You know how annoying it is when you call a vendor's help line and you get dumb questions like, "Is the monitor turned on?"  Even I get this treatment.  (I used to get annoyed, too.)  Well, when I got off the subway last night, there was a panicked call from a client.  "There are no icons on my desktop and it looks like the accounting system is corrupt."  After a brief conversation this morning with the client on his cell phone while on his way in to work, I headed out to his office.  As I was waiting on the (elevated) subway platform, I got another call from the client.  He had arrived at his office, turned on his computer, and everything seemed okay.  Now, Gary's law is that 95 percent of computer problems are resolved by rebooting the computer and I had failed to ask if he had done that.  Most of us have troubleshooting scripts, whether written or internalized, and I had failed to follow mine, so I'm writing this post at a Starbucks, rather than at my desk.

The reality is that the questions, dumb as they seem, aren't actually dumb.  They can be annoying -- "Please reattach the monitor connector" -- especially if you have already done what's being requested.  But the reality is that they are there to make sure that nothing is overlooked and to take into account all levels of user knowledge and experience.  So, at a client site Monday afternoon, I was pretty certain, from experience and my own troubleshooting, that the reason a user's computer wouldn't boot was the motherboard.  (The motherboard contains all the circuitry that connects all the components that make up the working part of the computer.)  I could hear the power supply's fan running, so the power supply seemed okay.  This done, I called the vendor (the computer was still on service contract).  He had me reseat the power supply cables (again) and then remove the memory module, both of which I did without complaint.  Neither fixed the problem.  He, too, concluded the problem was likely the motherboard.  But, just to be sure, he dispatched a motherboard and a new power supply.

I was okay with him having me pretty much  redo what I had already done.  Two sets of eyes are better than one.  And, he made sure every base was covered.  It would have been embarrassing if he'd simply taken my word for it and sent only a motherboard, if the problem had turned out to be the power supply.

The point is, it is most often the simple things that trip us up rather than the complex and expected.  I have seen some pretty bizarre and rare problems, like a printer card that for unknown reasons, caused the computer to freeze at random intervals after starting up.  But those kinds of things are very rare.

So, the next time you feel like yelling sarcastically, "But I have already unplugged my monitor and plugged it back in several times," just go with the technician at the other end of the phone.  He is, after all, trying to make sure nothing is overlooked and that, in the end, your computer actually does get fixed.

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