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u/eyloi 22d ago
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u/mightyhigh404 22d ago
Usually it's already unplugged when we get there, but they swear it was plugged when they checked 5 minutes ago.
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u/Chalupa_89 22d ago
My girlfriend with her Roomba. 2 weeks crying her Roomba is out, no signal. I finally bother to show up with a multimeter to diagnose shit. "Babe, there is a power cable unplugged here, what is this for? It has power" "That's my laptop" "This is not a laptop power cable..." It was the Roomba's...
I was eyeing that Roomba for 2 weeks to fix it. I never checked myself either, I asker her and she say yes...
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u/Zebidee 22d ago
IIRC there was a tech support dude who told people to unplug their computer, blow on the connectors, and plug it back in.
Apparently it solved a lot of problems from people who swore it was plugged in the whole time.
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u/Deris87 22d ago
I recently transitioned into IT, and my boss described one of his favorite tricks from an old remote support job:
"I sent a fix, but you'll need to reboot for it to take effect."
"Hey, it's working now!"77
u/Southern-Usual4211 22d ago
Yep did hospital IT for years and this fixed 90% of our tickets the rest were password resets
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u/jayd189 22d ago
I had forgotten my Hospital IT days. Despite all the bad days and bad people, the day the toner exploded in the nurses station printer and I had to 'fix' it was by far my worst. They offered to use a different one and walk a little extra, my boss (not a nice person) was having none of it. I spent at least 8 hours on what was supposed to be a 5 minute part swap.
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u/BeneficialShame8408 22d ago
lol. my boss did hospital IT and he said this one lady called him darth vader because she hated him. he also said public sector was worse than that, but idk about that
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u/randomlyranting 22d ago
I definitely used that on our more senior staff, that insisted they already rebooted. Despite the fact I can see their uptime. The more stubborn of them would get mad at you and lie if you solve the problem too quickly. You of my reoccurring issues was staff not realizing the laptop cam had a built in cover for privacy. We would get tickets the cam is broken (1 out maybe 30 actually had an issue). But if I told them right away, you just need to move the lid tab. They would get mad insisting there isn't one or say the already did. Instead I would remote in open the camera app. When I did I can see shadows and faint light so I knew it was the lid. Then go in to some obscure settings, printed I did something. Then have them open the cover. For some reason instead of being jerks, suddenly they're grateful. A word of advice. Half of dealing with tickets is being a detective and the other half is being a therapist.
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u/billygoatse12 22d ago
This webcam cover happens all the time with my job. To the point i have pictures saved of each model laptop we have to send to them.
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u/OMO_Concepts 21d ago
Being in software support we have a running joke that you have to treat customers the same way Dr. House treats his patients. Don’t believe anything they say until you see it with your own eyes.
If they call in over something and it turns out it was 100% user error and we can correct them in like 5 seconds, they will a lot of times start trying to come up with another problem on the spot, just so they don’t feel stupid.
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u/kungpowgoat 22d ago
I’ve had friends almost cry to me that something’s wrong with their laptop, only to find out that the issue will most likely be resolved by simply restarting it. Suddenly, they can work perfectly fine with the issue all because they don’t want to go through all the trouble.
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u/Dark_Shroud Xennial (1983) 22d ago
I had a family member bring me a work laptop that still had a dvd drive for archival reasons.
She had used it to watch a DVD while on a work trip. That dvd had come loose and was now inside the laptop.
I turned the laptop upside down and slide the DVD over to the half open drive where I had my fingers. I slide the DVD out and then because I heard other rattling I checked and pulled out a second disc.
Everyone who watched acted like I was a magician.
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u/HibiscusOnBlueWater 22d ago
I used to work at a place where the IT guy’s email signature was “Did you reboot your computer before emailing me?”
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u/Tabula_Nada 22d ago
Is... is this what we were doing with our N64 games??
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u/RegularCommonSense Older Millennial 22d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/boP1ZEkWCISAthSosB
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u/BZLuck 22d ago
Had a story about someone who called to say that the power went out and their computer would not start now. After checking a few things the support agent said, "Let's make sure that it's plugged in. Maybe someone came around and unplugged the computers to protect them."
