I'm sure everyone has had this one...

[draggar]

User comes to my door, her laptop is completely frozen. I asked her if she tried to reboot it.

Yes, she did, three times. Even took the battey out and it is still frozen.

I walk over there, reboot it.

It's fine.

[Qaeria]

But... But... You DID something different!! I know you did!!! You computer guys always love making us look dumb!! C'mon! What's your secret??? What did you do?

Tell MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! C'mon man! My shit don't stink!

[Pedersen]

I call it mechanic syndrome, personally. Take malfunctioning equipment to a person who can fix it, and watch it work perfectly. Happens all the time.

Personally, I tell the user it's because the computer knows that I can (and will) reformat it, and it's afraid of me

[Mr. Rude]

I love when I do that....I get all warm & tingly inside.....Then, an evil smile slowly curls up on my face.

[Bootlegger]

That is why the craftsman is required to be smarter than his tools :P

[Yfandes]

Our port engineer calls me over just to look at what he is doing at his computer over his shoulder. Because he knows that just by looking at it I can stop it from doing whatever weirdness it was up to

I think what really happens is that he slows down and says what he is doing out loud as I watch him, and this stops any miss clicks - but I am never ever going to tell him that

[Chromatix]

It's also quite possible that the laptop's problem was an intermittent one cause by overheating. By leaving it shut down for a bit longer while you went over there, it sorted itself out.

[Racket_Man]

I call it mechanic syndrome, personally. Take malfunctioning equipment to a person who can fix it, and watch it work perfectly. Happens all the time.

Personally, I tell the user it's because the computer knows that I can (and will) reformat it, and it's afraid of me

I had that happen A LOT when I was IT Manager for the Jewelry store chain.

Register would act up. store would call me. magically the register would stop acting up. I KNOW the register KNEW I would come and physically beat it to little plastic bits if it did not start behaving properly

[Dark-Star]

I had that happen A LOT when I was IT Manager for the Jewelry store chain.

Register would act up. store would call me. magically the register would stop acting up. I KNOW the register KNEW I would come and physically beat it to little plastic bits if it did not start behaving properly

I personally cannot wait for sentient, self-aware AI's to be perfected, because then we really truly can threaten our computers with various forms of electronic and physical discomfort if they're acting stupid.

[Pedersen]

I personally cannot wait for sentient, self-aware AI's to be perfected, because then we really truly can threaten our computers with various forms of electronic and physical discomfort if they're acting stupid.

It sounds stupid, but there really is something to it. The less afraid of the machine you are, the more likely you are to have it work for you. I swear it's true.

The number of times it comes about that I go to help a user fix a problem and the problem magically goes away is astounding. Honestly, I think it's because they're doing something subtly different and are not even aware they're doing it. But if I say that, it makes them feel stupid.

If I laugh, and say the computer's afraid of me because it knows I'll reformat it, they can laugh, and we can claim it's just quirky behavior on the part of the machine, and everybody gets to feel good.

So, guess which one I do?

[Lingering Grin]

I've had this happen with computers, but also at my old job.

I was a QA Tester, and I had to CAUSE problems.

This happened ALL the time. Someone spends 2 hours trying to reproduce a problem so they can figure out what did it, they FINALLY find a way to reproduce it reliably. They have someone else come over and try the same thing... and NOTHING HAPPENS!

[Geek King]

I frequently threaten the PCs and servers under my administration. It seems to work, or at least makes me feel better. I got the idea from one of the greats:


poor scan, but the best I could find at this point.

[draggar]

I've had this happen with computers, but also at my old job.

I was a QA Tester, and I had to CAUSE problems.

This happened ALL the time. Someone spends 2 hours trying to reproduce a problem so they can figure out what did it, they FINALLY find a way to reproduce it reliably. They have someone else come over and try the same thing... and NOTHING HAPPENS!

I'm a tester for my company (mobile phones) and it' quite scary at how hard it can be to find bugs in these phones, then when they're released, there's bug after bug. I sweat sometimes we get a different OS in the phones.

[otakuneko]

Sometimes, it just takes a computer illiterate to find a bug. (or a few thousand of them)

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I call it mechanic syndrome, personally. Take malfunctioning equipment to a person who can fix it, and watch it work perfectly. Happens all the time.

Personally, I tell the user it's because the computer knows that I can (and will) reformat it, and it's afraid of me

I think vehicles are prone to that as well. Every so often, Mom will have trouble getting the Toyota to start. Then she'd get frustrated and call James (our mechanic) over to the house.

He'd come over, crank up the car and it'd behave perfectly. The car simply has PMS and takes it out on my Mom.