Don't read ahead to the punch line... :-)
Some years ago, around 1990, I was working as a computer lab assistant helping other students, installing hardware on computers, doing upgrades, etc.
During finals week we were not usually available to help others.
One of the other lab monitors had taken his tests early, so he said he would help people.
We were transitioning from 5.25 inch floppy drives only to 3.5 inch floppy drives only. A number of students complained, so my boss installed several dual floppy drives that had one 5.25 inch floppy drive, and one 3.5 inch floppy drive. Yes, ms-dos days. The operating system doesn't have anything to do with the story though.
Two years later we got a new computer lab, with 20 new computers. But that year we had only 5 computers. 2-3 Tandy 1000 Sxs, XT compatibles, and the rest were 75MHz or 90 MHz computers. Hm... The 90 MHz may have come along later.
Billy tried to keep one machine available for printing, as many students didn't have a printer at home.
So, someone sat down at the one computer that only had a 5.25 inch floppy drive. A line formed to use the printer and that computer.
One of the students started yelling at Billy. He told them to just wait, they would get to print their homework. ( Many professors had students bring in their typed reports the night of the final exam.)
They noticed an available computer with a 3.5 inch floppy drive.
Took out a pair of scissors and cut their 5.25 inch floppy to fit the 3.5 inch drive. Stuck the trimmed floppy into the drive.
Billy had to get a pair of needle-nose pliers to remove the debris from the floppy drive. He yelled at the student. The student demanded he rescue their homework. Then he pointed to the debris on the floor. Student stormed out of the computer room and went to class, they were going to complain and get Billy fired.
The next two students, understanding that trimming to fit was a Bad Idea...
wait for it.
Folded their 5.25 inch floppies and put them into the 3.5 inch drive.
Yeah, folded them in half.
Billy yelled, they yelled. They went to class, and complained.
Here is the punch line.
1. Billy didn't get fired, although his face was bright red during this.
2. all 3 students were computer science students. The end of that semester would be their graduation semester. One of them was a grad student working on his Master's Degree.
3. The undergrad and grad faculty/advisors came by and asked me about it. I told them what Billy had told me, the faculty/advisors cringed. They had a chat with the students who yelled at Billy. One of the students apologized to Billy.
4. And those 3 students graduated anyway.
Any similar horror stories for your tech support days ?
Some years ago, around 1990, I was working as a computer lab assistant helping other students, installing hardware on computers, doing upgrades, etc.
During finals week we were not usually available to help others.
One of the other lab monitors had taken his tests early, so he said he would help people.
We were transitioning from 5.25 inch floppy drives only to 3.5 inch floppy drives only. A number of students complained, so my boss installed several dual floppy drives that had one 5.25 inch floppy drive, and one 3.5 inch floppy drive. Yes, ms-dos days. The operating system doesn't have anything to do with the story though.
Two years later we got a new computer lab, with 20 new computers. But that year we had only 5 computers. 2-3 Tandy 1000 Sxs, XT compatibles, and the rest were 75MHz or 90 MHz computers. Hm... The 90 MHz may have come along later.
Billy tried to keep one machine available for printing, as many students didn't have a printer at home.
So, someone sat down at the one computer that only had a 5.25 inch floppy drive. A line formed to use the printer and that computer.
One of the students started yelling at Billy. He told them to just wait, they would get to print their homework. ( Many professors had students bring in their typed reports the night of the final exam.)
They noticed an available computer with a 3.5 inch floppy drive.
Took out a pair of scissors and cut their 5.25 inch floppy to fit the 3.5 inch drive. Stuck the trimmed floppy into the drive.
Billy had to get a pair of needle-nose pliers to remove the debris from the floppy drive. He yelled at the student. The student demanded he rescue their homework. Then he pointed to the debris on the floor. Student stormed out of the computer room and went to class, they were going to complain and get Billy fired.
The next two students, understanding that trimming to fit was a Bad Idea...
wait for it.
Folded their 5.25 inch floppies and put them into the 3.5 inch drive.
Yeah, folded them in half.
Billy yelled, they yelled. They went to class, and complained.
Here is the punch line.
1. Billy didn't get fired, although his face was bright red during this.
2. all 3 students were computer science students. The end of that semester would be their graduation semester. One of them was a grad student working on his Master's Degree.
3. The undergrad and grad faculty/advisors came by and asked me about it. I told them what Billy had told me, the faculty/advisors cringed. They had a chat with the students who yelled at Billy. One of the students apologized to Billy.
4. And those 3 students graduated anyway.
Any similar horror stories for your tech support days ?
My Computer
System One
-
- Manufacturer/Model
- Acer Aspire X1700
- Motherboard
- ASUS
- Memory
- 3 gigs
- Graphics card(s)
- EVGA 1 gig GeForce 210
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Vizio 21" tv
- Screen Resolution
- 1920x1080 resolution
- Hard Drives
- 1 terabyte sata in 1 partition
- Cooling
- fans that came with it
- Mouse
- basic USB
- Keyboard
- basic USB
- Internet Speed
- 3 megabits on a cable modem, wired
