Is it too geeky for the Work thread, too specific for the Computer Help thread, and more than just the Ticked Off thread? Fellow Fazed miserable IT folks, commiserate here!

Remember, when we talk about stupid users here, and we will, we're not talking about you. Probably.

I'm dealing with a hardware failure in a CAD station today that I've been treating as a problem with an integrated SAS drive controller failure. Because while 2 simultaneous drive failures are certainly possible, it's not at all likely.

Guess what the problem is.

Nope! Not 2 simultaneous drive failures. You see, one of these drives actually failed weeks ago, and the operator has been looking at "RAID ARRAY STATE DEGRADED PLEASE INVOKE CONFIG UTILITY TO INVESTIGATE" every single morning and didn't bother to tell anyone. So now the second drive has failed and the station is out for the count.

I'm not worried about data; these machines run an image and I can have it up and running in 2 or 3 hours except for one critical flaw. This machine is out of warranty and 72GB 10k RPM SAS drives aren't exactly sitting on the shelves of Office Depot. Microcenter is my best bet. Otherwise it's order and wait...except that I have a fazed gathering to host tomorrow and leave Tuesday to go move a plant in TN for a week. I have another system the guy can use except that I'm supposed to be shipping that one out on Monday. 

/head ASPLODE 

/bringing broken computer to gathering. 

there's something wrong with the cupholder on my machine.

Help? 

Hey, can you start a trouble ticket for me? My tab button on works intermittenly. 

only works intermittently, i mean 

big ups to my QA brotherhood.

Testing 4 life.

Fuck all you developer bitches, ain't shit I can't break son.

yahurd. 

iv not got vram or niggahurts in my vagina

i googled it but it said its more likely than i think 

Wow. Hidden posts in the first 10 minutes. You guys are good. 

Testing 4 life.

Oh god, I hope not.

D: 

hmmmmm i dont know..the computer thread would be good for this topic... 

WHERE'S THE "ANY" KEY?!? 

Wow. Hidden posts in the first 10 minutes. You guys are good.

I hid my own post! 

hmmmmm i dont know..the computer thread would be good for this topic...

That's for problem-specific bitching

This seems like it would be good for more generalized bitching. There are enough folks on here in IT that I could see it getting some mileage, and keeping the CHT free from random rantings.

But I'm not a mod, so I'm not sure why I'm posting this.

I'm in QA, but I don't think I will be for long. Not by choice, either. :/ 

I don't know, I would be too afraid that the off-topic police might show up and start swearing at people. 

What's the difference between a laptop and a notebook? Can I use a notebook in my lap? Can i take notes on a laptop? If I eat an ear of corn how long will it take for me to poop it out? 

Laptops are what they called notebooks before they started burning people's genitals. 

DarkAss said:

Laptops are what they called notebooks before they started burning people's genitals.

lol, troo dat! 

I feel like a complete dumbass, but I can't locate the "any" key. 

Makes since, "My laptop burned my laptop" make you sound crazy. 

Disco's thoughts are what I had in mind, LadyA. It's just been brought up a few times in the CHT. Sometimes we get involved in some fairly in-depth topics and it's pretty off-topic from "help."

Go ahead and lock it up if it doesn't work, but I think it could have a place. It already has a few watchers. 

well lets see where it goes and how on topic it stays.... 

yeah putting in ups and batteries in my rack today fun fun 

Oooh, what brand? 

laptops burn genitals? 

This machine is out of warranty and 72GB 10k RPM SAS drives aren't exactly sitting on the shelves of Office Depot

Can you take a drive out of another working box until you can get a new drive? Sure it will give you 2 boxes with issues but if it's just missing drives out of an array no big harm. 

You've never heard of Bobby "Leatherdick" Jones? 

yeah putting in ups and batteries in my rack today fun fun

make sure to put them towards the top of the rack..... 

yeah but then you're compromising another array and what's less fun that 1 borked raid array?

TWO 

My dad's company's previous 'IT guy" left 2 servers running with RAID faults for 4 months.
And he didn't seem to care that the graphics cards were down on the servers, and never noticed that one of the RAC's wasn't working.

I'm really not sure what he actually ever did. His idea of troubleshooting was to reinstall the ghost images of machines I had made years ago before mucho software upgrades, and installing stuff again from there.

