To talk on Icrontic, just register!

It only takes 30 seconds.

Have an account? Sign in:

Forgot?
 
Reply to Discussion Options
Clutch
I'm the man in the box
Clutch
4,805 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 3:40am

Never ceases to amaze me

I swear, everytime a client brings me their computer because it is slow or something, when I boot it up, I'm always hit with a 15 min boot up and 30 million programs running, and a desktop to where you can't see what the background is. And then you get a system that is so old, windows 95 would have a hard time running on it.

Here is a pic of a customers computer, she said it want turn on. Sure enough, the cheap ass psu that was in it is toast. But I mean look at all these shortcuts and programs she has on her desktop.




oh and here is another shot of another clients computer that the hard drive is dead in, its got a whopping 75mhz pentium in that sucker, kudos to packard bell.

Reply with Quote
primesuspect
The Icrontic Guy
primesuspect
27,798 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 3:48am
I told you way back when! You ask for it when you sign on to fix "home computers".. You gotta stick with business clients, let best buy take care of these poor saps.
__________________ "I offer my genius to the world, all I ask is you pick up my expenses"
Reply with Quote
fatcat
sasquatch wannabe
fatcat
3,989 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 3:49am
heh, some good stories there...
i had my father-in-law yesterday ask me if his computer would run cable internet because the cable company says min requirements are 266pII and he's running a 233pII. he was worried it wouldnt work.

fc
__________________ "To the heart and mind, ignorance is kind, and there's no comfort in the truth. Pain is all you'll find"
Reply with Quote
Clutch
I'm the man in the box
Clutch
4,805 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 3:58am
primesuspect said
I told you way back when! You ask for it when you sign on to fix "home computers".. You gotta stick with business clients, let best buy take care of these poor saps.

I know prime, but the lady with the psu problem is a friend of my aunts, and heck I can pop in a new psu and hook everything up in about 8 min or so after I get one in. The sad part is, she said she custom ordered it around 2 or 3 years ago for 2 grand, and its got a pIII 450mhz in it. As far as the packard bell, well I'm just not going to touch it, not worth my time.
Reply with Quote
Madball
Resident Carpenter
Madball
410 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 4:01am
I feel your pain. I had a lady bring me two computers that she wanted to get working for the internet and kids games. One was a Pentium 90, the onther one was unknown because it wouldn't post, but it looked even older. I told here it would cost her more for me to touch them than they were worth. She didn't like that answer, but I wasn't going to touch them
__________________
Reply with Quote
Cyclonite
Castle Crashin'!
Cyclonite
3,414 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 4:42am
Clutch said
oh and here is another shot of another clients computer that the hard drive is dead in, its got a whopping 75mhz pentium in that sucker, kudos to packard bell.

Man! I had one of those!
__________________

Reply with Quote
panzerkw
Forum Ninja
panzerkw
889 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 4:51am
Point 'em here so we can learn'em something about computers built this decade.
__________________ 1987 300ZX (Z31) Turbo

My Z31 Videos Tour of my Z31 CM 3" Exhaust clip My Z31 on the Dyno
Reply with Quote
Clutch
I'm the man in the box
Clutch
4,805 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 5:09am
I would panz, but they barely know how to turn them on. So I just try to get the job done and move on.
__________________ PV2 Hewett
Ft. Carson, Co
1-22 Infantry Regiment
4th Infantry Division
Reply with Quote
panzerkw
Forum Ninja
panzerkw
889 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 5:17am
Or, you could tell them to buy a mac
Reply with Quote
Thrax
Cad
Thrax
23,405 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 5:20am
It's probably harder to find the power switch on one of those. They go so far with aesthetics you probably have to chant a 2600 year old Pagan incantation, do the power dance, and then make a Sub-Atomic Nuclear Power Flow Device™.
__________________ Robert Hallock
Technical Analyst
Twitter | LinkedIn

CPU: Core 2 Duo E6420 @ 3.5GHz (500*7)
MoBo: DFI LanParty DK P35-T2R/S
RAM: 4GB G.SKILL PC8500
VID: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275
HSF: Thermalright Ultra-120
Reply with Quote
mmonnin
Veteran Icrontian
mmonnin
10,545 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 5:40am

Re: Re: Never ceases to amaze me

Trekky8472 said
Clutch said
oh and here is another shot of another clients computer that the hard drive is dead in, its got a whopping 75mhz pentium in that sucker, kudos to packard bell.

