What a Gas!

Approximate Date 1995

Many main-frame computer rooms have AC systems to keep the everything cool so they don't overheat. Ours was set at 65 degrees. One day the system broke down and it was pushing 90 degrees in the room. It was to the point we were getting too hot for the mainframe and would neeed to shut down to prevent damage.

The HVAC repair man was called and he showed up to work on it. He proceeded with his troubleshooting. Well, the unit had both a heater and AC. I assume he had switched on the heat because the coil was probably frozen. The heater side hadn't been used for years and dust was in the system. Once on, it created a burnt smell. This tripped the 60 gallon halon fire suppression system.

There was no warning at all! There was a hissing noise and the room was filled with gas in seconds. It discharged with such force that papers were flying around the room. Myself, the AC guy, our data entry person all sprinted out of the room! It was like looking at a cloud. I never saw people move so fast! Even people outside the room in the accounting department cleared the area.

Minutes later we opened all 3 doors to the computer room. It took a considerable period of time, but the gas eventually cleared. (It's not a good idea to breathe Halon.) We finally went back into the room. What a mess. The gas came out with such force that it blew everything around the room. Otherwise things were unharmed.

This was a complete accident but its nice to see that the halon system works as intended. However this was an expensive blunder as refilling the halon systems is pricey. That was the excitement for the week!

Don't Mess With It!

Approximate Date 2005

A client that I dealt with in the past saying the drivers were all messed up on his computer. Things didn't work right anymore, and he wanted me to correct the problems so the computer would work again. I did so and everything worked. I did a follow-up call a couple days later and all was ok. This should have been the end of the issue.

A few weeks later, the same person came back with the same request. He had undone my changes and reinstalled the same incorrect drivers all over again. Things were no longer working correctly. I fixed it a second time. In all fairness, I should have dug deeper into what was happening at this point.

About a week later he came back with the same issue a third time! He just could not understand what was causing his problems! I was tired of fixing the thing, and I started asking questions. He had been reading various articles from a computer magazine telling him he should update various drivers. I asked specifically what he did, and he couldn’t give me any real detail.

I politely explained to the customer, when it comes to drivers, if they work, then don't mess with them unless you know what you’re doing! Don’t change them unless there is a specific reason such as a flaw or to support new hardware. Otherwise, it’s a surefire way of messing up your system.

SIDE NOTE: This is the 3rd time this person has appeared in this 2-part series! He may even make another appearance!

Take My Advice - PLEASE!

Approximate Date 2006

The owner of a local book shop called. She wanted a small server to run the business as she had already purchased a pair of Windows desktops. I asked her several questions, and she told me what she wanted. A couple days later I gave her a quote. She then took my quote and called Dell. She purchased a similar server direct from Dell because it was cheaper than buying it from me. She said she saved a few hundred dollars. This makes me cringe, because I did the work and she used it to go elsewhere. However, I didn't back out of the project. This type of thing happens from time to time.

She called me a week later once the server arrived and I went to her location to start working on the project. The goal was to get the server setup and working and get the two workstations connected. I looked at the server first. She apparently misconfigured it when she ordered from Dell. It had no hardware RAID controller which saved her money. She picked SATA drives vs SAS high speed drives I had chosen for better performance. That explains why she saved as much as she did!

The Windows operating system was preinstalled and configured for software RAID 0 instead of RAID 1. Use of RAID 0 is faster but won't provide any fault tolerance (protection against drive failure). You NEVER want to use RAID 0 on a server. Thats just begging for trouble.

I informed her that it's not at all what we talked discussed. She was quite upset that her new server wasn’t what she wanted or needed. I explained the problems with that configuration. She didn't want to spend any more money, so she didn't return it to Dell because of the restocking fee. She now owned a server without the correct drives, no hardware raid card and it would need to be reconfigured.

