What did you fix today?

Koala

Koala

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Compton, CA
Here we post what we worked on as far as computers or customers that aren't worthy of a thread itself.

Today I had a customer see me cause their laptop would not turn on. First thing I did was grab my universal charger and fired it up. It took less than a minute and at no charge. I'm sure he'll be coming back to me for any future dilemmas :)

Go...
 
Markverhyden said:
Congratulations!!! That's the type of customer that can kick your business up a few notches.
Click to expand...
Thanks! Exactly, this would make it so our MSP side can fully fund the business and we no longer have to rely on Break/Fix-Residential. We'll keep residential for now, but we won't be relying on them anymore.
 
I got a panicked call from a new client to come out today to look at a Windows 2000 server that wasn't fully booting. He was getting a registry error with a blue screen. After messing with it for a bit I found a backup registry set under the winnt/repair/regback folder from Wednesday. Renamed the damaged registry files and copied over the backups. Server booted but wouldn't log into the domain. Booted into safe mode and disjoined from the domain and rejoined to get it back in sync. Finally the system booted into windows. The client is a shredding and document scanning company - needless to say I am going back out next week to do a full site eval to completely replace everything from servers, desktops, network, etc. Gotta love billing at double time rate for weekend emergencies.
 
Saturday I had 4 onsite appointments. All multi-repeat, longer term customers. It's nice because after you work with people for multiple times, you get to know their personalities and can often speak more bluntly than with brand new customers.

First was a cleanup tuneup/training/handslapping session with old guy not patient enough to wait for computer to respond. You know the type, click-click-click-click-click-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK . . . . and then surprise when 10 windows of various kinds and 3 random installs pop up. His wife won't allow him to use email because he can't avoid clicking on everything and mucking up his computer.

Second was slow/unresponsive webpage complaint. Internet service is TERRIBLE where customer is. Did what I could and improved the situation, but reached a point where I could no longer tell whether remaining slowness was something on the computer ( I don't think so ) or just his pitiful connection. Who would have guessed that graphic and video heavy websites wouldn't load well on 1 to 1.5mb download speed? Told him I'd have to take his laptop to my workbench to do any more. He declined that for now.

Third was a guy that I end up helping do his taxes every year. Every year he has trouble with Turbotax that seems to magically disappear when I arrive. Then I have to show him how to use it - for example switching between forms and interview mode, and finding specific areas - like deductions. Every year. For the past 5-6 years. I hear from this guy or his partner roughly every other month or more. To top it off, he's fairly deaf and doesn't always wear his hearing aids so he sits close and talks loudly.

Fourth was setting up a brand new laptop and monitor for lady replacing her old laptop and monitor. Transferred files, installed printer, showed her some about W10. Went smooth. When we were done, she gave me her old laptop (an Asus) and old monitor (23" HP 23bw). Both work perfectly.

Pretty good Saturday overall.
 
Not exactly a hardware repair, but I finally managed to get a workable file system complete with some folder structure on a failed Linux drive with no valid root superblock or MBR. Only took three full weeks of extracting sectors at the speed of a dial up modem and trying every data recovery technique I know to make sense of the remaining file system structures.
 
Today, I sorted 2 queries over the phone and visited a little old lady with a bit of a malware/junk ware issue. She was paying for 2 autonewal Norton subscriptions too. She was thrilled I saved her £50 a year, she'll be coming to me for AV once her subscription is finished... If she is still alive (her words not mine)

Other than that I've got my latest blog post and newspaper article written.

All that in this stupid heat!
:)
 
Calx said:
Today, I sorted 2 queries over the phone and visited a little old lady with a bit of a malware/junk ware issue. She was paying for 2 autonewal Norton subscriptions too. She was thrilled I saved her £50 a year, she'll be coming to me for AV once her subscription is finished... If she is still alive (her words not mine)

Other than that I've got my latest blog post and newspaper article written.

All that in this stupid heat!
:)
Click to expand...

What is "stupid heat" for Birmingham, UK?
 
mraikes said:
What is "stupid heat" for Birmingham, UK?
Click to expand...

My portable wifi weather station is saying 26 degrees Celsius in the shade.

House thermostat says 28.

My DD suggested putting the heating on and turning it down low to cool it down. Bless I love her logic!

It's not desert heat, but hot for here
 
Got a call this morning from a local pharmacy. Seems their not compliant with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). I should think not considering they are still using Windows XP (Not about to hack it to make it work), anyhow, they now have an order for a 1 new server and 7 new custom built workstations, paid in advance too! And here I was beginning to hate Mondays. Funny what a few thousand bucks will do to brighten up your day isnt it?
 
Your PCMD said:
Got a call this morning from a local pharmacy. Seems their not compliant with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). I should think not considering they are still using Windows XP (Not about to hack it to make it work), anyhow, they now have an order for a 1 new server and 7 new custom built workstations, paid in advance too! And here I was beginning to hate Mondays. Funny what a few thousand bucks will do to brighten up your day isnt it?
Click to expand...
why custom built workstations? I ask because for us the next business day warranty is great for the Dell machines we sell. And yeah a few k will make a big difference in your perception of a day. Is the server going to be custom built as well?
 
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Retro gaming table. Turned out a failing hard drive. Will try and work out how to remove it tomorow.
 

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Well...
I upgraded some software on a server at one location, then I installed a network printer and cleaned up 3 laptops at another, and THEN THIS HAPPENED.

While I was at the second location, an elderly client of mine called me and said he was having a problem. I told him that I almost finished with the job I was on and I could be there in about 10 minutes. I was unaware at the time that a bank near his house (about 2 blocks) had just been robbed. There were police cars everywhere, driving around frantically looking for the suspect.

I went to the guy's house anyway, making sure I locked my car before I went in. Fortunately, I was only there for a couple of minutes. Needless to say, I got away from there as fast as I could.

Andy
 
Calx said:
My portable wifi weather station is saying 26 degrees Celsius in the shade.

House thermostat says 28.

My DD suggested putting the heating on and turning it down low to cool it down. Bless I love her logic!

It's not desert heat, but hot for here
Click to expand...

:)

Yeah, stupid heat here would be something north of 40c. But it's a dry heat. You don't sweat, you just turn into beef jerky.

Two weeks ago I was camping in southern Missouri. Probably only lower to mid 80's but I felt like I was drowning in the humidity. I forgotten what it's like to sweat while taking a shower. ;)
 
In the last three weeks or so I fixed my mothers washing machine, stove
and refrigerator.

All three cases started off with basic detective work, some googling, parts
cross referencing and then deal hunting to find the best price on new
OEM parts. It cost $23 to fix the washer, $12 to fix the stove and $10 to fix
the refrigerator. Even adding it the two hours or so of my time (which of course
I didn't charge my mother for any of it...) it was still far cheaper than calling
someone to come out.

Computers wise... um I fixed my grams printer that wouldn't print any more.
It was out of ink :)
 
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