Repair Warriors

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22 Feb 2012 07:00 - 22 Feb 2012 07:02 #23139 by Lersar
Repair Warriors was created by Lersar
So I know there are more than a few of us that work in the IT field, but most of us have probably been solicited at one point or another for computer repair. I thought a thread about some of the stories we encounter would be something fun.

To start things off, we had a gentlemen bring in a Winbook XL to the shop. They still used this beast, with a whopping 32MB memory. The floppy drive had quit on them however.







That USB Floppy drive you see there? Not compatible with USB 1.1 ;)
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Last edit: 22 Feb 2012 07:02 by Lersar.

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23 Feb 2012 00:51 #23154 by drpain
Replied by drpain on topic Re: Repair Warriors
I haven't worked in a PC Repair Shop before or "offer" services on the side but the oldest machine I remember was when I was working Remote Support for University of Michigan and a ticket came in for help on their Macbook but once I showed up it turned out this "Macbook" was a Powerbook 5300 running OS 8 something. Basically told him nope, get your department to get you a new one.

Another time I had a call about having an issue with their CD-ROM drive again once I showed up I saw the tray cover broke in half and he had needle nose pliers wedged in the case holding it there trying to get the now ruined disc out haha. Then he proceeds to tell me if this is under warranty (Nope) and if Dell can send a new (Double Nope) hahaha. Made his boss cough up about 80 bucks for a new one.

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23 Feb 2012 02:46 #23159 by L0rdG1gabyt3
Replied by L0rdG1gabyt3 on topic Re: Repair Warriors
A year or so ago I got an interesting call here at the shop from a man who had lost an Ebay auction.

When I asked him what I could do to help him, he asked that I contact the seller and negotiate another deal. I asked him how I would do that, and in the most matter of fact tone, he replied "Don't all you people know each other?"

I was kinda stunned at first. This guy thought that just because I work in a computer shop, that I must know EVERYBODY on the internet!

I explained to him that it would be his job to make a new offer, and that there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who are sellers on ebay.

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23 Feb 2012 03:27 #23160 by Arxon
Replied by Arxon on topic Re: Repair Warriors
Friend of mine was messing with her computer settings. I get a call from her asking why should couldn't get on the internet anymore. So I went of and was looking at her PC. Come to find out she had turned her firewall up so much that nothing was getting in or out of her pc. Needless to say I told her if you don't know what you are doing you probably shouldn't change it.

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23 Feb 2012 03:35 - 23 Feb 2012 03:36 #23166 by Hasbeen
Replied by Hasbeen on topic Re: Repair Warriors
As much as I love reading the mountains of stuff everyone posts throughout the forums I just wanted to make sure that it's known in this instance Reddit has you beat. I read through this after class this afternoon and later remembered that we had this oh so similar topic.


If you haven't bothered to read it all I can say is enjoy and next time make up better stories so I don't have to do else where :P
www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/q0x8..._the_craziest_stuff/
Last edit: 23 Feb 2012 03:36 by Hasbeen.
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23 Feb 2012 03:57 #23173 by L0rdG1gabyt3
Replied by L0rdG1gabyt3 on topic Re: Repair Warriors

Hasbeen wrote: If you haven't bothered to read it all I can say is enjoy and next time make up better stories so I don't have to do else where :P

Just getting warmed up... Didnt want to spend all my stories at once! I even have pics to share of some.
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23 Feb 2012 04:43 #23184 by Wingcmdr77
Replied by Wingcmdr77 on topic Re: Repair Warriors
First one not repair related: Just for humor.

IBM 350 these were 24 inch platters I saw at an ATT Data Center. The people there were using
these ancient platters for frisbees on break close to 30-40 years later.

2nd: I worked at a Video Store in the late 90s when DVDs were first starting to come out and
a lady returned it asking if their was a repair fee for not rewinding it like a VHS Tape. I
told her there was no rewind fee as the DVD was a solid piece unlike the VHS tape. ;)

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15 Mar 2012 08:10 #23882 by TownFunk
Replied by TownFunk on topic Re: Repair Warriors
I had to remove several hundred viruses from a friend of a friend's laptop one time. The desktop was covered in furry porn, and video clips of milfs. There were also a ton of shortcuts and downloaded html files from random porn sites.

I'm just glad I never had to look that person in the face.

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15 Mar 2012 08:37 #23885 by renegade
Replied by renegade on topic Re: Repair Warriors
One of the funniest calls I ever had was a lady that could not get the foot pedal working, I was like ah what, did you buy a sewing machine, she said no a new packard bell computer. Turns out she has the mouse on the floor like a foot pedal control.


The nastest was the PC that I started to open up and found it had a roach nest inside it. unit went into a trash bag sealed, called em to pick it up and canceled the extended warranty on it to boot.

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15 Mar 2012 10:04 #23886 by jj_Sky5000
Replied by jj_Sky5000 on topic Re: Repair Warriors

TownFunk wrote: I had to remove several hundred viruses from a friend of a friend's laptop one time. The desktop was covered in furry porn, and video clips of milfs. There were also a ton of shortcuts and downloaded html files from random porn sites.

