My friend Boyan‘s trusted laptop blew up while he was on vacation, so I made this comic to make fun of him him feel better. “It’s smoking,” he said. “Smells like burning plastic.” / “These are VERY bad signs,” I said with comfort. “VERRRRY BAAAAD SIGNS,” I continued, providing still more comforting comfort. “Turn it off, remove the battery and throw it away,” the comfort continued to pour from my lips like so much delicate comfort.
The HijiNKS ENSUE Store seems to have gotten a makeover.
He had his data backed up, and other than removing the drive and putting it into a new machine just to ensure data integrity, burny smells and smoke are not really “symptoms” of a laptop problem. They are more of an invitation to by a new laptop. Depending on the circumstances, they are also an invitation from the Universe to go fuck yourself right in the eye. Perhaps, when not on fire, laptops should emit a calming aroma of potpourri and cinnamon. Maybe sandlewood. You know, just to reassure you everything is ok.
COMMENTERS: Are you the go to tech support guru for your friends and family? What are your personal tech support triumphs and horror stories?
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Comments (32)
Bob · 97 weeks ago
I felt pretty good about setting up an obi device with my google voice number so my parents can call me while I’m stationed in the UK.
PS Found out that 8-bit Theater creator Brian Clevenger has a kickstarter going on for his comic Atomic Robo. Ends in 4 days.
Nicky · 97 weeks ago
Never stir rice. You’re going to ruin it.You never try to explain a joke. You’re going to ruin it.When I got my degree in Computer Engineering my digital logic professor taught us about the Magic Blue Smoke.You see, Magic Blue Smoke (MBS) is the dirty little secret of the tech world; it’s what makes your tech gizmos work. It is very rare and hard to find which is why tech is so expensive. Everything we do, all advances we’ve made, they’ve been in becoming more MBS efficient. That’s why your gadgets get smaller and faster and cheaper all the time; we learn new ways to use less MBS… but make no mistake. You MUST have some in there. If you ever EVER let it escape well… your gadget will never work again and must be replaced by one with MBS intact.
Sounds like your friend let out a LOT of MBS… tell him to next time not do that.
seriously · 97 weeks ago
Tell him to cover the vents in the side of the computer with cardboard and lots of duct tape. It’ll keep in the MBS for sure.
Leshka · 97 weeks ago
OMG, thank you for the advice! I thought my laptop was going to explode, so I closed the top. Luckily I kept all that MBS in there instead of letting it all out! And it’s a MacBook Pro, so it’s big enough to keep a good amount of that in there!Thank whomever is in the sky that I’m still friends with my ex-husband. He knows everything I need for my electronic needs. He even bought the Pro for me (2 years later, and I’m STILL paying him back.) He must have known about MBS.
My mom is convinced that, because my sister and I know the most basic computer repair procedures, we should go into IT. She is completely ignorant of the fact that most IT people work tech support, which is in fact a circle of Hell.Also, when confronted with examples of computer problems and or awesomeness, I just say it was demon magic.
IT is easy. Just tell them to turn it off and turn it back on. The problem is that they’ll ask you for help every two minutes…
Chaucer59 · 97 weeks ago
You only stir the rice once when it comes to a boil. Then turn it down to a simmer and cover it.Unless it’s Arborio. Then, you’re making risotto. You pour in stock a half-cup at a time and stir until it’s absorbed. Repeat until al dente and creamy.
Chefs are nerds of a different color.
Wesley · 97 weeks ago
My parents had bought a new laptop and called me saying they could not open it. There were ‘buttons’ at the front but they didn’t seem to do anything. After failing to solve the problem by phone I went over to their house, looked at the laptop and realized they’d been trying to open it from the wrong side.I laughed for at least 10 minutes.
seriously · 97 weeks ago
That beats the time my aunt complained that the screen on her new laptop was frozen for like four hours no matter what she did. Turns out she never peeled the protective plastic off the screen when she got it home.Most problems I had to solve were dealing with the fact that: “My computer is running slow, fix it!”
After deleting a few gigs of malware and other shit me and my friend decided to open the case. Now I’m sure everyone has their horror stories about dust… This was worse, the lady who owned the pc was an avid smoker (rolled her own). Everything, but I do mean everything was coated with a mixed thick layer of dust and sticky tobacco.
Kryss · 97 weeks ago
We used to run a computer support company. We found a dead mouse in one once. And I was chatting with a friend online when a live mouse popped out of his printer for a moment before running back inside. Yep, inside, not behind; it came out where the paper does. That kind of interrupted the chat for a bit, lol.I used to be the “Go To” guy for tech gadgets.
But once you call me and say…
“This was working fine until you worked on that other thing three months ago”…
Than I tell them they had better call a specialist.
I refuse to be the reason why all of their future problems happen because I was the last person to help them.MrLibearian · 97 weeks ago
The sock in the third panel looks kind of like a dick. Or maybe the dick in the third panel looks kind of like a sock. It’s cool either way, because I’m like a huge fan of dicks and stuff.
PallidaMors · 97 weeks ago
Was wondering if that was a secret Wheaton Comic Dare- work an obvious cock into a panel somewhere…
DuckAmuck · 97 weeks ago
I solve most of the computer questions that come my way be answering “I don’t know, I use a Mac!”
The others are often solved by saying either, “I don’t know, I don’t use Facebook” or “I don’t know, I don’t use hotmail.”All of these things are true, and seriously cut down on the number of problems I need to solve. –And then there are the smartphone questions… Yes, I have one. Why do you think I’m an expert who can help you?