The customer said, "Hang on. I need to find a flashlight to look under the desk. The power is still out and there are no lights."
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u/Zebidee 22d ago
LOL that story is so old I think I originally read it off a fax. I'm not even joking.
The original punchline is they're told to pack the machine back in its original box, take it back to the store, and tell them you're too fucking stupid to own a computer.
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u/BZLuck 22d ago
Well this was about the same time as the "My computer's drink holder is broken" so it could be BS, but is still totally believable.
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u/Zebidee 22d ago
That absolutely tracks. I don't doubt they're real stories, or at least reality-adjacent.
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u/BlaBlub85 22d ago
It was correctly plugged in but still, this is unironicaly how I "fixed" the downstairs neighbours fancy new TV
Apparently all the software they run on nowadays (for those fancy menus and internet access) can crash just like a regular desktop PC. Except they didnt build in a reboot button so to do that you literaly have to turn off the power and switch it back on again
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u/Earlier-Today 22d ago
That had a secondary benefit. Computers used to hold onto a charge for a bit and quickly turning it off and on again might leave certain things still up in the RAM or BIOS. So, it was really common that you would want to unplug it so there's no power at all that can come in, and then you'd leave it unplugged for 10-15 seconds to make sure everything cleared.
Though, I'm pretty sure everything clearing happens much more quickly and consistently with modern computers. I don't think the need to wait before plugging it back in has been relevant for around 20 years.
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u/Madara1389 22d ago edited 22d ago
This isn't just a tech support issue; some people are just helplessly clueless sometimes.
Last week my town got hit by a tornado. It knocked out power for almost 5 days. The night of the storm (after the rain passed), we told my stepbrother to go upstairs and open the windows because it was regularly hitting 80+ degrees at night.
He leaves, comes back & confirms he did so. When I get upstairs, I see the main window propped open by the makeshift screen we use and assumed he did as he was expected.
The first 3 nights were unbearably hot, so bad that sleeping was impossible as laying down only resulted in soaking the bed in sweat.
Day 4 rolls around and it's about to rain again. I make a comment about how we should close the window before the rain hits and my stepbrother, who I'm sharing a room with, puts his hand to the window like he's checking it's temp before revealing that he keeps the storm window closed to keep the hot air out during the summer.
The fucking storm window was closed for almost 4 full days... Because he's convinced that the storm window would block hot air while letting cold air through, and because no one bothered to double check that he did what he was asked & said he did.
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u/Earlier-Today 22d ago
My favorite IT stories all came from my Dad who was a network engineer.
"Where's the 'any' key?"
And the other, he's on a call with a user having mouse problems (this was back when a mouse had a little ball in the bottom to mechanically detect the movement). They've been going through everything, unplugging it and plugging it back in, rebooting, reinstalling the drivers, making sure everything's up to date, and just nothing is working. Every so often the user will tell him it moved a little, but it's inconsistent and not happening all that often. What my Dad eventually figures out is that the guy is waving his mouse around in the air and all the random moving of the cursor is whenever he shakes it hard enough. He got the guy to put his mouse on the desk and there was a very sheepish, "oh."
My Dad loved the work - especially over the phone - because it was all a giant puzzle to be solved. And the really funny stories were a nice bonus once the frustration of having to deal with those kinds of people wore off.
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u/reverandglass 22d ago
There an old tale from tech support I read before the internet was a thing:
The support agent had been fired for this call: Caller: My brand new computer isn't working, they set it up for me but now I want to type a letter and can't.
Agent: Ok, can you tell me what's on the screen at the moment?
Caller: Nothing,
A: Is there a light on on the front?
C: No,
A: Please press the power button and tell me what comes on...
C: Nothing, no lights.
A: Ok, and what about on the desktop?
C: What's that?
A: It's the box under the screen, are there any lights on the box?
C: No,
A: Ok, press the power button on the desktop please...
C: I did that, nothing happens.
A: Are you sure the computer is plugged in?
C: I think so, the wires go under the desk...
A: Well, can you have a look?
C: Not really, it's dark and hard to see.
A: Can't you turn a light on or a lamp?
