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Cont: Dear Users… (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people) Part 11

I've mentioned it before, but my work laptop is an HP and the power button is so discreet it took me minutes to find it the first time. It's a very thin but long button nested in a little recess above the keys. It's lit up when the power is on, but when the power is off and it's not lit up it doesn't really look like a button at all. Very confusing to turn on for the first time. But at least it's not where I could press it accidentally.
 
"I don't see the problem" he says, when I point out that the change he wants will 1) not actually do what he wants it to do, 2) actually do several things he definitely doesn't want it to do, and 3) cause the process in question to bloat well past its permitted time limit -- it would go from running in between 3 and 7 seconds to running between 6 and 14 hours. The maximum time permitted is 20 minutes.
 
TragicMonkey said:
"I don't see the problem" he says, when I point out that the change he wants will 1) not actually do what he wants it to do, 2) actually do several things he definitely doesn't want it to do, and 3) cause the process in question to bloat well past its permitted time limit -- it would go from running in between 3 and 7 seconds to running between 6 and 14 hours. The maximum time permitted is 20 minutes.
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I assume this is all well documented? With your detailed and vehement advice that the change doesn't occur? And, where appropriate, with recordings of your conversations with him?
 
catsmate said:
I assume this is all well documented? With your detailed and vehement advice that the change doesn't occur? And, where appropriate, with recordings of your conversations with him?
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Indeed. I phrased it all very carefully (much more professional than the ranting I do here) and left aaaaaall the decision-making up to other parties.

I'm sort of hoping they'll chose the course I politely suggested "would be unwise"; it's technically fraud if they do that one, so if they tell me to do it I can "express concern" about it to someone higher up their chain. That should trigger some fun and excitement.
 
I took a call from a user the other day, she couldn't describe the problem in any other way than, "I can't print, something's coming up and won't let me print." No further description than that. Took an inordinate amount of time to walk her through getting the remote support app downloaded, half a dozen times she couldn't find the downward-pointing arrow in the upper right corner of her browser, until finally, hey, it just showed up! With like 8 instances of a Bomgar download! Just... just pick one. The top one, sure. No, really, click on it. I can't click it for you, not yet, anyway. Then another struggle to get her to click "Accept" and "Ok." Viewing her screen, asked her to walk through what she's trying to do. She opens up her email, clicks the Print icon at the top, and the print dialog pops up. "See? It won't let me print." The big, blue "Print" button was just... sitting there? Asked her to try clicking that one. Oh wow, it printed! "It's all just so different, I don't know what these mean!"

I then ended the session, and she asks what the box that popped up saying "Thank you for using (my company) support!" meant, and whether she has to click "Ok" again. I wish I could say that this user rarely calls, but that would be a lie.
 
Yalius said:
I took a call from a user the other day, she couldn't describe the problem in any other way than, "I can't print, something's coming up and won't let me print." No further description than that. Took an inordinate amount of time to walk her through getting the remote support app downloaded, half a dozen times she couldn't find the downward-pointing arrow in the upper right corner of her browser, until finally, hey, it just showed up! With like 8 instances of a Bomgar download! Just... just pick one. The top one, sure. No, really, click on it. I can't click it for you, not yet, anyway. Then another struggle to get her to click "Accept" and "Ok." Viewing her screen, asked her to walk through what she's trying to do. She opens up her email, clicks the Print icon at the top, and the print dialog pops up. "See? It won't let me print." The big, blue "Print" button was just... sitting there? Asked her to try clicking that one. Oh wow, it printed! "It's all just so different, I don't know what these mean!"

I then ended the session, and she asks what the box that popped up saying "Thank you for using (my company) support!" meant, and whether she has to click "Ok" again. I wish I could say that this user rarely calls, but that would be a lie.
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Needs an executive decision: Take the keys off her. She shouldn't be using a computer. Something else...anything else. But when she wastes more time and money than she does productive work then it's time for a review.
 
I have suddenly had my Dell INspiron bog down like crazy. Like, "only loading text boxes here and not actual avatars" at first slow. Or watching each character type itself several seconds after I've actually input it. It's not my wi-fi connection because anything I do locally has the same problem. Forget it with the graphics programs I'm trying to use. It's been a few days now and seems to be related to a Dell Firmware update I did on the 7th, as noted in a Reddit thread. But I'm not prepared to try to uninstall it and totally bork my system. I'm moving my graphics files (slowly!) to an older laptop so at least I can get something done with them.
I'm not sure how to fix this except to wait for Dell to do a patch or something.
 
