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| Thread ID: 101687 | 2009-07-23 05:29:00 | Computer repair cowboys | somebody (208) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 794458 | 2009-07-23 11:29:00 | You could have some fun with the "hosts" file with some people. Or replace their shortcuts with shutdown commands...:p |
Blam (54) | ||
| 794459 | 2009-07-23 11:40:00 | When you work on others computers to fix them, you shouldn't be "playing silly buggers". Might be OK if your mates ask you to do something and an April fools joke is played. But some people get very attached to their computers, and fooling around can have unwanted reactions. Title of the thread really comes into play doesn't it. Half the time some people don't really know what they want, and are depending on the service people for advice. Being professional is not hard - knowing when you can have a bit of fun with a customer comes from experience (that may sound a bit "wrong") But I have one customer who is always playing pranks on me - he gets back what he gives, and we both have a laugh - But when something is really wrong, being professional 100% counts. A lot also can be picked up from how the person talks -- I get calls sometimes, and they say "the Computers F***ED -- came and fix the Bloody thing" ( with a bit of a laugh in their voice) going by that you know how to react / answer. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 794460 | 2009-07-23 12:00:00 | Well it probably wouldnt be too hard to find out who did what (if you've sent your PC) to one place. And nowhere else. You'll know who to blame. Good thing most PC's dont come here (even if they do), the owner comes with it. And stays till I finish. Otherwise I fix most malware probs with teamviewer (thats if whoever is on the net) When I get a computer for repair the owner did not do anything to cause the computer to malfunction. What friends, children or grandchildren may have done is beside the point. The owner does not know but he/she wants to know what caused the problem. One person in particular comes to mind here. On a regular basis I have told this person to take the internet away by removing the broadband modem for the grandchildren. They can play the games installed but no internet as every time I go there I find P2P apps installed and a number of downloaded (pirated) games installed. These kids have worked out the password for the modem and there is no password for WinXP. I have changed the password for the modem twice but it has been changed back. |
Sweep (90) | ||
| 794461 | 2009-07-23 12:06:00 | Well, if they are using computers to "fix" cowboys, I hope computers are a little less casual than the vet. | R2x1 (4628) | ||
| 794462 | 2009-07-23 12:19:00 | Or boot into a shell which does not allow access to the o/s. Oh for the likes of Quickmenu again. |
Sweep (90) | ||
| 794463 | 2009-07-23 13:14:00 | Indeed yes! If more people had known about QuikMenu, we may never have had (or needed) Winderz. Although I suspect the Exploding clock would lose a lot of it's charm on a fast machine. :D |
R2x1 (4628) | ||
| 794464 | 2009-07-23 13:35:00 | :D But there again can you see MSdos handling more than two megabytes of memory? PCDos did not do that either. I started with MSDOS 3.3 and went to MSDOS 6.23. 3.3 came on one floppy 5.25 and 6.23 was one a 3.5 floppy. As for hard drives I used to flash a BIOS so I could increase the size of a hard drive. I was dragged kicking and screaming into Win 3.11 and I might add that I had a go at O/S2 around that time. Windows came on 6 x 3.5 floppies and a number of those were drivers for printers etc. Office came on 26 or so 3.5" floppies. Now we need a DVD drive to install Win7. Do you remember using a turbo switch to slow down games? Or software to slow the clock down. Don't think I want to go back to a 386 though. MS flight sim 1 came on one 3.5 floppy. I still have version one here. |
Sweep (90) | ||
| 794465 | 2009-07-23 14:09:00 | I still have a manual here for the old Flight Sim BTW. Tried to re-edit my post but in part it says, 1998. Copyright Bruce A Artwick. Sublogic Some scenery provided an copyrighted by Aerad Hercules IBM PS/2 And other bits. A link:- fshistory.simflight.com |
Sweep (90) | ||
| 794466 | 2009-07-23 21:37:00 | Ahhhh - Hercules graphic adapters. They could make a PC look like an an Atari on fog pills. A vast improvement indeed. Why would you need more than 2 MB of RAM? 640K was an upgrade :D :D An expensive upgrade. I resisted the move to 3.5 floppies - only a bit bigger, but everything (Disks, storage cases, drives) cost about 250% more. I was right to hold back, 3.5 drives were just a flash in the pan. I seem to recall that for about the price of 20 or so PC's you could buy a house :( |
R2x1 (4628) | ||
| 794467 | 2009-07-23 22:13:00 | Wouldn't quite call it cowboys, But I would call is snooping when they shouldn't be. Tricky. Pinching stuff, passwords or whatever is out of the question. I don't remember peoples passwords anyway, I have enough of my own to remember. But you can't always avoid seeing their pics. I had one couple who had their photos as a screensaver. Came back after setting it to scan and the screensaver was happily displaying their bedroom activity pics all over the place. I was thinking if its in the main room and they have visitors for dinner, and it went into screensaver mode, that could make for an interesting dinner conversation topic. And retrieving data, you open WIndows Explorer, prepare to click their folders and oh look it's in Thumbnail default. Seen a few things that could possibly be considered naughty - apart from porn that is. I mind my own business. If it was kiddie porn I'd most definetley report it, but I don't go looking, it's only if in the course of the repair I notice like the above examples. Had a work experience guy once, he snooped on purpose and found animal pics. I told him off for it. Always wondered whether I should have done something about it. Who do you ring? The SPCA? |
pctek (84) | ||
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