05-28-2006, 07:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Stupid User Errors - Turn On ALL The WiFi Equipment!
I recently changed ISPs and was loathe to set up my WiFi network again. I was dreading going through the hassle of hard resetting my router, installing the generally lame cable modem software, spoofing the MAC address, trying to rid my PC of the infestation of the cable modem software, creating a new security key and then entering that key into my 8 devices on the network (K-Jam, SDA, 3 TiVos and 3 computers)
Imagine my surprise when I just plugged my router into the cable modem's ethernet port and poof! It just worked. I was getting frustrated though because the signal was weak and the internet connection kept dropping. I thought I was going to have to go the hard-reset route. I decided to turn off everything (modem, router and signal booster) when I realized that when I "turned off" the power strip, it was actually turning on. Huh? The cable guy set up the modem, so it was plugged into the wall. The router was, by chance, plugged into a "non-switched" socket on the power strip, so when it came on, I didn't really look at the power strip itself. Tthe signal booster, however, was in a normal socket, so for 3 days it had really been off. :i got it: The light on the signal booster is so small, dim and is just a bit off center from the hole even when it is on, you can't hardly tell, so I never really paid attention to it. So whatever signal I was getting was from the router that had no antenna since it was wired to the signal booster. It is a wonder it worked at all.
After I turned everything off for real, then turned it all on, it has been working just fine for the last 20 hrs or so. Truly a classic case of "ok, did you plug it in? Is the power light on?" :rotfl:
What embarrassing goofs have you committed when working with tech?
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05-28-2006, 07:32 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 797
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Wife bought a brand new laptop for school. We had it all running and everything was great. It was fast, etc. Wifi worked great.
One day, I get a phone call at work. "My laptop is off and it won't come on." I start losing my mind. "Is it plugged in?" I ask her, sure that this was indeed the problem. Yep. It's plugged in.
I get home that night and try a million things to turn it on. Nothing. Just won't power on.
So I call tech support thinking we would have to RMA it. "Is it plugged in?" he asks. "Of course," I say. "That was the first thing I checked."
He tries a few troubleshooting steps with me, and then puts me on hold. While on hold, I shift the laptop on the table and the power brick completely disconnects from the power cord. At some point, my wife must've loosened the connecter from the powerbrick to the power cord and the laptop had given her almost six hours on battery power. She never even realized she wasn't plugged in (and neither did I) because, from a distance, it looked plugged in.
Needless to say, when the tech came back on I just told him that I had no idea what was wrong but it had suddenly started working.
Just for the record, troubleshooting is what I do for a living.
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05-28-2006, 10:21 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 99
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i've typed on a laptop while staring at a monitor connected to an entirely different computer and wondered why it wasn't working. the sad thing is that i wasn't the first, my friend did the same thing, got frustrated and handed the laptop to me to fix it. 
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05-28-2006, 10:52 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
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reeeaaalllyyy loooooonnnng support call, splitting headache, it's easier and cheaper to turn of the noisy piece of equipment that isn't being used atm than to go out and buy a bottle of Tylenol. A few hours later, problems start popping up. Turns out that the instructions just assume that the aforementioned noisy piece of equipment had been turned on the whole time.
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05-29-2006, 03:14 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 3
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I'm a 20 Navy veteran who's been troubleshooting all kinds of electronic equipment since 1984. I have made the same kind of bone-head mistakes before and I'm sure I'll do it again.
The key is this; when you get to point where the symptoms don't make sense, go back to the beginning and start over. And I mean ALL THE WAY BACK to power and look at it all again.
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05-29-2006, 03:36 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by seasteve
The key is this; when you get to point where the symptoms don't make sense, go back to the beginning and start over. And I mean ALL THE WAY BACK to power and look at it all again.
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Here here! I've had many tech problems that have turned out to be the most obvious of things (cables, power, etc.) so now when I have a problem I start with the basics (checking connections, swapping out cables, etc.) then move onto more complex things.
My wife has a Toshiba M50 laptop, and I bought her a 19" Dell LCD monitor. Well, it's displaying these strage wavy lines on the screen. I swapped out cables (no change), I tried the laptop on a different LCD monitor (problem went away). I got Dell to send me a new monitor (the old one had a stuck red pixel anyway) but had the same problem. I started to eliminate EVERY variable...when I disconnected the laptop from the power brick, the problem vanished. 8O In this case I don't think it was REALLY obvious, but I should have started with the cables sooner. Now I just have to convince Toshiba that there's something wrong with the power brick, or maybe with the power shielding with the whole laptop. <gulp>
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05-29-2006, 04:41 PM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by seasteve
The key is this; when you get to point where the symptoms don't make sense, go back to the beginning and start over. And I mean ALL THE WAY BACK to power and look at it all again.
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That's a very good point, and not just applicable to technology.
In medicine, it always helps to go back to basics - start with a good history, and then follow on with examination and investigation. You can always extract a lot from the start with a good history. With tech issues, it's exactly the same.
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05-29-2006, 05:12 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Darius Wey
helps to go back to basics - start with a good history, and then follow on with examination and investigation. You can always extract a lot from the start with a good history. With tech issues, it's exactly the same.
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That isn't how they do it on House. they always seem to start with some ridiculiously obscure disease. :lol:
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05-29-2006, 07:19 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 20
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As a Radio Maintenance Tech in the Air Force 25 years ago, many times I heard my boss, a Master Seargent, aksing the officer who called to report an outage to their equipment if it was turned on, if it was plugged in, etc. Of course he had to try to be very tactful and diplomatic.
Several times we got to the reported outage equipment to find it working fine! The officer would say "I don't know, it just started working!"
I spent a week trying to get my PC to boot (no OS found), moving drives around, checking the master/slave jumper, power connection, is the cable plugged in properly, etc. Finally called tech support and they suggested it could be the ribbon cable. I wouldn't believe it so to prove them wrong, I swapped ribbon cables and sure enough, it still didn't boot. Ha! So I took it in. When I swapped ribbon cables and took out all the drives except the boot drive, I left the master/slave jumper in the wrong position. So an $80 service to move a jumper because I wouldn't listen to the one advice that was actually correct.
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05-29-2006, 07:43 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 66
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I have not been able to send e-mail in Outlook for the past week and for the life of me, I could not figure out why.. I got a DNS-related error message.. :confused totally:
Just today, when configuring Mobile settings in Outlook 2007, I realized that my e-mail address was incorrectly spelled. The typo was extremely subtle and obviously difficult to notice.
When I corrected that little typo, everything was back to normal.
I am almost ashamed.
:rotfl: :rotfl:
We all learn from experience.
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