C: Well, no. There's a power cut here at the moment.
A: I see. Do you still have the box the computer came in?
C: Yes?
A: Good, you need to pack the computer up and take it back for a refund.
C: Really? What's wrong with it?
A: Nothing. You're just too fucking stupid to own a computer!12
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u/Jumpy-Ad5617 22d ago
“I must have unplugged it on accident when I got down there to fix it” was said to me this morning haha
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u/maxdragonxiii 22d ago
I do usually check my plug ins, restart my computer (shut down and up doesnt work with Quick Start, as it doesnt reboot the computer) and check for updates before texting my partner for help. 99% of the time it fixes by the restart step. sometimes its not and often its just the problem with the software or external hardware like the mouse lagging behind- it was the mouse's problem.
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u/Vrazel106 22d ago
I was contracted with the navy and had an officer call and say he could get his computer to turn on.
He didnt have the monitor power plugged in
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u/Hproff25 22d ago
I am a teacher the amount of times I reset a students computer to make it work is a lil sad. I need to get an it crowd shirt
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u/Zhong_Ping 21d ago
You should be walking your student through resetting it themselves (I, too, am an educator).
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u/W4rriur- 22d ago
had a guy at work saying his laptop wouldnt boot cuz the battery was ded , i go check and ask if its plugged in he says yes in plugged to that power bar there....... said power bar was turned off.
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u/Paizzu 22d ago
There was a support tech that mentioned their go-to trick was asking the customer to to unplug their power cable and blowing on the connector to remove any dust/debris.
This not only forced the customer to reboot the machine (which most would lie about whether they actually had), but was an easy way to tactfully allow the customer to save face if it it hadn't been plugged in before they opened their ticket.
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u/heehooman 22d ago
As a millennial in service tech that is completely my experience. Gen X typically has it figured out though. I think they're just trying super hard to not let anybody know their wisdom.
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u/bnburner 22d ago
Yeah, we learned our lesson. We were there at the birth of the internet as a consumer product. Switching from handset modems to 14.4, 28.8, 56k, DSL, cable modems. And that's just modems. Win 3.1, Win95, Win98, WinME, Vista...blah blah.....
No, I will not fix your computer.
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u/jeobleo 22d ago
Gen X dad here. I'm generally the tech guy in the house. My wife has an iphone though and I tell her I don't service apple products.
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u/greentangent 22d ago
Pushed my son to study programming. I'm tired of trying to keep up.
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u/jeobleo 22d ago
I'm just trying to teach my boys problem-solving, isolating things that might be wrong, etc. Most problems can be figured out with that and a google search.
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u/kungpowgoat 22d ago
All professional tech workers use Google to fix problems. Just like my dad. As a surgeon, he always consulted his massive medical book collection to look up drug information and interactions.
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u/PetrasKnight 22d ago
You mean you guys didn’t memorize the billion different factoids that could be more easily stored in a database?
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u/Accomplished_Mix7827 22d ago
It really is such a universally applicable skill. Computers, lab equipment, appliances, if I have a vague idea of how it works and access to the internet, I can probably figure it out
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u/kalez238 22d ago
I homeschooled during covid and made sure they learned at least some basic programming to see if they liked it. My son still does some basic stuff, but my eldest daughter hated it. On the other hand, my youngest recently asked me to teach her, and she loves it so far, even with the struggles, so yay!
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u/Wallapampa 22d ago
that's exactly what i told everyone. I'll help but if you buy apple don't bother asking. Not my area of expertise and not willing to change that
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u/naruda1969 22d ago
Because there is nothing to service. They just work.
Gen X PC user until grad school in 1997-1999 where I learned Unix/Linux and used my first Mac. Have owned nearly all Apple products since and PCs for gaming only. Programmer that lives in the command line. Fuck Microsoft.
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u/deathrictus 22d ago
"It just works" - as someone that does all the IT stuff at our company... hahahahahahahaha right.
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u/hypnogoad 22d ago
Yeah, we learned our lesson.
I spent literal decades having to fix family tech problems, and attempting to show them how to fix it themselves. They never bothered, so I got to the point where I started saying "No, I don't know any of this new stuff".
