What is the dumbest question a user ever asked you?
Why they couldn't get a login / password prompt from the computer. During a regional power outage.
When they couldn't figure out how to clear the "38 SMOKE/FIRE" message from their alarm panel and turn off the alarm... and they could smell smoke.
Where is the any key?
Q: Why is it every time I lose something, it's always in the last place I look?
A: Because if you find it then continue looking, you're doing it wrong. It will always be in the last place you look, dummy!
How do you make a capital letter?
tezt
You type it really loud?
Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow
well...What is the dumbest question a user ever asked you?
SO META!!!
I can't play this game...
Hit a l'il too close to home, huh? J/K - love ya.
DanielleH, That's what doppelganger accounts are for!
Classic response!
Will you fix my home computer ?
Do family and friends count towards this request?
"Are you left-handed?"... after watching me sign my name with my left hand.
Not asked by a user, but it's the best I've got.
Who asked it? Is it someone we know?
I just closed my web browser, reopened it and went to our SolarWinds NPM page and it took me right in. Why didn't I have to log back in? (Did you actually log out? No? That's why....)
"So you're telling me I can't send an email to my team because the email server is down?"
Received an email one day asking: "hey is email down?"
....and we have a winner!! LOL!
"I'm calling to report my cup holder is broken" when referring to the DVD-R tray on the desktop PC
Asked after I sent out a company wide broadcast then walked out of the server room:
"Hey, did you really send an email from in there"?
Answer: "Yes, it's amazing what you can do with a laptop and a wireless connection huh."
I use two monitors and a person asks if I have two computers running side by side.
Did you say, or just think that answer?
Those are always fun... or when I happen to be holding something with both hands and someone is steadily trying to give me a package or tool.
All the letter's on my keyboard are CAPITAL.. how do you make a lowercase letter?
All the normal Questions, yes I have heard...
User-> Where is the ANY Key?
User-> What is the SPACE BAR?
User-> MY PC Won't turn on..
me -> Is the little light on the power button lit up?
user -> I can't see, the lights are off
me -> The power light on the PC?
user-> No, the power is out.
(Pre Windows 8)
Me -> Can you click on the start button
User-> What's the start button?
And that sequence from IT Crowd... yes it happens. (the writers must have been in IT)
Me -> Help Desk
User -> My Monitor won't turn on
Me -> Did you press the power button
*type 1 USER -> 'Oh, that did it!'
* type 2 USER -> Yes, it still won't come on
Me -> Is it plugged in
* User gets down to check, then back to phone *
USER -> It's working now, I'm not sure what happened.
Me: Do you want a computer for Christmas? (STUPIDEST QUESTION EVER!)
Mom: Yes.
In the following years (Mom):
do we have the same mother? To add one from my mom:
What's a browser?
Every year since being on the service desk, and now even after I am no longer on the service desk;
I get an email on my anniversary date (@ current job) from my very first support customer : My Mother!
At least she remembers all the headaches I gave myself by thinking she would be okay with a computer on her own.
+1
Me to my mom -> "Do you see ... ?" (insert ANYTHING you would see on the PC monitor)
Mom to me -> "Where is that?"
I knew there was something about you I liked Kellie, er, or was it...
Possible computer illiterate friend: What do you do for a living?
Me: Truck Driver. (BEST ANSWER EVER!)
I would have replied demolition!
I'd be afraid to answer this way. They will probably want me to drive something for them (for free).
Hence my reply, as I am willing to destroy (MOST) anything for you... if it gets too expensive(or non legal), i might require a proof of ownership and a documented request to alleviate any legal issues.
Yes.
Back in the day about 20 years ago....I had a shell account. Anyone use Lynx?
So after a while I got a dial up ISP account that I could web surf on, it was fun. Now I could start to do real surfing with http!!!
Later in the month, I went to the home of my Amateur Radio mentor. For two weeks he had Netscape on Windows 3.1 after getting an ISP dial up connection.
