Brown Pants Moment at the Gym Tech Support |
- Brown Pants Moment at the Gym
- A user informed me the other day that he was having trouble making it to the Windows log in page
- Help! My password reset locked me out (of an unrelated system)! No, I won't stay on the phone, just fix it!
- "My graphics card is over heating" you don't say?!
- My passwords not working, but I’m not gonna listen to you when you suggest waiting for it to reset.
- Computer went BOOM
- I don't need a ticket, I need a mouse
- The most awkward onsite service call I ever made.
- A rapid descent into NOC hell...
| Posted: 22 Feb 2022 08:55 AM PST This is my first post here, and I want to preface this by saying I am in NO WAY a professional at IT. I know just enough to troubleshoot some basic issues. Also on mobile so please excuse the formatting. This took place maybe 8 years ago. For a little backstory, I used to do men's gymnastics (relevant so bear with me) and in addition, I was also unofficially responsible for implementing patches on the mats, (small children would love to pick at stitching, that and general wear and tear from use). I ended up getting an injury that meant I couldn't really do much, so I helped my coach out around the gym even more. I did things like greasing the bearings in the adjustable bars, cleaned out air filters, and could help point to where a problem might lie in electronics. One night after practice, my coach asked if I could look at the gym's computer as it was being slow. I immediately agreed as my coach was a second father to me, and also made sure he understood that I would do what I could, but I was not a professional. I knew just enough to know when I was out of my depth. My coach gave me the go ahead so I first asked for a list of every task that computer was used for. After installing some freeware to clean up some space, I also turned off a few of the advanced graphics settings as they weren't needed. After finishing, I told my coach I had done what I could, and he thanked me and I went home. A day or so later, I get a phone call from my coach. Here's the relevant parts of that call: Coach: "What did you do to my computer!?" This statement was followed by the longest 3 seconds of my entire life. I was immediately worried I had somehow ruined it. And this call came when I had not had the fortune to be wearing brown pants! Coach: "It runs so much better now, thank you!" Me: Don't scare me like that! I about had a heart attack thinking I had broke the PC! I only did some minor cleanup and turned down the graphics settings since you didn't need them. TL;DR: Gym's computer is running poorly, get offered to take a look, do some light clean up and lower graphics settings. Get called a day later and initially fear that I ruined the gym's computer. [link] [comments] |
| A user informed me the other day that he was having trouble making it to the Windows log in page Posted: 22 Feb 2022 02:16 PM PST In the ticket, it mentioned some boot Mgr error which seemed legit. I went over to investigate and thankfully the dude was actually in his office. Because of covid posture it's kind of a nightmare sometimes to get a hold of people. So he fires up the PC, and we get to the circling dots below the Windows logo during boot up. I ask him if this is the furthest he's ever made it during the boot and he says yes. A couple seconds later and the PC survives until the log in screen. Dude swore the thing wasn't working. He even threw out a piece of paper that he fished out of the trash to show me the exact error message. I believed him, so he's like let's turn it off and on again to see if it'll fail this time. While this is happening, my day one apprentice grabbed the dudes Rubik's cube and just starts going to town. I timed him, he solved the thing in 30 seconds, just as the PC made it to the log in screen a second time. Both of us were kinda baffled but I just said, "Dude, I'm sorry we couldn't fix your computer, but at least we solved your Rubik's cube." [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2022 06:15 PM PST I manage a system for about 400 users, and every three months for compliance purposes we have to force password resets. We have detailed instructions, complete with pictures, that we send out to every single user the day of the password reset, then do the reset in the late afternoon. We have had the exact same password reset procedure for about two years now, so this isn't anything new. Thankfully I have not had to deal directly with users in a while, but I interact daily with the people who do, and we're sharing a Teams space where we bitch about work all day to each other, so I got to watch this from a nice safe distance. We reset passwords on Friday evening. Yesterday Ms. Difficult called, and I knew it was going to be a treat to deal with her. For some background, Ms. Difficult seems to know a GREAT DEAL about a lot of her job. She's great with customers, great with actual legally required knowledge for this field. To say she's not great with tech is an insult to people who say they're not great with tech and make an effort. Until I transitioned away from a user-facing job, I was her go-to for EVERY issue, especially ones that weren't part of my department. I'd reiterate that it wasn't my department and tell her who to reach out to, but she always came back to me. She always calls, never responds to emails, and works remotely from everyone else in her management structure. By the time that group hired a