Why are people incapable of rebooting computers?

[drjones]

Sorry, just gotta rant.....

Why are people absolutely, 100% INCAPABLE of rebooting a computer?

No matter how I describe it, how I tell people, they can NOT do it.

I was logged into a clients PC the other day, told her to reboot - I watched her log off, then log back on & tell me that she rebooted.

I just got off the phone with someone who told me that he just rebooted his laptop; I have no idea what he did but the task manager doesn't lie & it's been almost TWO DAYS since he rebooted.....W. T. F.......seriously??????????????

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[OaksLabs]

Tell them to open the run box, and type

shutdown /r /t 0

which will restart the PC without a time-out option. This is the same thing as doing restart from the start menu, but it seems more techy (which clients might like) and it will avoid your issues with end user confusion.

 

[NYJimbo]

Tell them to open the run box, and type

shutdown /r /t 0

which will restart the PC without a time-out option. This is the same thing as doing restart from the start menu, but it seems more techy (which clients might like) and it will avoid your issues with end user confusion.

No offense meant, but you must not work with a lot of end users. Just getting some of them to FIND the run box can take you five minutes.

 

[OaksLabs]

No offense meant, but you but you must not work with a lot of end users. Just getting some of them to FIND the run box can take you five minutes.

I normally talk them through downloading Ammyy Admin for a remote connection. I know this is a stretch for most end users, but I've had surprising luck telling people "Do you see that Windows key on your keyboard -- the one that looks like a flag? Hold it down and hit the letter 'R' on your keyboard"

But I develop malware removers for technicians for a reason...

 

[cypress]

I normally talk them through downloading Ammyy Admin for a remote connection. I know this is a stretch for most end users, but I've had surprising luck telling people "Do you see that Windows key on your keyboard -- the one that looks like a flag? Hold it down and hit the letter 'R' on your keyboard"

But I develop malware removers for technicians for a reason...

yeah that might seem tougher for the end users.

 

[OaksLabs]

yeah that might seem tougher for the end users.

I absolutely agree. I do my best to gauge the ability of the user I'm working with and adjust strategy as needed.

 

[Moltuae]

Just tell them to do this:

"Press ... Windows (key), Right (arrow), Right (arrow), R"

Just 4 key presses ... couldn't be simpler.



Failing that, if they're annoyingly stooopid and you're feeling particularly irritable, f**k it, just tell them to press and hold the big power button

 

[JoeTech]

I try to avoid mentioning the run box because the typical response I get is "I ain't in no shape to run anywhere, just fix my damn problem".

 

[NYJimbo]

just tell them to press and hold the big power button

Here comes another story.....

A few days ago a guy brought in a Dell Vostro 220 tower. Machine was dead, just needed a new PSU. So I put in a Thermaltake 430 whatever and all was good. When he came to pick it up I made the mistake to mention that on this power supply there is a power switch on the back, unlike the original which just had a light. I showed it to him and explained why it was there and how he didn't ever have to do anything with it, but to consider it like a master switch, just leave it on and use the normal switch on the front of the machine to power on or off.

You would think this would be easy, its not like we haven't all seen things that have a front switch and them maybe some power supply switch or breaker or something. Likewise, how freaking hard is it to grasp what all of that means ? But no, he stares at the little switch and then asks me to explain everything I had just explained to him.

I told him "When you get home just make sure its flipped on "like this" and leave it that way forever, you don't need to deal with it anymore". Nope, that was not enough, he had to know AGAIN why it was there. But then to make matters worse, he noticed the little 120/220 red power switch thing. Now I had to explain that. I told him, forget ALL of this, just go home, plug it in and if it works you're fine, if not call me.

 

[mraikes]

I try to avoid mentioning the run box because the typical response I get is "I ain't in no shape to run anywhere, just fix my damn problem".

Yup. I try to keep the radar on for folks that don't want to do the work no matter what it is. I'll tell them something dead simple (like powering off/on a cable modem) that might save them some money and me a trip - and suddenly get the vibe that they don't want to do even that much.

Time for the old "...or I'd be happy to just put you on the schedule and come do that for you" and wait for them to pounce on the appointment.

 

[allstarit]

I try and put screen connect unattended on all pc's i work on and reboot from my end but for the times where no internet or new customer its does prove to be a challenge for some users.

This and going to your remote support website. No matter how much you simplify or dumb it down to them they always type it into google without fail.

 

[AlexCa]

Sorry, just gotta rant.....

Why are people absolutely, 100% INCAPABLE of rebooting a computer?

No matter how I describe it, how I tell people, they can NOT do it.

I was logged into a clients PC the other day, told her to reboot - I watched her log off, then log back on & tell me that she rebooted.

