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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 7:40 pm

Scene 1. Son installs new hard drive on my confuser. Ready to go Dad!
Scene 2. Press power button. OH SH**T NOTHING HAPPENS!
Scene 3. Call son and, (conversation not suitable for publication)
Scene 4. Granddaughter listening and looking concerned, bemused, weird. (Weird, thats it, shes 12)
Scene 5. Wait for son to get off work. Oh GOD, I've got to do something with weird thing. Grandma is at work too.
Scene 6. Brain at work. The MALL, that's the ticket! OH SH**T, that means $$$$$$$$$$
Scene 7. Granddaughter - Is the power on, plugged in, blah, blah blah?
Scene 8. Brain still at work. Nothing, zip, nada. DAMN, this does mean $$$$$$$$$$$$$
Scene 9. GRANDPAAA! (12 year old screech) YOU ARE SO DUMB! YOU DIDN'T TURN THE POWER ON! (It seems, ok there is, a button labeled I/O on the back of this damn thing and it turns the power on as well! Why two power buttons? Anyone know?)
Scene 10. Play dumb! Me - I already tried that. Her laughing at, not with me. - WELL IT WORKS NOW!
Scene 11. Place Ad - FREE TO GOOD HOME.
Scene 12. Granddaughter gives Grandpa a hug and a kiss and says she is ready to go.
Scene 13. Grandpa doesn't care about the confuser or the money he's about to spend.
Scene 14. Ad retracted.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

Ouch...

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Hmm hubby just remarked why do computers have two ON switches?
Come to think of it he says, so do most women????

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:16 pm

There's one at the back of the power supply to completely cut off power to the entire thing, and the one at the front that puts it into a state of hibernation rather than cut off the power. Some motherboards have a small LED to show if it's totally off or not. Even though the PC is "off" when you turn it off from the front button, there's still a small amount of current going through it. Plus of course there's the reset button for if your PC crashes and you can't reboot any other way.

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:20 pm

If it's any consolation, the MD of a company I used to work for did the very same thing. One of my colleagues made up some silly story so he didn't have to tell the MD he'd forgotten to turn the power on. (Waste of time, I was friendly with his son, so I told his son, and his son passed on the message!) Laughing

ISTR that my niece (when she was 5) was regularly called upon to operate the VCR or DVD player for my mother. Kids are just little techies these days!

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:23 pm

H8DABS, we must be related Very Happy

want to compare family trees over PM? This is why I always bring chocolate to work for the IT people Laughing

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:49 pm

@ Wayne - Hibernation, motherboard, LED????? I was confused enough as it was, so I'll pass this on to little know it all. She will walk me through it.

@ Persephone - Choclate. I like that

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:28 pm

My wife drained the battery on her cell phone yesterday. After she charged it she handed it to me and said, "how do I turn it on?" (see when she brought it home the sales lady turned it on.)

After looking at the thing I decided to do what any guy would do... start pushing buttons...! The 6th button I pushed finally did something... the thing came alive! Surprised

I looked closer at the offending button and saw that it said END. Whaaa... Then on closer inspection I noticed that circle with a vertical line in it. At that point I calmly showed her the symbol and pointed out my genius on discovering that symbol. Laughing

Now if I could just figure out how to get the phone out of my *** the day will go a little better... Embarassed

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:44 pm

I did a stint in a One2One call centre so I've been on the other end of the phone when people phone in for help. You wouldnt believe the stuff I've heard!

Story One : Woman called in worried about sunspots affecting her mobile phone...no, I dont know either. Go figure.

Story Two : Bloke bought a phone from a shop in Cardiff. He called in to complain that he was a miner and that it didnt work underground! Quite apart from the obvious dangers of igniting gas pockets etc, he presumably had missed the point of a 'radio' signal!

Story Three : Very important businessman with a slight understanding of phones called in to say that he 'understood that the phone wouldnt work in Pakistan (because there is no network coverage there), but he would be flying over Germany on the way and could he use it then! Shocked

Story Four : Bloke calles in very angry. He has just bought a brand new Ericsson A1018 (one of those old bricks) and hasnt been 'able to make a phone call for three weeks'. I go through the standard fault finding and completely unable to diagnose the problem, I ask him what colour the light is on the handset (orange for error, green for live etc). He says, what light? Ah ha! A light dawns in my brain. "Please would you press and hold the 'no' button for me sir". Beep, beep, beep. "Oh! It never did that before....(slight pause)...sorry to trouble you, good bye"

Story Five : Elderly father gets a new mobile phone and is playing with it, turning it on and off and on again. So, I ring him from my mobile. I hear a yelp and a thud. He'd only thrown it on the floor in fright!

I could go on. Like the old AOL helpdesk story, some people are just too stupid to own any type of electrical gadget (no offence H8DABS). I have every sympathy for people who dont understand, but honestly, people really ought to stop and think before ringing a helpdesk Very Happy

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 12:57 am

That's why I'm glad I've learned to build & troubleshoot my own PCs. My wife & kids PC (smartly keep them off of mine Wink

) wouldn't turn on. Replaced the power supply and it was up again in no time. Can't imagine what it would cost to bring it to a "shop" for repair.

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:33 am

Don't feel bad H8DABS like FireWyrm I have lots of stories.

Current one is amusing. I set up a laptop for an A type client. Very wealthy and driven type with NO time to waste.

To logging into the new profile I put a large, 1"x1", sticker right next to the glidepad with USERNAME:xxxxxx & PASSWORD:xxxxx on it.

Guess what my first phone call from the client was? Laughing