The Gaming Den

I repair stuff. Currently, computers. Also, sometimes, crap like MP3 players, maybe a graphic card, HDD or two.

Anyway, to repair computers you need to comunicate with people who pwn them. And therein lies my problem. I hate most of the people. They can't explain what is wrong. Why? You worked on it and theeeen?? Did it just black out? Did it go whoomp? Did it freeze-up? Whaaaat? But, noooo, all i get as a faul description is: IT DOESN'T WORK!! No fvckin' way, butwipe, it doesn't work? Well, i guess you sent it here to let me just look at it and go "wow, that's a nice computer".

So, that's my usual day. It is also sprinkled with crap from my boss(Yes, I see that you have 5 comps to fix today, but this one is for a buddy of mine), my other boss, or one of my lazy coworkers. But, today, today i'm in a world of hurt.
The descriptions were:

• 
  
• something doesn't work
  
• the computer sounds like there's a fan or something inside
  
• the computer worked and then the kid went to supper and then the computer stopped working
  
• one earphone is longer than the other - this one is for an MP3 player
  

I hate my job. It messes with my mental health. It makes me think of people as Users and Normals. It makes me think about computers all day long. I think it stupidizes me. It makes me make up words like stupidize.
And you know what the best thing is? I took this job because of this nasty habit of mine called eating and sleeping indoors. And now it is sucking the life out of me.
And the absolutely worst thing is the fact that i went to a 5 year college to get a degree in Biochemical Engineering, because it was the hot shit job at that time, only to become the last year fad by the time i get out of college. DAAAAAMN.

Oh hey another computer repairman with an arrogance complex who hates his job. This is new and exciting!

Maybe the fact that they don't know anything about why their computer is broken bring them in because they don't know anything about why their computer. Because that's your job.

Okay, so i'm the stereotype. But let's make an analogy with medicine.

Doctor: So, can you tell me something about your problem?
Patient: Well, i'm not feeling well.
Doctor: Do you feel depressed or are you simply tired? Do you have any pains?
Patient: I'm not good.
Doctor(chuckle): So, you've been a bad boy. Just kidding. Okay, in what way are you not good? Can you tell me more?
Patient: Yes, i can. I am not well in an ungood way.

Get it? If I could get at least one symptom, it could be nice.
How this conversatin should end is:

*
15 minutes of mindfvcking later
*
Doctor(takes out a scalpel and plunges it into the patients eyesocket): Look at that, it seems we finaly figured it out. You have eye trouble.

The problem with your analogy is that a doctor is trained in the knowledge of medicines and maybe chirurgy, not just knowledge about diseases, whereas your whole job is just the knowledge about computers. If people perfectly knew what was wrong with their computer, they could fix it themselves!

So, what's the usual way of doing these things where you work? Is it like Microcenter or a small buisiness?

People are often embarrassed by their lack of knowledge of how their computer works, and don't feel obligated to make stuff up. Press them and they get defensive. Sometimes they haven't even looked at the computer. Maybe their kid told them it was borkn, and they just bundled it up at took it to the shop. Haven't even tried turning it on.

This is one reason it's different from being a doctor: people almost always think they know whats going on with their own bodies. If they don't they can look stuff up online. Very few people want to know computers on the same level as their own bodies.

the computer sounds like there's a fan or something inside

And I think that This Link might provide a more helpful model for your repairman/customer interactions.

I have to admit, though, sometimes even as a professional, I don't have anything particularly good to tell the repair.

My laptop: I was using it, and it stopped. Literally. I tried to reset it, that didn't work. Then it wouldn't turn on.

This turns out to be a bad logic board, probably hardware failure from heat/overuse. But there's no symptom beyond 'it doesn't work'.

...But 'one earphone is longer that the other?' That means you wear it on that side, usually...

-Crissa

You have seen the IT Crowd right?

Its not a great example but...
helpdeskbitfromepisode1

Its got Mighty Boosh actors in it and is pretty good over all, the "have you tried turning it off and on again?" joke appears in every episode.

Never seen it before, it's actually funny. The helpdesk people do behave like that. I should know, i ran one.

But today, the link that Josh posted has got my sympathy. The repair sheet that i fill in had nearly the same kind of sarcastic remarks written on it today. Damn it, it just wasn't a good day to repair.

MrWaesel wrote:The problem with your analogy is that a doctor is trained in the knowledge of medicines and maybe chirurgy, not just knowledge about diseases, whereas your whole job is just the knowledge about computers. If people perfectly knew what was wrong with their computer, they could fix it themselves!

I never expect anyone to actually know what was/is wrong with their computer. I simply expect people to say what happened. Look at Crissas post. Although she says that there was no symptom beyond it doesn't work, she actualy described what happened. Even as i read that 1 single line, i figured it was HDD or MBO. It would take me 5 mins to figure out which is it. But "it doesn't work" and nothing else doesn't really make my job easy or your repair on time.

josephbt at [unixtime wrote:1171029333[/unixtime]]
It makes me make up words like stupidize.

But seriously, I agree. They should be able to describe something, anything that can help.

