Experiences with non-techies

[SeamusFrederick]

I work in IT so I get asked the most obvious questions sometimes like you wouldn't believe....

 

this lady once asked me if her two monitors were two separate computers...she had one computer and two monitors...yeah this actually happened.

[Bleedingyamato]

On July 21, 2016 at 10:18 AM, SLAYR said:

Bestbuy employees aren't hired because they actually know the stuff they are selling, they sold my friend a "gaming laptop" with a 940m, and an i3; and their prices prices on any hardware they have are always way to expensive, if they even had anything to chose from in the first place my local bestbuy only stocks r5 230s, and reference 970s for $400.

That's because to the uninformed anything with a dedicated GPU no matter how crappy counts as a "gaming" PC...

 

Last January when I bought a prebuilt iBuyPower from them I'd stopped in multiple times to look at it and try asking questions.  They didn't know a damn thing about it and worse when I asked them questions the employee each time pulled out their own personal cell phone and tried looking up info from the Best Buy.com item page for the computer I was asking about...

 

Oh and each time I visited they acted like asking questions was pulling their teeth and kept nagging me to buy something.  It was so annoying I ended up ordering the PC on Best Buy.com instead of buying from them in the store.  

 

Oddly enough when I bought it the desktop I got was on sale for $999 US with a 6700K, GTX 970, 8GB RAM, micro ATX Gigabyte mb, and a 1TB WD Blue HDD all in a NZXT Phantom 240 case with a download code for Rise of the Tomb Raider because it was offered with PCs with certain Nvidia GPUs.  So I got a pretty decent deal on it I think.  I upgraded most of the parts besides the 6700K since then but I reused some of the parts I took out for another build and I'm saving the mb and RAM to likely use in a build I'm planning for a friend.  So I don't consider it a waste of money to buy a prebuilt and then upgrade it.  ?

[Bleedingyamato]

27 minutes ago, themctipers said:

-40 or below = perfect signal expect

10db = double the power of the signal 

-70 to -90 is normal

-90 or higher is weak

-110 3G is starting to be unusuable

-110 LTE is approaching 10mb download 

-120 or higher 3G starts to drop calls

-125+ LTE drops calls and no data 

 

the he higher the number the worse the signal. 

Is this from a signal strength measuring app?  I'm curious how you'd know what you're getting at any particular moment.  My iPhone just has dots to indicate how strong a signal I have.

[Bleedingyamato]

8 hours ago, themctipers said:

even safe mode had viruses.

running task manager was blocked

 

im glad i unplugged my drives and network drives  who knows what would've happened if i didnt..

You mean you'd unplugged USB drives connected to your computer before you plugged in the flash/stick drive?  Or what did you do that kept the viruses from getting to all your files?

[themctipers]

53 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Is this from a signal strength measuring app?  I'm curious how you'd know what you're getting at any particular moment.  My iPhone just has dots to indicate how strong a signal I have.

Dial *3001#12345#*

after, hold the powe and home button for a few seconds. This forces the iPhone to restart. After, the dots should turn into a - number. If you want to revert back to dots you just click the number. 

There isn't a thing like this for android that always displays it. 

38 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

You mean you'd unplugged USB drives connected to your computer before you plugged in the flash/stick drive?  Or what did you do that kept the viruses from getting to all your files?

After I restarted I saw there was a nasty virus so I quickly pulled the power plug and unplugged my hard drives and network and my usb. After, I tried to run Windows in safe mode and remove the viruses using malwarebytes. This didn't work out so I had to nuke the ssd. 

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, themctipers said:

Dial *3001#12345#*

after, hold the powe and home button for a few seconds. This forces the iPhone to restart. After, the dots should turn into a - number. If you want to revert back to dots you just click the number. 

There isn't a thing like this for android that always displays it. 

