“After a very deep breath, I asked her why she thought Currys would do a better job than me”
What do assumptions make? This month’s guest columnist admits it makes him look an ass, as well as adding unnecessary time to repairs
I’ve been doing this job long enough to know I should never assume anything. The trouble is that the more I do something, the more I believe I know best, which sometimes prevents me from looking at things from every angle.
A great example of this was Bob’s desktop computer. Bob was a new customer who called me to say that his keyboard and mouse weren’t working. After a brief chat, I arranged a visit and arrived on the day with an armful of input devices. Unfortunately, after a bit of fiddling, none of my stuff worked, so I decided the best option was to take the machine away and investigate further.
With the computer back in my office, I rigged it up to a KVM switch and found no issues using the attached keyboard and mouse. I thought that was strange, but other problems soon grabbed my attention. Bob had somehow reset Windows, so I decided to concentrate instead on sorting out his operating system. I started by updating Windows and installing any programs I thought he might need. Once I’d done that, I got on with some other issues I’d found, including just how slow the darn thing was. I cursed myself for not dealing with the speed issue first, but sometimes my head stays stubbornly in the sand until I realise otherwise.
With my head removed, I stuck it next to my phone and rang Bob to offer him an SSD and memory upgrade, which he duly accepted. I’d already done the tedious work of updating and installing, so I cloned his old spinny disk onto the SSD. After fitting the new drive and extra RAM, I finally had what I thought was a much faster working computer, and arranged to return it to Bob.
You’ll have likely guessed by now that things didn’t go precisely to plan: when I took the computer back to Bob’s, I still couldn’t get the mouse or keyboard to work. So, with many apologies and a silent curse, I returned to the office for another go.
To ensure I wasn’t going mad, I plugged a spare keyboard and mouse into the computer, and unsurprisingly, they didn’t work. Thankfully, my KVM switch still did, so I delved into Device Manager to find some rather dubious yellow triangles next to the USB controllers. In these instances, uninstalling all the USB drivers and restarting the PC usually does the trick. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this time, so I decided to go with the potentially “cure-all” option of a Windows 10 repair install (see Lee’s guide to this at pcpro.link/343lee).
A repair install is always worth a try if you’re struggling with an issue like this, but make sure you do a full backup first. In my case, all the USB connections sprung back to life, and I returned the PC to Bob, vowing never to assume anything again.
Don’t assume loyalty
Unfortunately, my vow was shortlived after Susan got in touch a few days later. Susan is a customer that I would politely call eccentric. On my many visits over the years, she would tell me about all the different politicians and heads of state she had met. I’ve never figured out what she did for a living, so her stories may be accurate, but I’m not convinced. Either way, I haven’t had to listen to her tales lately because I haven’t seen her in ages. She has contacted me a lot, asking for advice but always turning down my recommendation for a callout when I think it’s needed. The issues she gets in touch about must get solved somehow, as I hear nothing until she calls again with a new dilemma.
This time, she had problems with her Microsoft account, and after a long chat, I convinced her it was best if I had a look. We set a date for the following week, but Susan rang me on the morning of my visit and wanted to cancel. Her reason was that she couldn’t afford my rates, which I accepted as times are tough. However, she also thought that I might find the problem too complicated and that it would be better if she took it to Currys.
After a long pause and a very deep breath, I asked her why she thought Currys would do a better job than me. I don’t know if her reasons are any more truthful than her stories, but it turns out she has a service contract with them and thought she should use it. With nothing more to say, I finished the conversation by wishing her luck. I’ve heard nothing since, so I guess Currys is now her go-to place for IT issues, and I’ve lost a client.
My livelihood relies on repeat business, so I do my hardest to keep every customer I get by offering the best service possible. However, no matter what I do, I should never assume they will stay.
Windows 8 to the rescue
Another customer I’ve known for ages – and long may it continue – is a very sprightly 92-year-old gentleman called Keith. He contacted me because he’d treated himself to a new computer and wanted help setting it up. I visited him a few days later, and the job went smoothly enough until I came to install his scanner. Keith owned both a modern HP all-in-one
“Susan is a customer that I would politely call eccentric”
printer and an ageing Canon Lide 100 standalone scanner. I was concerned about the old Canon working on Windows 11, but he loved the software it came with and was reluctant to use anything else. It had also worked flawlessly on his old machine, so I had to give it a go.
As is usual in these cases, I went to Canon’s website to look for the driver but found nothing for Windows 11. I changed the operating system option to Windows 10, and still no joy. Yet Keith’s previous PC was running Windows 10, so why can’t I find a driver? I then remembered that he had updated the computer from Windows 8 and that the current driver must be for that OS. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, so after creating a system restore point, I downloaded and installed the Windows 8 version onto the new PC. Thankfully, everything worked a treat, and Keith was a happy man.
It frustrates the heck out of me that manufacturers do this with drivers. I know it’s not in their interest to check every old bit of inventory to see if it works with a newer operating system, but they could at least display the drivers with a warning. That way, less savvy users won’t automatically assume they can’t use the device any longer and ditch their perfectly good kit.
Bigger battery
While my work at Keith’s was pretty routine, some jobs can throw me a curveball that takes things in a totally different direction. A fine example of this was Derek’s laptop, which arrived in my office because Windows 10 wasn’t updating. A quick check revealed it was still on version 1909, but try as I might, I couldn’t get it to budge up to anything newer. My frustration grew further because the touchpad was also misbehaving, especially when I pressed down on it. I dumped the update problem for the time being to investigate this new issue and realised the pad wasn’t sitting correctly within the case. Alarm bells rang, and I opened the laptop to find that my suspicions were correct: the internal battery had swollen, pushing the touchpad upwards, and causing the problem.
I removed the battery at once, priced up a new one, and called Derek with the news. He agreed to a replacement, so while I waited for it to be delivered, I got on with the update issue. As I had exhausted all other possibilities, I decided the only thing left to do was a clean install of Windows. But it wasn’t to be: whatever I tried failed miserably, so I needed to rethink my options.
The laptop had already passed a full hardware test, and trying a spare hard drive didn’t help, either. The only thing left that I hadn’t checked was the BIOS. When I did, I discovered it was still the original version, so I had nothing to lose in trying an update. The Dell website had what I needed, but I could only install the new BIOS by running the utility through Windows.
Thankfully, I’d cloned the hard drive and used it to get the OS back on the laptop. Once it was re-imaged, I ran the BIOS update utility and hit yet another brick wall. A message told me I needed to have the battery plugged in before I could flash the BIOS.
I knew replacing the old battery was a definite no-no, so I just had to wait until the new one arrived. Once it did, I installed the battery, updated the BIOS, and attempted another clean install of Windows. With much relief, the BIOS update did the trick, and I finally got the latest version of Windows 10 running on the laptop.
It’s jobs like Derek’s that keep me on my toes, and while I may whinge and curse about it at the time, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’ve learnt it’s pointless to assume I know what I’ll be doing before seeing a client, as it only leads to frustration. Go with the flow, however, and my work always stays varied and exciting.