How to fix an idiots computer 

he is the store monitor after all

"alright, lemme tell you the good news. We don't need the monitor."

We got a call to the helpdesk because the user's chair was squeaky.

My friend got an E grade on high-school IT class for not knowing that PC parts are the box, the monitor and mouse with keyboard. Really...

@@senhowler wdym? I brought the computer!

I worked in a computer repair shop. Sometimes the computers brought in would just work normally when brought in, because it got restarted.

Yeah we used to tell people like this that it's called an ID10T error.

@@Simplemalk PICNIC - problem in chair, not in computer

how does rowan not know anything, its clearly an issue with the video driver or the screen connection itself

@@Simplemalk Sadly that works better for new people in the military (US Air Force in this case) we would tell new troops to go to Supply and pick up their ID Ten Tango (ID10T) and when they would ask supply for it they would write it on a piece of paper and hand it to them. Same idea as getting a sample of the Humvee's exhaust to figure out what was wrong with it, checking the blinker fluid, having a new guy climb the IMPSS pole (nuke thing don't worry about it) to reset an alarm, or to climb around a fence line without touching the ground because it would set off an alarm. But my all time favorite is a little sensor dome somewhere special looked like the top of a missile, so we'd tell new guys to suit up in chem gear and use a geiger counter to test it for radiation. I loved messing with new troops.

"Computers are just like people, they sometimes need to rest. Turning it off is like giving it a good nights sleep"

Yeah. Why did you call up if you're not going to do what I ask??

Usually that's not really a problem to convince people to do, I got more of those "close and restart the software please!" - "ok I restarted the computer" For me most annoying is people blaming me for their incompetence and the second thing is opening a call with "can I share my screen" (through I've decades of expirience and usually know the moment where taking a look onto a customers screen is helpful, for my green supporters I would aktually like them to do that much more often) My Mantra for "idiot" customers is "hey they secure my job at least. - Be Friendly and understanding and they tend to be grateful for the help. (just those type 1 people I despise but they are luckily enough very rare.) Also a hint if calling a support line, being friendly, nice an open about your problems will mostly be more successful than going in angry and aggressive. The person you're talking to is most likely not responsible for your problems but the one who will hopefully resolve your problem.

@@kunicrossgaming I like how you started by saying that is USUALLY not a problem. Yeap, you know what we are talking about.

I can confirm its beyond annoying when the IT guy has the solution of "restarting" the PC for anything that is wrong with it. Usually they do that because they don't want to fix the real issue with the PC that IS going to repeat itself and you WILL have to restart the PC again. Being lazy and offering a temporary fix that 90% of people can figure out is not a fix.

I like how you explained the spaces even though literally everyone would understand it

@@Muffin44434 not everyone on RU-vid is a native English speaker.

@@mikebalentine Okay

lol

@@Muffin44434 nah

I work at a college now. One of the professors we had has a Doctorate in Computer Science. I told him students needed to bring in a DVD and not a CD and he literally said "What's the difference?"

@@MisterItchy I have a Bachelor in CS myself and while knowing how hardware works is good, it's not *necessary* in our field. Our expertise is in software, not the hardware running it. So I'm not surprised by that question.

​@@MisterItchyI took a class from the head of the computer science department. He spent every class on his phone, usually outside but sometimes inside the classroom. The entire class consisted of logging into a thin client running on a very old mainframe and completing extremely simple tasks. I remember he was 'teaching' during one class and I asked him if computers had the highest power requirement during the boot up sequence and he acted like I was the smartest kid in the class. He was stuck in the 80's and I knew way more about computers than he did.

​@stormshadow7116 I think part of that is probably because of how powerful computers have become and how advanced programming languages have become. 30+ years ago, understanding computer architecture was essential to write efficient, hell, even viable code. If You were usinc C/C++ or or that chip's assembly language, you needed to know how CPUs performed their calculations. You needed to know how to allocate and de allocate RAM and use it efficiently. Today, you can just code in python and not worry about hardware constraints at all.

​@MisterItchy i have fellow programmers who dont know shit about actual computer hardware. Its increadibly baffling how you make it that far and barely have an understanding in how your pc works.

Theo has powers!

​@@VivaLaDirtLeagueyou mean.. ITheo right? 😜

@@VivaLaDirtLeague I'm just happy that Byron is still in every bored skit. The continuity of him just going about his business in the background is just awesome!

I think that's intended to indicate how the IT guys are viewed as invisible and unimportant until suddenly they're needed. If so, great symbolism there! If not, make it so!

those IT guys are a whole different level.

You managed to reach one? How did you do it!

See, as an old guy who is also good with IT. My answer to that one. No sir my DeLorean doesn't fly. But it was known for smuggling cocaine lol😅😅 just to see if you would getthe reference. I made a reference at work to hotfuzz and my co workers didn't understand the movie reference.