In android you should be able to see it by going to settings > system>about device>status and scroll down a little

[Bleedingyamato]

1 minute ago, themctipers said:

Dial *3001#12345#*

after, hold the powe and home button for a few seconds. This forces the iPhone to restart. After, the dots should turn into a - number. If you want to revert back to dots you just click the number. 

There isn't a thing like this for android that always displays it. 

After I restarted I saw there was a nasty virus so I quickly pulled the power plug and unplugged my hard drives and network and my usb. After, I tried to run Windows in safe mode and remove the viruses using malwarebytes. This didn't work out so I had to nuke the ssd. 

So call that and while it's connected press the power and home at the same time?

 

Oh.  You mean you've got your OS on a separate internal SSD from the HDDs with your filed on them?  So you unplugged your PC and disconnected the internal HDDs before eventually having to reinstall your OS?

[themctipers]

27 minutes ago, bear-in-the-air said:

In android you should be able to see it by going to settings > system>about device>status and scroll down a little

I said not all the time. 

19 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

So call that and while it's connected press the power and home at the same time?

 

Oh.  You mean you've got your OS on a separate internal SSD from the HDDs with your filed on them?  So you unplugged your PC and disconnected the internal HDDs before eventually having to reinstall your OS?

Call that, then it should open something. After it opens something (diagnostics for the cell chip, don't fuck around) hold the power and home button at the same time. 

 

No, I mean when I tried to remove the virus I unplugged my drives to make sure it doesn't spread there. I don't store data on my SSD only my HDD. 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, themctipers said:

I said not all the time. 

correction, you said that there was NOTHING for android that displays it.

 

50 minutes ago, themctipers said:

There isn't a thing like this for android that always displays it. 

 

[themctipers]

1 minute ago, bear-in-the-air said:

correction, you said that there was NOTHING for android that displays it.

 

 

Notice the always. 

 

There isn't a thing like this for android that always displays it. 

 

[nayabthelion]

I'm at my cousin's house and I pull out my HP full-size chromebook. She walks up to me and stares at the chrome branding and says "Is that a Windows 8 Computer, It looks like a windows 8 computer."

Spoiler

In her defense she is only 9. 

 

Here's a photo of the laptop:

 

[WkdPaul]

20 minutes ago, themctipers said:

Notice the always. 

There are no options in the settings, but there are apps for it, and no need to be rooted.

[themctipers]

2 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

There are no options in the settings, but there are apps for it, and no need to be rooted.

 

you don't need a jailbreak for it? It's built into iOS since iOS 3

<android vs iOS fight go>

 

[WkdPaul]

12 minutes ago, themctipers said:

 

you don't need a jailbreak for it? It's built into iOS since iOS 3

<android vs iOS fight go>

 

I know you don't need to jailbreak IOS for that. What I meant was that there is a way to always show signal strength in the bar within Android, it's just not in the options (I honestly find it ridiculous that it needs an app for that with Android, it should be an option, even if hidden).

[cummerou1]

2 hours ago, nayabthelion said:

I'm at my cousin's house and I pull out my HP full-size chromebook. She walks up to me and stares at the chrome branding and says "Is that a Windows 8 Computer, It looks like a windows 8 computer."

  Reveal hidden contents

In her defense she is only 9. 

 

Here's a photo of the laptop:

 

How the hell can something "look like a windows 8 computer"?

[nayabthelion]

Just now, cummerou1 said:

How the hell can something "look like a windows 8 computer"?

I don't even know.

[themctipers]

8 minutes ago, nayabthelion said:

I don't even know.

it got the

alienware logo on it

[DocSwag]

6 hours ago, Bleedingyamato said:

That's because to the uninformed anything with a dedicated GPU no matter how crappy counts as a "gaming" PC...

 

Last January when I bought a prebuilt iBuyPower from them I'd stopped in multiple times to look at it and try asking questions.  They didn't know a damn thing about it and worse when I asked them questions the employee each time pulled out their own personal cell phone and tried looking up info from the Best Buy.com item page for the computer I was asking about...

