PC Horror stories?

[objecterror]

I've seen my fair share of PC work these days, while I am not a certified technician yet, I am pursuing studies towards my A+ certification(since I've started reading the book, I noticed a lot of things that I didn't know about PC's and more refreshing things then before) it's given me the knowledge and with some existing experience to work on someones PC for a fine professional charge.

Well, have any of you fellow tech's run into problems/issues/bugs/annoyances from your customers that you cannot understand why or how they happen?

Example:

I performed one of the best computer fixes, I believe in my book, in around 2hrs I restored a wheel chair bound womans PC back to factory, updated(within my timelimit) installed PC illiterate friendly anti-virus and spyware protection, seperated the accounts, moved in the limited user account for her son, password's on both accounts, security on both accounts and an additional extra cause they 'factory restore' point in windows xp.

I did this roughly two to three days earlier this week. Well, when i left, the pc was running its random updates and I set it to shut down once they were finished.

no more then a day later, her passwords aern't 'working' the pc is having problems and I need to make another trip out. In one day, what happened?!?

 

[FireFox]

In one day, what happened?!?

Who knows....why don't you tell US?

 

[peterhuang913]

One of my computers turned on fire once...

 

[Metal Chaos]

Back in Dec 05 when I first got my gaming rig it was in a Diablotek Black case, had an Abit KU8 mobo, 1GB RAM, 9600 Pro, DVD Burner and 400W PSU. I installed some games on it and played for a while, went to sleep and woke up the next morning to find my PC off. I figured "mom or dad must have turned it off" or at least that the power went out, so I press the power button and get nothing, then I make sure all wires are plugged in and everything is secure, press and hold the button this time and guess what? Sparks flew accompanied with a light show of blue and purple sparks and an unpleasant burning smell. Needless to say I learned my lesson about using PSUs that come with a case, now I buy good PSUs from Companies like OCZ and I always read the reviews now. That was a scary sight though, especially with it being my first gaming rig and all.

 

[Trotter]

I've worked on several PCs that were eat up with viruses and adware. It usually takes a few hours, but I am able to clean them and repair them without formatting.

I have one I am working on right now... sort of. It is an old Dimension Something. No ethernet, so I can't just connect it and do my thing. The owner has not updated this thing in forever, and uses AOL. No antivirus, no firewall, no nothing. Her song downloads music from where ever. Windows is screwed up, and the restore partition won't work. I tried using a WinXP Home disk, but it can't repair it (missing file).

I have finally got it so it will run a full adware scan, but it takes over an hour, sometimes two (P4 1.4). I am too embarrassed to say how long I have had it sitting here. I am to the point I am ready to just toss it, or just format it and start over... if it will let me. Safe mode pulls up a blank screen, no task bar, no nothing. Argh!

 

[ricanflow]

I hate working with old pcs like that, especially when the owner complains because its taking me too long to fix their crappy computer that they neglected in the first place.

 

[TheEnd187]

LOL just backup their stuff and Reformat, personally thats what i do for MY OWN PC if i get a virus it takes me longe to remove them all than to reformat ReforMat FTW,unless its a really dumb Virus in hich case i have to Wipe out the HD DoD or Gutan Method

 

[mikesgroovin]

No offense, but maybe you shouldn't be working on them in the first place without expecting their worst case scenario?

Perhaps you shouldn't have told me that you were attempting your A+ prior to the story, then I wouldn't have thought you were a complete failure.

 

[mikesgroovin]

Let it out......


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH



Ok, I know how it is...and I was only kidding

So, WHAT IS EXACTLY WRONG with the pc to your knowledge?

 

[objecterror]

Let it out......


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH



Ok, I know how it is...and I was only kidding

So, WHAT IS EXACTLY WRONG with the pc to your knowledge?

;_; JK

Well, when i worked on the first ladies PC, I couldn't even boot past the windows welcome screen, I think her son had pornography on the thing and downloaded it from everywhere and it hindered the boot process(i've done this before and my father has beat me senseless because of it). What could be wrong 'now' is that they forgot EVERYTHING i told/wrote down/explained to them the night that I did everything. I am learning to do as much as I can without a complete reformat, I watched a woman reformat her PC once and ended up having to replace her modem, (what?)

In regards to the lady, she didn't explain the problem as colorfully as I'd hope she would and I have to take another trip to her house in order to look at everything again.

I also had a man who asked me for a few good virus scanners(back in the day when I worked retail) I pointed out a few that we had available(norton, etc) he nods and says okay, I wasn't aware of which program he bought but, the next day he brought his PC in, apparently he installed the software wrong and was unable to 'now' get on the internet, I just don't understand what they do but it amazes me.

I remember one of my friends explaining how she built someone a PC(professionally in a PC shop), set up a RAID something of the other, back up, everything, come to find out the guy brought the PC back after some choice 'at home' repairs once it started to mess up. But he was a complete SLOB! there was peanut butter near the heatsink, Sata and powersupply cables were cut, there were bugs and dirt inside the case and dent marks all across the the outside, he told her, "I tried to fix it."