new manager, I had a spreadsheet of phone call logs that I made, including detailed notes about what the call was about, how long it was, and the resolution, which always ended up leading into another call later. I was on the phone or working issues for this woman five hours a week. One user. It did get a bit better when the manager came on, but this woman still can't handle technology at all. On to yesterday. I knew Ms. Difficult would be difficult and warn my team on our morning call. I told them all the exact issues I've worked with her on password resets in the past. Ms. Difficult predictably calls in and one of the newer folks answers. Lana (not her real name) may be new, but she is On It and is working her ass off to know her shit. She's good, and takes no shit from anyone. She tells Ms. Difficult to open the procedures we send out every time and walk through her with it. Ms. Difficult insists she's done this and can't find a code verification button. This is a new one to me, but it could be because she was trying to log in through another location (more on that in a bit). Says she's going to try to figure it out on her own, she'll call back later. As to the wrong location...the system I manage can only be accessed for our users within another system. Some people who use this system can log in from a website and full functionality, but due to my company's unique setup, our users can't. The password reset, however, has to be done via the website. Annoying, but that's how it is. Ms. Difficult calls back later in the day, after Lana has left for the day. John (again, fake name) takes the call. John has been in this department the longest. He knows his shit forwards, backwards, and sideways. He offers to call Ms. Difficult on Teams and share screens so he can walk her through the sticking points. She says she's locked out of the system and can't log in. He asks a few more questions, and it turns out it's the other software she's locked out of. And she's saying it's our software that did it. This is absolutely impossible. That's like saying resetting your EA Origin password somehow locked you out of Steam. That's not how it works. At all. John got with the department that actually manages that password and had them unlock her account. Still had a Teams call going, but she kept putting him on hold and asking to call back later. It's after 5:30 for John, so he clocked out and left it until today. It was only 3:30 for Ms. Difficult, but she is fully aware that we're two hours ahead. She works obscene hours anyway. This morning there's already an email from Ms. Difficult when I got online at 8AM. Turns out she locked herself out of the other software. Again. And is demanding we unlock it for her. Lana gets on a call with the other department, they unlock it again, and Lana emails Ms. Difficult and says it's done, she can log in with her existing password. Which, somehow, despite using it daily, Ms. Difficult can't remember. So now she has two passwords to reset, and is asking the wrong department for help. Again. I think somehow they did get it figured out, and they're also compiling everything to send on to Ms. Difficult's manager, along with recaps of all the phone calls. And we'll do it all again in another 90 days. So glad I don't interact with users any more. [link] [comments] |
| "My graphics card is over heating" you don't say?! Posted: 22 Feb 2022 09:33 AM PST So I got a computer in for repair. The note said " my GPU is over heating, I have used compressed air to clean it out but the issue remains" okay I plug it in and power it on, CPU, chassis, and power supply fans all work normally, put my hand in front of the GPU and nothing. Okay. Let's take a closer look. OH! Found the issue! There is no fan! The customer broke the GPU and destroyed the fan. Time to send this unit to my billable department as this under normal warranty. Oh wait, this gets worse. The broken GPU is a 3060 [link] [comments] |
| My passwords not working, but I’m not gonna listen to you when you suggest waiting for it to reset. Posted: 22 Feb 2022 11:46 AM PST So I work help desk. It fucking sucks. Yesterday was a super slow day cause almost all of the would-be callers were on holiday which I loved. But even though it was the easiest day I've had in a long time, it still couldn't have saved me from the frustration of this one lady. So it started when I got a call from her about a password reset, no biggie. This might be a bad habit, but since I've been in tech support for a while, I know what needs to be fixed right when the person says. After that, I just mute them so I don't have to hear their sob story. So like if you call and say "I need a password reset." Then we're good. If you want to give me a long sob story where you drone on about meaningless bullshit, we're gonna have problems and I will put low effort and complain about how stupid you are online. But anyways, this lady took an eternity blabbering on while I was silently waiting for her to finish. I couldn't tell you what she said, cause again I had my volume turned down. But after that when she was finally done, I was already ready to reset her password and tell her over the phone. The interaction went a little something like: Me: "Okay, Ma'm I have your new password ready." gives her the password Woman: (right after being given the password) "It's still not working." Me: "Okay well, just try waiting about 10 minutes and the password should sync up, it should be working then." Woman: Completely disregarding what I just said "My password isn't working." Me: (repeateding myself, and my voice becoming more stern) "I just said wait about 10 minutes. Woman: "My password still isn't working". And in my seething rage, I was saved when the call was dropped. You can believe what you want, but I'm not one to intentionally hang up on someone (more because of fear of getting punished more than anything else)… but I ain't calling back. Hate this job sometimes, wish I could quit. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2022 02:45 AM PST This is not my first post and it happened over two years ago when i worked somewhere else as the main support guy at a research facility. Long story short I had the long-time-task to fix all computers that did not complete a TSM backup in a while. While most computers did not exist anymore or were simply turned off, quite a few had problems connecting to the control server. So I was on investigation again to find myself in a dusty lab-storage room with around a dozen of old Optiplex 740s, 745s and 760s still running Windows XP and Windows 7 at the time most computers were already on Windows 10. Most of them were turned on and had problems accessing the control server to make a backup. Not this one. This one 740 was turned off. Turned off for quite some time. I connected the AC and was surprised not to die because this Optiplex exploded the moment i pushed the power on button. Needless to say i ticked this one of the list because the client got replaced. TLDR: turned on a dusty computer and it exploded on the spot. [link] [comments] |
| I don't need a ticket, I need a mouse Posted: 21 Feb 2022 07:58 PM PST LONG time lurker. Back Story I work at a company as their only IT person. This company has been around for over a decade, but no one of the previous IT people thought a helpdesk solution was necessary. While (and I'm sure I'll get flack for this) I love helpdesk, it is a tiny part of my job and a responsibility that takes second or third place, under the IT governance, cybersecurity, and business application rolls I also hold. That said, my days are never boring and I found it difficult to keep the helpdesk requests at bay without having the users wait WAAY too long before response/resolution. A couple weeks ago, I decided to help me (really them) out and install a helpdesk server application. I require tickets for every helpdesk request, so I can prioritize and resolve issues faster. A ticket is entered by the user sending the support mailbox an email. This is the exact same process as before, except they will receive an email back with their ticket number and I will get a notification in the control panel. A company-wide email went out with a week's notice before golive, requesting anyone with questions speak up that week. No one did. The Story The day that the helpdesk program goes live (denoted with another company-wide notification), a user comes into my office, while I'm very obviously on a video conference call with corporate. User: hey. My [wireless] mouse stopped working. Me: OK, no problem. I'm on a call right now [pointing to my headset]. Can you send me an email, so the request will be added to my ticket queue? For now, there's an unused desk in your office with a wired mouse that you can use until I can get to your ticket. User: I just need a mouse. Can't you just get me one? Me: I wish I could, but I can only act on tickets. I sent a couple emails about it throughout this past week and today. User: I know. I read them. I just need a new mouse. Me: you probably just need a battery, since your mouse is less than a year old, and I'm on a call right now [pointing to my headset]. Please send me an email, to automatically create a ticket, and I will get to it after my call with the CIO. User: I don't need a ticket, though. I just need a mouse. Me: [getting quite irritated] Ma'am, believe me, I understand your frustration, but I do need a ticket or I cannot help you with you mouse, per the new policy. And, as I've mentioned, I'm on a call with the CIO. Please send me an email to add your request to my queue. In the meantime, you can use the wired mouse on the spare desk in your office. User: [almost yelling] FINE! She storms out. I sigh to collect myself and returned to the call with the CIO, which I deliberately kept unmuted per his previous request. CIO: who was that? Me: I'd rather not say. But, if she gets worse, I'll let you know. Do you think I was wrong for not getting her all fixed up? I feel like I was. CIO: NO!! You have a new policy, which you communicated to your business team members. She needs to follow it. We continue our business. On principle now, I will not assist her without an email, since she would have sent me an email in the first place, had it not been a "requirement" now. This was last Monday. I'm still waiting for an email from her. I've seen her around the office, we spoke, and no mention of the wireless mouse issues. I hope she didn't bring a battery from home. I am a strict believed that the company must provide it's employees with the tools to do their jobs and, for me, that's IT equipment. Edit: formatting and spelling. Mobile posts don't turn out great, do they? Edit: I didn't actually display my frustration with her, though I was frustrated. Also, she is normally a very nice and thoughtful person. I think she was having an off day. I did go check on her to make sure she didn't result to using the trackpad. She did take the wired mouse from the neighboring desk, but she didn't submit a ticket, so I can't replace the wireless mouse. [link] [comments] |
