- Joined
- May 25, 2013
horrors of helping Friends/Relatives with computer shit
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Stasi
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2019
Recently helped my grandparents with their laptop which was running super slow. Its one of these crappy budget machines with a celeron and was basically running at 100% CPU utilisation with just background windows processes.
I was cleaning up some bloatware and as part of that decided to uninstall onedrive. I don't know how the fuck it was set up but removing onedrive completely wiped all of the files on the machine. I though the whole point of it was to back up local files to the onedrive cloud location but apparently onedrive took over the desktop/documents/whatever on this laptop and everything that was saved there wasn't actually saved locally? Had to spend an hour downloading everything off onedrive to save it on the hard drive.
I hate these "cloud" services so fucking much.
I was cleaning up some bloatware and as part of that decided to uninstall onedrive. I don't know how the fuck it was set up but removing onedrive completely wiped all of the files on the machine. I though the whole point of it was to back up local files to the onedrive cloud location but apparently onedrive took over the desktop/documents/whatever on this laptop and everything that was saved there wasn't actually saved locally? Had to spend an hour downloading everything off onedrive to save it on the hard drive.
I hate these "cloud" services so fucking much.
potato fan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2018
2 years ago elderly aunt called and asked me to help her choosing a new laptop. We go down to the local big electronics retailer, and browse the laptop section for a bit. I find a decently specced budget machine, and tell her I'd take that one. She immediately asks "what about that one", and points to the cheapest laptop in the store. It had 2GB of RAM, and some 1 core 2 thread celeron that was like 5 years old already at the time. I tell her it's garbage and she will hate it. She asks one of the salesemen about that laptop, and he says it's garbage and he can't in good consience sell it to her, and if she can add just 10% more to the budget, she can get something not entirely terrible. She decides to buy it anyways
Flash forward two months and she calls and tells me I gave her terrible advice and that the laptop is absolutely atrocious.
And that was the last time I have ever helped her with anything tech-related, because fuck you.
Flash forward two months and she calls and tells me I gave her terrible advice and that the laptop is absolutely atrocious.
And that was the last time I have ever helped her with anything tech-related, because fuck you.
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
"Why is my phone slow?"
"Let me check your tabs in your browser."
"What's a browser?"
"Let me check your tabs in your browser."
"What's a browser?"
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2020
I've noticed recently from a few computers I look at remotely that they've moved the desktop to C:/users/name/OneDrive/desktop. Windows get more shit by the day.
- Joined
- May 25, 2013
>oh okay let's check what's open at the moment
>xxx tabs
>not porn tabs (although probably some are), literally triple digits of tabs open at once and literally every goddamn app
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2016
Urr... If that isn't a horrible vision of the future (and a giant "I was right again. I'm not pleased at this" moment) then I don't know what is.
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
I managed to teach the browser ignorant how to get rid of the app tabs. Browser tabs seem to be the exception and I have no idea why. None of these people are dumb in any other aspect of life but become utterly retarded once you put a computer of any sort by them.
Used to direct them to this IT Crowd clip when I was a snarky shit.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2019
Now. Perhaps this is an age thing because I'm in the Jones Generation that embraced Tech early on and am able to talk to many of my clients that I've known for 20+ years.
Or perhaps I've got them trained to learn the basics on just how the computer works as well as the internet. I just don't have that many of issues with my now small client base.
But I've fucking seen some incredibly asinine things in business, state and local government, and in schools that you begin to wonder how in the fuck are they able to breathe during the day.
It does not matter what your age is... You just can not stop the Stupid. And with that here's an old Commerical. Enjoy.
Or perhaps I've got them trained to learn the basics on just how the computer works as well as the internet. I just don't have that many of issues with my now small client base.
But I've fucking seen some incredibly asinine things in business, state and local government, and in schools that you begin to wonder how in the fuck are they able to breathe during the day.
It does not matter what your age is... You just can not stop the Stupid. And with that here's an old Commerical. Enjoy.
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2018
Would you care to share some examples to add to the rest of the thread? I'm eager to know just how they would compare to the clients and colleagues you mention.
Art Kassul
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2021
That used to be the default on Windows 10 for a long time, might still be. I have been there several times. All clouds must die.
totallyrandomusername
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2021
Huh, I wonder what configuration they are running. I haven't noticed that, with Windows 10 or 11.
Raxetnahnr
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2021
Years ago I was helping my drunk mom with my old laptop that I didn't want anymore because she was bellyaching about using it. She couldn't figure shit out. So she fucking started chimping out and threw it twice, first time at the wall, and the second time she threw it at the window (which only had the fabric screen down), thank fuck it didn't break and fly out the window.
Needless to say, that laptop soon stopped working altogether. We still have that dead corpse of a laptop lying around somewhere. She used to talk about bringing it to the store to fix it, she's done that several times with our old shitty computers, despite the tech nerds telling her constantly that it would be cheaper to buy a new computer, she never gets it. She also tried sticking that WinCleaner shit in my brothers PC. And regularly downloads "Free coupon" shit on my dads computer, all of which turn out to be some Malware or Trojan horses.
Every now and then I'd have to help her with stuff like this. Just earlier this month I had to help her with contacting some people about some of her shit being broken in shipping, she first wanted me to use it on her Ipad, but it wasn't compatible with the program they needed for the online meeting, then we tried to do it on my Dad's PC, she fucking forgets her Apple ID because my dad has to set everything up for her cause she cant, ends up throwing the mouse in frustration, so I just had enough at that point and left, of course getting accused of being unhelpful.