I just got off the phone with someone who told me that he just rebooted his laptop; I have no idea what he did but the task manager doesn't lie & it's been almost TWO DAYS since he rebooted.....W. T. F.......seriously??????????????

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, that logoff / on confusion is very common...

Im not sure, but i think that in Windows 8 and higher if the user shuts down / turn on the computer, systeminfo | System Boot Time will not count that as a reboot. It will only count if the user uses the "Restart".

 

[jbartlett323]

Yes, that logoff / on confusion is very common...

Im not sure, but i think that in Windows 8 and higher if the user shuts down / turn on the computer, systeminfo | System Boot Time will not count that as a reboot. It will only count if the user uses the "Restart".

Correct, because on 8, a shutdown does not shut anything down. Just parks the kernel on the HDD for retrieval upon restart. Called Hybrid sleep, and I think its the most asinine thing about 8. Yeah, it makes it start faster, but everyone has been trained for the last 30+ years to shutdown/reboot if there is an issue. Many users always used the "shutdown and wait a minute" method, which does absolutely no good on 8. Now, I have to train a lot of users to "restart" for little issues to resolve themselves. Can't tell you how many times "restart" has been the entire fix for an 8 machine, very annoying...

 

[NYJimbo]

What I really hate about Windows 8 shutdown on a laptop is that it shuts off the screen before it truly shuts down. On Vista and 7 when you shut down it would go through the motions, then go "lit-but-black" screen (whatever that's called) and then finally kill all power when off. Now with Win 8 it will kill the LCD first, so it fools you into thinking its totally down so if you yank the battery or are working on a machine with a bad battery and pull the power cable, you basically crash the shut down.

 

[JustInspired]

Just today I was sitting with my hands cupped around the power switch on an Acer Win8.1 laptop, waiting for confirmation that it had indeed shut down. The power light surrounding the button was rather hard to see in the daytime.

 

[NYJimbo]

Just today I was sitting with my hands cupped around the power switch on an Acer Win8.1 laptop, waiting for confirmation that it had indeed shut down. The power light surrounding the button was rather hard to see in the daytime.

Yes and they are getting rid of lights on everything now. Many laptops no longer have a hard drive activity light. That thing is so important for a tech and yet they took it out for aesthetic reasons. Some laptops no longer have a battery charging indicator or presence of connected power, just a damn power on or off light.

I had a really new Samsung ultrabook in the other day that only had a tiny green dot that indicated it was on, NOTHING ELSE. Of course being it was windows 8 you get very little info during startup and shutdown and with almost no light indicators, what the hell am I supposed to think then I'm waiting for it to do something ? Like you are rebooting and turn your back for a minute and come back and you see the screen is black. Is it shutting down or coming up ? Is it stuck on something or doing the post "welcome" screen waiting for the desktop ? I got no activity lights to help me and Windows 8 doesn't feel I should have a clue as to what its doing so I just have to sit there until I can't stand it no more.

 

[JustInspired]

Yes and they are getting rid of lights on everything now. Many laptops no longer have a hard drive activity light. That thing is so important for a tech and yet they took it out for aesthetic reasons. Some laptops no longer have a battery charging indicator or presence of connected power, just a damn power on or off light.

I had a really new Samsung ultrabook in the other day that only had a tiny green dot that indicated it was on, NOTHING ELSE. Of course being it was windows 8 you get very little info during startup and shutdown and with almost no light indicators, what the hell am I supposed to think then I'm waiting for it to do something ? Like you are rebooting and turn your back for a minute and come back and you see the screen is black. Is it shutting down or coming up ? Is it stuck on something or doing the post "welcome" screen waiting for the desktop ? I got no activity lights to help me and Windows 8 doesn't feel I should have a clue as to what its doing so I just have to sit there until I can't stand it no more.

Thank you! This is very annoying and totally unhelpful when troubleshooting.

 

[gadgetfixup]

I'm still mad they took the turbo button and light away

 

[glricht]

I try and put screen connect unattended on all pc's i work on ...

Not to hijack this thread, but do you get the customer's permission before installing unattended remote access? I would think this could be a major liability issue if the customer were to later accuse you of accessing their PC without their knowledge and stealing some data. Now you have to prove you DIDN'T do it.

 

[Altster]

Why have them reboot? How about just telling them to "shutdown the computer" - not logoff, but SHUTDOWN. then wait 3 - 5 minutes and turn the computer back on and have them log back in. It seems like someone is 'overthinking' this.

But I know how (for lack of better words) stupid people can appear to be. So many of them are merely "button-pushers / mouse-clickers" these days.