Tech Juju is REAL
Posted by TeabaggingAnthills@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 125 comments
Yesterday, a user dropped off his laptop for me to look at. Said it would randomly freeze up, and every so often when it would boot/reboot it would say "no boot device found".
Ok, I'll take a look.
Started it up - no issues. Logged in as user, played around with some apps (word, excel, edge, etc.) - no issues. Tried rebooting to see if I could recreate the "no boot device" error - no issues. Tried full shutdown, then booted - still no issues. Repeated various times throughout the day - wasn't able to reproduce either of the problems he mentioned. Checked for any/all updates, including BIOS. Checked BIOS for boot settings, everything seems to be in order. I even open it up to check if any cables have come loose, but everything is correctly seated (and the storage drive is an M.2 SSD, so no cable to worry about - though i did unslot it to check if there was any gunk in the contacts). Considered that it could be a corrupt MBR (the laptop is 8 years old and apparently the OS was installed in legacy mode), but didn't want to attempt converting to GPT yet as i figured that might be putting the cart before the horse. And by all appearances, this laptop seems to be working perfectly fine. End of the day rolls around, still wasn't able to reproduce the issue even a single time so I shut it down and left for the night.
This morning, the user comes to pick up his laptop. I explain what I'd tried and that I couldn't reproduce either of the issues he mentioned. Try to boot up the laptop (with the user standing beside me) and - voila, "no boot device". š«¤
Anyway, guess who's working on the same laptop today? And for bonus points, guess who has (once again) been unable to reproduce the issue after the user left?
I have absolutely no explanation for this, other than "this dude must have bad tech juju". Why else would I be unable to reproduce the issue over the course of an entire day and then the moment he's there the laptop decides to shit the bed?
Tech karma/juju/mojo/whatever IS REAL and i cannot be convinced otherwise! (If you have a better explanation, please let me know lol)
dracotrapnet@reddit
I'd replace the drive for occasional no boot device. 5 years is good enough on a drive. 8 year old laptop, it's probably time to replace the thing. Some people replace their cars more often.
Totally_Not_THC-Lab@reddit
I have maintained, for the last 5-6 years, that my parents' house / my childhood home is on some sort of supermassive metallic deposit with electromagnetic properties.
Shit just fucking breaks over there. It breaks for no good reason. It does shit that it shouldn't.
My brother and I work at the same company. We have the same laptop, same permissions. Doing things on his laptop is producing different results than when done from mine. He has different issues that I don't have.
Some people are just cursed, and we should remember to give them extra love, because their computers sure aren't.
GercMustachio@reddit
Sounds like a failing OS ASD /HDD disk.
orion3311@reddit
I had a bad (crt) monitor have me pull my hair out - computer would act up only in that office. Another was where building frame became magnetized due to lightning strike and caused rainbows in the user's (Crt) screen - had to move their desk.
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
Wow, i didn't even know that could happen!
olderby@reddit
Check if user is magnetic / radio active.
Usual_Ice636@reddit
I played with magnets and CRTs enough as a kid I would have recognized the rainbow pattern instantly. Would have taken longer to figure out it was coming from the building frame though.
NEWREGARD@reddit
This is what I'm going to say anytime there's a phantom problem around an office. "Well, I have it on good authority that this building has been magnetized from a lightning strike. So, these things just happen, sorry."
Happy_Kale888@reddit
A CRT good grief who was president then? I have not seen those in a long long time and I work with old stuff...
NEWREGARD@reddit
I usually tell folks I'll leave my shoe in the door. That way, their technology will smell my scent, and act accordingly.
In all seriousness: probably a corrupt section of the MBR. I'm sure you've ran the sfc command. Your idea of converting from MBR to GPT is a good one, too.
I'm of the opinion that a clean windows install is a good solution to phantom issues. A new M.2 couldn't hurt, either.
Devilnutz2651@reddit
Clean install/new machine is the way I would go. I could spend hours trying to chase the issue and would have had a new machine spun up for them and they'd be back to work in the same amount of time or sooner.
NEWREGARD@reddit
It's a fine balance; do I spend the next 3 days trying to fix it, or just cut my losses (time) and spin up a replacement/re-image the machine in-place.