The turn it off turn it on thing is funny cause its true. I'm on a help desk for a government department. In any big computer system there is a heap of things that happen when you log on that just isn't there on your home system. At least half the time you can fix a problem by rebooting since most problems don't happen the second time.

Now a lot of fixes require a reboot, so pretty often the ten minutes spent stuffing around dosen't fix it, the mandatory restart does. Hence the reboot first ask questions later attitude.

Draco_Argentum at [unixtime wrote:1171087711[/unixtime]]The turn it off turn it on thing is funny cause its true. I'm on a help desk for a government department. In any big computer system there is a heap of things that happen when you log on that just isn't there on your home system. At least half the time you can fix a problem by rebooting since most problems don't happen the second time.

Now a lot of fixes require a reboot, so pretty often the ten minutes spent stuffing around dosen't fix it, the mandatory restart does. Hence the reboot first ask questions later attitude.

Why the hell does that happen anyway? I mean why would some problem exist one time and then not happen the next just beacuse you restarted the computer, when it is presumably executing the exact same instructions when you restart it.

wrote:Why the hell does that happen anyway?

Pixies.

Trust me, I'm a qualified computer scientist, I know what I'm talking about.

Sure, but the power in isn't perfect and smooth. Lower voltage makes the signal strength lower so you get errors.

Also when you're on a network a lot of those instructions require the network connection. If thats down stuff dosen't happen.

Or things like writing to the drives or reading takes certain amount of time, which is not an exact number. Variables need to be initialized, and if the data isn't there, it doesn't happen quite right.

Machine parts are cold, or don't have enough energy yet. Written or cleanup from the shut down wasn't done right or needs to be done again.

And with Windows, since it has that nasty registry, it's going through hundreds of thousands of useless possibly useful instructions for things which may or may not be needed - all while going through the hardware initialization.

It's a busy street and sometimes things don't happen in the same sequence.

-Crissa

... or to paraphrase Crissa and Draco...

Pixies.

MrWaeseL at [unixtime wrote:1171047026[/unixtime]]The problem with your analogy is that a doctor is trained in the knowledge of medicines and maybe chirurgy, not just knowledge about diseases, whereas your whole job is just the knowledge about computers. If people perfectly knew what was wrong with their computer, they could fix it themselves!

I think you're missing the point - having worked in a similar field (tech support) I understand what the thread starter meant.

It's not that he's got some holier-than-thou mindset, it's that some people are overly stupid about things. Yes, it's obvious the computer doesn't work - but perhaps they could filli n questions like what they did previous to it not working. For instance, was any new hardware installed? Did you tinker with any settings? Perhaps you let someone else use it? Did you install new system altering software? Etc.

Some honestly DON'T answer any of that, they say "I don't know".

One such response I heard that made me go "wtf?": Upon finding out that I had a decent knowledge of fixing computer related problems a person told me his DVD burner on his computer was not working - I asked "Oh, what happend with it?" (obviously asking what happend when it stopped working, not what's wrong with it) he said "I dont' know, i guess I pressed the wrong button or something" (not verbatim and translated from another language, forgive the overly general phrasing of it)...

I asked "really? Was the button big, round, red, covered in a glass box and said "self-destruct" on it?". There really isn't a way to press the "wrong button" and make your dvd burner not work, perhaps lock the system and make it crash but not physically disable a device... that requires some serious problems.

...unless the button was 'delete' and he had selected his DVD's drivers... which I doubt he even knew what they were...

And no, I'm not making that up. Granted the guy was in highschool, still... that's pretty damn stupid.

He's going

"What happened?" And wants
a) I was using Word and an error called GPF popped up and it died, then the system crashed and my document's gone!
b) I was online, and I got a window "SVCHost is shut down." and it rebooted
c) The mp3 drive hung in midtransfer and stopped working
d) The magic smoke went out of the tower besides my monitor

not

a) it doesn't work

Heck, not even getting the error message right but saying 'it stopped working while I was typing' or 'It was idle and didn't wake up' or ...

Heck, even 'I plugged it in and it didn't boot' would be a start.

-Crissa

Okay, just a little update. The guy that said "there's a fan or something in the computer" just shouted the hell out of me.

I told him that a loose wire from the power supply fell on the fan and that's why it was making a noise. No problem, i fastened the wires, so i won't happen again.

Customer wrote:There is no need to invent stuff up. I've been using computers for 5 years, young man! I would've know if there was a fan inside the computer. Now fix it and don't make stuff up.

:jawdrop:

So i just stood there and looked like a turd. I took his computer back and i'm gonna change his MBO and charge him for work and the components. And he's gonna be happy. Because it can't be the fan. Computers aren't supposed to have fans. They are supposed to have costly stuff.

Uh, I think I'd have pulled the damn thing open in front of him and showed it to the guy. But damn, that's pretty friggin' stupid...

I would have told him to take his business elsewhere if he didn't beleive me.

Nah... If a customer thinks s/h/it knows better than I do and thus thinks the cost should be greater, I'm more than happy to charge them more so they can live with their delusion of "quality."

I'd charge him labour costs to open the case and show him the fan.

Then tell him to fuck off and not come back.