Experiences with non-techies

[Mitko_DSV]

11 hours ago, OscarMike said:

so heres another good one from my own stupidity. 

so i got my cousin a second hand laptop for christmass. and im trying to set it up with getting windows and drivers etc. but it wont connect to the internet.

the wifi just wont work. i go into network settings and try turning on the wifi manually. but it keeps setting itself to the "off" position. i use a cable and the internet works fine. i thought it might be the drivers so i install the correct drivers but still no joy. so finally i reinstall windows. start from scratch but still i cant get the wifi to work. at this point i think its a dead wifi chip. untill..... i notice the laptop has a switch at the front underneath which disables the wifi. problem solved.... rip me. 

I've had a similar thing happen. A few years ago my uncle gave us his laptop to fix, after it sat at a PC repair shop for 3 weeks and they did nothing, but wanted payment... Well he got his laptop back and gave it to us to fix, one of the two RAM sticks was dead and removing it fixed the issue. Laptop is working, but WiFi is not. We tried everything we could think of, reinstalled Windows a couple of times, nothing helped. Dissasembled the laptop, cheked all connections, cheked the antenas, no issue. Just as we are about to give up, because we were out of ideas, we noticed it had a WiFi switch in a kinda hidden position, we flipped the switch and the WiFi started working.

[WhitetailAni]

Spoiler

People be like: OMG he is hacking!
Me: No... it's just Linux...

People: Linux is hacking!
Me: Wait, how did you get in my house?

 

Also:

Spoiler

 

[Bitter]

That's kind of why I turn off GUI boot on my Linux systems, it looks cool, I can see what's happening if something is going wrong, and it has that 'wow' to people who don't know. I should see if Win10 has a non GUI boot option!

[WhitetailAni]

What's funny is that it got hung up there (I guess 17.3 doesn't like Optane) so I had to reboot and make a Linux Mint 20 USB stick to actually get a GUI.

I would enable that on everything but I kinda like the graphical Windows 10 (and OS X) booting screens.

I really only use Verbose Mode for OS X if I need to troubleshoot something.

[WhitetailAni]

Derp moment time:

I installed some new hardware yesterday (LG WH16NS40, 34-pin floppy to USB converter, 5.25" to 3.5" front bay adapter with 2 USB ports) and had a few things go weird, but it all worked out.

I've been noticing that File Explorer has been a bit weird over the last month or so, and as I haven't had to reinstall Windows at all in November (breaking my 3-month streak of 1 reinstall per month), when I wasn't able to do anything after booting it up after restarting, I assumed it was time for a reinstall. I got the loading-dots-but-no-logo screen, set it to recovery mode, but it just brought up the mouse, no selection screen. I restarted, got me to the normal screen, and I noticed something: my keyboard and mouse no longer were working. I had booted into the BIOS to make sure nothing was screwed up, and both worked find there. My mouse is... not great, and you can see its light through the mouse via the scroll wheel hole.

Caps Lock wasn't doing anything either.

But everything else worked fine...

Turns out it was just Windows being annoyed for whatever reason at the ports my keyboard and mouse were plugged into. Swapped them around and it worked fine.

Lesson:

Windows is weird.

[soldier_ph]

One of my Classmates in the changing room after Sports today: Hey guys, I've got Spotify Premium but it doesn't work, I can't listen to my Playlists offline. Me: Well did you download your Playlist ? Them: Wait you have to do that ? 

 

Me: *Inner Facepalm*

[Donut417]

Just had to help my dad sign in to HBO Max. Let me put it this way, It ended with my taking a shot of Lemonade flavored Vodka. I dont drink pretty much ever. 

[WkdPaul]

I always thought it was a meme, turns out it's real ;

 

 

Source ;

https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgore/comments/kifgg6/it_finally_happened_at_my_work_new_build_not/

[Tan3l6]

But why would a person do this?

I mean what might have given the idea?

[WkdPaul]

1 hour ago, Tan3l6 said:

But why would a person do this?

I mean what might have given the idea?

Often, people that have just a little bit of knowledge on a subject get overconfident.

 

I knew someone like this once, he had a site business building PCs. He actually knew very little, but enough to bullshit himself and the people he was selling his services to. Those people are annoying AF because they're often wrong, but are strongly convinced they know everything there is to know.

[paddy-stone]

1 hour ago, wkdpaul said:

I always thought it was a meme, turns out it's real ;

 

 

Source ;

https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgore/comments/kifgg6/it_finally_happened_at_my_work_new_build_not/

I full-out choked laughing so hard at that one  

[paddy-stone]

On 12/8/2020 at 9:32 PM, OscarMike said:

so heres another good one from my own stupidity. 

so i got my cousin a second hand laptop for christmass. and im trying to set it up with getting windows and drivers etc. but it wont connect to the internet.

the wifi just wont work. i go into network settings and try turning on the wifi manually. but it keeps setting itself to the "off" position. i use a cable and the internet works fine. i thought it might be the drivers so i install the correct drivers but still no joy. so finally i reinstall windows. start from scratch but still i cant get the wifi to work. at this point i think its a dead wifi chip. untill..... i notice the laptop has a switch at the front underneath which disables the wifi. problem solved.... rip me. 

