I am just wondering what kind of computer repair horror stories other people have in here. I work on both Mac and peecee's at the office and have several from both sides of the fence. Typically (at least 90% of the time) the Mac problems can be fixed in under a few hours. Most of the time (at least 75% of the time) the peecee issues require research for updates, and then jumping through hoops to get the things fixed.
One of my favorite, and way too common, items happens when people's system crash when they are printing to a networked printer. I don't know how many times I have told them what to do so that they can work again fast. It never seems to sink in for very long. All they need to do is start up without extensions active (doesn't everyone know how to do that?), open up the desktop printer and delete any/all files inside of it. After another restart they are back up and running. Granted, they have to send those pages to the printer again, but at least they are running. I had a user tonight (normally among the savy list) that crashed and couldn't get his computer to function. He went and was working on another system after letting us know. I went over to see what was up, since it was late and I didn't feel like spending another few hours at the office. After talking with him for a few minutes, I was able to get the circumstances of the crash from him. I went over, rebooted the system, zapped the PRAM, and then started up without extension active. Once the system was up, I had to dig through the file of icons on his desktop (lower resolution then normally, and he has a screen full when it is at the higher res.) to find the printers. Two had files in them, which I deleted. I restarted him once again and informed him that it was back up and running. He also has an occasional issue with the pro mouse (on a system that didn't ship with it, and attached to a Macally keyboard) where it will not respond. Unplugging it and plugging it back in normally fixes that. I will be delivering an USB extension to him on Monday so that he can connect he mouse directly into the back of the system (fixes that about 95% of the time). We are also trying to get a second internal drive for him, since he typically fills up the 20GB drive that is inside the computer. Once that happens, he starts to have problems running applications like PhotoShop (imagine that).
That is just one of the MINOR stories.. there are plenty more where that came from. Most of the nasty ones have to deal with peecee's or users too stupid to be allowed to breed.
One of my favorite, and way too common, items happens when people's system crash when they are printing to a networked printer. I don't know how many times I have told them what to do so that they can work again fast. It never seems to sink in for very long. All they need to do is start up without extensions active (doesn't everyone know how to do that?), open up the desktop printer and delete any/all files inside of it. After another restart they are back up and running. Granted, they have to send those pages to the printer again, but at least they are running. I had a user tonight (normally among the savy list) that crashed and couldn't get his computer to function. He went and was working on another system after letting us know. I went over to see what was up, since it was late and I didn't feel like spending another few hours at the office. After talking with him for a few minutes, I was able to get the circumstances of the crash from him. I went over, rebooted the system, zapped the PRAM, and then started up without extension active. Once the system was up, I had to dig through the file of icons on his desktop (lower resolution then normally, and he has a screen full when it is at the higher res.) to find the printers. Two had files in them, which I deleted. I restarted him once again and informed him that it was back up and running. He also has an occasional issue with the pro mouse (on a system that didn't ship with it, and attached to a Macally keyboard) where it will not respond. Unplugging it and plugging it back in normally fixes that. I will be delivering an USB extension to him on Monday so that he can connect he mouse directly into the back of the system (fixes that about 95% of the time). We are also trying to get a second internal drive for him, since he typically fills up the 20GB drive that is inside the computer. Once that happens, he starts to have problems running applications like PhotoShop (imagine that).
That is just one of the MINOR stories.. there are plenty more where that came from. Most of the nasty ones have to deal with peecee's or users too stupid to be allowed to breed.