Besides, re-imaging is a good way to get to the root of the problem, too!
Devilnutz2651@reddit
I'm a one man show, so spending 3 days chasing a ghost isn't worth it to me. Plus, I can't have a user down for 3 days lol
keirgrey@reddit
Did that one man band show for 15 years. You never, ever have time for anything. If it can't be rectified in a short period of time, flash it and move on.
NEWREGARD@reddit
Same boat, brother. One man show, expected to be readily available 7 days a week, 12+ hours a day.
I almost always choose to re-image or replace.
zakabog@reddit
And you're looking for a new job, right?
...right?
NEWREGARD@reddit
HAH! Nah, I like the perks. The occasional call at 6pm about a receipt printer failing is fine with me.
The trade off is the ability to be in the office or not be. Unlimited PTO.
Most of all, nobody tells me how to run my ship. If it sinks, Iām the one responsible. But thereās nobody smart enough around here to know it was my fault.
zakabog@reddit
Who handles your work if you take a month off?
NEWREGARD@reddit
Me. Swell, huh?
I realize how fucked that sounds. But I truly do have the freedom to complete my tasks from anywhere in the world, barring the need for someone to physically setup a piece of hardware. (Unlikely)
The biggest thing for me is the pay, while not great at only 75.6k/year, I have asked for a raise to get me at 110k instead. Which was met with positivity. So, hereās hoping.
zakabog@reddit
Jesus... I'm so grateful for my job...
I hope you're new to the field and just building up your confidence before looking elsewhere, or already ready to retire and just doing this out of boredom.
NEWREGARD@reddit
Iām 33, been doing says admin or help desk work for the last 13 years. Started out making a measly $8/hour.
Today, Iām the sole individual managing 5 medical marijuana dispensaries (and a manufacturing facility) IT needs. Iāve given myself the role of IT Director, and it fits.
From the outside it does seem like this is a bad gig for me. But rest assured, I am happy and not over-worked.
Keeping in mind that I do not have a āsuperiorā at least not in terms of an IT supervisor. To this end, I have been given full autonomy in the decision making around here.
I do not have any certifications, nor a formal education. Only experience in the field.
Suffice to say, an average 5 day work week sees me doing (maybe) 8 hours of work tops. That includes drive time. (For which I am paid)
Iād be happy to answer more specific questions about the role, but I really feel Iāve found my niche.
zakabog@reddit
Then hire a junior, prioritize your work life balance.
I could never go back to being a lone guy, having "final say" is meaningless if you're a slave to a company that pays you a pittance and you have no stake in.
NEWREGARD@reddit
The topic has come up before, but I truly cannot see myself utilizing a whole body. Even part time.
To each their own I guess, but I wouldnāt trade this job for any other role; unless the pay was close to double.
I have some solid responsibility, thatās true. But for all the responsibility I have, I have freedom to boot.
Iāve taken a week off here or there. Traveled. Itās never been a problem.
If I get the raise Iāve asked for, Iām looking pretty good.
For some further context: my expenses are incredibly low. I save 60% or more of my income every year. Iām on track to retire comfortably (barring another 2008 repeat) within 20 years. Possibly sooner if it goes even better in the market.
At the point where Iām confident in my finances, Iāll take a reduced remote role with either this or another company. Then Iāll do the over seas travel Iāve been dying to do.
fatbergsghost@reddit
It's nice to see someone just content about things :)
The point of a junior is that they shield you from the work, and the business from what happens when you stop doing the work for whatever reason.
You say you can't imagine using the junior the whole time?
That might be true, you might not have that junior working all the time, and that's good. Junior gets an easy life, and so do you. Do you really want either of you to be working flat out all the time, and constantly under pressure to deliver something?
What the Junior is really there for from your side is to give you some insulation from the massive number of things you're responsible for. When something breaks in a horrible fashion, you're given the space to try and deal with it while Junior is on the phone saying "Yes, we're aware, yes we're looking into it. We'll let you know as soon as we've got anything". When you're trying to work out how to do your projects, Junior picks up the phone and has to put some more paper in that printer.
It doesn't hurt your job, it means that IT has a better ability to provide customer service. As a lone guy, it's easy to wind up in a situation where they;re.