@@Robert53area I would not have gotten it. I just looked it up now, TBH I didn't know it was a person 🤣

You'd think they'd notice the boot screens and the Windows XP logo. 😂 Comically enough, the old registers at my workplace were running on XP. Got them replaced about a year or two ago with a more modern system. There's not so much lag or freezing up, and I no longer see the ghosts of menu tiles when I change screens, either.

If he's had much experience in IT, he's met lots of Rowans before.

Alan did it right, he delegated the Rowan fix.

@@calebowens693 that and he hasn't known Rowan long enough to fear his unhinged behavior

Alan has done this exact thing in an earlier skit though. He knows, he just also knows it's not his job and if it's not your job "I'm not getting paid for it so I'm not doing it"

Missed throwback opportunity

Yeah but the case looked pretty clean already.

Thankfully no one told him there were bitcoins in the pc either

I eat all of my cookies. Tasty

@@ThatGuy-mp9ogoh dear if they did

I don't think there is any fix for a Rowan, just some slightly kludgy workarounds.

​@@JeffDeWitt precisely 😂👍

Half expected Alan to stealthy thank Theo with a tumbs up from afar

@@JeffDeWittno 🧢

Rowan is the virus..

Honestly I had a moment at work a few years ago where the main company database wasn't working and I tried everything I could think of to fix it, I got to a point where I decided to just take the computer to my supervisor because I couldn't see any other option, she just restarted the computer and it started working again, sometimes we forget the most basic things.

80% of the times

You mean de-virusing the computer

The problem is, the issue reappeared once Rowan got past the login screen, so there's some other issue that needs addressed.

Rebooting for every call is how you hit the ground running at a new IT job

Compressor, that is for console peasants, a REAL PC uses turbo ;) with a huge intercooler and methanol water injection :) (Why else do you think the old PC`s actually had a turbo button...)

Check the marzel vanes too. Some older encabulator models can't sufficiently minimise the depleneration for modern computeral devices, potentially resulting in unstable modality of the reactive current to the phase detractors.

Maybe also try to reverse the polarity.

Clearly the virus is still going to be there because nobody reticulated the splines!

Be careful with bypassing the compressor, he might start ripping parts out of the computer.

Good old BOFH school, nothing else.

@@InconspicuousChap OMG that brings back memories - or should I say PTSD? :D

What you talking about? Rowan's not new..

I've done coaching for an it job for a little while and I never bothered talking about fixing pcs. Those guys knew. What they needed was the soft skills to make the caller believe that the solution was indeed the solution 😅

​@@Cludnuggethe's old

I saw a reaction video where teenagers were shown a Windows 95 PC, and couldn't believe that no one knew how to turn it on. I mean, surely at least SOME of these kids had seen a desktop before. They should have shown said kids what happens when people mess with the controls on the monitor. When I was in elementary, sometimes kids would fool with the dials and you'd get an off-center trapezoid or some other nonsense. You won't see that on modern computer monitors.

​@@meowmocha12I regularly get children in year 7 now who cannot use a computer mouse and don't know left click Vs right click. Because they are a touch screen generation. Forget about them not knowing why the Dave button is that little square with a circle in the middle. They cannot grasp that most watches don't connect to phones and don't have WiFi. When I told them that the battery on my watch lasts two years, I got called a liar. As for typing, it's like watching pensioners one finger type. They have been using QWERTY since they were 3YO but on a phone it's two thumbs or a finger. I've had to build in 5 minutes of the typing attack game into the end of every lesson because it's probably a bigger disruption to their access of IT in the future than knowing how to edit photos or use a spreadsheet. In their defence, they are quick learners.

Blame TV / film for perpetuating the computer = monitor trope, most infamously in the NCIS "2 idiots 1 keyboard" clip (attempting to stop a hack by the other trope of Furious Typing, Gibbs appears and apparently stops the hack by unplugging the CRT monitor).

@@mittfh tbf many early PCs came in the same format as a CRT monitor - and there's still fancy macs and niche products that shove everything into a thickened monitor frame

Beat me to it.

Was it PICNIC or PEBKAC? There's a subtle technical difference between the two.

@@BrendonGreenNZL 😂😂 Well the problem is sitting in the chair, so it is how you wish to describe the error

Layer 8 error

The language of IT guys changes so rapidly. In my day it'd be a simple PEBKAC error (Problem exists between keyboard and chair). PICNIC is much more elegant though. I'll need to remember that one. But then back in my day IT guys did more manual stuff. They'd go into regedit and find malware manually or boot to a command prompt and fix things in VI. Now it seems it's literally just "Restart the computer. Didn't work? Refresh the latest install that worked. Didn't work? Format the computer and reinstall but uh uh, no you can't do that, you need the admin password". That's the modern day IT guys trump card. They have the passwords, you don't.

