Computer Techs I need to get this out of my head. |
| I need to get this out of my head. Posted: 24 Oct 2018 05:22 AM PDT I think people think of computer technicians as annoying nerds until they need them to fix their computer. Many times I have thought this. People can't use computers, either. My social studies teachers computer shuts off. I was watching the screen at the time. We all were. It was connected to the projector. We were watching some YouTube video on George Washington when it shut off. She looks at the screen, then the computer, then back to the screen. She bends down, pushes the power button. The computer doesn't turn on. She presses the power button again. Still doesn't respond. "Reese?" She said. Under normal circumstances if the operating system crashed, it would have restarted, so I know it wasn't a BSOD. I first look to see if it's plugged in properly into the wall socket. It is, so I then look at the computer itself. The power cord is loose, but still in it far enough. I notice, though that it is dusty.When I grab the power cord, it makes a hissing sound, then sparks. I take the plug out, blow hard on the plug. I plug it back in. When it's in, it starts right up. She immediately sits in her chair and waits for the computer to finish booting. She's happy. She can't use a computer. When I'm not fixing her computer, I'm sure she thinks of me as just another annoying student. My grandmother had a cheap Toshiba sitting on a desk for a month before mentioning that it had a virus to me. She puts it in my hands expectantly. I plug it in, and boot it up. The Windows 7 symbol comes up, then the blue spinning circle. I wait, and notice the fans kick up high. I touch the bottom, and am surprised at how hot it is. I wait ten more minutes, the loading symbol still on the screen. I glance at the H.D.D light, and the light stays on the whole time. I push and hold the power button, wait for the laptop to shut off. I do this two more times, waiting for the Windows Recovery Environment to show. I go to the Command Prompt, and clean the disk. "Do you want me to Install 10, or 7?" I ask. It was when the free Windows 10 update came out, and she didn't take it yet. I don't get a response. I then use her other laptop to download an .ISO image of 10, put it on a USB stick, boot from it, and install. I hand her the laptop back to her. She puts it back on the desk, plugging it in. She's happy. I respect my grandmother, but she needs to be careful. She shops online all the time. My father sits in a LA-Z-Boy, on the phone with AT&T. He just got a router/modem combo, and the Wi-Fi connection plummets when a new device connects. Some devices can't even see the network, but that's because he chose a 5 GHz network, not a 2.4 GHz. I don't say anything as he yells at the Customer Representative. "What's your router, sir?" "I don't fucking know. It plugs into the wall, into AC 120 volts, and it's a router and a modem combo." I have to give this guy credit. He was hanging in pretty well. "Sir, look on the bottom of the router for a serial number." "You fucks don't understand. THERE IS NO SERIAL NUMBER." This goes on for about 15 more minutes, me trying not to say anything. There wasn't a serial number, but he should've known what model he was getting when he ordered online. All the stuff I've learned was from reading books. I never had the chance to put my skills to the test. My father never wants me to do this stuff. He never told me why. He said he had his reasoning, and I didn't need to know them. He's a mechanic, and I think he wants me to be like him. I know I'm never going to be anything like him. I remember someone saying he doesn't want me doing this stuff because he thinks I don't know what I'm talking about. I find this funny, because he doesn't know what I do and do not know. He and my step mother call either "Miniature Bill Gates" or just "Bill Gates". I totally respect Bill. He's like a brother. He helped make PCs what they are today. I remember studying for a CompTIA A+ certification a year ago, even though I was 12. Still, now, as I'm 13, I'm still studying. I thought it'd be important to at least study. I plan on getting certified when I'm 18, even though you could be any age. People just see people like me as just a keyboard-typing, socially awkward person. Calling me a loser because I sit on my computer all the time. But how funny how they come to me when they need me. I used to pull a lot of stuff in 8th grade. The school put a bunch of Dell Optiplex 780's in the classrooms. I have to say, they were pretty reliable, seeing how they were in the grubby hands of 12-13 year-olds. Anyways, I had some spare HDD's, and I brought one to school. Put it in, set it as a second boot device, and tried to put WIndows 10 on it. But the CIC looked this over, and put an admin and supervisor password in the BIOS. I looked at the motherboard, looking for the CMOS reset jumper. Cleared the BIOS, went ahead in my installation.Now, when I wanted to be free from the school's domain, just went into the boot choice menu, and booted into the HDD. Now, if you asked a kid how to do this, he wouldn't know what to say. I've met kids like this. They say they know how to fix a computer, but ask them a simple question, something like how to reinstall Windows, or list things that a UEFI can do that a BIOS can't do. I find it funny. I like to think I can fend for myself in a Technology Center. I'd know if someone was trying to scam me. I guess it all started with a cheap eMachines. It had a 2.6 GHz Quad Core processor, with two gigabytes of RAM. It originally ran Windows 7. But when the free Windows 10 update came, I didn't think it would handle it too well. As it was, it was paging terribly. I put 400$ into it. Put in a 500GB SSD into it, 8 gigabytes of RAM. Left the CPU because I didn't think it was worth it. My mother knows nothing about technology. She thinks she's some cool cat because she knows how to go on Facebook on her phone. I remember we had just gotten a Roku stick for Christmas. I had been hoping she'd have my two step sisters set it up to the TV. No such luck. She presses it into my my hands and tells me to set it up. I took one look at it, then told her the other two HDMI ports on our TV was broken. She just waves me away. I laugh, then plug it into one of the broken HDMI ports. She waits for something to show up on the screen. When nothing shows up, she tells me to do something. I unplug the third HDMI, plug the Roku into it, and the OOBE screen shows up. I then take care of the Roku box. As I do this, I hear my stepmother click around with the cable box remote. She sighs, frustrated. I ask her what remote she's using, trying to give her a hint she's using the wrong remote. She tells me "the TV remote". I pick up the Roku remote, and put into her hands. She glares at me, then continues to click around with the Roku remote. As she's doing this, Im leaning down to pick up the remote batteries. She tells me the remote is broken. I turn around, and give her the batteries. An old friend brings in an HP 2000 Notebook (Intel Celeron series). He said his mother forgot the password. I take it from him, and boot it up. Immediately I hear a loud snapping sound, then a message comes on the screen. The fan was having a problem spinning. I shut it down, flip it over. I see a white dot sticking in the fan vents. I peel it away to show a thumbtack. I take it out, and go on ahead with breaking into Windows 7. This may reveal how old I am. At this point, I don't care. I just can't get these words out of my head. [link] [comments]  |
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