No, the CPU was not stolen... Tech Support |
- No, the CPU was not stolen...
- "What do you mean you don't know everything that concerns my own job?"
- I just bought teams, now what?
- A Tail of Two Mice
- A little traveling music please
- Sometimes It Works (Never)
- You Don't Need To Know
| Posted: 02 Dec 2021 10:12 AM PST I just wish users who have to use a computer every day got some basic training... I work remote IT for a medical facility which is a very high paced environment and it can be rough some days but generally, after I ask a few questions I can do the troubleshooting I need to fix the issue, if not I can send the case to a team onsite to get the issue resolved. I got a call today that started out like this, ----Sf (me) C (caller) R (som random person)---- SF: "Thank you for calling how can I assist you today?" C: The CPU was stolen! *As a note, stealing a CPU for one of these computers requires a lot of time and a lot of work because most of the computers in this location are locked in a cage.* SF: alright, do you see any dented metal or screws lying on the floor? C: No why would that stuff be there SF: Well if a CPU was stolen they we need to unscrew the cage, case, fan mount, and potentially cpu mount C: Well the HDD is saying it's corrupted SF: Okay so is the CPU intact? C: No, I'm telling you that the HDD is corrupted, do you even work with computers? SF: Uh...okay, can you read off the error that the HDD is giving you? C: "Entering power sleep mode" and i can't get it to show anything else *Ya, so the CPU being stolen, I have no idea what that means, this "HDD" Error just means the computer isn't getting a video signal...so I document what actually is going on and get back to the call* C: Okay so from the sounds of the error on the screen it may be that the cable is loose or bad, could you please check the cables for me? C: pfft, no the cpu was stolen and I already checked the cables SF: Could you try turning the computer on for me to check to see if any lights pop up? C: No I'm telling you... There's a bit of a scuffle and some random worker comes on R: The CPU was stolen and we need a tech up here to fix it *I try to do the same troubleshooting steps to maybe hopefully get a lock that it is an issue with a cable or it's not plugged in but...* R: Look here I know more about computers than you do and when I say that the CPU was stolen I know it, and on top of that our HDD is saying it's corrupt! I mute myself, sigh and smack my head. SF: Okay, Ill send a tech over to take a look at it. R: There, was that so hard!? *Click* Sometimes the only way to win is to lose, I checked back on the case a little bit ago and saw the solution the techs gave -Went to site, turned on computer- [link] [comments] |
| "What do you mean you don't know everything that concerns my own job?" Posted: 02 Dec 2021 06:03 AM PST Here's another rant I need to get off my chest as it happened to me yesterday, yet again. I work at a big company, with multiple departments, and 10 times as many employees. We provide technical support for all of them, yet most of the time I struggle trying to figure out what exactly they need help with. Reports: there are thousands generated every hour, every day, every week. Client reports, status reports, daily reports, weekly reports, quarterly reports, etc. We have many systems that generate the reports, and many ways we can generate them: it can be a simple scheduled data source which spits out into a CSV the contents of a SQL query; it can be an actual report that was designed with a template and on regular basis gets the figures updated with the latest data; it can be a web panel export in Excel that is emailed to whoever the user wants because they can set those up themselves. Then there are Excel spreadsheets every team uses that can pull data via a SQL connection or a third party add-in. Also, we have email notifications in HTML forms that have nice tables and graphics in them. I call them what they are: scheduled data sources, panel exports, spreadsheets, etc. so I can keep track of which system generates them and how. For the users, however, they're just "reports". So yesterday, a user reaches out via Teams: $user: Hey, I need help with the $GenericName report. $me: What $GenericName report? Can you be a bit more specific? $user: the [Department X] $GenericName report. $me: I'm going to need more than that. Is this a report generated by $SystemA or by $SystemB? Is it an Excel file or a PDF? Do you get it via email or do you consult it via $WebPortal? $user: it's the afternoon $GenericName report that is sent to [Department Y]. $me:...... I still don't know what you're talking about. $user sends me a path on one of the shared drives where analysts save all their documents. $user: it's this $GenericName report. $me: (finally getting somewhere) Ah! I see... Yeah, this isn't a report any of our systems generate. This is manually created by analysts, you need to ask whoever owns this to help you. $user: Ok, thanks. Sometimes I wonder how small people think our company is. Or maybe users think the world revolves around them and fail to realize there are other departments that deal with other shit, and I cannot know every single aspect of everyone's roles. [link] [comments] |