I'm just glad I never had to look that person in the face.


you fixed wingless's computer?
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15 Mar 2012 15:10 #23888 by Dreyvas
Replied by Dreyvas on topic Re: Repair Warriors

jj_Sky5000 wrote:

TownFunk wrote: I had to remove several hundred viruses from a friend of a friend's laptop one time. The desktop was covered in furry porn, and video clips of milfs. There were also a ton of shortcuts and downloaded html files from random porn sites.

I'm just glad I never had to look that person in the face.


you fixed wingless's computer?


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15 Mar 2012 16:14 #23889 by L0rdG1gabyt3
Replied by L0rdG1gabyt3 on topic Re: Repair Warriors
I had an interesting case just yesterday.

A girl wanted to upgrade the CPU in her computer so she had her "computer genius" cousin look at her computer to see what upgrade she could do. He went ahead and ordered her a new CPU, then left it to her to install it...

The girl realized as she was having problems screwing down the heatsink that something was wrong. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that her "new" cpu had pins on it, and her "old" cpu did not.

Needless to say, you cannot install a Socket 475 CPU in a 775 Socket.... I should have taken a picture, but I didnt want her to cry as I told her that her motherboard was shot. She did say she was going to try to straighten the pins... I told her good luck!

Moral of the story here kids is that everybody has someone who "knows" computers it seems, but alot of the times its just a moron who turned one on once.

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15 Mar 2012 17:20 #23890 by renegade
Replied by renegade on topic Re: Repair Warriors
I had a guy come in last week with an AMD 939 socket chip he was "cleaning" the PC out and he bent pins on the CPU. I looked at it and I kid you not a good 50% were bent some broken off. He wanted me to fix the cpu I did all i could to not laugh. I told him you can't fix that kind of damage. He left saying he would get a competitor to fix the CPU.
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22 Mar 2012 00:39 - 22 Mar 2012 00:40 #24072 by Lersar
Replied by Lersar on topic Re: Repair Warriors
Forgot to post this, a few weeks ago our store in St. Marys had a PC come in that was visibly filthy. Our tech there began to open the side panel, and a cockroach crawled out of it. She peered inside and sure enough, the thing was invested with cockroaches crawling all over the hardware.

No pics unfortunately. She wrapped it up tight, boxed it, and sat it in our fire exit for pickup by the customer.
Last edit: 22 Mar 2012 00:40 by Lersar.

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22 Mar 2012 00:44 #24074 by garfi3ld
Replied by garfi3ld on topic Re: Repair Warriors

renegade wrote: I had a guy come in last week with an AMD 939 socket chip he was "cleaning" the PC out and he bent pins on the CPU. I looked at it and I kid you not a good 50% were bent some broken off. He wanted me to fix the cpu I did all i could to not laugh. I told him you can't fix that kind of damage. He left saying he would get a competitor to fix the CPU.


CPU stuck to the heatsink i bet

Wes

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22 Mar 2012 02:38 #24077 by chadkirchner
Replied by chadkirchner on topic Re: Repair Warriors
I've been in IT in various capacity for awhile now, but I do distinctly remember when a friend of mine hired me to help start a business, and one of the first customers that came in was this attractive, but not too attractive woman with fake curves, if you catch my drift.

Well, through the course of evaluating the virus situation she informed me that she was an amateur adult film star and that she had to research and look up pornography as required by her business. I kid you not, I advised her to get a Mac.

But seriously, I've seen some weird stuff, but that is one of two stories from that little venture that I care not to repeat. Well, maybe if the porn star didn't have a boyfriend, it wouldn't have been so bad! :)
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23 Mar 2012 18:16 - 23 Mar 2012 18:17 #24174 by drpain
Replied by drpain on topic Re: Repair Warriors
Another kind of humorous one happened at IPFW a few years ago where the school was fixing up some old building and we were updating the network in there to have more drops for faculty.
We contract out to do all the video/cam stuff that run over Cat5 and I remember one of the managers came in and wanted me to go over and take a look on why there were having such an issue with getting anything to work.

I show up and kind of poke around and can't put my finger on it at first then it hits me. One of the student workers for Systems put the blade upside down and all the ports and groups where backwards so everything that we hard-coded for them didn't work haha. After some simple math and cable swapping everything was up and running.

We gave the kid a nice razzing when we got back into the office.

Custom Built: AMD Phenom II X4 3.0GHz/G. Skill 12GB DDR3 1066Mhz/Crossfire ATI 6850's/3TB HDD

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Last edit: 23 Mar 2012 18:17 by drpain.

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23 Mar 2012 18:59 #24181 by L0rdG1gabyt3
Replied by L0rdG1gabyt3 on topic Re: Repair Warriors
When we service a machine here at the shop, we also dust out its insides.... Ive seen my share of nasty dirty computers, but when Im done cleaning them I tend to shut the little doors that cover the front panel ports like on many HP and Dell computers.