I was watching him look for something on the web. He had a few URL's written down. After finding where he wanted to go he typed in the URL and hit enter on the address bar. Then I saw him type in another URL and hit enter. I asked him why he didn't just click the link. He looked at me with a puzzled look. I said, "Just click the link." Huh? I said "Click the words in blue text on the screen with your mouse". He clicked the link and had an astonished look on his face.
For two weeks he thought that this Internet thing was silly because of the typing involved.....that day he learned what Hypertext really meant!
RT
The student becomes the teacher.
73 de K3TMA.
"Experienced" sysadmin swears up and down that my firewall is blocking the traffic between his web server and his database server. They both reside in the same subnet/VLAN, are on same switch, and on consecutive ports. After a quick netstat, I told him to restart SQL, problem solved.
Terry, on a different note, where do you bike MS?
While it may not be the dumbest, I had an end user ask me if she was going to be electrocuted after I told her to re-seat the Ethernet cable on her computer. Uhhh, yes, ma'am, I am advising you to do something that would cause you to be electrocuted. *rollseyes*
I actually participate in Challenge Walk MS, as a walker in Maryland and as a SAG driver and HAM radio operator in SC (moving to GA for 2015). Before Maryland changed dates and Philadelphia combined with the Maryland walk, I used to walk in Philadelphia and drive SAG and work communications at the MA and MD walks.
I also volunteered at the San Diego walk once while I was in the area in 2009.
While rebooting a Cisco IP phone...
"The screen on the phone says Java, does that mean we get coffee?"
LOL that's part of a Jeff Foxworthy bit too...He goes on to say well I'll keep looking for it in case I'm in an alternate universe or something.
Should I have made a new post, or is just editing this one .. https://thwack.solarwinds.com/ideas/4526 .. going to help me win?
Back in the day when mice had roller balls..... "How do you clean mouse ball?"
"Why did it break?"
That was the question I hated end-users asking. It's one thing if it is a enterprise environment and something goes wrong. Enterprise applications and infrastructure are tightly (ahem!) controlled eco-systems. Why did that desktop application crash just now? I have no idea. I can fix it for you, or I can spend the next week parsing through logs, memory dumps, etc. to try to tell you something that is so far above your ability to comprehend that you don't it might make your brain leak out your ears.
I quickly learned to say, through clenched teeth at times, "I'm not sure, but would you like me to fix it?"
Oh, one more --- one more.
"I didn't back up any of my data. Is there any way to recover it?"
Err, no.
I used to love when users would open an attachment file from email, work in it, click save and then miss it once they close it...
after explaining that they were working from a temporary file and how it goes away after they close the appliction/attached file they opened the user would ask.... 'Where did you say it saved?'
Okay - not stupid question - but have to put it out there as it was funny at the time.
Two years ago, bought parents a tablet (basic Google Nexus....nothing fancy here) and wireless router. Got everything hooked up, working perfectly, taught them how to use it.
Fast forward a few months:
<phone rings>
Dad - Hey, have a problem with the tablet, we might need another.
Me - What is wrong? Won't turn on, won't charge ?
Dad - No. Your mother has all her magazines on it, and I have all my books on it. She won't share when we go to camp! I have to still take my books up.
Me - Seriously?
Yes...I got them another.
Related...
I don't know if it counts as the dumbest, but it's certainly the most annoying:
"Are you sure?"
"Is it fixed yet?"
No, if it was, you would know because it would be working. Calling me only lengthens the time before it is fixed, because I have to answer my phone and talk to you instead of working on the problem.
If the internet is going to be down for a while can we just cut everything over to mifi until it comes up?
I have a girl dancing on my desktop (right hand side below ) .. who is she ??? how can i talk to her ???//
If only the nice Cisco phones dispensed hot coffee..... That would be amazing!
That came outta my mouth when Pop's friend lost, then found, his keys in Pop's shop many moons ago. (Friend was perpetually drunk, so...)