Man! I had one of those!
I had a 60mhz version. Top o the line at the time tho. Wasnt a week after we got it tho. Still runs at my gmas house.
__________________ Stanford Team Stats_____________Team Short-Media
Statsman Team Stats______________EOC Team Stats
Reply with Quote
primesuspect
The Icrontic Guy
primesuspect
27,798 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 5:50am
Thrax said
It's probably harder to find the power switch on one of those. They go so far with aesthetics you probably have to chant a 2600 year old Pagan incantation, do the power dance, and then make a Sub-Atomic Nuclear Power Flow Device™.
OR, you could just push the big round button in the dead center of the thing.
Reply with Quote
Tropical
looking for something to do
Tropical
87 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 7:25am
i fix computers for FREE, i need to start charging for my services! Anyway i feel your pain, people are just...One friend had so much crap in his computer that the thing booted in like an hour and it moved the mouse a inch per minute! Another time this friend had so much bible music in his hard drive, it was increadible! Clicking Hidden on the files properties won't do you any good to hide those files!. Another friend told me that a bunch of popups where popping up every second, I knew it was spyware right away but when i got there, it was a computer guy worst nightmare! there were like 10000 spyware programs running in the background! I really don't know how these people do so much damage!
Reply with Quote
Tropical edited : 8 Jun 2003 at 7:27am .
tefleming
polytetrafluoroethylene
tefleming
471 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 7:45am
Never do anything for free.

Don't bother running adaware at that point just reformat.

If possible, don't work on the computer onsite, there is little that is more annoying than having to explain everything you do (at least with my clientelle) to a soccer mom (what's that??, why are you taking that off?)

Pick up the computer, fix it, return it. That way you can also work on it at your leisure. I also don't usually bill by the hour but by the task. (40 System Restore, 5 Office Install, 10 X 2 Minor software install, etc)

I always bill by the hour if I work onsite, that way if they want to chat you up while you're trying to work, at least they're paying for it :-)
__________________ [center]the non-stickiest of the icky[/center]
Reply with Quote
Xyphus
Tech Junkie
Xyphus
110 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 4:44pm
Ugh... Just "fixed" a PC for my boss... Her's was taking at least 15 minutes to boot and as you found, she had every shortcut imaginable on the desktop.. But to top it all off, she uses AOL. However, some of the programs she had running were setup programs for DSL and Cable services. (which she doesn't even have). Throw in Gator and Kazaa for good measure, add in that she has 64MB RAM running W98. Once I *finally* got into the system and unloaded all the exta apps. (about 20+ silly goofy un-needed programs loading at startup) I was actually able to do something. First off, I ran AdAware Plus to get rid of the (I kid you not) 385 spyware programs. I repaired her registry, de-fragged her drive and threw in another 128MB RAM.

It actually runs somewhat decent now. I explained NOT to start every goofy program under the sun at startup. Especially if you are never going to use it.

And then a co-worker's PC died and she wanted advice on what to order. She was going to go with a Dell for around $900-$1000. I told her that I could build her something just as good or better for much less... Threw together an nForce2 system with an 1800+ and 256MB RAM, along with a 40GB drive and all the trimmings (CDRW, DVD, etc.) for $500. I charged her $100 for my time, and she still ended up paying quite a bit less than going through Dell..

(and Tech Support is local too.. heh... )
__________________ The new music model... Magnatune, the open music record label...

Reply with Quote
danball1976
Veteran Icrontian
danball1976
2,634 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 5:35pm
I get annoyed when I have to upgrade the computer for my parents. They won't buy the parts, so I have to buy them. I spent $200 on their computer. And another thing, they never run scandisk and defrag. My brother doesn't see the point in why you would want to, and explaining anything to them doesn't help.
It took me nearly 15-20 minutes to get my mom to believe me (on Yahoo IM) that the floppy drive was the A:\ drive.

Plus, when the original 17.2GB Western Digital died, my brother didn't install the new 40GB Western Digital ATA100 himself, he said he couln't understand the instructions on how to install it. So he took it to best buy, they told him to buy a the Siig ATA133 RAID controller (the one I sold on Icrontic a month ago), and told him that the card would slow the hard drive down so that the CPU could keep up (A Duron 600MHz), so what he did was put the card in one of the PCI slots, connect a IDE ribbon from the card to one of the IDE connectors on the motherboard. Also, when I got to shepperd AFB (for Comm Nav/Bomb Nav Tech School) and my parents brought me my computer to me, I found my WindowsME install disk in the drive, my brother apparently attempted to install WindowsME over WinXP on it. I had to renistall XP because WinME messed it up

