Biggest Computer Problem?

[beercz]

If, like me, you work in the IT industry, or friends, colleagues, associates, friends of friends and family know that you know a little bit about computers, you must get asked loads of questions about their pcs (and practically all of them about their ******* machines too).

I can't be the only one who gets asked all the time. I now don't tell people what I do for a living when I am out and about, as I get asked yet another question. Some times I feel like a car mechanic or doctor who is never off duty.

Here's my top 5 questions......

"My computer at home ...."
"I know what I meant to ask you ...."
"Do you know how to ....?"
"Have you got ....?"
"Can you have a look at ....?"

And it goes on.

So my biggest, most annoying, most frequent computer problem is .....

... my Dad!!

What's yours?

[Jedeye]

well lets see... one of my worst experiences was at college. I was known as one of thoes guys who could fix your computer. and my sophomore year I some how ended up on the football players hall. Well these 200-300 pound guys would come knocking on my door and ask me to come fix there computer. Well I'm not going to say NO. So over and over again I would find myself in a room working on a computer that is a piece, surrounded by football players yelling at each other while they play Xbox. On a side note I have nothing against football players, just didn't like working on there computers!

[eriqk]

It's not that bad, most people I know are pretty computer-savvy, and those that aren't are pretty reasonable about it.

Still, I'm thinking about getting this (http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/388b/), just in case.

Groet, Erik

[beercz]

Still, I'm thinking about getting this (http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/388b/), just in case.

Groet, Erik

I WANT, no NEED one of those!!!!!

[Stew2]

Cleaning up friends/neighbors virus infested machines because they thought they were running antivirus when all they really had were 3 month trial subscriptions. Can be very time consuming.:)

[Jedeye]

Still, I'm thinking about getting this, just in case.

Groet, Erik

LOL thats great

[Hygelac]

Just two months ago I was helping some of my relatives with their computers. I thought fixing-up my Grandfather's Win95 box would be a nightmare, but the real nightmare turned out to be trying to help my Aunt with her 'MediaCentre XP' or whatever burn a DVD (it seemed to be wretched software, at least what I saw of it; and I suppose the Win95 machine will be too old to be interfered with by most viruses anyways lol).

[Iandefor]

Dealing with requests to help people move files around on the Macs at my school (Because my dear school's director has never heard of NAS). And teaching new students to use iMovie.

[engla]

A friend needed to just borrow my internet connection (via ethernet) to send a mail.

His laptop booted to Windows ME, and the nightmare began.. having to reboot with each network config change, crashes if you opened more than one instance of internet exploder etc threw my usual problem-solving skills a bit off...

[briancurtin]

i used to have a lot of people in my school asking for my help setting this or that up, but that pretty much stopped this year. i havent used windows on my laptop since June, and any questions that have came up, ive used that as my excuse. "nah sorry man, i havent used windows in a long time, i forget how to do that" always works

[kenweill]

My friends used to call me when they have computer problems. Hardware and software errors.

Most hardware errors i have experience was memory problems. The most effective solution was just to clean the memory terminal with a pencil eraser and plugging it into another memory slot. And physical disc errors. The worst.

Most software errors i have experience was under Windows 98 and Me. Mostly file system errors. The worst was FAT32 errors. Often occurs on Windows Me. If it can't be repaire with NDD(Norton Disk Doctor), the fastest solution is reinstall. Can't back-up files with that error.

On Linux, reinstallation is my fastest choice. Don't have any utilities to fix Linux problems.

[endersshadow]

I get all sorts of requests to fix computers. My favorite call goes something like this (my name is Eric, fyi):

"Uh, Eric, hi...um...Erin's computer is broke...we think."
"Well, what happened?"
"She spilled soda on it, and it went sizzle sizzle hiss hiss POP! And it smells kind of funny. Do you think that it's fixable?"
"Wait. Did it go hiss hiss sizzle sizzle POP! Or did it go sizzle sizzle hiss hiss POP! It's important." (sidenote: I love playing pranks)
*Chatter among the girls "What did it do!? Sizzle sizzle hiss hiss or hiss hiss sizzle sizzle?! Sizzle sizzle hiss hiss? Okay, I'll tell tell him...*
"Eric, it went sizzle sizzle hiss hiss POP!"
"Yeah, it's most likely ruined. Leave it turned off for the day, and see if you can turn it on in a day once it's dry. If not, Erin will be investing in a new lappy 486."

Another one of my favorites:
"Uh, Eric...my computer just blew up."
"I told you to call me before you blew stuff up. You know how much I love things going boom!"
"Yeah...no...it won't boot."
"Bring it over..."
A fixmbr and a chkdsk later, it was fine...

The moral of the story is...this is why a friend and I are setting up a compy repair business...so that we get paid for this stuff :lol:

[Mr_J_]

Dude!

Just charge them for it if you touch a computer.

[beercz]

It's not that bad, most people I know are pretty computer-savvy, and those that aren't are pretty reasonable about it.

