Ah. Yes! Computer Stupidities (www.rinkworks.com/stupid) rocks! I've actually had a few of those kinds of calls. =)

I think the best one was the BIOS problem. I always tell my students about this one during my hardware course.

When I was a Network Administrator we began to introduce the idea of an IBM laptop university. So I was responsible for about 100 laptops on campus and keep them up to date. This included regular BIOS updates downloaded from their website.

So I downloaded the update and applied it. For all the machines, it was a breeze. One machine however proved problematic. When I booted with the BIOS update disk and it began the actual update process, I heard a grinding noise (not something you expect to hear). I looked over at the screen and it popped up a single error on the blue screen "There is a hardware error".

I called IBM (as we leased our machines) and spoke with the techie on the phone. I explained the problem and the techie asked if he could put me on hold. I hummed happily away to the muzak and he returned.

He said "It's not supposed to the do that".

I did a doubletake. I replied with a quizzacle "It's not supposed to do that?!?". He asked to put me back on hold again. I went back to my humming again.

He returned. "There is a hardaware error!". At this point I lost it. I started laughing with an appropriate DUH! put in there. The end result was a toasted mobo and it got sent back to IBM. Needless to say, it did brighten my day. =D


We all need a little chuckle ever now and again.