19 Hilariously Dumb Problems IT Pros Have Been Asked to Troubleshoot

Behind every computer breakdown is an IT person laughing
19 Hilariously Dumb Problems IT Pros Have Been Asked to Troubleshoot

Between the Geek Squad and the Genius Bar, people whose livelihood it is to know the ins and outs of fixing computers love to make sure everyone else knows just how smart they are. And to be fair, they’ve earned it considering the encyclopedic amount of technical knowledge required for them to be good at their job. Their customers, on the other hand, are not so bright. Which is okay, because if everyone knew the basics of troubleshooting a hardware issue, IT technicians would be rendered useless. 

Not to mention, until the rest of the world catches up to their brain power, the IT techs of Reddit get to keep sharing some of the wildest assistance they’ve had to provide to the rest of us Luddites…

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Harambe_revenge 0 6y I got a call from an end user complaining their laptop was slow. I asked how many things he had running on the laptop, he said a lot. So I tell him before we do anything save whatever your working on and close all your windows. Не literally got up and closed all his windows. ... 3
j9nyr . 6y I work with physicians that have workstations at home. One of them is 85 years old and was having issues with his home station. We can remotely log in but we needed his 87 year old wife to log in for him since he wasn't there. My coworker was on the phone for 25+ minutes trying to explain how to click on one of the icons. She couldn't get the mouse to get to the right place on the screen. Finally my со- worker says where's the wire of the mouse? The wife replies, At the bottom
6y ... Outside of work, I was helping a friend with some genealogy work she was doing. She had found a photograph of her great- grandfather on the farm he owned, but his back was to the camera. She wanted me to scan the photo in to my computer, open it with Photoshop -- and rotate the man in the photo so she could see his face. She didn't understand why that wasn't possible. I ended up inventing an explanation that those old cameras didn't yet have the capability of reaching around an object to pull in information from the
37214 . 6y Folks who don't realize that C:/Downloads is where everything you download goes into. This includes setup files AND porn. Was working on a neighbors PC and his Downloads folder was full of videos. I didn't investigate further. ... 6
opusrandy.66 Went back to school for IT degree while having full time IT job. Lots of older people in my class. First day teacher tells everyone about password security. Told them the minimum characters, symbols, etc... Old dude raises his hand and asks I'm sorry this may be stupid, but what do you mean by 'character'?. Не wasn't there the next class. Never saw him again. ... 16
jaketl13 . 6y I am an IT guy but this isn't exactly an IT story. We had a client that was trying to explain to us something she was seeing on the mobile application for one of our products. We didn't understand so we asked if she could take a screen shot and send it to us. She said, I don't have access to my email but I can fax it to you. About 5 min later we received a fax of her phone.... ... 10
thomascoopers. 6y A common enough theme that I come across is people opening a blank word document and printing it when they need some blank paper.... Instead of just pulling out the tray and taking from there. ... 13
Gattamelata_. 6y My boss doesn't understand saving things on a computer. Не types things on word then prints them out and if he needs to make a change later he retypes the entire thing. These documents are sometimes 10 pages long... I taught him how to save and copy and paste so he doesn't have to retype so much. Не still retypes everything. This 70 year old man can type faster than anyone I've ever seen, though. ... 27
_1Nutter . 6 6y Back in the Windows 98 days. I request them to Right click on 'My Computer hear typing Nothings happening. Went over this 4 times before I realize the customer is moving their cursor over top of the My Computer icon, then typing (or writing) the word click. ... 18
DC_Farmboy 6y Been in IT for quite a while and witness so much ridiculousness on a daily basis that it doesn't even phase me anymore, but one story that always sticks out was a few years ago when a user was having a hard time accessing files from an FTP site. She had forwarded me her login credentials given to her by the host admin and I was trying to talk her through it over the phone to save a trip across town. I explained how to type the URL into the address bar...which it turns out is different from
r/PLACE idontlikeseaweed . 6y I get alot of people frantically calling me saying THE SYSTEM IS CRASHED! EVERYTHING IS DOWN! but really their monitor cable just came loose and got disconnected. ... 21
EnterPlayerTwo . 6y I've had people complain that all their emails and folders were missing in outlook and demand a restore from backup. Turns out they collapsed their Inbox and couldn't figure out how to expand it again. The last time, I just walked up, clicked the triangle to expand it, and walked away without saying a word. ... 23
lespaulstrat2.6y When an IT guy sent us an email telling us to log off of email and he would send us an email telling us when we could log back on. ... 28
cgull . 6y I had a client who's mouse was moving in the opposite direction where she was moving it. I figured someone messed with the settings and inverted the mouse or something. Nope, it was literally upside down. ... 83
clem82 6y In the military I was the IT manager for a unit out of korea. I had a call from a LTC that couldn't power on his machine. I walked him through turning on the desktop and he just couldn't figure it out. I had to wake up at 1:45, drive 30-40 minutes to get to him only to have him show me that he was hitting the eject CD button to turn it on. By the time I got back to my bed it was 4:30 and time for PT....fun times. ... 35
IceArrows . 6y One time I was helping a user, and I asked her to restart the computer (she was sitting at her desk and I was standing next to her, would've been awkward to reach over her). She was like ok, stared blankly at the monitor for a minute, then turned to me to tell me she did it when she clearly did not. Lying users are the worst, especially when I was standing RIGHT THERE. I don't do support anymore thankfully. ... 38
AHarmlessFly.66 I have told this before, but I had a customer contact me because his Mouse wasn't working. I told him it is $100 for a house call, and to make sure he checks the batteries and the dongle as well. Не assured me the batteries were absolutely good and the dongle is fine because the keyboard is working. So I said ok, headed that way. I arrive, open the mouse put batteries in it and the mouse starts working. Не was really REALLY angry. I said I thought you checked the batteries? The customer very pissed off, showed me
drscott3 . . 6y A coworker filed a ticket to me that was classed as a bug report. The description in the ticket said Need pest control for spiders in my cubical. ... 73
Udjet 6y Ok, not really computer illiterate, but funny nonetheless. Got called over to the daycare center (CDC) on an Air Force base. I was helping them with an issue when one of the teachers comes and asks if I can take a quick look at the computer in her room. It supposedly hadn't been working for a couple weeks. At this point I was still optimistic and wasn't yet convinced that the user is always the number one problem. So, I pull the computer out from under the desk and check the switch on the back of the power
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