Enter key? Sorry, not with you...



  • I have to support our field sales reps who use their laptops to run a CRM system.  With this one user in particular the conversation ALWAYS goes like this:

    Me: Ok, click on Start, Run, type <cmd/ipconfig/http.../whatever> and press Enter

    Him:  Enter...No, can't see that

    Me. Oh sorry, it's not a button on the screen, it's the Enter key on the keyboard.

    Him: No, haven't got one of those.

    Me: It's the big key on the right hand side, it might not say "Enter" but it'll have an arrow pointing down and then left...

    Him: Oh, you mean "Down a line!"

    Me: Uhm, yeah...

    I got this bloke's laptop in a few weeks ago and he'd put little round stickers on the keyboard - one saying "Down a line" next to the Enter key and another saying "Up a line" next to backspace.   Oh, and another one to show him where to plug the power supply in.  This is probably reasonable since a couple of them used to jam their modem leads into the ethernet ports, wrecking the connectors.



  •  Just yesterday I had cause to remove the female usb-A socket jammed into the systems com port. The owner said that it 'fitted'. 

    For limited values of 'Fit', I suppose.

    Didn't take me too long to work out something was wrong - I was holding two usb male plugs at the time.



  • @robbak said:

    The owner said that it 'fitted'. 

    For limited values of 'Fit', I suppose.

     

    Sure it fits - you just gotta push it hard enough. 



  • @upsidedowncreature said:

    Sure it fits - you just gotta push it hard enough.

    That's what she said!

     

    To me.

     

    "She" being your mother. 



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    "She" being your mother. 
     

    What, you're not a paedophile any more? 



  • @upsidedowncreature said:

    @robbak said:

    The owner said that it 'fitted'. 

    For limited values of 'Fit', I suppose.

     

    Sure it fits - you just gotta push it hard enough. 

     

     

    ... after being asked to fit square pegs into round holes test subjects quickly divided into very stupid ones and very strong ones...

     



  •  A few years in the past, a friend of mine was doing hardware maintenance for end users desktop. He was called in for a non working printer (using LPT1 port). He went there, quickly checked that the printer was plugged ok, and tried ton run a test page. Nothing out. Checking all cables, he saw some pin (actually all of the pins) were flattened in the connection. The owner had plugged the lpt connector (which has this layout /===\) upside down ( \===/ ) and forced it until the connector metalic layout was completely remodeled to "fit" the inverted layout. Children of 5 years *know* that the square won't fit in the circle, but some adults seem to still have troubles with that.



  • I've seen a USB-A plug plugged into an ethernet socket. To be fair, it fits perfectly (not loose, not force-it-in tight either), and he had plugged it in by reaching round behind the pc without really looking.

    I've also seen upside-down ide cables (the keyed version no less), off-by-one ide cables forced on, wrecking pins.

    All fairly standard stuff, really.



  • @Thief^ said:

    I've seen a USB-A plug plugged into an ethernet socket. To be fair, it fits perfectly (not loose, not force-it-in tight either), and he had plugged it in by reaching round behind the pc without really looking.

     

    I've actually done that before. The USB ports on my work laptop are in the exact same location as the ethernet port on my personal laptop. (And I plugged it in by reaching around as well.)

    Won't be making that mistake again, though. No one was around to see my moment of sheer idiocy, thankfully.

     

    It never ceases to amaze me the number of people I meet that can't seem to grasp that if you have to force something with your computer, you should take a step back and double-check yourself.



  • @Thief^ said:

    I've seen a USB-A plug plugged into an ethernet socket. To be fair, it fits perfectly
     

    Only on laptops.

    On normal desktop pcs (motherboards and separate ethernet cards), the socket is just that fraction of a millimeter too small. I do not know why. Maybe it's just the Dell laptops, though.



  • @tchize said:

    Children of 5 years *know* that the square won't fit in the circle, but some adults seem to still have troubles with that.
    Don't you just hate it when you can't call the customer an idiot to his face?



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    That's what she said!

    To me.

    "She" being your mother. 

    Nice of you to drop in and have a conversation with an old lady with a walker.



  • @pitchingchris said:

    Nice of you to drop in and have a conversation with an old lady with a walker.
    They struggle less



  • @DOA said:

    @tchize said:

    Children of 5 years know that the square won't fit in the circle, but some adults seem to still have troubles with that.
    Don't you just hate it when you can't call the customer an idiot to his face?