| The most awkward onsite service call I ever made. Posted: 21 Feb 2022 08:44 AM PST Years ago, sometime last century, I have my own computer consulting company. This eventually leads to me working exclusively in the manufacturing sector for around fifteen years. But this story is from before that when I perform over the phone and onsite service for a number of businesses. To put it in perspective, these are the days of Lotus 123 and WordPerfect. Microsoft Office is still a few years off. A clinic that provides urinalyses for new hires and truck drivers needs some help with a Lotus 123 template, and I am known for getting Lotus to do things that many think it shouldn't be able to do, and so come much recommended by one of my other customers who has a working relationship with this site. And it is a decent size project. On my third day straight working there the following happens: I'm in final testing of the modifications to their spreadsheet when a young lady lab assistant approaches hesitantly and asks if I can help her. Being the helpful sort, I say, "Sure. What do you need?" Young Lady Lab Assistant: "Please follow me..." So I follow her and she takes me to the testing area and shows me a sample container full of urine. Young Lady Lab Assistant: "If you look here on the side of the container, this temperature gauge shows that this sample was returned to us at room temperature. It's a cold sample. If it were a naturally produced one, it would be at least 97 F (36 C). It's the third cold sample this guy has returned today. Our protocols require us to actually watch him produce the next sample. But we have no guys in the building today, except you. I know it is not your job, but could we please have you watch him produce a sample for us?" I am speechless. This is way outside anything that could be construed as my area of either expertise or interest. The closest I get to this is admiring the technology that lets the container tell you the temperature of the sample. But I also feel for the three young ladies working as lab assistants that day. I suspect this particular company doesn't pay nearly well enough for them to be closeted in a restroom with a rough and rugged trucker who clearly has something to hide, and whose job likely depends on him keeping it hid. But no matter how you slice it or what I answer, it's awkward as hell. Sigh. Young Lady Lab Assistant (using every last ounce of her charms): "Please." With much trepidation I gallantly agree to help. So I find myself in a single user restroom with a short, plump (okay, fat), cranky trucker in his mid-fifties with an unkempt beard and unruly hair - at least he still has a fair amount of it. He is wearing overalls and is not at all pleasant with me. Trucker who clearly has something to hide: "So this is how you get off? Watching other men pee?" Me: "Nope. I really do not. But you have forced them to have to watch the sample being produced. So here we are." Trucker who clearly has something to hide: "Here we are." He whips out his ... well, you know what he has to whip out about now. Let's leave it unsaid. He then starts waving it back and forth quickly. Trucker who clearly has something to hide: "Yeah. I may just get some of it on you." Me, appalled at the threat: "If you do, I will have you arrested for assault and I will press charges of both a criminal and civil nature. I will also declare this sample to be tainted and they will report back to your company that you were not cooperative and you will lose your job. I'd think hard about that decision if I were you." I wasn't actually certain I could do any of that last part, but it sounded good. And with what the dude is threatening to do to me, you'd say whatever you had to to make it stop too. He tries three more attempts to embarrass me or intimidate me, but we will keep this safe for work and say no more about it. I'm done with it. Me: "I'm about to leave and tell them that you don't want to keep your job. Or can we get this over with?" Trucker who clearly has something to hide: "Okay. But seriously, I can't give them this sample and keep my job." Me: "No kidding. Otherwise you would not have brought enough clean urine to return three cold samples. That's not my problem." Tucker who clearly has something to hide: "Yeah. But seriously. Can I pay you twenty dollars to fill this little container for me?" Me, laughing: "You've got to be kidding me! What makes you think my urine is clean?" (It was, but how would he know that?) "Get it done, or we are done here." Checkmate. With no joy or playfulness left, I watch him fill the container. After he zips up and washes up, I witness him return it to the lab assistant. She is satisfied that it is the right temperature. I never see him again and do not care what his fate is afterwards. I complete my testing of the spreadsheet in record time and submit my bill for service. I add $50 for the "special" assistance provided. After I receive my pay, I never visit that company again as a technician. I mean seriously, would you? [link] [comments] |