Also, for long-term career prospects, being able to teach and manage is a great thing. It means that you can take yourself away from the.
The company gets a hedge against you. If you die, if they upset you, if you just get bored and leave one day, they're not in a position where they have anything to protect them. Yes, there are MSPs and they'll probably hire a new solo guy, but both of these things don't know the systems, and in some cases are just going to be opportunistic with the work. They'll make as much as they can as quickly as they can.
zakabog@reddit
Quadruple, but yeah...
NEWREGARD@reddit
I donāt actually think Iām valuable enough to any organization to warrant a salary that crazy.
zakabog@reddit
You might be, I'm entirely self taught, didn't realize my actual self worth until I got laid off and had a ton of offers thrown at me. I'm just a nerdy dude that likes to tinker.
NEWREGARD@reddit
Maybe Iām under-valuing myself. I hope youāre right about that. Iāll be finding out pretty soon.
CleverMonkeyKnowHow@reddit
We're a 50 man show. It's still not worth it to spend three days chasing down a ghost.
Reinstall the operating system - correctly this time (as in GPT) - and call it a day.
Ruevein@reddit
Just did this last week. User had so many werid issues with a laptop and just demanded a new one. While they where in a long meeting i just reimaged and reset up their laptop and told them it was new. Over a month later everything has been fine.
NEWREGARD@reddit
It's actually hilarious how much of end-users troubles stem from their brain convincing them of a reality that is not true.
One great example of this is the age-old "it's slow" complaint. Had a user actually share a funny anecdote with me; that his laptop had better specifications than a friends "gaming" desktop.
Never mind that the desktop was over 10 years old. The point was that the hardware I gave him, was more than sufficient. The REAL problem? One of the many software solutions (mostly cloud based) he uses, of which any one of them could be experiencing slowdowns or issues.
It was a vindicating conversation. To finally have an end-user appreciate that I took time in considering the hardware specifications for our users, and I chose something nobody (in theory) could complain about. (they still do)
Devilnutz2651@reddit
I did it yesterday. User had a random shutdown over the weekend and it completely borked his Office install. Couldn't even do a repair/reinstall of Office without it throwing an error message. Then he tells me it wasn't the first time it randomly shut down. I just said "Ok, you're getting a new laptop". Had his new machine before lunch.
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
Lol, that's a good line - I might have to steal it! š
And thank you very much for your suggestions, I really appreciate the help!!
On the first day, I did try DISM/sfc commands, as well as a chkdsk - DISM said no component store corruption detected, sfc reported that it found and repaired corrupt files, chkdsk came back all clear. So I was kinda leaning more towards MBR corruption as the cause. I'm thinking converting to GPT might be my next step before I do a complete reinstall.
Unfortunately for me, I don't think reinstalling would be worth it at this point, though. The laptop was purchased *long* before my time at the company, and was shipped with pre-installed software (Adobe Acrobat Pro, Office H&B 2016, etc.) that our previous MSP did not provide any documentation for. As such, we don't have any records of the license keys or accounts used to activate them - which means that if we do a Windows reinstall, we will, in all likelihood, lose those software licenses. Its an rather frustrating issue I've run into constantly since starting here - I'll troubleshoot a problem for hours, or sometimes days, until I've exhausted every option I can think of other than OS reinstall. Then I'll find out that they have licenses that can't be recovered and we'll just have to leave it until the computer is replaced or go ahead with the reinstall and purchase new licenses.
I'm thinking that's the way this will most likely play out as well. The laptop was purchased in 2016 and has a Skylake CPU, so isn't compatible with Windows 11 - meaning we'll probably have to replace the laptop before this October anyway. Probably $600+ for software licenses alone, whereas I can get a new laptop (including licenses) for just over double that - so it doesn't make sense to buy the licenses at this point, only to have to buy a new laptop shortly after.
So it's looking like if repairing the MBR doesn't work, I might have to tell this guy "sorry, but I guess you're gonna have to deal with it until we can get you a new one sometime in 2025". But who knows, I haven't actually asked our finance person if we have budget left to purchase new licenses - so maybe they'll say "just get it working" and all my worries will have been for naught lol.
rcade2@reddit
Just tell them it needs replaced. It's old and failing.
