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I got a call from my nephew the other day.
He had messed up his computer...again.
I won't go into how he did it, or why, but he wiped his entire drive. I was really angry at him, and wasn't the most patient with him, but when I found out his story, I felt a little bad. I will just say that he accidentally downloaded something that traumatized him pretty badly, and that's why he wiped the drive.
He is constantly downloading stuff and getting spyware and viruses, and this is the second time he has wiped his drive. On the last computer, it was an older one, so his Dad just decided to buy a new one.
It's a Dell computer, and they do have the F11 restore function, but he had completely wiped it. He had reinstalled Windows XP, but he didn't have any of the Dell drivers, so it wasn't working properly. I don't know how he had done it, because, as I found out later, the XP disk had a corrupted file.
I was exhausted, but I went down after work and tried to help him out.
I have no idea what I did, because, as I said, I was pretty much just running on caffeine at that point.
I have some knowledge of computers, but probably only just enough to cause problems.
I ended up doing something that disabled the VGA adapter. For the life of me, I have no idea what I did, or even why I did it.
Anyway, I called the tech support, and I got this girl who was excellent.
She didn't talk down to me or make me feel stupid, or even pass judgment on the fact that my nephew had had used a cannon to kill a housefly.
The problem was, the reinstallation disk that came with the computer had a corrupted file, and every time I tried to do the reinstall, it came to that point and I got an error.
She worked with me for a long time. Finally, I just said to her that I would check at home for my disk, since I also have a Dell computer with XP on it, and I would try again the next day.
She said that she was off the next day, but then she gave me her email to send any questions I might have, and she would answer them when she returned to work if I was having problems.
Unfortunately, I have no idea what I did with my disk. I looked all over.
When I went back to my sister's, I continued to look around, because I was sure they had an older copy of XP from the other computer.
I couldn't find one.
I called tech support again, because I felt that they owed a replacement disk to my BIL, since the original disk was corrupted.
I got this guy who was really rude.
Even though I had explained all the same things to the girl the night before, and she had given me a Case#, he was having me try the same things that had not worked previously. He said the computer was just over the warranty, so they could not send me the disk.
I said, "So, they get this computer. It works fine, right up to the end of the warranty period, and they never have to use this disk. Now, they do, and it's corrupted, but because the computer itself is out of warranty, you won't send a new disk??? So, if they had needed the disk prior to the warranty ending, there would have been no problem sending them the disk. Now, even though they were given a defective item to begin with, the fact that they didn't discover this until just over the warranty period makes it irrelevant?"
He said he would talk with his superiors and see what he could do, but it would still be several days if they did decide to send it.
He told me that I needed to find an XP disk.
When I told him that I didn't know of anyone who could lend me a disk, he was really rude as if he didn't believe me.
The fact is, I really don't know anyone who would lend me their disk.
He was having me try some things, and maybe it's because he is used to people being stupid, or because of what happened, he thought I was an idiot, but he was really condescending to me when he was explaining things. He was actually over explaining.
I finally said, "I told all of this same stuff to the girl last night. She gave me a Case#. Isn't any of this documented so you know what did and didn't work?"
He excused himself and put me on hold for ages so he could read her notes.
He came back on and had me try a few other things. He kept correcting me rather rudely on a few points when I used the wrong word. I understand that the wrong word can cause problems and misunderstandings, but only seconds before, I had used the right word, so it was obviously a misspeak on my part. (I am very bad on the phone, and when stressed, I reverse words and stuff.)
He asked if there was another monitor I could try on the computer.
It wasn't my house, so I stalled for a second and looked around. I think he took that silence to mean I didn't understand.
He said, "Ma'am...it's the thing that looks like a TV screen."
That really ticked me.
I said, "I am not completely illiterate you know. I do have some knowledge about computers. I realize I made a stupid mistake, but there is no need to speak to me as if I don't know anything."
We did hook up the monitor and it didn't work either. Then he got really rude and told me that I must have changed settings as well as disabling the VGA.
He finally said there wasn't anything he could do to help me until I got the XP disk, and he said he would try to see if he could get them a replacement disk, but it didn't seem likely.
He lectured me for a few minutes on not disabling things on my own and blah blah blah.
Again, I said, "As I told you, I'm not completely computer illiterate. I understand that I did something stupid. I should never have touched the stupid thng when I was so tired, but I was doing a favour. I realize that my knowledge is not extensive enough to play around with settings like that, but as I also said, to be honest, I have no idea what I did."
He just dismissed me rather abruptly and thanked me for calling tech support and asked if there were any other issues he could help me with. Riiight!! I know it's a standard script, but really....
I hung up then, and was pretty frustrated.
My BIL came home, and when I explained the situation, that I hadn't been able to find my disks, so I couldn't help, he suddenly remembered that his cousin, who was on his way over in about 10 minutes, had XP on his computer. He called, and the guy brought his disk.
I popped it in, did a reinstall, and then using their laptop, went to the Dell support site and downloaded all the critical drivers and installed them.
His computer is working.
I emailed the first tech person and asked a few questions about further downloads, as there were a couple of minor applications and such that I wasn't really sure about. I also told her that I had been most impressed with her service, and would be letting her employer know, but that the second support person had been less than helpful, and was, in fact, insulting in his tone.
The thing is, the follow-up survey that they send will go to my BIL's email, and he wasn't the person who dealt with them, so now I will have to get them to forward the survey so I can fill it out for them.
I just hope my nephew has finally learned his lesson.
I installed the Windows Defender from Microsoft, as well as Spybot and Adaware, and also installed Norton and updated all of them, so I hope this time, he will be more careful.
He says he won't be using Limewire for a while because he is leery of downloading anything right now.