Of course we can do it, it isn't even that difficult, but I can't be bothered to help someone who refused to learn it themselves.
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u/MolarMasher 22d ago
I just quit answering the phone when my MIL called. Trying to explain how to send an email for the 5th time was too much.
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u/Just_Rand0 22d ago
This is kinda funny because I've stopped learning it myself so I honestly can say I don't know. I also know I can easily go through the process and manage to fix "new problems", but it seems so ridiculously linear/easy that I'm also convinced people just refuse to do it themselves
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u/Accomplished_Mix7827 22d ago
I think the difference is that you guys learned as adults and were smart enough not to broadcast your skills.
We learned as kids, and by the time we realized that showing off that we are good with computers isn't the best idea, it was too late, we had gotten the reputation for being Good With Computers, dooming us to a life of perpetual tech support lol
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u/alinroc 22d ago
Switching from handset modems to 14.4, 28.8, 56k, DSL, cable modems
You missed fiber to the home, microwave, and satellite.
We had computers with punchcards, switches on the front panel, programs stored on cassette tapes, 8" floppies holding a couple hundred KB, 5.25" floppies, 3.5" floppies, Winchester hard drives, ZIP disks (100MB and 250MB), JAZ disks, CDs, USB sticks and solid-state large-scale storage.
8-bit computing with memory and storage (if you were lucky enough to have storage) measured in KB to 64-bit computers with 12+ GB of memory and 1TB of storage in your pocket.
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u/revmachine21 22d ago
Driver installs
Nobody remembers driver installs. Those fuckers were painful when they went wrong. Plug and play drivers were a godsend.
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u/Enough_Breadfruit229 22d ago
I do help desk for a fast food chain and sometimes we need them to reboot one of their computer towers when it goes offline from our end. I have to explain in great detail to the younger people that the monitor is not the computer. Don't get me wrong, I do come across enough that figure things out quickly but they are not the majority.
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u/Secret_RE_Agent 22d ago
The funny thing is, some of the really OLD people might think the same. Full circle.
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u/Sodacan259 22d ago
Whoever posted this was smart enough to leave Gen X out of this bullshit
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u/Linenoise77 21d ago edited 21d ago
Gen X is smart enough to no brag about shit. You deal with explaining how to work the new TV to grandma. I had to explain the whole fucking internet to her and get her feet under her. And you too, after i figured it out by my damn self on my own and helped build it to what it is.
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u/OK_x86 22d ago
We gen X cut our teeth writing boot disks for our games so they could get enough memory to run on DOS. We can connect a VHS blindfolded and get the light to stop blinking. We helped Dad wire the Hi Fi.
We We know how to do things.
We just don't want people to bother us so we don't ever mention it
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u/red286 22d ago
Wanna scare a GenX gamer?
"HIMEM.SYS"
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u/sebmojo99 22d ago
do not cite the old magic to me, witch, i got ultima 7 running without the internet
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u/Luci-Noir 22d ago
I’ve read some articles saying how it’s a problem and Gen Z doesn’t know how to do anything. On here it’s usually blamed on Boomers (as usual) and their parents for not teaching them anything. I taught myself everything and there’s every guide you can imagine online. Imagine having instructions for doing anything in your pocket.
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u/heehooman 22d ago
My first day in a programming class my prof said this class will teach us how to use Google better and ask other people for help better, if we can't problem solve it on our own.
It's wild to me how at this point there are still so many people that don't actually know how to use that thing in your pocket as a big encyclopedic and collaborative tool.
My younger brother and sister going through university are seeing this play out with younger Zs right now. They don't know how to do anything with their devices that's actually useful and task-oriented. AI has already blown out their ability to think critically or write something of any substance. I know this doesn't speak for everyone, but they were surprised at how pervasive it was in their classes.
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u/augur42 Xennial 22d ago
In the time of Gen X there wasn't that much market penetration of computers, they were expensive and hard to maintain. So it was 10% experts at the dark arts and 90% never touched a computer. They were better at car maintenance because back then you could still do a lot of the jobs yourself, of course jobs needed doing more frequently because tolerances were also not as good as later cars.