NEWREGARD@reddit
Honestly yeah, replacement is the best option if theyāll do it. You can probably recover some keys while youāre at it, should you care to.
NEWREGARD@reddit
Not to side skirt your entire post, but if you arenāt aware, thereās a piece of freeware called ProduKey. You can use that to retrieve product keys for software installed.
Likewise, most software has the key hidden in the registry, or elsewhere, such as the install directory.
TheKnackThatQuacks@reddit
Magical Jellybean Keyfinder, anyone?
NEWREGARD@reddit
Never heard of it, Iāll have to look that up!
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
I've used ProduKey in the past, but kind of stopped since it seemed to be able to pull fewer and fewer keys as time went on and companies changed their activation models. But given the age of the laptop (and the software) maybe it'll still work! I'll give that a shot before throwing in the towel - certainly won't hurt to try!
NEWREGARD@reddit
I promise to come back and finish your whole post when I get home from the gym. I know thereās bound to be something juicy in there
Lord_Dreadlow@reddit
My money is on the M.2 as well. I've had multiple failures with these things. Way more than I ever had with hard drives.
Beach_Bum_273@reddit
When in doubt, nuke it from orbit.
largos7289@reddit
They also have personalities. Some need to be threatened or talked nice too.
primalsmoke@reddit
Did you check for cat hair inside?
Then one place I worked, we had "tumor corner" where electromagnetic radiation from the transformer outside the window made monitors wavy, nobody wanted to work there.
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
Yup, laptop came in covered in ~1\4" of dust so I assumed the inside would look similar. Pulled it apart and, surprisingly, the inside was actually pretty clean. Still blew everything out with canned air, double-checked for loose plastic/debris, checked tightness on all screws, and made sure all connections were clean and properly inserted.
primalsmoke@reddit
Replace thermo paste on cpu/heat sink.
Brainstorming here. ..User actually uses the machine, while you had it in idle?
Good luck, I miss my work sometimes, I retired 8 years ago, always a puzzle to try to solve.
wes1007@reddit
had an acer laptop that kept coming abck with this same issue. took me months of back and forth, most of the time i couldnt replicate the issue. after a handful of reinstalls & a round of firmware updates i replaced the ssd. hasnt come back since. SSD wasnt showing any issues but that was the only other thing i could think of.
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
This seems like exactly the same situation! Onboard hardware tests said the SSD was okay, Dell SupportAssist diagnostics agreed, chkdsk found no errors, disk management showed drive as OK. But once I did got the "no boot device" error to occur, I ran the onboard diagnostics and it said no hard drive detected. So seems to me like it's failing intermittently.
wes1007@reddit
I was adminent it was a bad connection on the m.2 interface. But nope. Replaced ssd and issue went away. May have just been a dud ssd that was ever so slightly out of spec in some way
Human_Horse_Big@reddit
Check the SMART reporting on their SSD drive. When SSD drives reach maximum wear, the drive goes into a read only mode so that you can retrieve your data. IE āNo Boot Device Foundā due to SSD going into a fail safe mode and presenting to the operating system as Read Only thus you get the error no boot device found
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
This sounds like it could be right on the money. The drive is 8 years old and small capacity (IIRC it was a bit of an odd size, like 180GB?) so it seems pretty likely to me that it could be approaching it's TBW limit.
djholland7@reddit
How much time have you spent on this? How much time do you think you will spend on this? Is it more efficient to purchase a new device?
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
Too much already, and hopefully not spending any more on it for at least the next few weeks lol.
Left it up to the user to decide - we can try replace the SSD, or we can just buy a new laptop and he can deal with it until the new one arrives (this is the option i recommended, since it has to be replaced before October anyway).
Capable-Ad-5344@reddit
It's 8 years old. Time to replace it
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
Amen š
Shedding@reddit
This is one of two things. A bad m.2 (or nvme) or cmos battery dying, the bios is losing it's settings then it auto recovers them when powered. Try leaving the machine off for a while without connecting it and see if it does it again (also sounds like the laptop's battery is dead or dying)
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
In my troubleshooting I did stumble across some sort of forum post that suggested replacing CMOS battery so I tried that - but no luck. I'm thinking failing M.2 is most likely now
TheUnpaidITIntern@reddit
Replace the M.2, it's faulty. Seen this many times.