Kind of explains why I never was able to save money when I lived with them, they never helped me out, and they are always spending money on other things.
__________________
Visit my Deviant Art profile - Visit my Fur Affinity profile
Reply with Quote
danball1976 edited : 8 Jun 2003 at 5:43pm .
Thrax
Cad
Thrax
23,405 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 5:39pm
primesuspect said
Thrax said
It's probably harder to find the power switch on one of those. They go so far with aesthetics you probably have to chant a 2600 year old Pagan incantation, do the power dance, and then make a Sub-Atomic Nuclear Power Flow Device™.
OR, you could just push the big round button in the dead center of the thing.
Or...You could be like the caller my Dell tech-support friend had to field. She set her computer up, plugged it in, then waited 57 minutes for it to turn on. "What power switch?" was the exact quote...
Reply with Quote
panzerkw
Forum Ninja
panzerkw
889 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 5:52pm
Maybe if power switches just said ON/OFF instead of that line throught the circle.
Reply with Quote
Clutch
I'm the man in the box
Clutch
4,805 Posts
8 Jun 2003, 6:04pm
panzerkw said
Maybe if power switches just said ON/OFF instead of that line throught the circle.

That would be too easy wouldn't it, haha
Reply with Quote
aZnWanksta
alone
aZnWanksta
76 Posts
10 Jun 2003, 8:05pm
Yea, it probably would be. Most people still don't get the whole binary"on/off" idea...
__________________ Where the hell do you go on the weekends that requires you to wear the gay cowboy costume? - DJ-Quack
Reply with Quote
leishi85
JUMP JUMP JUMP
leishi85
2,451 Posts
13 Jun 2003, 2:31am
hey i got an idea, why don't we make a thread dedicated to stories we came across about stupid computer users?
Reply with Quote
Clutch
I'm the man in the box
Clutch
4,805 Posts
13 Jun 2003, 3:54am
Sounds good to me leishi85, I'm sure we can fill it up pretty quick, lol
Reply with Quote
oddharmonic
Have serger, will travel
oddharmonic
42 Posts
13 Jun 2003, 4:53am
My mother-in-law STILL has her Packard Bell. When we were home last month, she asked me to look at her computer while I was down at her house. The only thing I could do for it could be to add RAM, but the only way to max out her particular model involves proprietary Packard Bell sticks which I was _not_ going to buy at the prices I could find for it (around $70 per 64MB stick).

If I can find something decent <$700 or so this summer, she's getting my current box (a 500 MHz Dell box we put newer drives in) and it'll still be an order of magnitude up from what she has now.

Seems I'm one of the lucky ones, though -- while my parents and siblings regularly ask me for computer help, they pay for parts. What amazes me is that they're so proud of this they think I could get a job in IT. (I couldn't code my way out of a paper bag.)
Reply with Quote
Clutch
I'm the man in the box
Clutch
4,805 Posts
13 Jun 2003, 5:17am
Yes, people are really scared about loosing there precious data. I had one customer who used the system restore disk that came with her compaq and she wanted her photos off of her drive. Nothing I could do for her, they were gone. People think a lot of their computers, until you tell them it isn't worth upgrading, then they think you are crazy if you want to build them a custom one for $500, trust me I have had this happen a lot in my business.
Reply with Quote
leishi85
JUMP JUMP JUMP
leishi85
2,451 Posts
13 Jun 2003, 2:14pm
Clutch, couldn't you just use one of thiose data recovery software and try to recover some of her photos??

i accidently formatted one of my drives when i was reinstalling windows, and i used those software, and to my suprise, i recovered most of my mp3, and bible music.
Reply with Quote
Clutch
I'm the man in the box
Clutch
4,805 Posts
13 Jun 2003, 5:33pm
I could have, but she said that they really weren't important and told me to not worry about it. That is when I thought "why is she wasting my time to recover data she doesn't care about" so I just left it like it was, no need in going through all that trouble.
Reply with Quote
oddharmonic
Have serger, will travel
oddharmonic
42 Posts
15 Jun 2003, 1:27pm
jdii1215 said
So, given that, be a trainer or a integrator of systems that do *um* graphics??? Computer aided drawing, or conversion of photos into art with Photo Paint??? People pay willingly to learn.
If that was directed at me, I should clarify that I don't want a job in IT. In fact, it mildly frightens me that basic tasks like putting RAM in someone's computer impresses my relatives that much.

Ideally, I'd like to work in textile and document conservation. I just have to buckle down and finish my undergrad work first. The most people-related thing I've ever done is be my class representative to my alma mater's alumni association, and that's only because I keep such meticulous records I had more contact information than the association.
Reply with Quote
Go Back   Icrontic Forums > Community > General Banter
Reload this Page Never ceases to amaze me
Jump to
This Thread Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Today's Posts - Mark All Read - Contact Us - Icrontic.com - Archive - Top

Current time: 3:47pm (GMT)
Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Get Vanilla instead. Trust me.