Embarrassing Moments in Computer Service

[slgrieb]

One time (many years ago) in my dad's computer business we used to use Western Digital's software that came on floppy with hard drives (I think it was called EZ Drive if I remember correctly)

Takes me way back! So many of those older disk utilities were about as likely to toast a drive as to work correctly. How many of you remember On Track's Drive Mangler?

[slgrieb]

That reminds me of something. I have since had surgery on my eyes but a long time ago, my vision was pretty bad (20/600 and 20/400). I was dumping something big into a dumpster and knocked myself in the face. In the process, one of the lens popped out of my glasses. I looked and looked and looked. I was desperate to get that lens back because I could not perform my job without it. Finally, I found it in my shirt pocket.

Congratulations! You are one of the very few people I know who have had worse eyesight than mine. I plan to do the surgery thing, but I'm going to wait a bit until Medicare kicks in and my cataracts are worse.

[Webhead]

Sorry if you don't get the thread.

Sorry if you don't get sarcasm. (<-- I even included the smiley -- twice)

[Tekboy]

I actually killed a brand new HDD by handling the board on the back, when i was new. It would not power up at all while the drive was connected to the computer after that. Sam's club replaced the drive, but I was really embarrassed by the whole thing.

[slgrieb]

Sorry if you don't get sarcasm. (<-- I even included the smiley -- twice)

If you say so.

[3fingersalute]

I actually killed a brand new HDD by handling the board on the back, when i was new. It would not power up at all while the drive was connected to the computer after that. Sam's club replaced the drive, but I was really embarrassed by the whole thing.

That reminds me of another one. One time (again while in high school and working part time at my father's store) I had a hard drive that wouldn't recognize. I bent over to put my ear to it to hear if it was spinning up and my earring (remember I was in high school at the time) hit the circuit board, shorted something out and the drive was indeed toast at that point. Odds are it was dead anyhow, but that made 100% certain it was

[slgrieb]

I hit a weird one last week. A client called after a particularly nasty round of thunderstorms (even by High Plains standards) to tell me he didn't have a power light on his monitor and no display. I asked him if all the other devices connected to the surge suppressor were working, he said they did, so I suggested a replacement monitor was in order.

Monitor in hand, I went to the site, swapped monitors using the same power cable and VGA cable, and the new monitor wouldn't light when I hit the power button. Hmm. I tried a different plug on the power strip. Still no joy. So I used a new power cable and the monitor instantly came up. So, at this point the client is asking, "Did I just buy a new monitor when all I needed was a power cord?" He wasn't very happy.

So I took the old monitor with the old power cord across the room, plugged it into a different outlet, hit the power button, and the monitor fired right up. Doggone. The client and I are looking at each other a little lost for words, then he finally says, "Well, I guess I'll keep this as a spare."

[Overdrv]

I once had a Cursed Case. No matter what I installed into it it would crash and Freeze
Main Boards, Cpu's, Sticks of ram, Hard Drives, Power supplies and every other part you can think of was swapped in and out of this case and they all didn't work right. Install them in another case and there was no problems.

I ever tried using a different switch and led block and still nothing. This case stumped me and 3 other experienced techs and to this day I can't think why a case would cause that many problems.