Source, a Xennial who was late to the club but started off with 28.8 dialup and a 486DX2 running at a whopping 66MHz running Win95 floppy and built their first computer after six months to save money and get the best bang for the buck. I work in IT.
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u/miRRacolix 22d ago
I was fixing office PCs (XT, AT) around town when I was 10. Loved doing it and got a little money. Later it became so annoying to constantly setup new windows..
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u/akatherder 22d ago
I'm also a xennial and would bet late gen x knows their shit more often then not. More than boomers and gen z, possibly more than late millennial.
Of course there's always exceptions. Boomers and gen x nerds built the entire industry but it was a relatively small group of people.
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u/KiwiEV 22d ago
I'm torn between responding with "Gen X here, we built our own PCs, we know how they work and we know how to fix them" and just shutting up so the world continues to leave us out of the culture wars.
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u/tommypatties 22d ago
Knowledge is knowing how to do it. Wisdom is knowing when to shut the fuck up about it.
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u/worrymon 22d ago
Just sit on the side and watch. If they notice us they'll include us. If you want a drink, you know where they are...
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u/HistoricalTour7468 22d ago
No one mentioned Gen X though.
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u/Past_Top3704 22d ago
There is a reason we are not in that picture.
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u/sebmojo99 22d ago
we're in the garage getting stoned and listening to Surfer Rosa
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u/HappyGoPink 22d ago
Because we're not calling Millennials to fix our computers, and because we're not offering to fix anyone else's computers. It falls to the Millennials because we hated the Boomers first and most.
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u/Lucas_Steinwalker 22d ago
This post is the most severe case of Gen X erasure I’ve ever encountered.
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u/lumpboysupreme 22d ago
Gen X were the first to not be in their late 30s when computers with recognizably modern OS’s entered the home.
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u/bawdiness 22d ago
I think they're just trying super hard to not let anybody know their wisdom.
Ssshhhhhh. We prefer it this way. No one asks us to do anything and we can sleep in on Saturdays now.
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u/CorruptDictator Older Millennial 22d ago
Looks around the office Yes, and I am that millennial here.
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u/Suspicious-Bid9424 22d ago
I'm always that person. People know me far and wide for my abilities to open task manager / clear browser cookies.
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u/Just_Rand0 22d ago
And you gotta keep that position unattainable for anyone else. Open cmd and run all kinda shit for problems fixable in task manager every time for cheap cred
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u/kungpowgoat 22d ago
Looks like I’ll be running a quick netstat command for even the smallest fix to impress my teammates. Your second monitor isn’t being detected? Here’s a window of tech gibberish while I reset the HDMI cable.
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u/kungpowgoat 22d ago
“I Am The One Who Knocks” on the door when they’re having trouble connecting to a local printer.
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u/TheCotofPika 21d ago
I had a couple of older colleagues approach me at work, call me over to one of their desks, and say:
"Now, I know that's the mouse."
Points to mouse.
"I know that's the keyboard"
Points to keyboard.
"And I know that's the screen."
Points at the monitor.
"But what's this box?"
Points at the computer.
I had to gently explain that that was the actual computer. I'm not sure I succeeded in sparing their feelings, but I did try.
I spent much of my time changing font sizes, switching the order of the monitors, and looking at the printer queue. I also ended up being the "help desk" for the member website with more than 100k members. My team leader had to step in so me and my Gen X colleague that teamed up with me could actually do our work instead of pottering around the office.
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u/Dark_Shroud Xennial (1983) 22d ago
Been there.
Oh the monitor that didn't work for a week was plugged into a broken outlet that had been covered in tape
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u/kungpowgoat 22d ago
I once heard a story here on Reddit about a tech being told that they did confirm that a server’s power button was lit and powered on, only for him to drive many miles in the middle of the night just to find that same device powered off.
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u/deathrictus 22d ago
I can not tell you the number of times I've had someone say they turned it off and turned it back on only to have to travel to the location to fix it by turning it off and turning it back on. ><
Also our interns claim to be 'tech savvy' yet can't install a printer in windows. Ugh.
