Guy "Builds Computers" For A Living, Completely Destroys Cheap Computer

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mattstaff
Dec 6, 2021 4:00 PM EST

If there's one major takeaway from this tech support tale it's that just because you can build a PC doesn't necessarily mean that you know how the computer works. One can only begin to imagine the amount of hot flashes of embarrassment that this dude must've been bogged down by after realizing that he'd literally engineered the downfall of his cheap brand name computer. Like, he literally just created destruction where there otherwise would've been none to have been had. Oh well. You live and you learn. For another ridiculous tech support tale, check out this CEO who thought his computer had been hacked, and then proceeded to learn how a computer works. 

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  • 01
    Font - r/talesfromtechsupport u/Internal-Car8922 ·5d + Join 3 Guy who builds computers for a living destroys his cheap name brand computer. Medium This story is from years ago when I provided tech support for a company of cheap pc clones that are no longer available in the United States, but which are still sold in other parts of the world. Now to say that many of the purchasers of these computers were first time users is a vast understatement of the case. Many of my best stories from this time
    via u/Internal-Car8922
  • 02
    Font - I get a call from a young man who introduces himself by declaring that he builds computers for a living. (I ask myself, "Why if you have the ability to build a computer would you ever buy one of these cheapo systems?") After purchase, he wants to boost the video and bought an add-in VGA card. Installing such a card is easy, but sometimes you have change a jumper or a dip switch on the computer's motherboard to get the computer to recognize and use the new hardware.
    via u/Internal-Car8922
  • 03
    Font - For those who don't remember such things, dip switches are like little, tiny light switches that can be turned on and off with the tip of a pin. Pin jumpers are little pieces of plastic that can be placed over two pins to create a closed circuit, or removed to break the circuit. Pin jumpers are cheaper, so that's what we use. Some of our computers at this time have literally 50 or more jumpers and if you open or close the wrong circuit, it will render the computer unusable without a techn
    via u/Internal-Car8922
  • 04
    Font - So it is not unusual on our computers of the day to need to change a jumper pin configuration for the computer to recognize and use an add-in video card. And knowing this, the young man checks the schematic for the motherboard and the motherboard itself, but cannot identify which jumper does that. But he does see a chip labelled "VGA", and so he extracts this chip, but now his computer no longer boots at all.
    via u/Internal-Car8922
  • 05
    Font - This is a real forehead-smack moment for me. First, his model is designed to auto-detect an add-in video card and turn off the on-board video as soon as you boot it up with an add-in card installed. He did not need to change anything for his new graphics card to work. Second, the only chip on his motherboard that had VGA written on it is his CMOS BIOS chip. For those of you who don't actually build computers for a living, this is the only part of the computer that has programming when you
    via u/Internal-Car8922
  • 06
    Font - Needless to say, he is none-too-happy with this result. He escalates it up to my supervisor and then my manager, but I leave extensive notes and it remains a non-warrantee repair. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
    via u/Internal-Car8922

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