Funny and Humorous Technical Support Tales and Stories

On the phone with my (soon to be) brother-in-law-in-law (husband of sister of fiancee). Trying to help him transfer some pics from the camera to the computer that's suddenly not recognizing.

Him: Okay so, help me out here. I've done this a hundred times I have no idea why it's not working now.

Me: Alright, so the computer's fully on, the camera's on and charged.

Him: Right. I've got Explorer open, it always just shows up when I plug it in.

Me: Okay, do a scan for hardware.

*I explain the long way to do it, it finds nothing*

Me: That's... Weird. Try unplugging it from the computer and plugging it back in, then on the camera side too, make sure it's not just a 1% off connection.

Him: Okay. Unplugged from the computer, back in. Unplugged from the camera... *10 second pause, he just starts laughing*

Me: Uhhhh... Everything okay?

Him: Yeah, I just realized the plug in the computer is white and the one in my camera is black, I was using the wrong USB cable. *fumble fumble* Working now, looks like I'm just an idiot!

Me: Welp, there's your problem!

In one of our offices we have a computer that uses two factor authentication for staff to do some high value financial transactions on. To logon, they need to enter a password and put their personal smart card into a card reader.

One day, one of the ladies in the department calls the Helpdesk and says she can't log on. I ask her to make sure she put her password in correctly, reset her password and I go through all the usual stuff but it doesn't work.

There's only so much you can do over the phone, so I decide to take a walk to the office to find out what's happening. When I get there she's in front of the logon screen and I ask her to try again. It fails.

I check the keyboard, num lock, caps lock, etc. All seems well, so I turn my attentions to the smart card reader. Just as I'm about to look at the card reader she lets out a massive shriek like she's seen a ghost. It suddenly becomes apparent to both of us that her smart card isn't in the reader. There is something in the reader but it isn't her smart card. It's the Visa credit card from her purse. The one she probably buys all her groceries with.

I say, "that will be the problem" and sensing she feels more than a little bit silly I tell her "it's an easy mistake to make" but really I'm thinking, "why would you do that?"

Got a "newer" laptop about four years ago and offered the OLDER one to my baby brother & his wife for their two kids to use (games in the summer & homework during the school year). Cleaned up the hard drive and handed it over. They were visiting us in Florida with Grandma & Grandpa driving them. Grandma has them taking turns on the computer in the back seat of the car for the drive home (two days for some people, three days with Grandpa driving - he likes to stop at the "attractions").

Time to change players for the game and they squabble over "it's my turn" and "but I'm not done yet" and the track pad quits working - NEITHER can play now. Grandma loks at it quickly, hands over a travel mouse for that laptop and her laptop for the younger one so that they will quit squabbling as it gets Grandpa trying to turn around to deal with the NOISE.

I get a call on the cell phone asking why the track pad quit working.......having seen the kids squabble over the remote control for the tv and a few other things..........I tell her to check the little button over it because the odds are that one of them hit it trying to wrestle the computer away from the other one.

Two year old laptop completely quit working two months later - or so my sister-in-law told me on the phone a year later - implying that the laptop was cheap, old, and a piece of junk for breaking when her angels were using it. After all, anything that breaks because it's been used to play tug of war can't be GOOD QUALITY. It's not the fault of her parenting style. Because only CHEAP stuff breaks with "normal use".

My brother leaves his laptop at work...........where it is SAFER. I don't blame him.

There have been other "tech issues" that I get phoned about - but a ten hour drive precludes my running up there to help out by fixing the computer.

A few years ago, a colleague of mine was trying to help someone over the phone with a computer problem. The other person was over a hundred miles away in a remote office and in those circumstances we'd usually connect to them with some suitable remote control software to help them remotely.

For some reason, we couldn't connect to their PC using the remote control software and my colleague was trying to talk the person through fixing the issue over the phone but was getting nowhere. We guessed that somehow their Windows Firewall had locked us out and blocked our ability to remotely connect to help them.

After a few hours of trying to fix the problem blindly, my colleague reluctantly had to tell them the administrative password, so they could log on with the admin account, switch off the firewall and finally allow us to connect and fix the problem.

Techies don't like giving out their passwords but sometimes the need arises. On this occasion, the password was divulged under the strict instructions that it must not be used again, nor uttered to another living soul and if possible it should be forgotten. The person agreed that they would not tell anyone.

A few weeks later my colleague needed to visit the remote office to do some follow-up work. Just after arriving and whilst he was still taking off his jacket, he looked up and there written in huge letters on the office whiteboard were the words "Admin Password" and then the actual password. It was there for all to see, even visiting customers would have seen it.

So much for not telling another living soul!

We changed all of the administrative passwords the following day.

One day one of the staff at one of our remote offices called our Helpdesk and told us he had moved his own computer from one office to another. We have a written policy that says that staff shouldn't attempt to move their own equipment. It is slightly frustrating when we hear they've done it themselves anyway.

I reminded him of the policy. He said he knew about the policy but he'd moved his own computer anyway. Apparently he needed it done now and didn't want to wait for I.T. to turn up.

"You want me to move your PC now? Yeah sure, I'll just drop everything I'm doing and come now. The whole Finance department can't print, but don't worry, I'm on my way so you can sit nearer the window..."

Anyway, his problem was that now he'd moved his own computer he couldn't connect to the network using the wall port in his new office, hence calling us.

Since the remote office was well over a hundred miles away, our advice was less than sympathetic. It was, put your PC back where you got it from and then carry on working and we will move it properly next week when we visit the site.

When one of our technicians visited the remote site the following week. He found that the computer had not been moved back as requested. Instead, it's owner had trailed a long network cable across his old office, like a washing line trip-hazard. Drilled a hole in the wall. Pushed the cable through it and then plugged it into the back of his PC which was now located on the other side of the wall in his new office.

We spent longer undoing his handywork than we did actually doing the job properly. I think his line manager had a word with him after that and for some reason he now gives us notice if he needs any office moves to be carried out.