Lousy Tech Support a small sampling

[Grafitti 0]

I post frequently regarding troubleshooting problems I run into, and one reason is because I can't find much decent help around. I've made reference on occasion to the lousy tech support available locally, but I just thought I'd show a sample of it. This is from the Sci-Tech world, a weekly addition to the newspaper. It's not entirely technical, but is one of the few in the country, and as such is referred to by a lot of people. It also represents the average technical knowledge of the guy at the computer store, if even.

QUESTION: I have a Pentium 3 notebook with the following configuration: 12 GB hard disk, 256 MB ram, and an 800 Mhz processor. I want to install Windows XP on it. However, whenever my laptop starts, it becomes busy (the CPU use becomes 100%) and the cursor shows the "normal" and "busy" signals again and again. WHat could be the problem? When i was installing windows on it, I hear a "beep" from the system again and again. When I run the system on the ms-dos mode from my bootable win98 cd, the symbol "@" appears randomly for a few seconds. It then shows the A:\ prompt. I have formatted my partition and installed WinXP on it but the problem persists.ANSWER: Please revert back to the original operating system of your laptop. Your system resources are not enough to support Windows XP

QUESTION: I have an Intel Celeron 1.7 with 128 MB ram and Windows XP pro. I think I have worms on my PC. Some time ago, they appear in the processes in task manager by the names "RavmonE", "rvlknlg", and "netsh". I usually end these tasks but now they have disabled the task manager and the antivirus software. My PC has also slowed down considerably.
ANSWER: Your system has been corrupted beyond repair. Please format your hard drive and reinstall XP.

How much more stupid can you get? Both pieces of advice are contradictory, and the guy obviously has no clue what the minimum specs are for XP. And this person is troubleshooting PCs? I almost skip the Sunday cartoons in the paper to read the tech support column, as it's more a humor column than anything else. Please, where can you find something lower on the intelligence scale than this?

[Markymark2 0]

Lol! Over the years I have seen many "Technical Experts" giving out such BS help as this and ofc getting paid good money to do it.Where I live theres a company that uses "experts" on small motorbikes that ride around the city giving support to people and businesses, I have seen them time and again mess things up soo badly and screw up peoples systems beyond recovery and even worse losing company data because they have been taught to format and reinstall any pc they come across with a problem.I don't mind them too much cos it earns me money when I am called in to put things right that they have screwed up!Its a very hard world to understand for a "lay" computer user cos they are being told by a so called "expert" that this is the only way to fix such a problem, if they take the pc to a shop to get fixed they could get the same answer or have to wait weeks behind other repairs to find the same answer, basically people get scared and give into them and let them do whatever they say is going to fix the problem so they can get their pc back as soon as possible.This kind of malpractice has existed for many years in many different professions, me for instance I know nothing about engines and I have had huge repair bills from garages only to find out a few weeks later talking to another mechanic that what they have done is totally wrong and that the fix should have cost 25 Euro and the fix should have taken minutes to carry out but I was charged hundreds and without my car for weeks as they claimed the parts hadn't come in from Japan yet!The only thing to do is try to educate the wider public to how to troubleshoot their own problems before picking up the phone to call someone for advice, but to be honest most people would rather just let a so called “expert” carry out a fix and to pay them for it, cos like me they have not the time to learn about engines for instance.

[vhortex 1]

i have come from a worse company than that..--------anyone heard of the Oracle 10g self automation handsoff SysDBA settings?That was good, the way it sounds.. Now in order to do that, the sys admin must let Oracle manage itself up. No problem with that.Oracle gaves specs on instructions on how to make that possible. The minimum RAM, the partitions setups.. IBM came and setup everything. Now everything went smooth until 1 month after, the system crash.--------It was not the hardware, it was not the software.. Neither Oracle or IBM can be sued. Know what happen? Our pretty SysDBALocked out Oracle to get more space. And she, remove access for oracle to utilize Temp location for the IBM AIX.The task was to investigate and in an instance of 5 seconds, she found out the fault. Well, us programmers who dont have anyheck of idea what went wrong since we cannot login to the Oracle system.--------After hiring a $1400 per visit consultant she "admits" that is was Oracles fault by not specifying that Oracle will hang if it lacks diskspace to use. The big picture? IBM AIX base on system spec and current settings have Dual Processor, 5Gig of RAM and 2 Terrabyteof space. Enough to be consume for 10 years. Oracle was only using 2 gig of space from that Terraspace. SysDBA reason? She was not informed by Oracle that 2gig of space wont fit the 10 years of data. And she was not informed by IBMthat Oracle must have write access to get more space.--------Things end up.. all programmers resign.. anyway.. the company can pay huge sum of money for the BS sysDBA and can hire moreand more Consultants, but wont listen to programmers. Programmers = crappy person that complains and complains..

Edited March 19, 2007 by pyost
Mind your language ;) (see edit history)

[Atomic0 0]

You should always expect not to get the 'best' technical answers if you use a free technical support service provided by newspapers. I find that computer magazines give better answers to technical questions as they are more experienced and knowledgeable that most other people. You shouldn't expect 'great' answers if the person is not getting paid by you for helping you as a technical support person.

[Grafitti 0]

It's hard to believe that there could be worse situations. All I can say is I'm glad I'm not there.However, to answer Atomic, I pasted that column as a representation of the average PC repair guy's level of skill. They know their one path, which is reformatting, but if you want something else they're stumped. Take for example I wanted to set up one of my computers as a server, so i got Windows 2003 Server with ISA server 2006, and I couldn't find anyone willing to install and set it up for me. They were stuck on Windows 2000 and ISA 2000. When I went ahead and installed Server 2003 on my computer anyways, and then finally convinced one shop that deals in networking to come and configure it for me, the guy came and said he would take care of it. I left the room and came back an hour later, and he had reformatted and installed server 2000. On top of that he wanted to charge me extra for the reinstallation. That was the last straw for me.

[Saint_Michael 3]

It makes you wonder who is more correct when looking to fix the problems website on the internet, the actual computer computer or some guy that uses out dated software because they don't feel like spending the time learning new stuff.Although My situation wasn't as bad everyone else, it was however more funnier. When I order my Dell XPS I wanted to change the lens color on my computer but that option wasn't there for any of the XPS systems, so when I talked to a customer service guy on dell live chat, he had no clue what the hell I was talking about, I actually had to do a print screen to show him what I was talking about. His answer was "I don't see that on my screen: needless to say I stuck with the red color even though I wanted a different color.For me thought before I even call a tech nerd I rather search for the answer because 99% that website is more correct the the tech nerd.