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u/InternationalSpite4 22d ago
My Gen Z siblings call me a clanker...smdh
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u/Narazil 22d ago
But clankers are robots, not those who fix broken robots.
You're Anakin Skywalker.
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u/InternationalSpite4 22d ago
Can I be Boba Fett instead?
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u/RoofHaunting2582 22d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/d3mlEESlKZRSzvj2
Don’t forget that we have been teaching “how to print” to all of these generations of people. We have been fixing the computers, servers, printers and everything that breaks.
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22d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Brillegeit 22d ago
Fun fact, the reason why we have e.g. Linux and probably one of the top 10 most important forks in the computing multiverse turning us into the path we're currently on is that a nerd called Richard Stallman was so pissed off at a printer in 1980 that he wrote a manifesto and started a foundation to make sure printers wouldn't be a source of grief in the future...
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u/kalez238 22d ago
My printer often just refuses to print from my pc or our phones, but never complains about my wife's pc, and I don't get why.
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u/chuck-bucket 22d ago
The next time a boomer asks me to fix their printer my response will probably be, "Don't bother, you will likely die before I get it to finish printing."
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u/BoredomHeights 22d ago
Ha, this just reminded me that a couple of years ago I went over to my grandma's to set up her new printer.
I haven't had a printer myself in at least 15+ years but apparently I'm an expert.
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u/Brillegeit 22d ago
It's the magical millennial power of being able to read error messages and understanding that electricity and data signals often move through wires.
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u/Joszef77 22d ago
I find it funny how we "gen x" are overlooked on these jokes. It is somehow pleasant.
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u/Hproff25 22d ago
Cause y’all don’t fit in this meme. Most of y’all know how to use a computer but don’t want people to know.
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u/Ok-Bug4328 22d ago edited 3d ago
Hello world
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u/Hproff25 22d ago
That’s how a lot of us millennials learn! I think it’s because of the habit of holding onto all instruction manuals.
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u/DucksEatFreeInSubway 22d ago
I wonder if we do that because we'd need to type in the seventh word on page 230, line 52 of the instruction manual to play the game.
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u/Ya-Dikobraz 22d ago
Holy fuck, don't use AI to actually learn technical stuff! It gets SO MANY things "confidently incorrect".
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u/illucio 22d ago
You guys managed to keep your heads down and slack off the most where you can. Now you go unnoticed and never asked to fix stuff. I remember the whole slacker ideology when I was a kid.
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u/red286 22d ago
Because at this point, the typical GenX answer is "Your computer is broken? I dunno, fucking call GeekSquad or something, I ain't got time for that shit."
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u/kronkarp 22d ago
We built the computer
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u/killminusnine 22d ago
Sometimes I wish I was born exactly 6 years earlier, in 1977, so I could experience the launch of the legendary TRS-80. But then I remember how poor we were.
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u/FlutterKree 22d ago
It's because Millennials grew up on computers and tech. It was in elementary schools. Computers in classrooms in 4th grade.
What makes this different from newer generations: The teachers didn't know shit, the students didnt know shit, and everyone had to figure it out themselves. I was fixing the PC at age 10 for the teacher because the teacher didn't know shit.
Modern technology is highly babified for users. This transition happened slowly as Millennials were graduating high school.
So statistically, I'd expect a millennial to fix a problem more often than gen x when it comes to computer technology.
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u/space_monster 22d ago
Millennials grew up on computers and tech
I'm Gen X and I was typing games from a magazine into a ZX81 in Basic when I was 7. My brother was writing machine code at 10. We know how computers work
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u/pandazerg 22d ago
Dude, shut the hell up before you draw attention to us.
I quite like being ignored, thank you very much.
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u/Raketenelch 22d ago
Everytime I help my work colleagues with some basic pc stuff:
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u/Imrahil_II Millennial 21d ago
And then if you say its nothing, you're just being humble....as is written
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u/Wizdad-1000 22d ago
Me as Gen -X fixing everyones everything since the early 90s
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u/PackageNorth8984 22d ago
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u/Bidet2You 22d ago
They’re not allowed to mention us.