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
Yup, this is what I'm leaning toward. Gave the user 2 options: replace the SSD or replace the laptop (has to be replaced by Oct 2025 anyway). So it's up to him to decide now!
Dezideratum@reddit
Did you happen to move the laptop during your testing? Did you move it when giving it back to the user?
I've had chassis flexing unseat an ssd from the m.2 slot.
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
Nope, during testing it sat in the exact same spot on my back desk the whole time; once user came to pick it up, i moved it from my back desk to my front one and that was when the error showed up - so you might be on to something!
That said, there was a moment - about an hour before the user came to pick up hia laptop yesterday - where my boss came into my office and the laptop didn't move at all (stayed on my back desk), but the error still showed up.
igouj@reddit
Laptop is 8 years old? Cut your losses, get the user a new machine and send this thing out to pasture.
legendov@reddit
Yea what the hell are they doing to this person's productivity
bottleofmtdew@reddit
Not me sitting over here with desktops that are 10+ years old because executives wonāt approve replacements :(
L3veLUP@reddit
They're going to have to soon unless they want to pay for Windows 10 Extended support...
bottleofmtdew@reddit
Thatās why it is on my 2024 budget request š hereās to hoping
L3veLUP@reddit
We've just had to drag a firm through Cyber Essentials (a UK government audit) kicking and screaming because their field has a hard deadline to adopt it by next month.
We've been badgering them for years to get rid of their windows 7 pc's
frankv1971@reddit
That was I thinking. You working on it for 2 days costs more then the value of the laptop.
Laptop must be slow as hell with current software. So unless there is an application that does not run on newer hardware get the user a new laptop.
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
UPDATE: My boss walked into my office 5 minutes ago and when she left I turned around - and the laptop was on a black screen that said "no bootable devices found". So I ran the onboard diagnostics and this time it came back saying "no hard drive". Holy shit, I reproduced the error!
This can only mean one thing. Tech juju is real, and my boss has the bad kind as well! (...well, that or, like other comments suggested, it's an MBR or SSD failure... but the first option confirms my theory, so let's go with that)
In all seriousness, gonna try repair the MBR first, then try replacing SSDs once the new one comes in... and if that doesn't work, it's new computer time!
Onkrud@reddit
Is it a Dell system? Not sure about other OEMs, but the diagnostic you describe sound similar.
This behavour is definitely the SSD, but even before you got the confirmation now, you could probably find logs in the onboard diags that show the SSD intermittently "not installed". That usually doesn't show up as an error because it does find a fault, only that it isn't there.
Ducaju@reddit
lemme guess, laptop sleeps in car outside where it's cold? problem only occurs at the start of the day; amiright? :D
Kathryn_Cadbury@reddit
My entire department swears on this; Almost 80+ people I look after, and the amount of times I get called to look at something and it simply doesn't happen when I'm standing there, or I sit down at their machine and can't get it to happen doing the exact same thing they are doing.
Sometimes I'll be walking away and get called back to be told 'Look! See! it's doing it as soon as you walked off!'
maobezw@reddit
I usually call this "his masters voice" when encountering such odd hardware behaviour: the user can reproduce the error, but in my hands the unit runs flawless and stable. Maybe something on the quantumlayer!?
fragerrard@reddit
Try to see if this happens only after the device is powered off for longer time. Also, check by removing the battery if possible and work just with power connected and removed on power off.
ptk2k5@reddit
Sounds like a battery issue, most likely cmos.
Anlarb@reddit
It was fine, then when user touched it when it went screwy? Was he wearing something pajama like?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBkQY3mh8PA
tsaico@reddit
I had a situation like this, where the end user desktop always ābehavedā when I was around. Over and over through like three weeks, user would say it was crashing, stalling, etc. but when I showed up it fell in line. As a joke I taped a photo of my face to the inside of the computer, the end user never had an issue again.