Needless to say, that laptop soon stopped working altogether. We still have that dead corpse of a laptop lying around somewhere. She used to talk about bringing it to the store to fix it, she's done that several times with our old shitty computers, despite the tech nerds telling her constantly that it would be cheaper to buy a new computer, she never gets it. She also tried sticking that WinCleaner shit in my brothers PC. And regularly downloads "Free coupon" shit on my dads computer, all of which turn out to be some Malware or Trojan horses.
Every now and then I'd have to help her with stuff like this. Just earlier this month I had to help her with contacting some people about some of her shit being broken in shipping, she first wanted me to use it on her Ipad, but it wasn't compatible with the program they needed for the online meeting, then we tried to do it on my Dad's PC, she fucking forgets her Apple ID because my dad has to set everything up for her cause she cant, ends up throwing the mouse in frustration, so I just had enough at that point and left, of course getting accused of being unhelpful.
Bepis
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2019
Doing tech support for my mother is always a headache. She has the amazing power to destroy any computer just by touching it, and will offer basically worthless explanations of her issue (ie: "i can't get on the internet" because she logged into a new profile on her browser and couldn't find her bookmarks). If you need more information, even just a login, to do anything, you might as well give up. She needed help getitng into her email once and when I asked what email service she used she would just respond with "No I use the app". I love her but it always turns into a day-long thing and I am not a fan of losing a day off to this crap.
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2017
School/govt IT: where budgets dont matter and all is done to please the Director and the Boss.
Well, off the top of my own experience:
A school purchased a $5000 poster maker printer. The ink ran out after 3 posters because they let it sit for 6 months (big no no for ink, it dries up). They sent a message to their principal, who couldnt figure it out. They managed to buy new cartridges (worth $350), couldnt figure out how to open the toner door, so bought a new $5000 poster maker printer and sent the old printer and cartridges to be disposed of.
Purchased 1000 special chromebooks with narrow bezels for special ed kids with tantrum issues. Surprised pikachu face when hundreds of them come back with smashed screens and we cant do shit to fix them because they are tarred into the frame, necessitating the replacement of the entire top of the laptop (fuck HP BTW).
Sent out over 5000 LTE hotspots to kids' homes during the shutdown, decided to fill out paperwork for each child (1 page fora chromebook, one for a hotspot). Promptly realize they have no clue who has what because they didnt bother to digitize ANY of this shit, and they're not about to pay someone to digitize what they have. Purchase another 3000 hotspots to replace any "broken" devices, most are returned because at 20GB a month they stop working, woops going through 6 hours of video conferencing a day goes through a lot of data. Their marvelous solution?
Purchasing thousands of special chromebooks with LTE built in because the hotspots keep getting returned. Yes, really.
So now instead of thousands of hotspots being returned every year we have thousands of LTE chromebooks begin returned for the same reason. Management cant figure out why.
To top it off, all those old hotspots? Still being paid for. Every month. Sitting in a warehouse. I've used a couple dozen of them a month to download STEAM games and offset my monthly data cap. We have pallets of them just....sitting in the warehouse. At $80 a month. And now a growing pile of LTE chromebooks.
I once got an emergency call to go to our administrator who couldnt get his printer to connect to his TV. I'll let you digest that one for a minute.
I could go on, this only scratches the surface of the plain old retarded monkeys I support on a daily basis. In fact I may make a thread in I&T for professional tech support stories, as there does not appear to be one.
- Joined
- May 25, 2013
I had a buddy in Jr High who was _really_ good with computers and could legit run business LANs in the 90s.
He sorta dropped out going into high school, then made a deal with a different Jr High where he'd sysadmin for them for free and they'd bullshit up paperwork for him through graduating High School.
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't hung out with him at his private office portable. It was the old computer storage and he had some serious online tubes.
Stasi
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2019
I was helping a friend with something mundane like getting his web browser set up and asked about his PC. He had an absurd rig with the latest CPU/GPU but doesn't game or do anything other than browsing.
He said his laptop froze up when he was trading stocks, the transaction didn't go through in time so he lost some money and he wanted to make sure that didn't happen again. I was like wtf? That makes no sense, you don't need a 3090 to display a stock ticker and red and green dildos on a web page. Your laptop was probably shit but this is overkill.
He said his laptop froze up when he was trading stocks, the transaction didn't go through in time so he lost some money and he wanted to make sure that didn't happen again. I was like wtf? That makes no sense, you don't need a 3090 to display a stock ticker and red and green dildos on a web page. Your laptop was probably shit but this is overkill.
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2021
Grandpa comes to me one day, distressed as all hell and says "they're controlling the internet!". Turns out he watched one too many Russian political commentary videos on youtube, so his recommended were filled with nothing but Putin. Since he refuses to use the search (or to type in general), he can only cruise where the algorithm takes him, so in his mind, the Russian government had just taken over the entire internet.
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2015
Linus Tech Tips and his Linux challenge is the epitome of the type of people discussed in this very thread.
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2020
Watching some clips of this right now and I don't get why he thinks its so difficult. "When I did get Minecraft working", "When I did get Discord working"
Bro, you can just download and install the packages for those like on Windows. Easy.