Norman Alexander said:
There should be a selective uninstall option available for updates. And a rollback for firmware.
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I checked -- it says "nuh-uh!"
"Can't go back to previous version." I don't know that I'd want to risk it anyway, because last time I tried something like that it bollocksed-up everything. I did have the foresight to do a backup before doing that install, but while I could get my files, I have doubts about restoring a system.

And people wonder why I don't build my own box...
 
alfaniner said:
I checked -- it says "nuh-uh!"
"Can't go back to previous version." I don't know that I'd want to risk it anyway, because last time I tried something like that it bollocksed-up everything. I did have the foresight to do a backup before doing that install, but while I could get my files, I have doubts about restoring a system.

And people wonder why I don't build my own box...
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If its the firmware for the bios there might be a bios setting that has to be tweaked. Also maybe graphics drivers have to be updated for the new firmware.
 
alfaniner said:
I checked -- it says "nuh-uh!"
"Can't go back to previous version." I don't know that I'd want to risk it anyway, because last time I tried something like that it bollocksed-up everything. I did have the foresight to do a backup before doing that install, but while I could get my files, I have doubts about restoring a system.

And people wonder why I don't build my own box...
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Well, ◊◊◊◊. :cautious:
 
Well, someone suggested doing something with the battery, and this rings a bell of something I had to do before. The battery doesn't just slide out like on my previous models. I undid the bottom and cleared out the fan -- not too much schmutz in there this time. I didn't bother taking the battery out because I didn't want to mess with it any more in there. But I shut down and restarted on battery only, and for now it seems to have reset something where it appears to be back to normal, and plugged in. I normally keep it plugged in all the time but do allow the battery to run down a couple times a year because I thought that was good for it. Not sure about that, but no harm done, either.
 
alfaniner said:
Well, someone suggested doing something with the battery, and this rings a bell of something I had to do before. The battery doesn't just slide out like on my previous models. I undid the bottom and cleared out the fan -- not too much schmutz in there this time. I didn't bother taking the battery out because I didn't want to mess with it any more in there. But I shut down and restarted on battery only, and for now it seems to have reset something where it appears to be back to normal, and plugged in. I normally keep it plugged in all the time but do allow the battery to run down a couple times a year because I thought that was good for it. Not sure about that, but no harm done, either.
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Whew!
 
Weird - I did all that and plugged it back in, and the battery wasn't charging, staying at 3%. I did a shutdown and restart (plugged in) and it is charging now. Definitely some issue with the battery -- I seem to remember having a similar problem on my previous Dell. The lag I mentioned was bothering me so much I actually started looking for a new laptop. I instead be using this one for a while yet, but the next one ain't gonna be a Dell.
 
Spent the last day trying to track down whatever was generating intrusive ads on a Z Flip 3. No malware detected so fairly sure a rogue app. Went through pretty much everything, blocking notifications, blocking popups, then force stopping each app in turn (where possible).

Eventually found it, a bogus file manager under the name "File Explorer" which doesn't show up in Play Store, and notably when I did force stop, this app restarted about a minute or two later, and so did the ads. Persistence paid off this time.
 
commandlinegamer said:
Spent the last day trying to track down whatever was generating intrusive ads on a Z Flip 3. No malware detected so fairly sure a rogue app. Went through pretty much everything, blocking notifications, blocking popups, then force stopping each app in turn (where possible).

Eventually found it, a bogus file manager under the name "File Explorer" which doesn't show up in Play Store, and notably when I did force stop, this app restarted about a minute or two later, and so did the ads. Persistence paid off this time.
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Interesting. Any idea how the rogue app got installed? (For me, I don't do the Play Store, since it requires a Google account and I steadfastly refuse to add one to my phone. If it's not available on f-Droid or APKMirror, I'm not using it.)
 
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Blue Mountain said:
Interesting. Any idea how the rogue app got installed? (For me, I don't do the Play Store, since it requires a Google account and I steadfastly refuse to add one to my phone. If it's not available on f-Droid or APKMirror, I'm not using it.)
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Nope. Customer had been trying to (re)install some streaming app (Disney+, I think), but I didn't really have time to analyse in great detail.
 
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