I left that job maybe a year later, and I once in a while, I wonder when that computer was sent to be recycled and they opened it up and found a 8 x 11 sized face of some random guy taped to the inside of it
FallApprehensive5719@reddit
or funny one he has a Magnet in his pocket or something...
FallApprehensive5719@reddit
I saw this problem before replace the HDD.
BigBangFlash@reddit
I've had similar issues with bad connections. Reseat the M.2 or ssd and try again, you probably moved the computer so the user could try to boot it up and it ever so slightly moved the connector in a bad position.
To recreate the issue, shake the computer a bit before sending power to it.
Historical_Major_118@reddit
I had the same problem. Turned out to be bad M.2. Replaced and never happened again.
thefpspower@reddit
I had a Seagate Firecuda 530 do this to me last year, but it stopped happening for a year, 2 weeks ago it happened again and never woke up again, currently in RMA process with Seagate.
So yeah it can be the drive.
satsun_@reddit
Same experience here. Bad M.2 drive. I might have even been able to re-mage the machine, but it would seemingly die while it was idle. After failing it would boot successfully after power cycling, but would eventually die and throw the boot device error. Replaced the drive, no problems since.
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
Thanks, both of you! I didn't even consider that the SSD itself might be the problem since the diagnostics/hardware tests came back all clear - but that is definitely worth a shot!
I'll get a new M.2 ordered and clone the old one to it, then I'll post an update here if that did the trick! (Might be a week or two, as we are in a rural area and shipments take a bit longer than usual to get to us lol)
_totally_not_a_fed@reddit
You're sure it's running an M.2? At that age it could go either way
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
Yup, 100% sure - i remember being surprised when i opened it up for the first time cause I was expecting to see a 2.5" HDD or SSD, but the 2.5" slot was open and what was actually in there was an M.2 2280. I even wondered if the storage was upgraded after we received it, but checking the Dell support page showed it did actually ship with that M.2!
So I'm leaning towards thinking it's just had a good life and is ready to retire lol
SixtyTwoNorth@reddit
I had a user like that once. Couldn't explain it. I would get called out, and there would be a blue screen. Reboot, and user goes to get a coffee. check a few things...scandisk, etc. (back in win'98 days) everything seems fine. Reboot a couple of times just to be sure, and I'm about to button this up when the user walks in. As as she sits down, it bluescreens again. This happened repeatedly with this user in particular. The only explanation I could come up with was that her aura was out of alignment.
Overall-Tailor8949@reddit
I fully agree with you dude! Even personally, I can NOT wear an electronic wristwatch as the battery or SOMETHING will die in under a year. Yet I have a 40+ year old Timex automatic that just keeps on tickin'! Computer's (non-worn ones at least) and I seem to get along fairly well though!
Igot1forya@reddit
My mom had two cars in a row that the radio stopped working in. She borrowed my car once and then my radio stopped working. It's real man, it's totally real.
whsftbldad@reddit
There have been instances of people that have excess EMF coming off them. It has been known for them to have issues with electronic devices. Just a thought.
entyfresh@reddit
I've seen SSDs do this intermittently for a while before they eventually fail altogether.
SkullRunner@reddit
Way back when just starting out we had a user like this, media glitches, data loss etc. etc. etc.
We do XYZ on her system, no problems, her co-workers do, no problems.
She does it, corrupted bullshit in a matter of days.
Turns out she was selling home made rare earth magnet magnetic jewelry and keeping it at work in the same filing cabinet she kept the backup floppy disks she used because this was back in those days. SMH. We were able to trace similar floppy issues eventually to co-workers that wore her bracelets and kept floppies on their desk beside their mousepad.
We had a red herring that we expected to be the magnetic jewelry again, but turned out to be an illegal space heater someone was running under their desk heating up the side of a metal filing cabinet and thermal damaging disks.
Sometimes it's Tech knows to behave in the present of the Admin, sometimes it's something about the user you can't even imagine.
Sometimes it's dumb crap like overly sensitive IT gear like monitors that flicker or cut out for sec due to a static discharge when someone sits in their chair compressing the hydrologic shock piston for a second.
Or a short or interference in a device that only happens to the user because of how they hold it a certain way, or left or right handed etc. compressing the housing to internals that we don't see holding it another way etc. etc.
