How do you break it to somebody that....

[Stark]

JG, I love it when one of "your customers" comes into my shop after having attempted building their own system. The motherboard is usually screwed to the case with no standoffs, the cables are all backwards, the floppy power plug is plugged into the motherboard speaker pins... i could go on and on. The best part is charging them $120 to rebuild their system, $100 for a legal copy of windows, $40 for dvd software that didn't come with their oem drive, etc, etc.

If it wasn't for idiots like those, our shop would probably go out of business. 😉

 

[BoberFett]

<< That's easy. Format goes around harrassing anybody that doesn't agree with him >>

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[Hossenfeffer]

&quot;What does it do when I flash the BIOS?&quot;

&quot;A new machine needs to get used to it's new surroundings. Flashing the BIOS is private moment between you and your computer. It says to the chips &quot;Hey, this is who I am. Love me&quot;. You need to drop your pants, yes, expose yourself to the computer. You may feel foolish but make sure you stay exposed for several minutes. Your BIOS will blush internally (also called burn-in, something that real good computer-type folks are hot after, pardon the pun). The result will be a new rapport, or bond, between you and the new machine.&quot;

 

[Kayes]

LOL!

I still remember the first time I built my own PC.
I have no f**king idea of what is IDE SCSI nor how to connect them.
What I did was to go out to a computer mall here, get all the cheapest items I can get. (I am a poor student) Then when I came home, RTFM (read the Frigging Manual) and connected it all up.
Then I called a good friend of mine to check it out before powering it up. Needless to say, I got some of it all wrong; IDE was flipped etc. At least I will remember that till I die now 🙂

After he corrected everything I powered it up. It boots and I can remember the first time seeing the boot up screen. AMD K6 200 64MB SDRAM. AMI BIOS. Unfortunately, it wouldn't install windows95 at that time. Kept getting BSOD. Spent nearly one year troubleshooting the f**ker (hey it was my first time) and countless nites here in Anandtech BBS at that time...

After 7 months later I managed to solve the problem. It was a bad RAM. During the time I managed to save money for a new stick.

Well, nothing last longer than a lesson learnt the hardware opps hard way.


P/S: I will be a nitemare to JG. 🙂

 

[cxim]

jG, how about you put some info on the company

Support page that simply states there is a charge for assembly instruction.

clearly state the difference between component debugging &amp; basic assembly.

Have a &quot;How to Tree&quot; in the FAQs where some branches go to &quot;You need basic instruction, if you do not understand this part &quot;

Also print up the Tree &amp; FAQs &amp; include with shipped orders ......

Give it some thought &amp; run it by your boss !!!

 

[Pretender]

LOL, the sad thing is, I don't know a few of those things (or didn't until recently), and I had no problem building a computer.


<< What are the little brass thingies that came with the case? >>

I know what they are, but not when/how to use them.

 

[ratkil]

Just smile and say &quot;Why yes, I would like fries with that&quot;



Sorry, that just popped into my head and I thought it was funny. I realize you have to deal with these people every day so it probably does get very old for you, but I guess I just keep thinking when I was first starting the stupid questions I asked. So while I feel your pain, I really can't be too critical of them. 🙂

 

[Batti]

LOL at &quot;clear COSMOS jumper&quot;. That's pretty powerful stuff!!!😛

 

[jonnyGURU]

Dameon: Fact is I AM tech support and I AM here to tell people, &quot;set your jumpers to this&quot; and &quot;plug that cable in there&quot;, but when people ask &quot;what's a jumper&quot; and &quot;what's that cable for&quot; I have to wonder why they thought they can build a PC in the first place! :Q

Stark: Yeah. I used to have that gig. I actually miss it sometimes. &quot;Give me $100 and I'll fix your screw ups.&quot;

This job actually PAYS better, but it's not the same sort of gratification because you can't say &quot;I got $20 to fix this&quot; or &quot;I got $50 to fix that&quot;.

It's mostly just go go go and then get the phat check. 😉

I do actually like it despite all my bitching and whining. I bitch and whine so I can KEEP liking it! 🙂

I like cxim's suggestion. The &quot;how to tree&quot; and if it's actually POSTED somewhere that &quot;if you do not know such and such then you need to go to a computer store...&quot; is a fair and gentle way to tell someone that they are incompetent.

I might have to work on that this weekend. 😉





PS: Asking what the little red paper washers are for is NOT a stupid question. Some of us have been doing this for 17 years and aren't QUITE sure! 😛

 

[Demon-Xanth]

True story:

A coworker has a slot1+socket370 motherboard
He comments that slot1 is faster (when using a slotket, Celeron 566)
I say &quot;huh?&quot;
He says windows boots faster, then proceeds to comment that the heatsink (stock HSF) gets very hot.
I inform him that he is overclocking the CPU
He says &quot;No, I have the jumpers set to auto detect&quot;
I inform him to check his CPU speed then rattle off a few utilities to check it.
He refuses

Half an hour later he decides to ask me where to get them, I rattle off a few pages that he reads regularly 🙂

 

[jonnyGURU]

Kayes: &quot;...what is IDE SCSI nor how to connect them.&quot;

Hell! I don't know what IDE SCSI is! I always thought of them as two seperate things! 😛

 

[roc919]

Politely ask them to buy an OEM computer like a Compaq or Gateway from the local Bestbuy or whatever. And tell them that about the, ahem, excellent tech support that you can find anywhere. 🙂

 

[jonnyGURU]

It's like this guy I just got off the phone with.....

&quot;I hate you, I hate your company, I hate Mitsumi, AAAAARGH!!&quot;

Gotta wonder what's the problem.

&quot;I've gotten TWO of these Mitsumi Floppy Drives from your defective part selling store and NEITHER of them work and BOTH OF THEM have it's light stay on solid.&quot;

&quot;Sir,&quot; I responded, &quot;The floppy cable is on backwards.&quot;

Guess he didn't know that when a light stays on steady on a floppy drive that the cable is on backwards.

Of course he WANTS to assume that he's doing everything right and that his parts are defective. It makes his ego feel better.