 

Oh and each time I visited they acted like asking questions was pulling their teeth and kept nagging me to buy something.  It was so annoying I ended up ordering the PC on Best Buy.com instead of buying from them in the store.  

 

Oddly enough when I bought it the desktop I got was on sale for $999 US with a 6700K, GTX 970, 8GB RAM, micro ATX Gigabyte mb, and a 1TB WD Blue HDD all in a NZXT Phantom 240 case with a download code for Rise of the Tomb Raider because it was offered with PCs with certain Nvidia GPUs.  So I got a pretty decent deal on it I think.  I upgraded most of the parts besides the 6700K since then but I reused some of the parts I took out for another build and I'm saving the mb and RAM to likely use in a build I'm planning for a friend.  So I don't consider it a waste of money to buy a prebuilt and then upgrade it.  ?

Wow, you got all that for 999?!? That's a seriously good deal! You're paying just around what the pcs worth plus you get added warranties! Nice snatch!

[Bleedingyamato]

40 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Wow, you got all that for 999?!? That's a seriously good deal! You're paying just around what the pcs worth plus you get added warranties! Nice snatch!

Yeah I did.  I lost a bit of that value from upgrading most of the parts but between reusing some of what I took out for my secondary desktop and setting the rest aside to use in a planned build for my friend I consider it still a good deal.  Since even though I spent additional money beyond the $999 I now have my main and secondary desktops.

 

Also by giving my friend the motherboard, 8GB RAM, and my 970 that I took out of the prebuilt (my main desktop) I'm helping my friend save a lot off the cost of an awesome gaming PC that they otherwise would have a very hard time affording.  

 

So even though those parts are worth a decent amount if I tried selling them I count giving them to my friend a better use.  It'll make me very happy to see the look on their face when I show them the shiny new desktop I'm going to build for them.  ?

[masterkickass7]

On 1/16/2013 at 4:40 AM, Rwa said:

So, here's my experiences, that I can come to think of now:

 

- After I've fixed a computer for a friend or relative, they always blame me for every future problem.

- Two guys were talking in an MMORPG I used to play, and one of them said that he overclocked his hard drive and his computer is now more than twice as fast.

- Whenever I tell someone that I like computers and technology, they always assume I just post stuff on Facebook and play Farmville all day long.

- My mom freak out every time an email from someone she doesn't know, slips through the spam filter and end up in her inbox. Something worth mentioning is that she use hotmail, so she freaks out a lot.

 

Edit: fixed the formatting.

Lol I get blamed to for all the problems

[Atmos]

Long story dump?

Long story dump.

Where do you expect to find non-techies?

Certainly not running a technical support line for a major isp in the us!   /s

 

Last friday my crappy default actiontek router finally kicked the bucket, after going through its death throws for about a solid month. So, I did what any rational techy would do and went out to buy an actual high quality router. Here's the problem though; I had verizon fios, and because verizon loved just setting everyone up for coax cabling, my wall mounted ont was set to output in coax. Of course no routers that I was willing to pay for had an integrated moca bridge, and I wasn't about to drop 200$ on a seperate moca bridge, so I decided to call up frontier (Who now owns all of verizon's socal fiber) to have them swap our ONT to output in ethernet.

Rationally, I called up their technical support line, waited for nearly 30 minutes to get a hold of someone, only to find out that I needed their account management/support line. Who then corrected the mistake and sent me back technical support. (Good job frontier!)

I ask her to swap over the output on our ONT from coax to ethernet, she mumbles something about if I'm changing hardware, so I mention that Im trying to install a third party router.

The 'technician' then asked for the serial number of our router, and the router I was trying to use on our network. I give them to her, and after waiting around for nearly another twenty minutes she gets back to me saying she can't activate my router.

I tell her that, No, I don't need any router activated, I just our ONT swapped over from coax to ethernet.

She says she needs to contact a level 2 account specialist, so I go back to being on hold for twenty minutes.

