I don't have a career in tech support, but this is a good example of the trap you can get into helping friends... This was all done via instant message a few days ago.
$Friend: Help, I did a stupid thing with my other computer!
Me: The one with the mildly corrupted Windows 2000 user account?
$Friend: Yes, long story short, I got a copy of the win2000 install cd and reinstalled windows, I couldn't figure out how to delete and recreate an account, and now it's broken. It says it has no drives.
Me: Hmm, and yet it worked fine before. Did you use your original install media?
$Friend: No, I had to get someone to burn me a copy, my cd is at my mom's.
Me: You did use your product ID code though, you could have called your mom to get that...
$Friend: No, I used the code that the guy gave me with the cd, is that bad?
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[Googling the first 5 chars of the product ID proved it was indeed bad]
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Me: Okay, no problem, we can switch product IDs later, there are free programs for that, still, it wasn't nice to give you a pirate code; but back to the first task. Reboot the machine, hit [DEL] while it's booting and let's see if it sees the drives.
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Upshot is, it sees 2 healthy drives.
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$Friend: Yes, it always has seen them from there, but when it gets done loading windows and I log in, it says it doesn't have a drive.
Me: [Smelling a large gnawing rodent] Umm, it boots windows? Okay, let's take this slowly. What exactly does it say?
$Friend: It says it needs to locate a drive for the ethernet card.
Me: [after bashing head into desk] A driveR, not a drive. Okay, fine, what model of ethernet card does it have?
$Friend: I don't know...
Me: Did it come with the system? And if so, what make and model is it?
$Friend: Yes, it's a [well known brand name cruddy box and model number].
Me: [After googling] It says that system only came with a V90 modem, not an ethernet card.
$Friend: Yes, it came with a V90 Ethernet modem, but I put the network card in...
.....
Eventually we got the correct driver for the Linksys network card after having her remove the card, and read the model number off the sticker; got the correct product ID code through her making a quick call to her mom and changed them over. And she now knows the difference between drives and drivers, ethernet and modems, and that 'ethernet' is a type of network connection not a modem designation.
NEVER assume people know more about computers than they're willing to admit.:-\
(We're still good friends, and she's genuinely happy to have the other system working again) |