Now I'm home again, and our new IT guy, who is very good (much better than me) is on vacation, and I'm covering what issues I can.
Such as
Problem "My mouse doesn't work" - solution: plug mouse into USB port, not network port

P: The auto-answer is down S: Turn on the computer that you shut down instead of logging off of

P: My scanner is too hard to use S: ... none so far. The new scanner does 100 page batches, and is at least 5x faster than the previous one (which the batch wasn't working for months now), but the lid for scanning larger documents needs to be opened 75 degrees before the spring holds it open instead of 45 degrees. And that means she'd have to move her fat-ass a few inches forwards. But her fat ass has broken the casters on 3 chairs now, so she can't slide forward easily. Maybe meaning she'd actually have to (god forbid) stand.

all this while I'm supposed to be studying 12+ hours a day for a big exam. 

laptops burn genitals?

some. The Dell Inspiron line, for instance, runs extremely hot.
If you keep it so that air can circulate underneath it,
Or better, get a USB powered cooling pad (Targus makes a good one),
You can avoid getting burns on your groin and thighs. 

hahaha fat people 

Guess what the problem is.

Uhh...you need to spend a little more time filling out your TPS reports? 

my favorite are surprise new hires then bitching that they don't have a computer yet
eat my fuck 

What the fuck is PC Load Letter? 

I have a special piece-of-shit HP Vectra XU that has a beautiful pentium mmx cpu in it and runs NT4 - just for those folks here who do stuff like in the first post.

"oh yeah it hadn't been working right for weeks... i just didn't tell you...."

"aha, well while i fix it, i have this great solid old box for you to use - it's a little slower than what you're used to, but it will have to do for now..." 

If you keep it so that air can circulate underneath it,

I have a pillow with a piece of 16'' shelf shoved into the pillowcase. Good flat surface for my notebook and an adjustable surface for my laptop. 

screwbacca said:

my favorite are surprise new hires then bitching that they don't have a computer yet
eat my fuck

I completely agree. They must think I have tons of computers just sitting around waiting for someone new to come and use them. Dumb fuckers. 

wapped, I did that to verify that the issue wasn't the controller and it worked for that. But like screwbacca said, it gives me 2 broken mirrors. Plus, that gives me a duplicate machine on the network and Active Directory is not down with that. It's much less work and hassle to switch the machine out and tell the guys expecting this other box that it will be a few days. 

"completely unreasonable request"
"haha, no"
"WHY NOT ARGHBARGHL" 

I just got off an hour long phone call for customer service. This guy calls in, asking for help with out software (CorelDRAW! based design software) and he's trying to get out that he doesn't know how to input lettering into his design.

I will be the first to admit that our software isn't the most intuitive, but...well, here.

45 minutes of the call were spent instructing the customer how to minimize a fucking window, then discussing the difference between minimizing and closing, then how to recover a minimized window.

Really? Seriously?

How long has this feature been available?

You're how old?? 40?

Really?? And you don't know how to click on a fucking button??


How about this, take a course, maybe one called "I am a fucking retard, show me how to do the most basic computer functions before I shit myself and fall asleep in it."

I mean, dude's trying to run what's basically a specialized version of CorelDRAW X4, with complex digitizing, and the fucker can barely figure out how to use a mouse.

Raaaahh!! 

How do I double click? 

before I shit myself and fall asleep in it.

haha 

It's the opposite of double unclicking. 

I had to tell an old lady how to drag her task bar from the side back down to the bottom over the phone. 10 minutes. 

I spent my morning teaching a group of nuns how to log into our database...apparently unsuccessfully, as half of them have already put in help desk tickets saying they can't log in. 

I hate it when the user thinks the monitor is their computer. I just went to swap out an old CRT with an LCD, and the user got mad because they didn't want to lose all their stuff. I tried explaining to them that I'm not switching their computer, only the monitor. After 30 minutes they were still clueless, so now I have a nice new LCD on my desk! 

I'm not worried about data; these machines run an image and I can have it up and running in 2 or 3 hours except for one critical flaw. This machine is out of warranty and 72GB 10k RPM SAS drives aren't exactly sitting on the shelves of Office Depot. Microcenter is my best bet. Otherwise it's order and wait...except that I have a fazed gathering to host tomorrow and leave Tuesday to go move a plant in TN for a week. I have another system the guy can use except that I'm supposed to be shipping that one out on Monday.

What is your SLA for the drives? 

I'm an IT guy. I understand venting about the job and to those who aren't tech savvy it is meaningless.

As soon as you mentioned a dual drive failure I knew what had happened. Users aren't aware nor do they care as much as they want their equipment to work.

We're about to hire our 5th guy. I get to interview him next week. I have almost turned people away from the interview when I see them. I can't send someone who shows up to an interview in jeans and an unbuttoned polo to clients. I am not sure what position they are looking for but if their outfit costs less than $200 I don't want them working for us. 

jeans and an unbuttoned polo? That's what I wear to work everyday!