She finally gets back to me, and informs me that "we do not support third party routers." to my amazement, I quote the frontier site's support page, where it clearly states they support third party routers.

she then tells me she will be unable to activate it, and that they cannot activate third party routers. I once again correct her that I do not need a router activated, I just need my ont swapped from coax to ethernet, that's all!

This goes on for nearly two hours... TWO HOURS of me telling her over and over, and over, and over, and over again that I DO NOT NEED A ROUTER ACTIVATED, AND THAT YOU DO INDEED SUPPORT THIRD PARTY ROUTERS.

After two hours of that nonsense I've finally had enough. I tell her to escalate me directly to this level two account specialist, to which she responds he won't be able to help me any more than she can. wait... WHAT?! Why did you talk to him then? I then demand she escalate my call to the level two account specialist, and she again refuses saying that they do not support third party routers and there's nothing she can do.

At this point I'm livid and literally say. "Okay, fine. Pretend I've never fucking said ANYTHING about routers. Change my service to ethernet, I am using the default router!"

to which she responds, "Oh, is that all you needed sir?" And 10 seconds later my ont is outputing to ethernet. I cannot comprehend the shear stupidity of that technician, they honestly need to be fired. Wrote in a complaint, but seriously doubtful anything will come of it.

 

Also, low and behold, my "unsupported" third party router was up and running faster than the default within moments of our ONT outputing in ethernet. Really great job knowing your own damn shit there frontier.

[GirlFromYonder]

6 hours ago, Atmos said:

- snip -

I FUCKING NEED A FACE PALM THING NOW 

 

 

 

FUCK IT

 

 

[Donut417]

6 hours ago, Atmos said:

Long story dump?

Long story dump.

Where do you expect to find non-techies?

Certainly not running a technical support line for a major isp in the us!   /s

 

Last friday my crappy default actiontek router finally kicked the bucket, after going through its death throws for about a solid month. So, I did what any rational techy would do and went out to buy an actual high quality router. Here's the problem though; I had verizon fios, and because verizon loved just setting everyone up for coax cabling, my wall mounted ont was set to output in coax. Of course no routers that I was willing to pay for had an integrated moca bridge, and I wasn't about to drop 200$ on a seperate moca bridge, so I decided to call up frontier (Who now owns all of verizon's socal fiber) to have them swap our ONT to output in ethernet.

Rationally, I called up their technical support line, waited for nearly 30 minutes to get a hold of someone, only to find out that I needed their account management/support line. Who then corrected the mistake and sent me back technical support. (Good job frontier!)

I ask her to swap over the output on our ONT from coax to ethernet, she mumbles something about if I'm changing hardware, so I mention that Im trying to install a third party router.

The 'technician' then asked for the serial number of our router, and the router I was trying to use on our network. I give them to her, and after waiting around for nearly another twenty minutes she gets back to me saying she can't activate my router.

I tell her that, No, I don't need any router activated, I just our ONT swapped over from coax to ethernet.

She says she needs to contact a level 2 account specialist, so I go back to being on hold for twenty minutes.

She finally gets back to me, and informs me that "we do not support third party routers." to my amazement, I quote the frontier site's support page, where it clearly states they support third party routers.

she then tells me she will be unable to activate it, and that they cannot activate third party routers. I once again correct her that I do not need a router activated, I just need my ont swapped from coax to ethernet, that's all!

This goes on for nearly two hours... TWO HOURS of me telling her over and over, and over, and over, and over again that I DO NOT NEED A ROUTER ACTIVATED, AND THAT YOU DO INDEED SUPPORT THIRD PARTY ROUTERS.

After two hours of that nonsense I've finally had enough. I tell her to escalate me directly to this level two account specialist, to which she responds he won't be able to help me any more than she can. wait... WHAT?! Why did you talk to him then? I then demand she escalate my call to the level two account specialist, and she again refuses saying that they do not support third party routers and there's nothing she can do.