Yeah, my brother had a laptop like that. I used to admin his PC for him.

 

One day he phones me up and says he can't get on the internet anymore, so I go through a few steps with him, and realise that it should be connecting, and then I say to him "did you accidentally toggle the switch at the front?" he says yeah, but not accidentally, he thought it was something else and didn't twig the correlation of him toggling that and the wifi not working any more 

[Wishiwasdead]

I stopped trying to explain things to people who won't understand (or don't even want to try to understand) I simply recommend what they should do and then ask if they want me to do it for them... if they don't agree or don't want me to help, I say "OK and good luck" and then change the topic or walk away...

[WkdPaul]

8 hours ago, Wishiwasdead said:

I stopped trying to explain things to people who won't understand (or don't even want to try to understand) I simply recommend what they should do and then ask if they want me to do it for them... if they don't agree or don't want me to help, I say "OK and good luck" and then change the topic or walk away...

That's the best way to go about it. I get that people are trying to help, but if the other person doesn't want help, it's not worth spending energy on it. If they want to waste their money or time, it's on them.

[Mark Kaine]

On 12/23/2020 at 3:10 PM, wkdpaul said:

I always thought it was a meme, turns out it's real ;

to be fair I wanted to do this also on my first build (ryzen 2200G) thankfully the thermal paste was already pre applied which gave me a pause lol... 

 

Found this, almost as bad... but should be salvageable, probably! 

 

[WhitetailAni]

What kind of connector is that?
MPX ripoff or something?

[Speedbird]

56 minutes ago, Schnoz said:

It started raining in my area recently (you probably already know where this is going)  and I had to take care of this one...

 

Someone left their laptop out in the rain with the lid open. Yes,  anonymous laptop user, it is advertised to have a sealed keyboard. No, that does not mean that the laptop is IP68 waterproof.

 

Miraculously, it actually appeared to work fine for some reason. They were extremely lucky that there was little wind when it was raining--that could have blown water into the laptop from the sides. Those thick Thinkpads are tough.

Was expecting a Dell XPS until I saw the end.

[sub68]

14 hours ago, Speedbird said:

Was expecting a Dell XPS until I saw the end.

thinkpads can survive basically anything

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1860326-6-true-tales-of-thinkpad-laptops-cheating-death

[sub68]

1 minute ago, Schnoz said:

Well, the old ones could

yes

1 minute ago, Schnoz said:

In my  opinion, the T series is still a pretty  good

super true

1 minute ago, Schnoz said:

but the  A and SL series are...just on par.

a and e series is there budget line up and good build but not good build for longevity

3 minutes ago, Schnoz said:

The sealed keyboard (which helped that laptop survive a night of  rain), magnesium  roll cage, classic keyboard and screen  latch (which helped keep things from slipping in between the screen and keyboard  during transport)

at this point I would think on getting a toughbook

[Bitter]

I used to have a Pentium or maybe 486 IBM Thinkpad that I'm pretty sure could bludgeon a hippo to death. Not sure what ever happened to it. I had it and then I don't remember it anymore. Oh well...

 

Screen was TERRIBLE for games, so much blur and smear and it was pretty slow even for basic games like OMF2097 or Tyrian.

[sub68]

so I get a Wacom drawing tablet as a late birthday present from my sister.

my mom think when ever "tablet" is said its like a ipad and my mom thinks I watch p*rn when something goes on the internet (this last part has nothing to do with the next).

S for me and m for mom

m: does tthat go on the internet

s: no

m: than what is it

s: its basically a mouse except drawing on plastic paper

[WhitetailAni]

1 minute ago, sub68 said:

so I get a Wacom drawing tablet.

my mom think when ever "tablet" is said its like a ipad and my mom thinks I watch p*rn when something goes on the internet.

S for me and m for mom

m: does tthat go on the internet

s: no

m: than what is it

s: its basically a mouse except drawing on plastic paper

My mom has one of those.

And thankfully I live in a house where everyone is at least decently tech literate.

[sub68]

4 minutes ago, ragnarok0273 said:

And thankfully I live in a house where everyone is at least decently tech literate.

my dad is a engineer so getting devices pass him is hard

but I have done it in the past

[sub68]

also another mom story

I am draining capacitors with a screwdriver and I come across one that has some juice of course it sparks.

my mom says why do you do that your gonna kill your self.

Me: I am doing standard capacitor draining procedure and I am using a insulated screwdriver everything is fine.

Mom: Ok but that still dangerous

Me: I know but its less dangerous than coming across it when I am actually working on it

Mom: ok go on

 

 

 

[WhitetailAni]

3 minutes ago, sub68 said:

also another mom story

I am draining capacitors with a screwdriver and I come across one that has some juice of course it sparks.

my mom says why do you do that your gonna kill your self.

Me: I am doing standard capacitor draining procedure and I am using a insulated screwdriver everything is fine.

Mom: Ok but that still dangerous

Me: I know but its less dangerous than coming across it when I am actually working on it

Mom: ok go on

The way to get past non-techie people:
Them: "What are you doing?"
You: <doing thing> "Making it so I won't die."