| I just bought teams, now what? Posted: 02 Dec 2021 05:44 PM PST Literally just got a call from a client of mine - 60 user environment on AYCE. The call came from an older gentlemen who I assigned the honorary title of "tech liaison". His job title is Transportation manager. We awarded him tech liaison because he knew how to change the toner on every printer and he is the most calm when we work with them remotely. Them: Hey amazingJ, I just bought Teams licenses for the office and it wanted me to set it up to the domain and I wasn't sure what to put in because it wouldn't take our domain name so I made up something and put it in, now it wants me to verify my domain and I think I need your help. Me: Wait, what? You bought Teams? You do remember that your Microsoft account is through me right? Them: Yeah but I emailed you this afternoon and you didn't respond so I figured you guys don't do Teams. Looking back at me email. Email from 1 PM - Hey Amazing, What do you think of Teams. I want to use it for our office because Zoom is not cutting it. I take a moment and think "I should have finished college" Me: We handle everything technical for your company especially Microsoft stuff. Them: I know, but I just bought 60 licenses and paid for a year upfront. I am stuck at this point now and I don't know what I should do. Me: You should do what you just did, call me. In fact you should have done that before you purchased anything. Them: Oh Please note they have been clients for YEARS. Me: I am happy to role out Teams for you, I can push the software to the computers this weekend but it is going to take me some time to get the backend set up and working with your systems. Then we need to plan how you want it laid out and what apps you need / want running in it. Finally we need to scheduled training or you are wasting your time, people will keep using Zoom and teams only works if everybody uses it. Them: I guess I am in over my head Me: Yep, I got it from here, but it is going to take a week or two. Them: Ok next question ....... Do you know how to get a refund from microsoft because I put it on my personal card. TL;DR - One of the transport managers who has a very basic understanding of how computers work figured he would purchase Teams for his entire company and set it up by himself because I didn't respond to a rather laid back email in a few hours. It didn't go well. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Dec 2021 11:05 AM PST It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness... I receive a call from a user who was referred to me, stating he was having difficulty signing into his laptop. He was unable to click the submit button. I walk him through a few things, restarting, etc but I could tell I wasn't getting anywhere over the phone. I go to see him and observe his attempt to log in. The gentleman types in his password. No num lock or caps lock issues. I watch... He grabs his wireless USB mouse and gracefully places it on the laptop touchpad and starts twirling it around as if it was the mousepad! I advise the gentleman that he should try using his mouse on a flat surface, like a desk or a table, and he may find it easier to click the button to sign in. The ticket resolution: "Difficulty signing in caused by interference from two input devices. Relocated mouse to flat surface." [link] [comments] |
| A little traveling music please Posted: 02 Dec 2021 07:38 AM PST This was from the early days at my current place of work. I was riding the helpdesk and an email came in from a site about 30 minutes away, strange beeping coming from the comms closet (actually a stack of network hardware and a UPS underneath a staircase). They included a picture. So beeping means UPS issues. I looked at the picture and did a little zoom and enhance (okay just zoom) on the UPS display. 47 minutes remaining on battery and the picture was taken 15 minutes ago. I'm in my car within minutes, calling the boss and telling him I'm going to go prevent a site outage. Got there with maybe 8 minutes to spare by driving like I usually do, which I do not recommend. Plug a lamp into the same outlet as the UPS, no current. Nor does any nearby outlet provide current. I had to run a 50' extension cord (yes, I know that's not good) to the UPS to get it powered back up. Checked the breakers, they were all on. The circuit was just dead. Let the UPS charge up a bit and found a shorter run to an outlet everyone forgot existed, had the site manager call an electrician and managed to get things working with zero downtime. Sure I probably could have diagnosed it over the phone and gotten it working, but if that didn't work quickly they'd have gone down completely while I was on the road. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Dec 2021 11:19 AM PST Been awhile since I've shared a story here but this just happened and I've got the time so.... I receive a text from a gentleman (to be known as Cus) who tells me the following: Me: What's the issue with the machine? Cus: It has recently stopped turning on. It sometimes turns on without the ram sticks but other times not. Me: Ok, sure, bring it on by. Cus arrives and sets his new build on my table. I pull the side panels off and start looking it over---checking all the cables, making sure everything is seated properly, while plugging in my keyboard, display and power cable. I'm in the middle of saying "Well everything looks to be assembled correctly," when I see them. You know those big, tapered hard drive screws used to mount 3.5" hard drives into hard drive trays? Cus has used those to mount his motherboard to the case. I remark that he has used the wrong screws, and look closer as the corner of his motherboard appears to literally be bending and touching the case. It is. All the corners are. There are no standoffs underneath this motherboard except for the center notched standoff that doesn't require a screw. I stop and unplug everything and tell him I can't turn it on as it is, and that the board has to be removed and either remounted properly or breadboard it to test it and make sure it's not toast. Cus: It didn't come with standoffs. Me: Typically the standoffs are already installed, and extras come in a little cardboard box tucked in the hard drive caddy of the new case. Cus: There weren't any. I would've noticed. Me: Well, I'm happy to go further and test it out and do the work, mount it properly if everything is working properly and hasn't been shorted out. Cus: Nah, I should be able to do this. It's just some standoffs. Right now I'm thinking yes, you should be able to do this, but you didn't do it the first time, and not only that....you've insisted there are no standoff screws available, they didn't come preinstalled and that there were none in the case so....how are you going to achieve this!? Me: Is this your first build? Cus: It's my first build.....recently......in about 20 years. Me: Ok, well, good luck! As a side note---I see this A LOT. Typically not this bad, but it's always a variation of this. What I usually end up seeing are the wrong screws used to mount the mobo that over time vibrate loose and dance across the motherboard shorting things out along the way. First time I've seen HDD screws used to mount the board snug to the case, though. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 02 Dec 2021 06:13 PM PST Some background: I spent some years on IBM mainframes as the BOFH before progressing to the next logical step of automating all those menial, boring tasks and spending more quality time watching funny pictures of cats. A long time ago, years before the internet became popular, I was approached by a Network Support Guy (NSG) asking for my help on a project. Now, the organisation I worked for was super secretive, so everything was on a "need-to-know" basis. In this case, the Project Manager (PM) was the only person who needed to know the end-to-end setup. This is important for later. There were about 25 offices up and down the UK, with local PCs running our propriety software. This software had to be updated regularly, so the plan was to write and test the update at HQ, then electronically deliver the new software to the offices. The developers would upload the software to the mainframe then issue a message including the new filename. My task was to intercept this message, capture the filename, pull a batch job into the scheduler and edit it with the filename. Repeat for each office. Each job would create a process in our network data mover (NDM) to send the file to that office. So Network Support Guy set up the SNA links to the 25 offices, Batch Support Guy set up the jobs and I rattled off a few scripts, then we got permission for the live test. Unusually for me, this worked a treat and every transmission was a success. Job done, right? PM: Not quite. See, the location where the software runs is different from the location where we deliver it. NSG: Ok, so we write a step into the NDM process to copy the file from the network directory to the working directory. PM: Er, no, they're on different PCs. NSG: Oh, I see...ok, we write a step to issue an alert on the network PC, then the user can copy the file to a floppy disk and use that to update the other PCs. PM: That won't work either. The staff kept putting their own games on the network PC, or changing the password then going on holiday, so it's now kept in a locked room. NSG: So how do you plan to let them know the new software update has arrived? Developer: We could send them a fax (I told you this was a long time ago). PM: Nope, a fax can sit unread for days or get tossed out. What we'll do is send them a letter by recorded delivery; they can't ignore that. Me [sticks hand up]: Here's a mad idea, shoot it down if it's too crazy. Why not stick the disk with the software update in the same envelope as the letter? Project abandoned. TL;DR spent weeks developing an electronic software delivery plan when snail mail was right there. Edited for formatting. [link] [comments] |
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