Years ago, I put together a computer for a woman I knew, and her daughter. It worked fine in the apartment they were in.
Then she rented a house, and called me to say that the computer wouldn’t work anymore. So, I trundled over to see what was going on. The computer was on a desk, which also had a lamp.
Then, she made the comment that “the lamp didn’t work, either”.
Oh?
Yep, the fucking outlet was dead.
That is a old one.
Sold a car once and the lady told me she could not get it started. Went over pumped it three times and it fired right up. She was happy after that, I hope. Last AMC I ever owned. Only car I had that made a snow drift on the front seat.
Anybody who has worked in IT probably has a bunch of stories like that. Here’s one of mine: Customer calls me and says that her computer is frozen. Our software is displayed on her screen, but it won’t accept input from keyboard or mouse. I tell her to press the big button to turn it off, wait a minute, then press the button again to turn it back on. She does that and reports that her screen looks exactly the same as it did before. Impossible. Tried again with the same result. Eventually, I figured out that she had been pressing the big button on her monitor, turning it off and on, not the computer.
In the mid 1990’s I called tech support for a computer problem. I was on the phone with the computer tech for at least 45 minutes. His last question to me was: Are you next to a window?? When I replied yes, he said open it and throw the computer out.
Heh. Used to help the other staff asses with their computer issues. Got called to figure out what was making the brand new 25″ screen go all wonky.
Took one look at it, moved my hand and palmed the magnetic toy thingy on top of the monitor. Success!!!
Then I did a magic show with palmed magnetic toy, moving my hand around and over the monitor.
The staff ass looked at me like I was performing actual magic.
Dumb…
Shaman.
Mine was similar – sort of. One of the workers in a department reported her screen was wavy, but by the time I got there it was stable. Kept happening, but I couldn’t ever catch it. Finally, I told her to call me or yell for me the next time it happened.
I just happened to be within earshot the next time it happened, and – sure enough – the screen was wavy. This was back in the 90’s, when CRTs were monitor screens. I looked at it for a few seconds, and then heard a “DING!” and the screen went back to normal………. I looked in the lunchroom that was adjacent to her office, and saw the microwave oven was exactly on the other side of the wall.
Problem solved, I moved the microwave to a different counter with a note on it to NOT put it on the other counter against her wall! Had to take 5 minutes to explain what a cavity magnetron was to her.
Oh.. I have stories.
Used to fix cable TV. Sets dead, flip switch on the wall, comes back on.
Internet’s dead. Turned on power strip.
Best one ever – working on a helpdesk, some fool called that had changed her default font to white.
Years ago, I put together a computer for a woman I knew, and her daughter. It worked fine in the apartment they were in.
Then she rented a house, and called me to say that the computer wouldn’t work anymore. So, I trundled over to see what was going on. The computer was on a desk, which also had a lamp.
Then, she made the comment that “the lamp didn’t work, either”.
Oh?
Yep, the fucking outlet was dead.
That is a old one.
Sold a car once and the lady told me she could not get it started. Went over pumped it three times and it fired right up. She was happy after that, I hope. Last AMC I ever owned. Only car I had that made a snow drift on the front seat.
Anybody who has worked in IT probably has a bunch of stories like that. Here’s one of mine: Customer calls me and says that her computer is frozen. Our software is displayed on her screen, but it won’t accept input from keyboard or mouse. I tell her to press the big button to turn it off, wait a minute, then press the button again to turn it back on. She does that and reports that her screen looks exactly the same as it did before. Impossible. Tried again with the same result. Eventually, I figured out that she had been pressing the big button on her monitor, turning it off and on, not the computer.
In the mid 1990’s I called tech support for a computer problem. I was on the phone with the computer tech for at least 45 minutes. His last question to me was: Are you next to a window?? When I replied yes, he said open it and throw the computer out.
Heh. Used to help the other staff asses with their computer issues. Got called to figure out what was making the brand new 25″ screen go all wonky.
Took one look at it, moved my hand and palmed the magnetic toy thingy on top of the monitor. Success!!!
Then I did a magic show with palmed magnetic toy, moving my hand around and over the monitor.
The staff ass looked at me like I was performing actual magic.
Dumb…
Shaman.
Mine was similar – sort of. One of the workers in a department reported her screen was wavy, but by the time I got there it was stable. Kept happening, but I couldn’t ever catch it. Finally, I told her to call me or yell for me the next time it happened.
I just happened to be within earshot the next time it happened, and – sure enough – the screen was wavy. This was back in the 90’s, when CRTs were monitor screens. I looked at it for a few seconds, and then heard a “DING!” and the screen went back to normal………. I looked in the lunchroom that was adjacent to her office, and saw the microwave oven was exactly on the other side of the wall.
Problem solved, I moved the microwave to a different counter with a note on it to NOT put it on the other counter against her wall! Had to take 5 minutes to explain what a cavity magnetron was to her.
Oh.. I have stories.
Used to fix cable TV. Sets dead, flip switch on the wall, comes back on.
Internet’s dead. Turned on power strip.
Best one ever – working on a helpdesk, some fool called that had changed her default font to white.