"No, this is a Dell, not a DeLorean."

That's because most of the IT guys are absolute dafts too. I'm at IT advanced+ level myself, but when I need help, it has to be IT expert to assist, yet I phone up to get technical support and all I get is some clueless beginner reading of a script.. I tell them straight away I need an expert assistance, but no, you have to waste 40 minutes with this muppet following his basic script checks that were already done twice anyways prior the phone call just so he can tell me in the end "you need an expert on this one, I will transfer your call". Well, thank you very much, I asked for this 40 minutes ago, so now you just wasted my time and made me upset. Literally this every bloody time

@@antanasrapkevicius3897 ye we should rename that. there is now way this should be call technical support. It should be called script support or something. Technical support is when professional is on other end. Noone can convince me otherwise.

I have waited 40 minutes on hold because I forgot to turn it off and on after release/renewing the ip and restarting the router. It's amazing how accurate this is even if you do know what you're doing as the customer.

​@@antanasrapkevicius3897 I have unfortunately been on this end, and do agree, it's pretty infuriating when some places enforce going through a process even when I know it's wasting my callers time. I tried to avoid that when I could and just escalated. 😅

not always

You know what they say about wizards?

agreed

Did you even watch the video? The manager, of a COMPUTER HARDWARE AND TECH STORE said it was a virus, I think he'd know a little more about it then you. You saw the solution too, they had to press the devirus button to hack the viruses out.

That's how my previous laptop died. That IT isn't that smart, after all. When that happens, a restart is only a temporary solution. The GPU needs to be replaced, pr possible the whole computer.

The ol Thermi days... GTX 480/580... Having to rebake the gpu to get it going again.

Nah, that's just the piece of software I wrote to make it _look_ like the GPU was bad. Someone installed it as a prank. I wonder who? The IT guy? Allan maybe?

as QA I have the opposite effect. People are like “this software works perfectly” then I come in the room and suddenly they can repro the bug. Does that make me Tech Satan?

that would be good prank, thanks for the tip

@@Stray0 i did it to a teacher when I was younger, worked fantastically

(tho actually Win10 has a stupid function called Fast Startup which when you select Shut Down, it instead hibernates and therefore doesn't reset the uptime 😅)

And that's why we turn off fast startup or say "have you restarted" instead of "turn it on/off"

Agreed. I want to see more of this guy!

Also agreed. He knows more about fixing computers and even routers than most people on the planet do

Eh. He's meh. Who is this? Rowan is that you? Dude. He's meh. He didn't do anything to get in with anyone's good graces.

@@MontChevalier yeah, he didn't have 1/10th the impact Byrom had. I subscribed a long time ago because of Byrom. I still to this day love the delivery "rubbish" episode. I suspect some people commenting are simply saying it for diversities sake. Acting chops aren't required for them. You don't need that video that just makes you die laughing as long as you have the right requirements.

@@jfast8256 Maybe if he has more screen time, maybe. But he didn't really offer much in this video. If he was silly or had something that made him stand out, that would be a different story.

​@@Unknown_GeniusIt's like saying "Hey, you work in medical, can you check my heart? Bro, I'm a neurosurgeon (not true)

[In the middle of programming a new feature (This week actually).] HR: "Can you help me fix my web camera?" Me: "Fix your web camera?" HR: "The red light is on, but the camera feed is just black." Me: [Does a thumb-movement at the top of my own laptop.] Me: "Have you tried this?" HR: "What?" Me: [Continues thumb-movement.] Me: "This. It's a shutter." HR: "What's the point of that?" Me: "To prevent hackers spying on you." HR: "Do I need to use it?" Me: "Not if you don't have anything to hide." HR: "No, not really. What would I have to hide?" Me: [Tries really hard to not imply that she might use the laptop for browsing porn.] Me: "I don't know..."

I'm a software developer Jim, not a printer technician

They never know what 'powercycling it' means. Hurts my soul every time.

​@@AkoiMeexx Lol about 3 years ago I went from branch to branch in our company and taught the employee's basic trouble shooting. So even if they haven't power cycled the computer before calling me, they know what I am asking when they call me now.

As long as Adam didn't make the tea!

@@Veelasiren You mean the milkshake 😂😂

I hate the word "cuppa" so much. I find it offensive for a reason I can't explain.

The lifeblood of IT worldwide is Coffee.

No, it's RedBull

PEBKAC is another common one

I hope this redshirt also live long and prosper... 😅🖖

@@estudiordl Me too 😁 He did such an awesome job handling Rowan! 👏🏻

I'd rather be a red shirt in TechTown than Star Trek.

