Diagnose Pranks?

[Lersar]

A few weeks ago I started at a new job as an IT intern, and started on the same day as a new server admin, so naturally we got to know each other fairly well. He came to me the other day complaining that one of his monitors was making a whining sound, and the other techs said it was a problem we encountered then and again. So we replaced it. A day later he came back with a different monitor (we typically have two or three at our stations), saying the sound was still coming every now and then. So we replaced it. Yesterday he brought his third and final monitor down, and sure enough, we swapped it. As the day neared closing, he came down to the service desk with a red face, laughing and swearing revenge on the other techs; one of the other network admins had installed one of those Annoy-a-tron PCBs that randomly make sounds under his keyboard, and everyone but him and I were in on it.

I had never really considered the idea of a prank when I've troubleshooted in the past, and I can think about several calls where that could have been (but wasn't) the issue. How often and at what point do you consider someone may be pulling a prank? Any good stories?

[Parkwaytech]

Thankfully I haven't run into any, though I thought that my customers might be pranking me with their descriptions. I've heard of some crazy stuff.

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Originally Posted by Lersar

A few weeks ago I started at a new job as an IT intern, and started on the same day as a new server admin, so naturally we got to know each other fairly well. He came to me the other day complaining that one of his monitors was making a whining sound, and the other techs said it was a problem we encountered then and again. So we replaced it. A day later he came back with a different monitor (we typically have two or three at our stations), saying the sound was still coming every now and then. So we replaced it. Yesterday he brought his third and final monitor down, and sure enough, we swapped it. As the day neared closing, he came down to the service desk with a red face, laughing and swearing revenge on the other techs; one of the other network admins had installed one of those Annoy-a-tron PCBs that randomly make sounds under his keyboard, and everyone but him and I were in on it.

I had never really considered the idea of a prank when I've troubleshooted in the past, and I can think about several calls where that could have been (but wasn't) the issue. How often and at what point do you consider someone may be pulling a prank? Any good stories?

I haven't had this issue, but have just ordered one of these for some fun in the office at my FTJ.

[colonydata]

i had one once, but figured it out pretty quickly because i myself had pulled that prank before.

take a screenshot, set it as the wallpaper, hide all the icons and kill explorer.exe.

[Tekko]

One of my coworkers went through a breakup and was stumped as to how the background kept changing back to the photo of them together; even after he deleted it. Took him about three days to figure out we were messing with him. We kept changing it in his registry remotely. Good times.

After he re-imaged the machine and noticed both his login screen and background were back to him and the ex, he knew someone was messing with him.

[14049752]

Thankfully all of my jobs cost the customer money...so I'm certain they wouldn't be pranking me at their own expense.

[Paul Rodgers]

Originally Posted by Slaters Kustum Machines

I haven't had this issue, but have just ordered one of these for some fun in the office at my FTJ.

So did I.

Here is a short list of office pranks:

Something over the sensor on an optical mouse
Screenshot as wallpaper
On video cards that support it changing the screen orientation
Take the above and flip the monitor to correct the problem
Fun with various batch and .vb scripts (I found one that will open and close all CD drives)
net send (gone since Windows Vista)
shutdown -i (when possible)
Rearranging the keys on a keyboard

Do I need to put a disclaimer on this?

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

lol, I have done tape over the mouse and changed the orientation of the screen.

[colonydata]

a little bit of an imagination, some knowledge of OSX Say command and a victim with a mac has tons of possibilities.


My little brother liked to make jokes about my Alma Mater Georgia Southern. so i wrote a little script when i was playing with his macbook pro, that played Ga Southern's Fight song as performed by the OSX Say command everytime he started his computer.

also randomly SSHing into his computer and using the say command hurl random insults is very entertaining as well.


Although funny story, he is now planning to transfer to Ga Southern.

[mason]

We used to change the Icons to different icons and rename the icons on the desktop and start menu - takes some techs abit of time to see whats going on. When u change every icon on the desktop and start menu to something else hehe