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Last week was crap for me, mainly because I'm sick and due to coughing and sneezing so much, I lost half my voice.
Anyway, one call I got was a typical spyware/malware issue. I was the 8th tech and the guy was already pissed because of that.
However, he had one issue that kept persisting: whenever his Norton was installed, 20 minutes later it would flag a virus.
So the last 3 techs kept uninstalling and reinstalling it, and would tell the man the issue is fixed, and he kept calling back with the same thing.
I asked him if he knew the name of the virus, and it sounded like a false positive. It only took a few short minutes to figure out was Norton was acting weird. This guy had Vista Basic, BTW.
SLD: Can you right click on Computer, left click on properties and tell me how much RAM you have?
SC: 448mb, it says.
SLD: That's all I needed to know. The reason why Norton is detecting a virus, which from what you're telling me sounds like a false positive, is because it's being starved for memory and is malfunctioning. Vista in itself requires 512mb just for the O/S, so you're actually below spec to run Vista properly right now, and for Norton to run on a Vista computer, you need at least 1GB, maybe 2GBs for best performance.
SC: Why would they put Vista on a machine that can't handle it?
SLD: It's Vista Basic, it's supposedly more forgiving in theory on PCs that have 512mb of memory (BS, but the alternative would have been to tell him his computer was crap), but in practice it hasn't looked like it. My only suggestion to you is, get the RAM, then call us back and we'll reinstall Norton and it should work fine this time.
SC: So what you're saying is my computer's not junk, it just needs an upgrade of memory?
SLD: That's right.
SC: Will do.
Basically, he got a "typewriter special" and is now bitching. But it's not done yet....
Co-worker: SLD, did you tell this guy that the reason he keeps getting infected is because his PC does not have enough RAM?
SLD: Uh, no. He doesn't even have enough RAM for Vista, let alone Norton. Norton was malfunctioning and reporting a false positive because of that! All I did was tell him to get more RAM and he'll be set.
Co-worker: Yeah well this guy is saying that he walked into the store and said "per SLD at phone support the reason why I keep getting infested is because this computer was sold to me without enough RAM to run anything, and if you don't install more memory now I'm going to tell everyone I know and all major websites that you people are selling shit computers without the right amount of RAM!"
SLD: What a freakin' liar! So what happened?
Co-worker: The manager gave him free memory AND free installation to shut him up.
SLD: So is the Norton issue now fixed?
Co-worker: Yup, now that the PC has decent RAM Norton doesn't blow up after it's installed.
So, the guy becomes an SC and twists what I say in hopes of getting a freebie. Hopefully if this becomes an issue they'll pull the recording and see I was in the right.
Anyway, one call I got was a typical spyware/malware issue. I was the 8th tech and the guy was already pissed because of that.
However, he had one issue that kept persisting: whenever his Norton was installed, 20 minutes later it would flag a virus.
So the last 3 techs kept uninstalling and reinstalling it, and would tell the man the issue is fixed, and he kept calling back with the same thing.
I asked him if he knew the name of the virus, and it sounded like a false positive. It only took a few short minutes to figure out was Norton was acting weird. This guy had Vista Basic, BTW.
SLD: Can you right click on Computer, left click on properties and tell me how much RAM you have?
SC: 448mb, it says.
SLD: That's all I needed to know. The reason why Norton is detecting a virus, which from what you're telling me sounds like a false positive, is because it's being starved for memory and is malfunctioning. Vista in itself requires 512mb just for the O/S, so you're actually below spec to run Vista properly right now, and for Norton to run on a Vista computer, you need at least 1GB, maybe 2GBs for best performance.
SC: Why would they put Vista on a machine that can't handle it?
SLD: It's Vista Basic, it's supposedly more forgiving in theory on PCs that have 512mb of memory (BS, but the alternative would have been to tell him his computer was crap), but in practice it hasn't looked like it. My only suggestion to you is, get the RAM, then call us back and we'll reinstall Norton and it should work fine this time.
SC: So what you're saying is my computer's not junk, it just needs an upgrade of memory?
SLD: That's right.
SC: Will do.
Basically, he got a "typewriter special" and is now bitching. But it's not done yet....
Co-worker: SLD, did you tell this guy that the reason he keeps getting infected is because his PC does not have enough RAM?
SLD: Uh, no. He doesn't even have enough RAM for Vista, let alone Norton. Norton was malfunctioning and reporting a false positive because of that! All I did was tell him to get more RAM and he'll be set.
Co-worker: Yeah well this guy is saying that he walked into the store and said "per SLD at phone support the reason why I keep getting infested is because this computer was sold to me without enough RAM to run anything, and if you don't install more memory now I'm going to tell everyone I know and all major websites that you people are selling shit computers without the right amount of RAM!"
SLD: What a freakin' liar! So what happened?
Co-worker: The manager gave him free memory AND free installation to shut him up.
SLD: So is the Norton issue now fixed?
Co-worker: Yup, now that the PC has decent RAM Norton doesn't blow up after it's installed.
So, the guy becomes an SC and twists what I say in hopes of getting a freebie. Hopefully if this becomes an issue they'll pull the recording and see I was in the right.
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