He had messed up his computer...again.
I won't go into how he did it, or why, but he wiped his entire drive. I was really angry at him, and wasn't the most patient with him, but when I found out his story, I felt a little bad. I will just say that he accidentally downloaded something that traumatized him pretty badly, and that's why he wiped the drive.
He is constantly downloading stuff and getting spyware and viruses, and this is the second time he has wiped his drive. On the last computer, it was an older one, so his Dad just decided to buy a new one.
It's a Dell computer, and they do have the F11 restore function, but he had completely wiped it. He had reinstalled Windows XP, but he didn't have any of the Dell drivers, so it wasn't working properly. I don't know how he had done it, because, as I found out later, the XP disk had a corrupted file.
I was exhausted, but I went down after work and tried to help him out.
I have no idea what I did, because, as I said, I was pretty much just running on caffeine at that point.
I have some knowledge of computers, but probably only just enough to cause problems.
I ended up doing something that disabled the VGA adapter. For the life of me, I have no idea what I did, or even why I did it.
Anyway, I called the tech support, and I got this girl who was excellent.
She didn't talk down to me or make me feel stupid, or even pass judgment on the fact that my nephew had had used a cannon to kill a housefly.
The problem was, the reinstallation disk that came with the computer had a corrupted file, and every time I tried to do the reinstall, it came to that point and I got an error.
She worked with me for a long time. Finally, I just said to her that I would check at home for my disk, since I also have a Dell computer with XP on it, and I would try again the next day.
She said that she was off the next day, but then she gave me her email to send any questions I might have, and she would answer them when she returned to work if I was having problems.
Unfortunately, I have no idea what I did with my disk. I looked all over.
When I went back to my sister's, I continued to look around, because I was sure they had an older copy of XP from the other computer.
I couldn't find one.
I called tech support again, because I felt that they owed a replacement disk to my BIL, since the original disk was corrupted.
I got this guy who was really rude.
Even though I had explained all the same things to the girl the night before, and she had given me a Case#, he was having me try the same things that had not worked previously. He said the computer was just over the warranty, so they could not send me the disk.
I said, "So, they get this computer. It works fine, right up to the end of the warranty period, and they never have to use this disk. Now, they do, and it's corrupted, but because the computer itself is out of warranty, you won't send a new disk??? So, if they had needed the disk prior to the warranty ending, there would have been no problem sending them the disk. Now, even though they were given a defective item to begin with, the fact that they didn't discover this until just over the warranty period makes it irrelevant?"
He said he would talk with his superiors and see what he could do, but it would still be several days if they did decide to send it.
He told me that I needed to find an XP disk.
When I told him that I didn't know of anyone who could lend me a disk, he was really rude as if he didn't believe me.
The fact is, I really don't know anyone who would lend me their disk.
He was having me try some things, and maybe it's because he is used to people being stupid, or because of what happened, he thought I was an idiot, but he was really condescending to me when he was explaining things. He was actually over explaining.
I finally said, "I told all of this same stuff to the girl last night. She gave me a Case#. Isn't any of this documented so you know what did and didn't work?"
He excused himself and put me on hold for ages so he could read her notes.
He came back on and had me try a few other things. He kept correcting me rather rudely on a few points when I used the wrong word. I understand that the wrong word can cause problems and misunderstandings, but only seconds before, I had used the right word, so it was obviously a misspeak on my part. (I am very bad on the phone, and when stressed, I reverse words and stuff.)
He asked if there was another monitor I could try on the computer.
It wasn't my house, so I stalled for a second and looked around. I think he took that silence to mean I didn't understand.
He said, "Ma'am...it's the thing that looks like a TV screen."
That really ticked me.
I said, "I am not completely illiterate you know. I do have some knowledge about computers. I realize I made a stupid mistake, but there is no need to speak to me as if I don't know anything."
We did hook up the monitor and it didn't work either. Then he got really rude and told me that I must have changed settings as well as disabling the VGA.
He finally said there wasn't anything he could do to help me until I got the XP disk, and he said he would try to see if he could get them a replacement disk, but it didn't seem likely.
He lectured me for a few minutes on not disabling things on my own and blah blah blah.
Again, I said, "As I told you, I'm not completely computer illiterate. I understand that I did something stupid. I should never have touched the stupid thng when I was so tired, but I was doing a favour. I realize that my knowledge is not extensive enough to play around with settings like that, but as I also said, to be honest, I have no idea what I did."
He just dismissed me rather abruptly and thanked me for calling tech support and asked if there were any other issues he could help me with. Riiight!! I know it's a standard script, but really....
I hung up then, and was pretty frustrated.
My BIL came home, and when I explained the situation, that I hadn't been able to find my disks, so I couldn't help, he suddenly remembered that his cousin, who was on his way over in about 10 minutes, had XP on his computer. He called, and the guy brought his disk.
I popped it in, did a reinstall, and then using their laptop, went to the Dell support site and downloaded all the critical drivers and installed them.
His computer is working.
I emailed the first tech person and asked a few questions about further downloads, as there were a couple of minor applications and such that I wasn't really sure about. I also told her that I had been most impressed with her service, and would be letting her employer know, but that the second support person had been less than helpful, and was, in fact, insulting in his tone.
The thing is, the follow-up survey that they send will go to my BIL's email, and he wasn't the person who dealt with them, so now I will have to get them to forward the survey so I can fill it out for them.
I just hope my nephew has finally learned his lesson.
I installed the Windows Defender from Microsoft, as well as Spybot and Adaware, and also installed Norton and updated all of them, so I hope this time, he will be more careful.
He says he won't be using Limewire for a while because he is leery of downloading anything right now.
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