At this point I'm livid and literally say. "Okay, fine. Pretend I've never fucking said ANYTHING about routers. Change my service to ethernet, I am using the default router!"

to which she responds, "Oh, is that all you needed sir?" And 10 seconds later my ont is outputing to ethernet. I cannot comprehend the shear stupidity of that technician, they honestly need to be fired. Wrote in a complaint, but seriously doubtful anything will come of it.

 

Also, low and behold, my "unsupported" third party router was up and running faster than the default within moments of our ONT outputing in ethernet. Really great job knowing your own damn shit there frontier.

You know what, you should report them to the FTC for false advertising. Just to be a dick. Because last I heard false advertising is a crime. There website says they support 3rd party routers, they have to go with that. It just like if you go in to a fast food restaurant and get charged a different price then the menu. Technically speaking you can raise hell and sue. 

[Zoshino]

My brother told me You don't need a new PC ur own PC already has 8GB of ram u can play any game and I was like WTF? are u my brother?!

[themctipers]

6 hours ago, Atmos said:

Long story dump?

Long story dump.

Where do you expect to find non-techies?

Certainly not running a technical support line for a major isp in the us!   /s

 

Last friday my crappy default actiontek router finally kicked the bucket, after going through its death throws for about a solid month. So, I did what any rational techy would do and went out to buy an actual high quality router. Here's the problem though; I had verizon fios, and because verizon loved just setting everyone up for coax cabling, my wall mounted ont was set to output in coax. Of course no routers that I was willing to pay for had an integrated moca bridge, and I wasn't about to drop 200$ on a seperate moca bridge, so I decided to call up frontier (Who now owns all of verizon's socal fiber) to have them swap our ONT to output in ethernet.

Rationally, I called up their technical support line, waited for nearly 30 minutes to get a hold of someone, only to find out that I needed their account management/support line. Who then corrected the mistake and sent me back technical support. (Good job frontier!)

I ask her to swap over the output on our ONT from coax to ethernet, she mumbles something about if I'm changing hardware, so I mention that Im trying to install a third party router.

The 'technician' then asked for the serial number of our router, and the router I was trying to use on our network. I give them to her, and after waiting around for nearly another twenty minutes she gets back to me saying she can't activate my router.

I tell her that, No, I don't need any router activated, I just our ONT swapped over from coax to ethernet.

She says she needs to contact a level 2 account specialist, so I go back to being on hold for twenty minutes.

She finally gets back to me, and informs me that "we do not support third party routers." to my amazement, I quote the frontier site's support page, where it clearly states they support third party routers.

she then tells me she will be unable to activate it, and that they cannot activate third party routers. I once again correct her that I do not need a router activated, I just need my ont swapped from coax to ethernet, that's all!

This goes on for nearly two hours... TWO HOURS of me telling her over and over, and over, and over, and over again that I DO NOT NEED A ROUTER ACTIVATED, AND THAT YOU DO INDEED SUPPORT THIRD PARTY ROUTERS.

After two hours of that nonsense I've finally had enough. I tell her to escalate me directly to this level two account specialist, to which she responds he won't be able to help me any more than she can. wait... WHAT?! Why did you talk to him then? I then demand she escalate my call to the level two account specialist, and she again refuses saying that they do not support third party routers and there's nothing she can do.

At this point I'm livid and literally say. "Okay, fine. Pretend I've never fucking said ANYTHING about routers. Change my service to ethernet, I am using the default router!"

to which she responds, "Oh, is that all you needed sir?" And 10 seconds later my ont is outputing to ethernet. I cannot comprehend the shear stupidity of that technician, they honestly need to be fired. Wrote in a complaint, but seriously doubtful anything will come of it.

 

Also, low and behold, my "unsupported" third party router was up and running faster than the default within moments of our ONT outputing in ethernet. Really great job knowing your own damn shit there frontier.

Verizon tech support is worse than rogers tech support

and thats saying alot