J.Rai
09-11-2007, 01:06 PM
Some of you may be aware I'm a Systems Administrator by day (gotta pay the bills somehow) and sometimes I like to post simple tales of simple users.
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I'll be the first to admit there's problems that come up that I don't understand either. The only difference between my knowledge and their (the users, essentially my customers) knowledge of the solution in such a case is that I know how to use a search engine, apparently. Also, people tend to not appreciate the "Doctor, it hurts when I do this" scenario, where the solution is all-too-often "Well then don't do that." End Groucho Marx impression.
Take for example a curious problem with one machine in particular here (at my office. Yes, I'm posting from work.) When the guy, let's call him Dave, arrives in the morning (meaning noonish) and tries to log in, his computer freezes up. Of course, if he just reboots the machine, he's able to log in just fine and the computer works great all day. But the next morning, *click* - freeze. Damn. Error logs and monitoring have turned up cryptic messages I'm yet to translate (YouTube and online poker calling!) but after many tries at fixing the damn machine, I think one of the remaining ways to fix the thing would be just to reformat and give him a fresh machine. Damn.
I can see from the log files that the machine seems to experience the bizarre error late at night, when some as-yet-unidentified event takes place. Easy, right? I tell him, just make sure to shut down the computer when you leave for the day. When he gets back it'll be rested, bright-screened and bushy-corded and ready for a productive day. It seems he's been able to pull that off though, so the issue is still affecting him. Even with a complete backup, he's afraid that somehow a reformat will result in a loss of some important data he doesn't remember having, so that's off the books too.
I'm in luck though. He's been walking on air this week because Jeff the IT guy brilliantly fixed his impossibly broken machine. How you may ask?
Every morning when I get into the office, I reset his computer.
*OOOOHHHHH*
Read More...
I'll be the first to admit there's problems that come up that I don't understand either. The only difference between my knowledge and their (the users, essentially my customers) knowledge of the solution in such a case is that I know how to use a search engine, apparently. Also, people tend to not appreciate the "Doctor, it hurts when I do this" scenario, where the solution is all-too-often "Well then don't do that." End Groucho Marx impression.
Take for example a curious problem with one machine in particular here (at my office. Yes, I'm posting from work.) When the guy, let's call him Dave, arrives in the morning (meaning noonish) and tries to log in, his computer freezes up. Of course, if he just reboots the machine, he's able to log in just fine and the computer works great all day. But the next morning, *click* - freeze. Damn. Error logs and monitoring have turned up cryptic messages I'm yet to translate (YouTube and online poker calling!) but after many tries at fixing the damn machine, I think one of the remaining ways to fix the thing would be just to reformat and give him a fresh machine. Damn.
I can see from the log files that the machine seems to experience the bizarre error late at night, when some as-yet-unidentified event takes place. Easy, right? I tell him, just make sure to shut down the computer when you leave for the day. When he gets back it'll be rested, bright-screened and bushy-corded and ready for a productive day. It seems he's been able to pull that off though, so the issue is still affecting him. Even with a complete backup, he's afraid that somehow a reformat will result in a loss of some important data he doesn't remember having, so that's off the books too.
I'm in luck though. He's been walking on air this week because Jeff the IT guy brilliantly fixed his impossibly broken machine. How you may ask?
Every morning when I get into the office, I reset his computer.
*OOOOHHHHH*