    You can, just be sure he doesn't know the language you say it in. I find Sanskrit is really good for such purposes.



  • @tchize said:

    Checking all cables, he saw some pin (actually all of the pins) were flattened in the connection. The owner had plugged the lpt connector (which has this layout /===\) upside down ( \===/ ) and forced it until the connector metalic layout was completely remodeled to "fit" the inverted layout.

    I worked briefly for a computer store while I was in college, and this story comes from there; a guy comes in holding a homebrew 9-25 serial cable and a printer.  It was a slow day so I try to be helpful.  He says "this end fits in my computer, but this end is wrong (holding up the 9-pin end).  I peek at the side of his printer, note the centronics parallel port, get a proper cable, plug his printer in at a demo station on the floor, and print a test page.  

    Blatantly ignoring the apparent workingness of this very reasonable setup, he says 'my friend made this cable but one end is wrong'.  

    I hand him the very cable I just used to print something from his printer with and say (trying to be helpful, and hopefully explaining in a way that isn't hard to get) 'the cable you have has too few wires.  feel this cable.  it's much thicker because it's made for your kind of printer' (showing him how to plug it in).  

    I send him to the cashier ... he walks over and says 'this end fits in my computer, but this end is wrong'.

    The computer store owner, who had been having a bad day anyway, uses some choice language on the guy and sends him heading for the hills.



  • @arty said:

    I worked briefly for a computer store while I was in college, and this story comes from there; a guy comes in holding a homebrew 9-25 serial cable and a printer.  It was a slow day so I try to be helpful.  He says "this end fits in my computer, but this end is wrong (holding up the 9-pin end).  I peek at the side of his printer, note the centronics parallel port, get a proper cable, plug his printer in at a demo station on the floor, and print a test page.  

    Blatantly ignoring the apparent workingness of this very reasonable setup, he says 'my friend made this cable but one end is wrong'.  

    I hand him the very cable I just used to print something from his printer with and say (trying to be helpful, and hopefully explaining in a way that isn't hard to get) 'the cable you have has too few wires.  feel this cable.  it's much thicker because it's made for your kind of printer' (showing him how to plug it in).  

    I send him to the cashier ... he walks over and says 'this end fits in my computer, but this end is wrong'.

    The computer store owner, who had been having a bad day anyway, uses some choice language on the guy and sends him heading for the hills.

     

    Dude, what's your problem?  I told you, my friend made the cable but one end is wrong.   



  •  @AccessGuru said:

    Dude, what's your problem?  I told you, my friend made the cable but one end is wrong.   

    Take this cable; take it in your hands and feel the girth and weight of it.  The strength of this cable is the only one that will satisfy you.  Cast aside your friend's skinny cable.  Don't be shy. 



  • @arty said:

    this cable; take it in your hands and feel the girth and weight of it.  The strength of this cable is the only one that will satisfy you.  Cast aside your friend's skinny cable.  Don't be shy. 
    Is it suddenly very hot in here?



  • @upsidedowncreature said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    "She" being your mother. 
     

    What, you're not a paedophile any more? 

     

    Don't be silly, of course he is!



  • Once, while installing several new peices of hardware, I inadvertantly connected my power supply to ... my powersupply.

     I wasn't really paying attention, and just grabbing the free cables and hooking them up to their match. The PC did not like that, and I felt like a giant tool when I traced the cable path back to the source.



  • @tchize said:

    Children of 5 years know that the square won't fit in the circle, but some adults seem to still have troubles with that.

    This is nonsense. A square WILL fit in the circle, if the diagonal of the square is less than the diameter of the circle. The circle will fit in the square if its diameter is less than the side of the square. So the statement should be "A square won't fit in a circle that's too small." Which is the same as "A square won't fit in a smaller square".



  • @chadsexington said:

    Once, while installing several new peices of hardware, I inadvertantly connected my power supply to ... my powersupply.

     I wasn't really paying attention, and just grabbing the free cables and hooking them up to their match. The PC did not like that, and I felt like a giant tool when I traced the cable path back to the source.

    How exactly did you manage to do that? Both mains cables and molex/sata power connect in only 1 way and direction.