| A rapid descent into NOC hell... Posted: 21 Feb 2022 07:17 AM PST This happened several years ago when I sat NOC for a large international company you likely have never heard of. In this company, the NOC was manned by Help Desk Tier 2 agents who managed tickets and monitored for and reported on outages and assisted changes. Sometimes, one agent would be on five bridges at the same time; There were several types available. A bridge could be for a change taking place either with or without our direct participation; or with technicians working on an outage; or with employees impacted by an outage; or with a client (many of whom you have definitely heard of) who had a stake in the part of the business impacted by the outage; or finally with vendors who provided a tool or an MPLS circuits involved in an outage. We had to be multitasking champions. We were assisted by Tier 1 agents who could do basic Help Desk tasks like password resets, and a much smaller team of Tier 3 agents who would manage the technician outage bridges and research and document the final root cause analysis for any outages. We were responsible for initial reporting and timely follow-ups of all issues. In our beautiful NOC, we could monitor all the datacenters for temperature and power concerns. We would know when AC went out or generators were engaged at any of them. We could also access all of them visually via any security cameras installed. The company had employed a relatively good level of redundancy in their topology. Wherever possible, there would be two MPLS circuits in place from different vendors, one held in reserve for an outage on the first and just waiting for the flip of a switch to be engaged. Some places (like Australia) there would only be one vendor, but still two circuits. All major systems had a second server that could be engaged. Like I said: a good level of redundancy. Our three biggest datacenters with the most important systems in them were 1) the building we were in, 2) another major building 2,000 miles (3,200 km) away in another state, 3) our largest location in the Philippines. At that second one mentioned was where the servers for time keeping and ticket reporting worldwide were kept. Sometimes a site would send a ticket to report their employees could not login or logout of their shifts. If they also could not access the ticket system to send a ticket, they would call us instead, since it normally meant a break in MPLS connectivity. It would not be unusual to get a number of these calls at once from the same region, since they could all be served by the network. On the day in question, things had been relatively calm. We had been able to focus on closing out a number of less critical tickets and answer a lot of emails. It was a good day. And then it happened. A freak storm 2,000 miles away created the biggest mess I've ever seen at any of my IT jobs. The wind kicked up to nearly tornado levels of intensity and the rain poured down. We were monitoring this on the weather channel. We always kept on eye on weather or political unrest that could impact any of our sites. This storm was serious. Then the first signs something had gone wrong. First one call, then two, then ten: People couldn't clock in or out and no one could open a ticket for it. As we tried to create tickets from the calls, we found we had lost connection to the ticketing system as well. We reached out in vain to the other state, but no one was answering. Meanwhile, Tier 3 told us to just throw everyone reporting the issues onto a bridge. We were now all hands on deck and still sixteen deep in queue. We were answering the calls and asking straight up if it was about the ticketing system or clocking in or out. If a yes to either or both, the were asked to hold and thrown on the bridge. Right in the middle of all this was a major shift change, but those of us from the morning shift stayed over so we were literally ALL hands on deck for a few hours. By the time we finally started getting information from the other site, we likely had about 500 people from all over the planet on that bridge. It would seem that a gust of wind had removed a large section of the ceiling and roof over our second largest data center and the rain was just pouring in. A quick and decisive set of actions by one of our VP's stationed there likely made recovery much easier: he had managed to immediately cut power to the data center without letting the UPS battery array or generators kick in. This was no small trick, as the system was designed to never let power go down. But he brought it down hard and fast. As soon as he had, the time keeping and ticketing systems were effectively gone. He spent the rest of the limited time available to him before the city made him evacuate the no-longer-fully-intact building throwing tarps over as many of the servers as he could. While I'm sure that every server in the building was no longer going to remain in service as long as they would have without this event, these quick actions on his part helped save the company tens of millions of dollars and likely enabled a much faster return to business as usual. It would still take about a week before business got back to anywhere near usual. Timekeeping was manual and tickets were by email only for nearly five days. When the ticketing system returned, it had lost about 72 hours worth of data. All those tickets we had closed that day? Yeah, we got to do it all again. So if you really want to make your topology truly redundant, maybe don't put both your main server and your failover server for a critical system in the same data center. Because it likely won't ever happen again. But then, failovers are for those days when the impossible happens. [link] [comments] |
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