@@calebowens693 Yes, totally! Rowan won't ever let them die, he will bring them back every time because they have to *get back to work!*

Yes! Love his content, I love they're working with other content creators 😃

What on earth gave you that idea 🤔

You don't say? Did you have similar computer problems in the past?

@@yorkiedanMC I something of an IT guy myself.

Yeah, that part about turning it off and on again... Absolutely ludicrous.

Cherrrryeahh' didn't you no that

We put all the bloopers of our episodes on our Patreon page :) Www.patreon.com/vldl

>

Thank you Connectwise Control?

@@microwire007 ?? ssh adminname@somemachine.mynet (key authentication or password) shutdown -r now

Why do you need to reboot computers? Some shitty software/hardware issues? I know systems who run non-stop for years without problems. And it was windows! Not to mention- linux system was on for 10 years doing its small job. The hard disk burned (yes, with smoke), but the system was alive (no reading/writing) for half year. Windows 2003 running for moths with burned video card. It just burst in smoke when someone tried to login locally. :)

Ye. He should've cleaned those cho-chips while he was watching Choc-Chip Hub 😂

Why not? After all, filesystems are expendable. NTFS and the registry are both quite paranoid due to the frequency at which Windows (historically) breaks itself.

Most technical thing in the store! 😂

@@VivaLaDirtLeague I don't know about that But he is very complex 😆

@@HappyDude1 complicated ≠ complex

@@TheDuckofDoom. What ? 😀

Rory Beaker!

Ah yes, the DiVine Drink +- Real Water holder. Its a shame they seem to be phasing them out these days 😢.

@@ChiefArug aye, my first computer without one had me holding my precious drink in one hand and typing with the other. With nowhere safe to place my cup, black gold was spilled that day. I weep at the memory.

I noticed it too. Have a like 👍

On the flip side as a system admin that occationally needs to call a vendor for support (Internet service provider usually, after I confirm the issue is on their side of the incomming line), I get super annoyed trying to get through the first level call center "support" that doesn't listen to a damn thing I've said and keeps reading their script.

"Dummy mode on" (C) BOFH

Eh, it's human nature. If someone comes to you for advice on finances or marriage because they're having problems, 9 times out of 10 they'll listen for a bit and then start defending the methods which they just said aren't working.

But on the other side of the coin, many times I've called our tech support department about a "network-type" problem and have them insist everything was fine on their end. Later (sometimes HOURS later), after them repeatedly insisting the problem was not with them, things would suddenly start working. Turns out they finally checked their settings and hardware -- instead of just saying they had -- and noticed that one of them had inadvertantly changed something. Of course, they claimed they had no idea what the problem had been. "It just started working again". I only learned about this later because I had mates who worked tech there at the time.

I've worked remote point of sale support. I stopped asking people if they had turned it off/on. Nobody wants to admit that they hadn't thought of that. We have remote access to the command prompt so I just type systeminfo and check the System Boot Time. You can also check Up Time in Task Manager, but it's not as subtle.

@@michaelhoward142 Good point. A lot of people in IT can't admit fault.

Aaand ... do you always say the truth when your doc asks you about your habits, workout etc? Or your dentist? It's the exact same thing - they need to know the truth in order to help you.

@@Puschit1 exactly. You're just hurting yourself by lying

At my work my co-workers always tell me I seem to have the fastest computer/laptop.. and legit I intentionally moved from the better ones to the slowest one to prevent people trying to take my stuff, but I just do this magic thing of restarting when I leave and/or when I arrive each day. It kicks off other users, and allows it to have a regular fresh boot to prevent memory leaks... Blows my mind that people in 2020+ still don't realize that leaving things on for hours/days/weeks on end can cause problems..

you'd be surprised, even software houses have an IT department, and their whole existence revolves around the ability to program computers to do what you want it to do.

Of course he knew, but as he said he didn't want the IT peseants to lose their jobs. Rowan is such a great guy

What self-respecting IT technician doesn't have a BOFH-esque excuse calendar on their desk?

Must be one of those newfangled wireless KVM setups.

Wait wait wait... please explain?

​@@FaultAndDakranon seeing the description and end of the video. This guy's a tiktoker

@@asrig3880 VLDL credited one of the actors in their skits?! ... is it the end times, or is this a New Year's Resolution?

@@FaultAndDakranon this is probably a collab. But even if it is, we'll probably see more of him since video recording like this usually do a batch of skits in one recording (and I think VLDL do that).

@@asrig3880 I hope to see more of him. He's good.

I want a computer that 3D prints itself a new cpu and gpu every year 😎

Id10t

Nice 1337 there 😆

PEBKAC?

Reboot the wetware.