Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Another computer fixed, but interesting problem

Part of my job includes keeping all the computer equipment up and running here at the Cancer Center. This sometimes extends to our members. If they don't have someone else to help them out, I will troubleshoot their computer problems. This happened yesterday.

One of our researcher/clinicians called me about his computer (a PC). It was slow, very slow and the CD and DVD drive had stopped working. Since he was only 1 floor above me I went up to see what the problem was.

It was fairly easy to optimize windows for him, which took care of the speed issue. The more serious issue concerning the drives was the next step. After I had turned off the computer and disconnected everything I opened it up to find the power cables had been pulled out of both the CD and DVD drives! What was even more interesting than the power being pulled was the fact that one would have to reach behind the IDE cables in order to get to these plugs. It would have been very difficult to do, unless they had never been connected ...

He had to go to a meeting so I didn't get a chance to ask him when the last time he used the drives was, but I will eventually.


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