I had a customer a year or so ago come in and pick up his computer, and everything was great. He was happy to get it back so quickly and was very pleased with our level of customer service.

The next day he came storming into the shop, and right in front of my boss and another customer, he started yelling at me! YOU STOLE MY USB PORTS! I was very confused at first.... How in the world would I steal this man's USB ports? And beyond that, WHY?! I do not have a USB fetish! I calmly told him that I did not take his ports, and he began to cuss at me and call me many "colorful" names in front of my boss and this other customer.

Suddenly it dawned on me. I said, "Sir, did you check the front of the computer for a little door that covers the USB ports?" I pulled another machine that was similar to his from the shelf, and demonstrated how the cover works. He stopped talking, and just stared for a moment.

Without saying a word, he turned around and almost ran out the door. Ive not seen or heard from him since!
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23 Mar 2012 19:04 #24182 by garfi3ld
Replied by garfi3ld on topic Re: Repair Warriors
he figured out who really stole them and went to get them

Wes
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27 Mar 2012 00:19 #24284 by Myndmelt
Replied by Myndmelt on topic Re: Repair Warriors

garfi3ld wrote: he figured out who really stole them and went to get them


OBAMA
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27 Mar 2012 00:38 #24285 by Myndmelt
Replied by Myndmelt on topic Re: Repair Warriors
I've been in IT/Tech Support a loong time now and I've seen alot of stuff happen. Here is one of my favorites that actually happened to a coworker.

So my coworker at the time had been on a long call and was very frustrated trying to get this ignorant granny online on a new pc. We all noticed he had been on the call for quite some time and was starting to get more irritable by the tone and volume rising in his voice. We all about lost it when he told us after the call what had transpired.

At a certain point in the troubleshooting he was trying to have her go into control panel and right click on network connections inside of XP.
Every time he asked this shes said "Ok, hang on.." then set down the phone for several minutes and then she would say "OK I did that.. what now" Okay then click on Properties "I do not see properties" the confused woman said.
He said well you have to RIGHT CLICK and she immediately cuts him off again and says "OK, Hang on!" puts downs the phone and leaves for a few more minutes only to return again to just say "OK" this time. "Did you see the menu come up with properties at the bottom?" My coworker blurts.
She says "Uh no, nothing happened".
My coworker is starting to get really steamed and says "you ARE *RIGHT* Clicking, right? She replies "Ohh, click..ING!" then puts the phone down and does the same routine.

When she returns and gives the same response as before he said "Wait, lets back up... why do you keep leaving the phone just to right click when you have been in front of the PC the whole time?"
She says... Well you keep telling me to WRITE CLICK and the only paper I have is on a calander on the wall, its not on my desk. She thought he meant take a pen and write down the word click, and then something magically would happen.

This was 2006 and she had never heard of right mouse clicking - commonly shortened to 'right-clcik'.
:blink: *facepalm*
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18 May 2012 18:29 #25204 by Wingcmdr77
Replied by Wingcmdr77 on topic Re: Repair Warriors
Fixing my Own: PSU died 5 days before Warranty Expired. :blink:

Yesterday I used some old parts to build a spare test, backup server machine, or whatever I
wanted to use it for an. I started thinking about the old Antec True Power Trio 3- 650 PSU
I stopped using 2 years ago that worked before I packed it up.

Well as I got the build done. Sure it fired up for about 15 minutes. But then nothing. Popped
in an old RaidMax and sure the machine works fine. I found my receipt from Best Buy and
it was dated 6/21/2007. The unit came with a 5 year Warranty. Created a ticket online at Antec.com and through e-mailed scanned the receipt. Yup, still under warranty for 4 more
days. It should arrive FedEX Ground the day it expires. :evil:

Tech Support/Customer Service rep said I cut it really close.

There sending the new TP- 750, which has some good reviews on Maximum PC Mag and I thinking
CPU Magazine a few months back in the archive section.

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18 May 2012 22:15 #25207 by Myndmelt
Replied by Myndmelt on topic Re: Repair Warriors
Ya gotta love it when a warranty coverage actually works out. I had a PSU actually catch fire. It was like a 500watt and it was under warranty, they ended up sending me an 850 to replace it.
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19 May 2012 01:18 #25214 by Wingcmdr77
Replied by Wingcmdr77 on topic Re: Repair Warriors
PSU catch fire, yup one of mine did too. Last time wife was allowed to eat food and drink
need gaming rig. She's always had her own PC or Laptop to nerf.

However I can't knock her down, last weekend while edging the drive and sidewalks of the house

I had a 2 Black and Decker 25-30 year (old Orange Kind from 80s, the days when Power Equipment
really lasted) Edgers start smoking, Stopped immediately and tossed in trash. Other caught
fire and melted the power connection on the unit and the electric cord.
Pitched both.

In my personal opinion unless its milwaukee power tools grade it will last
a long time, unlike some of the really off label no one has heard off.


Ironically it was a Sunday night and same guy seems to case the neighborhood for stuff to fix and
resell/ recycle cause they were out of my trash can before garbage pickup. lol.

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