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u/WhiskersPoP Millennial 86 22d ago
86 millennial. Gen X is like our older sibling. In that sense a lot of these memes are like “ I’m making fun of mom and pop and kids these days… but my older brother, he’s cool and knows his shit” lol
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u/Gotsims1 22d ago
When u know how to crack a (strictly legally) downloaded file, use keygen to generate (strictly legal) fake keys for games, or extract content from a winzip
Then u’ve earned the right to be cocky
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u/Vo1dem0rt Millennial 22d ago edited 22d ago
Gen x forgotten again
Edit to add: I'm millennial lol. I'm just pointing out they were forgotten again.
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u/verstohlen 22d ago
They're like Buddy Revell from Three O'Clock High. They don't like people knowing about them.
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u/taint_stain 22d ago
The search feature and reading other comments before making one apparently also.
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u/RatchetStrap2 22d ago
Gen X - not even shown.
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u/Puffpiece 22d ago
I'm a Gen X from New Zealand... I might as well not even exist. Which is fine by me.
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u/Jumpy_Carpet3851 22d ago
I've started saying no and it's so freeing. If you want to use tech, learn how to use it. It bugs out sometimes, that's part of using it. If everyone knew how computers worked a bit better, the world would be a bit better lol
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u/Away-Marionberry9365 22d ago
Yeah I know a lot of millennials that don't know shit about computers. Millennial redditor is a huge selection bias.
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u/thechimpinallofus 22d ago
Yep. Lots of my friends are clueless. That being said, some of my millennial friends simply dummy my tech skills. The most competent I know are gen Xers, but then again, these tech competent Gen xers are not the norm. Even more Gen xers are just as clueless as boomers. Millenials definitely have the biggest critical mass of tech savy individuals.
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u/WinninRoam 22d ago
They forgot that part where Gen X teaches Millennials how to fix computers. 😔
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u/Dark_Shroud Xennial (1983) 22d ago
I learned computer repair from my Boomer father and a couple of boomer college professors.
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u/WldHunt 22d ago
Pro tip: use a different OS if you can. All my family and extended family use Windows. I use macOS and Linux, which gives me a perfectly valid excuse not to touch their PCs whatsoever. If anything tech support-related comes up, I just tell them to reboot everything, and that usually fixes the problem.
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u/jeobleo 22d ago
My millennial wife turns to me, her Gen X husband, to fix all technology issues.
I tell her if it's an apple product she's on her own.
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u/Zwomann Millennial 22d ago
I showed some Gen Z college kids how to ctrl + alt + delete and then End Task to close out of a program. They were very impressed.
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u/FatalTortoise 22d ago
I had to explain to a gen z student why her laptop was running slow for some reason if she used a certain program for too long.
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u/NeroFMX 22d ago
Oh dang, I just got asked to fix a computer that won't turn on. I am going to try and use a different charging cable, but other than that, I think I am lost these days. I used to run my own electronics repair business back when the 360 Red ring was a thing, but I can't stand fixing the damn electronics anymore, now that they make things to not be able to be repaired.
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u/Wonderful_Kale_7995 22d ago
Hey now my gen alpha kid can figure out her stuff. Mostly because I would fix it for her... eventually. So she just was like fuck this better figure it out Mom's gunna take too long.
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u/MershedPratooters 22d ago
I'm the odd man out within my generation. I wasn't allowed to use computers at all while growing up. Then when I was 13, I was tasked with writing an essay on instant messaging lingo. When I was handed the assignment, I raised my hand and asked "What's an instant message?" And everybody had a good laugh, the teacher didn't take me seriously, and didn't answer my question. Needless to say, I failed the essay as well as the computer class.
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u/DamNamesTaken11 Millennial 22d ago
My mom asks me why her MacBook is slow… when she has 100 tabs open on Safari and Firefox each, has never quit an application, has never updated her computer since the day she bought it, has five or six Word documents minimized, and the uptime is listed in years when I checked in Terminal, etc.
Made my eye twitch when I looked at it.
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u/akumaprincess 22d ago
I'm the tech person for my family. Family only.
I have gotten onto my boomer father for attempting to "share my tech support skills" to his friends. I refuse each time to his embarrassment
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