Funny Laptop Story

A place to talk about all things mobile
Post Reply
User avatar
Kaos Kid
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 958
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:31 am
Location: 40 clicks West of the Gateway

Funny Laptop Story

Post by Kaos Kid »

OK I'm sure you IT guys have stories like this of your own, but I have to share this one.

Since I am currently unemployed I do some computer repair/virus removal for family and friends and as an extension of them through word-of-mouth. An older couple (in their 70s I'm sure) were referred to me by another older couple that I previously did some work for. Their 2009-era laptop with Win7 Home Premium wouldn't get on the internet and was really bogging. Long story short I ended up doing a factory reset using the hidden recovery partition and after 3 years of updates and bloatware uninstall I give it back to them and they are thrilled saying it was working great the night before they went out of town for a few days and left it plugged in so it would be charged fully when they returned. When they return however, it will not boot up. I couldn't figure out what was wrong after the usual questions on the phone (is it plugged in? lol) so I offer to look at it again. I didn't hear from them for a few days so I called them back and they said "no, not working, I guess we'll have to buy a new one". I convinced him to bring it back to me before they spend any more money and so he says he'll bring it by today. He walks in with all the cords still attached to the laptop--along with their westdell modem that was connected with both the USB cord AND the RJ45 plug, lol. Within 30 seconds I see what the problem is--the power cord that is plugged in to the modem says "Toshiba" on it, and of course the modem power cord is plugged in to the laptop! The reason it worked when they got it home was that the battery still had a charge, but drained in the 5 days they were gone, lol. The wife had plugged in everything wrong, but thought it was fine. After I explained what was wrong with it we had a good laugh and he could hardly wait to get home and tell her the good news. He wanted to pay me but of course I said no way, I wouldn't feel right taking money for 2 minutes of troubleshooting, but told him that it was a good thing he didn't call a repair shop for a service call because they would surely have fleeced him. I'm pretty sure they will call me again if they ever need more repair work, and refer me to anyone else they know.

I still can't stop chuckling about it. :lol:
I have come to the conclusion that "FaceBook" should be renamed "FacePalm" :roll:
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Re: Funny Laptop Story

Post by Apoptosis »

Pretty wild right there!

How were they able to get on the internet? Was the laptop charger able to power up the modem?
Find us on Facebook to discover the faces behind the names!
Follow Me on Twitter!
User avatar
Kaos Kid
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 958
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:31 am
Location: 40 clicks West of the Gateway

Re: Funny Laptop Story

Post by Kaos Kid »

That has me puzzled since it seems to me the laptop brick would overvolt the modem. Possibly she was just looking at a cached version of her facebook page rather than a page in realtime. I don't know if CenturyLink is an always on connection like my Charter cable modem or if she has to proffer a password to get online--and with the factory reset she would have lost any automatic login settings.
I have come to the conclusion that "FaceBook" should be renamed "FacePalm" :roll:
Post Reply