Jedi IT powers.......

[RADA]

Some of you IT pros here must have experienced a similar situation sometime in your careers...



I get a call from one of the shipping/receiving guys saying his printer is spitting out junk, since I have another co-worker at my desk explaining the problem she's having with her phone (we take care of phone issues too) I tell the shipping guy, "I'm finishing up a problem and I'll be right out".

So I walk over to Mary's desk, she picks up the phone, and we both hear a very loud squelching-static noise coming from it.. She hangs up, I pick up the receiver - perfect dial tone. I hang it up, pick it up again, prefect dial tone. She gets a perplexed look on her face, and picks up the handset again - to hear the same squelching static coming from it!! We both look at each other, as she hands me the phone, the static is immediately replaced with a dial tone.! Since these are digital phones, I unplug the network cable, unplug the power cord, and let it sit for around 90 seconds. Plug everything back in - works fine. Mary thanks me, and I head for the warehouse to look into Gary's printer issue..

Mary is around 10 steps behind me - she needs to check on a sales order she wanted shipped, so I wait for her. I can see the line printer at Gary's desk printing four or five lines, then feeding through to a new page.

By then we're about 5 feet from Gary's work station, and as I'm about to tell Gary to shut the printer off, it starts printing normally! No errors, no feeding of paper, nothing! Mary turns to Gary and says "I think he has powers over our equipment. If I have a problem, all Fred has to do is get near my PC and the problem goes away!" Gary agrees, "Yeah, all Fred or Marty (fellow IT guy) have to do is get close to my computer and it works OK!" We all laugh, I have Gary send another order requisition to the printer, without any errors. I tell him call me if it happens again, and start to walk off. The printer has a meltdown, back to feeding pages, printing 5 lines, then feeding again. I turn around, walk over to the printer, as I get withn 5 feet of it again, it prints normally!! Gary and Mary both have looks on their faces that almost yell "I told you so!" I shut off Gary's printer, pull the power cord, hit the power button to drain any residual electrons, plug it back in, and turn it on. Works fine....

Mary calls to me, "I'm in awe of your Jedi IT powers, Master.." We all laugh..


So who here has had similar IT encounters?

[Cyclonite]

I have a user here who calls me Magneto, because every time I walk in her office her problems go away. Now, I know the name seems like it should portray the opposite. I never argued with her the first time, so it kind of stuck.

[primesuspect]

I had a client call me in a total panic, i could hear rapid beeping in the background. He was yelling: "Do you HEAR THAT? My computer won't do ANYTHING! The mouse won't work, it's blinking rapidly, the computer won't stop BEEPING, no KEYS WORK, and this project is DUE in TWO HOURS. HELP"

I said "Randy, calm down. Stop yelling. Breathe. Okay?"

Randy: "Okay. Okay... What do I need to do? Can you get out here?"

Me: "Randy, look to the left of the keyboard. See that pile of papers? Move it off of the keyboard. It fell onto the keys."

Randy: ".............. (beeping stops"

Randy: "...... what... the ****...... you're like a computer SORCERER."

Me: (thinking: no randy, you're just a slob :p )

[Cyclonite]

Haha! I've seen that one more times than I'd like to remember.

[GHoosdum]

Great story, Fred! This kind of thing has happened to me as well. It's as if there's some kind of aura that we exude that scares the equipment back into line.

[tmh88]

One time my computer froze, so I reset it, and it worked.

[Crazy Joe]

Same here. The kids at school all think that I have "Magic Fingers." I can touch something and get it to work.

[Crazy Joe]

One time my computer froze, so I reset it, and it worked.

I actually had that as an interview question once. What would you do to fix a computer that was accepting no input at all. I felt dumb saying that the only thing I could think of was to reset it. That was the correct answer but the guy interviewing me said that many people wouldn't even think of that.

[CB]

In a past workplace, I was often on the recieving end of someone with Jedi tech powers. When I was working at NCTV (a public access station in Northern Kentucky) as a digital A/V editor, sometimes I would have odd problems with the decks or with the G5 that we used for all the high-priority video editing.

I would spend 25 minutes sometimes trying to figure out why the deck wasn't transmitting any sound, or why the rewind button wasn't doing anything, or one of a dozen other stoopid problems. Finally I would call my supervisor, Bill, over to see if he could help me.

Almost everytime I called Bill over, the problem would be fixed when I tried to reproduce the issue. It was almost a daily occurrence, and he rarely even had to touch the damn equipment. He would just roll his eyes at me and walk away. Eventually I think he started to believe I was doing it on purpose...

[Winfrey]

Same here. The kids at school all think that I have "Magic Fingers." I can touch something and get it to work.

same experience except with women...:wink:

[FelixDeSouze]

Yeah, must be the IT boffins.. Lot's of times someone has said to me "It's not working" and I try to do the same thing and bam it works first time!!

Spoooky!

[RyderOCZ]

same experience except with women...:wink:Pfft, you just had to play that card :range: :hrm:

[Winfrey]

I keep thinking I should at least wave my hand like Obi-Wan or something. But they all just indicate it's not necessary.:tongue::D:cool:

:rolleyes:

[CB]

"These are not the BSODs you're looking for."