SON!! I broke the computer!!

[theSovietConnection]

Can't find a file; virus stole it

That is officially my new excuse for everything now.

My mom likes to think she knows how to fix the computer, but usually ends up making the problem worse then it was before. She is also terribly impatient, and tries starting programs right away on the aging computer she currently uses. She then wonders why everything freezes and blames me for it, before telling me to fix it.

 

[googleit6]

My parents love to click things multiple times while the computer is warming up.
Yes, that's exactly what the computer wants while it's turning on.
*rolls eyes*

 

[Penguinness]

Computer problems come to me a lot, be it parents.. gf.. gf's parents.. mates at uni..

But none of them realise that I don't actually KNOW. I find the problem, google for solutions, and apply them. Which gets annoying near deadlines when I get all my mates asking for help and not being able to do it themselves.

 

[RadiusXd]

"I don't have time to wait for a mere computer, it should wait for me!"

That's like another bad Chuck Norris joke.

"Chuck Norris doesn't wait for a bus, the bus waits for Chuck Norris." etc.

In Soviet Russia, computer waits for you to load!

 

[brodie21]

Dude... Damn. Good thing you got rid of them though. What did you use?

I used Avast. I think that's what it's called, it was really effective.

Yes, Avast is VERY good, it's what I use.
However, I also HIGHLY recommend Spybot Search & Destroy. It is VERY effective against the kind of things that those toolbars download. Despite it's name, it also sniffs out a lot of other types of nasties and it has the capability to "immunise" your browser against Spybots, and other malware.

Run Spybot Search & Destroy in parallel to Avast, as Avast does not get everything. (Not saying Avast is bad, there are just some things that Anti-viruses don't catch). Remember, Spybot Search & Destroy is not an antivirus. it doesn't have the same kind of active protection that Avast provides. It does however have a really useful feature, "TeaTimer" system setting protector. It stops malware caging system settings.

Avast + Spybot Search & Destroy gives pretty much complete coverage of everything.
If something does get past Avast, run a Spybot Search & Destroy scan.

i have Avast, Spybot- Search and Destroy, and Norton. i feel pretty safe.

 

[Aesir23]

My Mom doesn't know how to copy and paste. I'm being completely honest about that. She seriously doesn't know how to copy and paste.

 

[KP Shadow]

Well, my six-year-old sister uses google for EVERYTHING except for PBS Kids. Otherwise, all my mother needs help with is stuff like scanning old photos and attaching files to e-mails, and the only thing I ever needed to do for my father was proofread some menus (he's the chef at a resturaunt in New York City).

 

[fanklok]

I feel sad since my dad knows what to do with computers and my mom is adequate enough to not need help (and smart enough not to download things).

But the other day she was on the computer in the living room and tried clicking on something several times to no avail and asked me what it said. I walked over "National Geographic." She tried clicking it a few more times (mind you half of it was behind the start button) "Well how does it work."... "It's where the wallpaper came from."

 

[Zwilorg]

My dad has been working with computers since they took up a whole room, so I was pretty much raised on them. With that said, I don't understand how my mom can barely check her e-mail, and my brothers often can't figure out how to "turn on the internet."

My dad is currently the director of network services at a university, and I work in the laptop service center at the same place. You wouldn't believe some of the PEBKAC problems we get here. It's an arts school, so a lot of the people we service are 'ar-teests" who don't have to treat us with any kind of respect. I have a lovely little collection of RAM I've removed from the computers of individuals who treated me like a lesser life form because I'm either A) working in a service industry or B) a girl.

if they dont see the diference on the ram change the cpu too get theirs put an older version and give them back the pc ^^ good fun you will have

Yes, well that is fun and all, except when it happens to you. My neighbour left his pc in to get fixed and when it got back it wouldn't run some of his games anymore. He asked me to help, so after a long while I checked his spec sheet (from the online order form) and it turned out the bastard had changed out his graphics card.

i was talking about the twats mencioned on the post not the usual friendly costumer.

 

[GenericAmerican]

my grandpa cannot even turn a computer on.

And my grandmother types with two fingers...its slooowwwwww

And I am expected to know how to fix any problems that arise on the computer.

Error#: 192730101lol

grandma: "what does that mean?"

Me: 'how the hell should I know u idiot?'(this would be my first reaction, but i rephrase) "I don't know, just click it off and start the internet again."

grandma: "well you don't have to sound so mean about it"

Me: "well its the same thing every time this happens, you just close the error message and reopen the internet"

grandma "well I didn't know that"

Me: "its what I told you to do the last 23 times this happened today."