  • @dhromed said:

    How exactly did you manage to do that? Both mains cables and molex/sata power connect in only 1 way and direction.

    Some power supplies have both connections. Why someone would want to chain something else to it is questionable, though.



  • @AbbydonKrafts said:

    Some power supplies have both connections. Why someone would want to chain something else to it is questionable, though.
    You chain them together to double your power. Duh.



  • @dhromed said:

     I wasn't really paying attention, and just grabbing the free cables and hooking them up to their match. The PC did not like that, and I felt like a giant tool when I traced the cable path back to the source.

     

     I often wondered that myself, but this was quite a while ago and I was young (bout 14~), so my memory is a little hazy on how I accomplished it. I remember tracing the cable back to the powersupply, however, so I'm fairly sure I accomplished it somehow.

     

    And as to why - I was just in a hurry to recconnect things and wasn't paying attention. I saw two cables near eachother that fit, and just 'assumed' that they were together when I took everything apart. 



  • @bstorer said:

    You chain them together to double your power. Duh.

    Sweet.



  • @AbbydonKrafts said:

    Some power supplies have both connections. Why someone would want to chain something else to it is questionable, though.
    Back in the days of AT power supplies it was usual to connect the monitor to the outlet on power supply, so you could turn the computer and monitor on and off with a single button. There hasn't been much point to this since ATX though.



  •  Why actually? I found that feature pretty convenient and useful, whereas today you basically have the choice to always keep your monitor on - which costs unnecessary power -, always turn it on and off manually - which becomes annoying quickly - or boy a master/slave socket - which would break a fly on the wheel. Any knowledge why exactly it has been taken away?

    <ot>I just notices Morbiuswilters' signature. Considering you guys' opinion how this community should run from the "Moderator WTF" topic, shouldn't you at least put a * after the "You all are welcome"?</ot>



  • @PSWorx said:

    Considering you guys' opinion how this community should run from the "Moderator WTF" topic, shouldn't you at least put a * after the "You all are welcome"?

    No. He really means all are welcome. Now, if certain people get themselves flamed out, that's another matter. In those cases, that's what the original is for. There isn't any flaming in the first one on my sig, but there is moderation.



  • @AbbydonKrafts said:

    @PSWorx said:
    Considering you guys' opinion how this community should run from the "Moderator WTF" topic, shouldn't you at least put a * after the "You all are welcome"?

    No. He really means all are welcome. Now, if certain people get themselves flamed out, that's another matter. In those cases, that's what the original is for. There isn't any flaming in the first one on my sig, but there is moderation.

     

    #TDWTF is controlled by lingerance and Mikey's heavy hand. They have banned people for joking around and having a good time.

    #TDWTFMafia is basically not controlled by anyone. It is a completely open discussion. And it remains pretty civil most of the time. Of course, if you come looking for trouble, or acting like an idiot, you wont be kicked, you will be flamed.



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    Filed under: Because fried idiots are tasty!

    But the smell.. I can never get used to that.



  • @AbbydonKrafts said:

    But the smell.. I can never get used to that.
     

    Thats fine, stay with Lingerance. At least we don't smell like bengay, moth bolls, preperation h and vaseline.



  • I was helping train a technician some years back, and had him building quite a few desktop PCs for a local school. He got stumped on one particular machine and had to ask me for some help figuring out what was wrong. It wasn't starting up at all, so I broke it back down to check his connections and such. After removing the CPU fan/heatsink, I found that the Socket 478 processor was installed backwards! Naturally, this just isn't going to work.

     TRWTF of this story is in regards to said processor. The socket on the mobo had a nice indentation from the incorrectly aligned pins, however after prying it out of that I saw the pins weren't flattened or such despite the heatsink/fan being mounted on top of them. They were bent quite a bit, but not so badly they couldn't be straightened back out. I turned the CPU around and reinstalled it properly, and was surprised it still booted! I was sure that thing would be dead after that.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @PSWorx said:

    always turn it on and off manually - which becomes annoying quickly

    How much of your day is (was?) taken up by manually turning monitors on and off?


  • @PJH said:

    How much of your day is (was?) taken up by manually turning monitors on and off?
     

    OCD's a bitch.

    So are the expenses for new monitors every month.


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