tech support
Tech support
Jun 15 2008 10:51 PM Filed in: Personal
My mother called me this evening wanting the one
thing I dread: “Long Distance Tech Support”. Being
the member of the family that knows a lot about
computers, I am used to providing some form of tech
support a couple times a year, but I hate doing it
when it’s hardware support, and that piece of
hardware is not right there in front of me.
Apparently there was a pretty bad storm last night in Columbus, and the power flickered on and off a couple times. Even though my mother’s computer is hooked up to a surge protector, this afternoon, when she tried to turn it on, nothing happened. All of the other computer peripherals: the monitor and printer, worked perfectly. But not the computer. So she gives me a call. She’s hoping there’s some kind of fuse or reset switch on the back of the computer, but I tell her I don’t think there is, and without being able to get my hands on the computer, I don’t really think I can be of too much help. I tell her maybe the power supply got fried, and she may need to take it somewhere to have it looked at and possibly get that piece replaced.
After I got off the phone with her, I went over to the Acer support site. I find that her one year warranty expired June 12. Isn’t that the way it always is : ) I look through there knowledge base and come to an entry about the machine not powering up. I give my Mom a call back and tell her to try one of the steps they mention. She should unplug the power cord from the back of the machine. Next she should hold down the power button for 30 seconds. After that she should plug the machine back in and try to power on the machine. I told her that sounded weird, but possibly that’s a built in way to reset the machine after a tripped breaker. She gave it a try and it worked. She sounded so happy. My mother doesn’t use her computer much, it’s powered off more than it’s powered on. She checks e-mail every other day or so, and if she’s bored she may hop on and play some solitaire, free-cell, or go to one of her puzzle web sites. I’m glad this tech support call had a happy ending without any money needing to be spent.
Apparently there was a pretty bad storm last night in Columbus, and the power flickered on and off a couple times. Even though my mother’s computer is hooked up to a surge protector, this afternoon, when she tried to turn it on, nothing happened. All of the other computer peripherals: the monitor and printer, worked perfectly. But not the computer. So she gives me a call. She’s hoping there’s some kind of fuse or reset switch on the back of the computer, but I tell her I don’t think there is, and without being able to get my hands on the computer, I don’t really think I can be of too much help. I tell her maybe the power supply got fried, and she may need to take it somewhere to have it looked at and possibly get that piece replaced.
After I got off the phone with her, I went over to the Acer support site. I find that her one year warranty expired June 12. Isn’t that the way it always is : ) I look through there knowledge base and come to an entry about the machine not powering up. I give my Mom a call back and tell her to try one of the steps they mention. She should unplug the power cord from the back of the machine. Next she should hold down the power button for 30 seconds. After that she should plug the machine back in and try to power on the machine. I told her that sounded weird, but possibly that’s a built in way to reset the machine after a tripped breaker. She gave it a try and it worked. She sounded so happy. My mother doesn’t use her computer much, it’s powered off more than it’s powered on. She checks e-mail every other day or so, and if she’s bored she may hop on and play some solitaire, free-cell, or go to one of her puzzle web sites. I’m glad this tech support call had a happy ending without any money needing to be spent.
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