 

[superbatranger]

I think the worst is when you have to give tech support over the phone....at 11 o'clock at night.

 

[tkioz]

I've got a million of these, then again I use to work in retail computing, fixing machines in the back of the shop, and house calls. God some people seem to turn off their brains when they sit down at a computer, honestly, professional intelligent people just can't seem to get their head around it.

Family stories are just as bad, example, I'm not a browser fanboy, I use whatever I like at the current moment and let people use whatever they want without a word, so long as it's up to date (if you're using IE6 in 2010 don't ask me for help, you wont like it). But my aunt was horrible with her computer, always getting spyware and viruses, I'd get home from work, totally knackered after 10 hours, only to get a phone call asking me to go around and fix something.

Finally I get fed up with fixing this crap, installed firefox because she was constantly getting driveby spyware, and the IE settings were not helping, so I cranked the security right up. I even skinned it so it looked like IE (I actually have that on my own PC, I'm strange I know I like the look of IE).

A week later another phonecall, spyware again (what she called viruses), I asked what happened to firefox, turns out she didn't like the buttons and went back to IE6.

At that point I just told her if she wasn't willing to take my advice stop freaking asking for it.

 

[Eri]

At that point I just told her if she wasn't willing to take my advice stop freaking asking for it.

Yes, this. When it comes to computer support, this can't be said enough.

 

[LightOfDarkness]

My sister downloaded SO many viruses with friggin facebook toolbars that I had to reinstall Vista. And I couldn't back up 50GB of sensitive data, optimization programs and custom settings to achieve the sub 30 second boot.

Unfortunately I can't find half the programs I had because they were all "[Function here] optimizer", and it takes about a minute to boot up (STUPID FUCKING NORTON) as well as having a bunch of programs that slow down log-in (like the aformented Norton)

Oh yes, and my sister STILL types with her index fingers. Even my mom can type with her whole hand.

 

[likalaruku]

IT's that way for me too. Luckily my grama & ma also have my uncle to pick on & I'm usualy intentially a ***** about how inept they are after years of computer use so they won't call on me for every little thing.

My favorite one from my grama is "how do I play this game? The tutorial is too hard."

Ooh & how about the friends who use you as free tech support?

My favorite one from Sylvana: "My son's game (an MMO) is taking up a lot of disk space. I think we should delete it."

 

[zHellas]

The best thing my friend does is take a scren-shot of her desktop, set it as her wallpaper and delete all the icons - so when her parents go to click on what they think is an icon it doesn't work. Never gets old.

Haha, Wow that sounds really funny i'll have to try it sometime

I once did that in a pc world store, I opened up note pad, typed out a message, something along the lines of[

'hello?

hello?

please, please get me out of here, quick!

seriously, if they see me doing this again, they'll reformat my hard drive! You've gotta help me!'

screenshot, background, leave shop, watch customers through window as they read it. Comedy gold

XD Oh I gotta do that one!

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Man, some of the stuff in this thread goes right past computer-illiterate to just-plain-stupid. Seriously, it's scary how some people lose all their natural problem-solving skills and go into full-on "panic as soon as something unexpected happens or doesn't happen" mode. I'm not surprised about the sister stories though; most of the times my dad has had to go troubleshoot someone's computer, it turned out their daughter had gotten a crapload of crapware from who-knows-where. It almost makes me one of them had beee my sister; my dad (who runs the IT department at a nearby school) would have made sure she got an education in Internet savvy one way or another, and there'd be one less public computer hazard in the world.

 

[LightOfDarkness]

Oh yeah, and my dad actually KNOWS that Firefox>>>>>>>>>>>>>IE, but he always assumes the fact that my PC is running slowly is because of a virus.

When I have 2gb of RAM.

On vista.

And after he runs a virus scan it runs even slower somehow. I tried telling him there ARE such things as false positives, but he wouldn't listen.

 

[Legendsmith]

i have Avast, Spybot- Search and Destroy, and Norton. i feel pretty safe.

Norton. i feel pretty safe.

Norton. i feel safe.

Norton. feel safe.

Norton. safe.

No.
Uninstall Norton. Keep Avast and Spybot S&D

 

[AgDr_ODST]

Its already bad enough that my parents think I know so much about computers that Im told to fix most of the problems that we have.
But when we got a new wireless router I was expected to be able to get it up and running despite not knowing shit about where to plug the wires on the new router. Then everything went to shit and we lost all internet acess and use of our home phone when I tried to get some help from my less than tech savy mum who knows far less than I do about such matters than I do.