Lot's of horrible non directly computer related things to work out that sometimes requiring studying the non-computer aspects to work out what's going on.
fluffy_warthog10@reddit
A few jobs ago (I was deskside at the time) I had a senior dev who kept replacing his fried Optiplexi(plural?) every few weeks, which due to our appdev environment meant restoring huge local backups. He always left his broken machinein a common room to pick up, and because we supported multiple sites, we never saw him using it in situ.
I came by on an unrelated call, and found out the reason: 2-quart electric kettle, plugged into the USB to power it, balanced on top of the actual desktop case! (which was about an inch narrower on both sides)
I brought up that this wasn't safe and was wrecking his equipment, and he lectured me about respecting elders (me 30 vs him 45ish), and called my manager. Manager was angry with me for getting him on a senior contractor's radar, until I snapped a picture of the reason for the constant replacements, then hung up and went up the org chart to explain why this OU was wasting so many machines.
SkullRunner@reddit
This is a fantastic example, even including the insane way people feel entitled to keep doing what they are doing despite they are clearly damaging company property on the regular.
But if you're the tech that just gets the workstation on your desk you have no idea why the USB ports keep shorting out, might even have a SR tell you might just be a bad batch if you got them in a lot order etc.
This reminds me of a SR Exec at another company that was the the presidents brother that regularly chewed through laptops opening bat shit insane porn malware forwards from friends.
Nothing like explaining to board why you're over budget because the presidents brother is a few laptops nuked at a BIOS level each month because he was also special and got to have admin so he could run whatever he wanted.
Then the present would wave it away.. and rinse and repeat. We ended up putting the guys laptops on it's own VLAN and mail server monitoring so he could at least not take down other system with it.
Try to never work at any place where the bulk of the board is related.
CleverMonkeyKnowHow@reddit
This is an award-worthy post.
relevantusername2020@reddit
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermodulation#Passive_intermodulation_(PIM)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_hysteresis
thats only from the second link and theres more to it in that first one, and you and everyone else might be saying it "ironically" but... idk, makes sense to me
Present-Sandwich9444@reddit
is it possible he is plugging in a USB device and its trying to boot from that, then unplugging it and bringing it to you?
Chocolate_Bourbon@reddit
I once dated someone who could wear modern battery powered watches they would eventually fail over the first 8 months or so. I thought it was nonsense and then watched it happen a couple times. Eventually I bought her a windup watch. Which was pointless as she never remembered to wind it.
ganlet20@reddit
The drive is failing. Check it with CrystalDiskInfo.
Periodic "no boot device" is text book failing hard drive.
coralgrymes@reddit
Oh yeah. It's too real. Yesterday My boss could not open excel files from an email he got. Kept saying "Protected Files". I sit down and double click those same files and low and behold they open just fine :|. This happens with him OFTEN. Printer isn't printer? Just let me have a crack at it. Prints fine. Email won't open? Blows on fingers Open immediately. It's super weird honestly lol.
frogmicky@reddit
lol I have tech visit me like that all the time where I work.
capedpotatoes@reddit
I had one of these two weeks ago. Found a loose screw inside the laptop, it was shorting something when the user put it up on a laptop stand.
tch2349987@reddit
Easy, no boot device means that the laptop/pc can't detect the SSD, check the SSD connections between the SSD and motherboard. Play around with it and try to mimic the issue.
nmonsey@reddit
Question, eight year old machine, is it running Windows 11?
The end of support for for Windows 10 is October 14, 2025.
If you you work on the computer, you may have to replace it again in a few months.
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
It currently has windows 10 (22H2) installed - though it looks like it shipped with Win7 - and a Skylake CPU, so isn't compatible with windows 11. So yeah, within the next 8-10 months it'll definitely have to be replaced anyway. I've already spent way more time than I'd like on this, and reinstalling the OS isn't really an option (as we'd lose software licenses since the keys aren't documented) - so it's looking like I might have to say "sorry, but fixing it would cost more than it's worth - you're just gonna have to put up with it until we can order you a new laptop in 2025"
nmonsey@reddit
For some products, you can extract the license keys.