Yes it is, no they're not (and not even ******* savvy) and not that reasonable about it due to their frustrations of crashes, spyware, viruses etc...

Well, that's my experience, having been in the IT industry for 12 years.

[Leo_01]

usually i am the guy who do all the tech stuff...

usually it goes like this...

Friend> err... Leo... my comp won't turn on... maybe it got a virus...
Leo> did you check all the power switches?
Friend> yeah sorta...
Leo> CHECK IT.
Friend>ah! i forgotten to turn on the main switch!
Leo> I wanna get paid for that!
Friend> *haha* sure... you wanna get paid in toliet paper?
Leo> better than nthing... *sigh*

Most of my friends are like gamers...
i often ask them to install anti-virus programs but they just don't care!!!

[fuscia]

me. i'm an end user who has become fascinated with these picky little creatures, but i'm too lazy and too impatient (pretty bad combo) to read all the material thoroughly.

[Lovechild]

the number one problem I face is users.. they are just annoying and uninformed.

They seem to get a fit when I tell them I don't want to assist them in breaking the law by installing a.. doubious copy of Windows, however I will offer them an excellent OS for free, it's even more secure and prettier.

[public_void]

When I see people computers, I often cringe at the state of some of them. Almost all have extra toolbars in IE they don't want, loads of things start up, or many icons in the system tray. The most I saw was 14!!! icons, after finding all the options to get rid of them it was down to 8.

I usually get asked "Can you stop this from doing this" which is their AV/anti-spyware software popping up and screaming to be updated, or something simple like MSN Messenger showing MSN Today when they log in. When stopped it takes one check box and they've been putting up with it for months.

I find that most user are too embarrassed to show their poor computer knowledge at something very simple. They're also too afraid to change anything for fear of breaking their computer. I always encourage them to ask how ever small a problem maybe, and I try to help as much as possible.

[mstlyevil]

I have to go tonight and fix my brothers and his daughters computer. (Again.) Both of them installed junk from the internet that turned out to be spyware and malware. I removed the malware but now their media files wont play unless thewy reinstall the malware. I have to go and format the hard disk for them so they can just mess it up again. What is funny is I got both of them to use Firefox and Adaware and Spybot but they never update them before they run them. I would put Ubuntu on it if I thought they would not bitch and complain that some of their applications were not available. I still might do it anyhow just to solve this problem. They only have 128 MB of RAM so I need to check and see how much RAM Gnome needs to run ok.

Edit: I found out you need a minimum of 128 MB Ram to run Ubuntu so I think I will just install it anyways.

[jam'ez]

yup, i get these problems. its at school, or home, or around friends, or at events etc etc etc zzzzzzzzzz!!!
The most anoying how ever is; when i go out like to see family etc, they make a new subject up about computers. It normaly starts off with, Computers there wonderful. How do i live with out them. Then someone says well i have a problem with mine, then my dad goes. James is good with computers and then i end up fixing their computer for rest of evenin. GRRRRrrrrrr. ](*,)

One day il say 2 dad. why dont you go fix their pc problem, whilst i sit in the liveing room shouting 2 you and saying "you finished yet", "stop being unsocialable" hehehe - Its got to be done

[irv]

beercz,
You said your bigges computer problem was your Dad.
I too was a IS guy, (formaly IT), but I retired three week ago. I also had a computer business in my small town here in Minnesota, but I got smart and gave the business to my son who now run it by himself. I lay low and pass the buck on to him, so now he gets paid for doing the stuff I did for free. (When it comes to windows). I still give the Linux advice away free because it came to me free. That's the beauty of Linux. And that's my two cents worth.

[somuchfortheafter]

all my problems turn into cash as I am a pc repair tech now, im still in highschool but 200-300 usd a week isnt bad for working whenever i want... edit.. i also own the business .

[saphil]

Haleluyah! That is the issue. As long as I was giving free computer service away, I had this huge problem with users. Now I just say, if you want this fixed, I charge an hourly fee. If you want to learn how to *****, I am teaching a course at ITT Tech, come to the class. This has been a great improvement. Now I am finding my current biggest computer problem is that I try to do stuff that nobody else has tried (apparently) and tech support cannot help me solve most of the situations where I would really like tech support to be able to fix it. E.g. Why is a triple-boot as many OSes as I can get on a hard drive? Seems like a 4-primary drive issue in partitioning, but WHY does there have to be a 4-primary horizon??? :-)

[irv]

saphil,
as far as a triple-boot, I don't know how this happen, but after loading Winxp and then Ubuntu I got a boot loader error and the pc wouldn't boot into either OS. I used the WinXP CD and went right in R mode (repair) and ran fixmbr, this let me back into WinXP, but I had to reload Ubuntu after blowing away the partitions it created. Now when I boot I get the loader screen with Linux, Linux recover, other OS, Win2k, NT and WinXP and when I click on WinXP I get another loader that says C:/Windows and Windows XP OS. I have no idea how this could be because I don't have NT or Win2k on the machine. Maybe if I had the room I could load them! You figuer! Both Ubuntu Linux and WinXP work just fine.