Making pilaf or fried rice? 😀
I am the set up person, once it is set up the family doesn’t trust me enough to let me fix things. I am relegated to the kiddie computer, that way in case there are any srew ups I won’t mess up the main computers. Coincidentally the kiddie computer is the better running computer while all the others are slower, riddled with garbage programs, etc. etc.
zathael · 97 weeks ago
Risoto by the sound of it. You don’t stir most rice dishes.Stirring isn’t mentioned in the comic, so if you don’t stir at any point that’s your thing but some recipes require you to stir to break up clumps after the cooking is done. In the case of a pilaf you stir it to get the rice coated in the fat to toast properly and fried rice you stir to get the veggies and other ingredients incorporated.__
Notebooked · 97 weeks ago
There was the time my computer’s fan chopped like a jet engine into which a flock of geese had been thrown. I thought the problem was dust, so I tried to clean it out, but there wasn’t a lot of it. Mostly I murmured sweet nothings and whispered to it soothingly when the fan got choppy. It worked! After I bought a new computer.I am a IT systems admin but i started in helpdesk which proves i am easy to abuse. I had a lady call in saying she could not get to the internet. I stayed with her for 45 minutes trying to figure out what was going on. Finally i asked her “could you get under your desk and check the network cable to see if it has lights?”
“no” she replied. “why not” i asked. “its dark” she said. I told her “i realize its a little darker underneath but i really need you to look”
she told me “no its really dark down there. we lost power about a hour ago and i can not see anything under the desk. i was hoping to surf the internet while i was waiting”no BS. true story
Wesley · 97 weeks ago
That reminds me of a story I heard from a tech support guy at a printer-sales company. A customer called to troubleshoot. After several standard questions, the guy asked if the printer was plugged into the power outlet to which the customer replied “no, it’s not.. it’s a wireless printer, right?”
Kryss LaBryn · 78 weeks ago
I work in IT tech support too. Had a guy call in. Took me a bit to figure out the issue but in the end, it went like this: The guy was on a more expensive package but hardly actually used any bandwidth at all. In his mind this meant he didn’t have to pay his bill. When he’d run up nearly a grand they cut him off for non-payment, at which he got really, really mad and returned his modem us.Then he went home and called tech support to find out why he couldn’t get online. No joke.
Came to work one day to find a coworker telling us about a call he just took. After ten minutes of trouble-shooting (HA!) it ended up that the modem had stopped working because the customer had gotten ticked off and shot it. With a gun.
And then, predictably, called in to find out why shooting it hadn’t fixed it. Seriously, these people. My trainer had once taken a call from a guy who chopped his modem in half with a chainsaw. And we had someone call in recently with a modem that was ON FIRE. No, he hadn’t called 911 yet; it was our equipment so he thought he should contact us and find out what to do, first.
My dad had installed MSN Poker on his machine complete with desktop shortcut that immediately took him to the site. One day he told me he wanted to get rid of that and put the normal Internet Explorer shortcut on his desktop, but the previous owner had deleted it. Easy enough, I did that in seconds. Then he asks:“Okay. Can you make MSN Poker my home page?”
Kryss · 97 weeks ago
Hey, at least he knew what a home page was. I work in tech support in the Internet department and I had a caller the other day who whose home page had gotten reset somehow so when IE opened, it was just going to a blank page. They thought their Internet was broken.Or the person who called saying they couldn’t get online because their Internet was broken. I spent a few minutes trouble-shooting the modem only to conclude that everything seemed fine, and asked them to confirm that by opening up IE and going online. “I can’t,” I was told; “My Internet is broken! I told you that!” Ends up IE had crashed and needed to be restarted.
lou · 97 weeks ago
When my parents first turned on our Sony Blu-Ray player, they freaked out at the interface of the Home Menu. I, being familiar with it from the PSP and PS3, calmly and almost Zen-like told them which feature does what, especially the one that plays the Blu-Ray you want to watch. Now they think I’m some kind of wizard (unfortunately, not of the Pinball variety).Cheap Best Minnesota Wild jerseys sale With Wholesale Price Sale
I am a IT systems admin but i started in helpdesk which proves i am easy to abuse. I had a lady call in saying she could not get to the internet. I stayed with her for 45 minutes trying to figure out what was going on. Finally i asked her "could you get under your desk and check the network cable to see if it has lights?"
"no" she replied. "why not" i asked. "its dark" she said. I told her "i realize its a little darker underneath but i really need you to look"
she told me "no its really dark down there. we lost power about a hour ago and i can not see anything under the desk. i was hoping to surf the internet while i was waiting"
no BS. true story
I work in IT tech support too. Had a guy call in. Took me a bit to figure out the issue but in the end, it went like this: The guy was on a more expensive package but hardly actually used any bandwidth at all. In his mind this meant he didn't have to pay his bill. When he'd run up nearly a grand they cut him off for non-payment, at which he got really, really mad and returned his modem us.
Then he went home and called tech support to find out why he couldn't get online. No joke.
Came to work one day to find a coworker telling us about a call he just took. After ten minutes of trouble-shooting (HA!) it ended up that the modem had stopped working because the customer had gotten ticked off and shot it. With a gun.
And then, predictably, called in to find out why shooting it hadn't fixed it. Seriously, these people. My trainer had once taken a call from a guy who chopped his modem in half with a chainsaw. And we had someone call in recently with a modem that was ON FIRE. No, he hadn't called 911 yet; it was our equipment so he thought he should contact us and find out what to do, first.
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