Ok-Double-7982@reddit
I am sure others will disagree, but the first problem is that it is an 8 year old laptop.
TeabaggingAnthills@reddit (OP)
Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. One of my default questions when a user comes to me with an issue is, "how old is the computer?" lol
Since I started here I've tried to set the expectation that work computers should be replaced after 5 years MAX - and that users should thank their lucky stars if their machine even makes it that long. But unfortunately, change doesn't happen overnight
jerrodbug@reddit
Why waste time fixing it, and just tell the user they need a new computer? A new computer is cheaper than your labor of working on it for 2 days.
gringoloco01@reddit
It sure sounds like a random USB drive to me. Sounds like it is trying to boot to an external drive. Does the user have a docking station? Some keyboard mouse combo or something.
Childermass13@reddit
Computrons. Computrons are the elementary particle of computation. Some people radiate computrons, and these people often end up working in tech because of their aptitude for it (even if they don't enjoy it). Computers simply work better when they can absorb your computrons.
Most people are computron-neutral. Some people actually radiate anti-computrons, which is why the Hulu stream crashes when they walk in the room.
-mjneat@reddit
One that had me scratching my head for a while was when I was asked to look at a laptop where it would just seem to to randomly go off when only one user was using it. Looked it over and used it for a day with no issue. Came straight back in after being sent back. Turns out that he was using one of those magnetic bracelets that triggered the laptop into thinking the lid was closed when it got to close. It went through like 3 techs until one asked the question because he saw it before.
External-Cod-2742@reddit
This is real, in an old job, there was a guy that would cause BSOD just by stepping into other peopleās cubicle (this is 1999). He did nothing, just stand there and computer would just crash, we called him BSOD. It wasnāt intentional but he did find the humor of how insane that is.
Darkheart001@reddit
Itās not the users that the bad juju, it that I have healing hands. Tech knows I wonāt tolerate any of its bullshit it sits up and begs when Iām around. As soon as Iām out of the picture and the user is once again at home it knows it can play around and promptly shits on the carpet. š©
thejohncarlson@reddit
My go to statement for these situations is "things tend to work around me."
My favorite customer quote for this was a guy who brought me a machine that I could not replicate the problem. When it told him of this, he asked "is it because I have a steel plate in my head?"
JustHereForYourData@reddit
Is the customer a fishing magnet? /s
JustSomeGuy556@reddit
Once, long ago, I had a monitor that refused to work in the city of spokane. This was back when monitors were expensive, and somehow we had this same monitor in that office a few times. Everytime it was there, wouldn't work. Any other office, no problem.
Eventually we ended up with an entry in the inventory system "Do not use in spokane office".
And yeah, I've got some people that are just allergic to technology. I'm fairly convinced that I know one person who just interferes with wifi, I think.
Shit's weird, yo.
badlybane@reddit
Well if its not the computer, and its not the user, its the environment. I bet money he's got really dirty power IE he's go space heaters plugged in on his computer circuit, or his computer is sitting next to the exhaust of something spewing heat.
DoogleAss@reddit
I would say based off OPs explanation it is indeed the computer and is just an intermittent issue
Further confirmed when they said the user came to the OPs office to pick it up. Meaning it wasnāt the users workspace and the issue presented itself in other words the issue has happened in more than one location and I would imagine if the IT office had bad power causing issuesā¦ IT would have noticed that before some fluke laptop issue
I have seen this exact thing happen multiple times for varying reasons although most common has been a failing drive in my experience
badlybane@reddit
Ya I read too fast and missed the part where it failed in front of the user.
WWGHIAFTC@reddit
Of he opens the laptop with weird pressure points that flex something by a few microns that are loose.
There is always a simple, logical explanation, it's just not usually cost effective to go far enough to empirically determine it.
Devilnutz2651@reddit
I've had that happen before. If it was opened past a certain angle the screen would just go black. I had to tighten the middle cover screw just right and it would be fine. I just ended up swapping their drive into a new laptop. Not worth the headache down the road.
aries1500@reddit
exactly
aries1500@reddit
Power issues at the user's residence or where he/she is using it. Had this happen many times.
Ok-Market-7955@reddit
Why not just replace his machine and Reimage that one and call it a day š