally figured out that she needs to use the date from the actual PO and not the date she created the PO. She was creating PO's for the next fiscal year so of course typing in today's date was never going to yield any records. She does this sort of work every day of the year. I suppose she probably usually creates PO's with that day's date and prints them out the same day most of the time but surely printing out a PO in advance isn't THAT unusual! Oh well, at least I got cake. (If you're curious, the celebration was because the VP who is above both accounting and IT just received her doctorate degree.) [link] [comments]  |
| Funny Story about Elderly Clients Posted: 03 May 2018 08:47 AM PDT Yesterday, I had this lady call my office about not being able to get into our website, that someone had changed her password. Her: "I've had the same password for 4 years, and I don't know why it's not letting me in. I didn't change it, so I want to know who did!" Me: "Ok, well sometimes our website wants you to change your password for security reasons." Her: "I don't care, I'm not changing it." Me: "Ok, well let me look into why it's asking you to change it. What is your log in?" She tells me her log in, and I can log onto her account, so I send it to our website host people to see if there is a way for me to override her having to change her password. They say that it isn't prompting her to change it. He also says that she changed her password in March, and it's the same password she gave me. This is always the part that I dread about my job because I hate trying to give elderly people instructions about clearing their browser cache/history, because they always hit the "remember me box" and then change their password and their computers remember their old passwords. So I call her back and get her voicemail, so I assume she's coming to me now to complain. Sure enough in about an hour she's at my office. Me: "I can log in as you with your username and password." Her: "Well I can't even get to the picture on my screen." She's talking about her screen saver. Her: "I need you to stop telling me to update to Microsoft 10. I just bought a new computer because my other one was broken and kept telling me to update, and I don't want to update. Now when I try to get in my computer it tells me my email needs to be verified, and it's broken, it should just let me in. Why did you change my password?" I explain to her that the problem is with her computer and Microsoft, that I'm not Microsoft, and she will need to log into her email to verify it and then she will be able to sign into her computer. Her: "I don't know my password to my email." I ended up writing down a bunch of support numbers for her to call, and told her she could get a Best Buy person to come to her house for computer assistance. [link] [comments]  |
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