I ended up redoing the Windows Server Installation to use software RAID 1 so there was redundancy in the system. The server was now usable. This ended up costing her more money only to end up with slower system. If she had gone with my recommendation, it would have been less expensive and done correctly. Somehow, she felt that this was my fault. I never heard from that store again.

The old addage is true, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

Smokers computers are the worst!

Approximate Date 2012

I had a client bring me a computer. He said he had gone to every place in town, but they refused to work on it. He was told by another shop that it reeked. Those were his exact words. He said that he couldn't smell anything. I was about ready to gag. This was my first clue that I should have turned it down as well. He then asked me if it smelled, but I was a bit more polite and simply said yes. I was a glutton for punishment. Business was slow so I agreed to work on the computer.

As an IT person who works on home computers, I have encountered plenty of dirty computers before. Some were just really dusty, and some were from smokers. Some were both. I quickly came to realize that this one was the worst of the worst.

I never took a picture. The one shown above is a different computer so you get the idea. The smokeshop computer was considerably worse!

The first thing I did was to use some shop rags to move the computer onto the workbench. I donned rubber gloves and Then I grabbed some degreaser to wipe down the outside of the desktop. It was friggin nasty! The 80+ year old owner of the computer was the proprietor of two smoke shops in town and said it was from one of the stores. The computer was for bookkeeping and inventory, and he needed it back right away. The thing smelled like stale cigar smoke. Unfortunately, the inside was even worse. (if you can even imagine that!) It was totally black. The fans and case vents were clogged with the tar from the tobacco and dust from the smoke. This gunk was stuck to everything inside. Imagine what this person’s lungs look like. I tried using canned air to blow it out, with only partial success, but it did make an improvement. One fan wasn't turning, and another was moving so slowly that I had to replace them. His computer had literally choked to death and was overheating. To make a long story short, I got it working again and tested everything. It looked considerably better, but I don't think anything will ever remove that smell. I just wanted it out of the office ASAP.

I think the smoke shop owner was a bit upset with me when he saw me using rubber gloves as I brought the computer out. I remember telling him that I would need to clean it up before working on it. He had a serious frown on his face when I gave him the invoice. I charged him a cleanup fee because I spent a good 30 minutes or more to make the thing half-way tolerable. I also had to replace fans. I don’t think he had anticipated either of the additional charges. He paid the bill and left. It would be several years before I would eventually hear from him again. That will be another story!

Network Security is Just a Suggestion

Approximate Date 2012

A local roofing and siding company had called me to work on a pair of computers. The office for the business was in a small business incubator facility with several other small businesses. Its the type of place for upstart businesses can operate with low rent and share a building and warehouse.

I arrived and as I recall the owner said he was having trouble accessing files shared on the second desktop. As I looked at it to determine the problem. I quickly discovered that the full C drives of both computers were shared with FULL CONTROL. This is super dangerous as the computer is wide open to everyone. Then I also discovered I could see the full C drives of the business located next door that had Open Wi-Fi. Yikes! Neither business had any type of security.

I asked the owner about it. He readily admitted that he was actively stealing Internet from the neighboring business without their knowledge. He thought he was clever for saving money. I really don't think that he knew he had access to the neighbors’ computers, and I didn't tell him. I did just enough to allow his two computers to share files as he requested. I changed the name of the workgroup so it was different than the neighboring business. Hopefully, it would not be causually discovered by either business. Thats about all I could do since he had no router or firewall. These was perhaps the most unsecure customer network I had ever encountered.

As I was working on his bill, several Mexicans walked in the door looking for their weekly pay at 5pm Friday. The owner pulled out a stack of $100 bills and paid everyone including myself in cash. He mentioned that he wanted me to work on his home computer. I declined. I did not want to be associated with this client. Nearly everything I witnessed was illegal in some way.

Sometimes it’s best to walk away. It was about a year later that the company went out of business. I heard through the grapevine that he was sued by vendors for non-payment as well as his clients for job related issues.

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