TLDR: User complains that driver updates cause all their issues with their laptop as there are always updates when they have issues with their laptop. The real villain of the story is the company VPN.

It was a Friday morning and a Teams message pops up from a user. Rudely complaining that the Dell command update software and the updates it provides have messed up their laptop (Dell command update is BIOS and driver updates) after they were left with no choice but to install them because the laptop was so very slow. Now they can't get on to anything on the network even with the VPN connected while WFH.

Already preparing for this user to be difficult while suspecting that the actual issue would not have anything to with the updates, and more likely something to do with our temperamental VPN, I request confirmation of the difficulties they are having in the form of a screenshot of the error. This arrives and confirms my suspicion the the VPN is indeed the cause of this user's woes.

Now, with the VPN, once you connect you need to allow time for it to comfirm that your device is a secure company device. This takes about 60 seconds after connecting. If you don't wait the the VPN says not a secure company device, and you get no access to the network. This appears to be what has happened to the user. Annoying, but easily fixable by disconnecting and reconnecting the VPN and waiting the 60 seconds before accessing the network.

I provide those instructions to the user advising that it looks like a VPN issue so please follow those steps of disconnecting, reconnecting, waiting for a min then trying again.

Straight away the user comes back saying that they don't think it is a VPN issue as its been connected for ages, and that it must be the updates, as whenever the laptop becomes unbearably slow they always check the updates, and there are always updates there to be installed.

OK, so they've put 2 and 2 together and come up with something that looks like 4 but isn't. What they have is the whole thing a little backward, and I get it. If the updates are always there when there is an issue then viously they are the cause of the issue (completely ignoring that installing the resolves the issue)/s. I get the logic behind the thought, but it doesn't quite add up.

So I explain that yes there are likely to be Dell updates when the laptop goes slow, but no, it's not the existence of those updates that make it go slow. That when drivers are outdated they can cause the laptop to run slow, because they are potentially causing errors that slow it down. Then confirm that when the drivers are out of date, new and up to date ones are released, which is why installing the resolves the issues with the laptop performance.

I also reiterate that they need to follow the steps with the VPN to see if the issue is resolved (which it very likely will be) and we can try some further troubleshooting if that doesn't resolve it. Very reluctantly the user agrees to follow the instructions and lo and behold everything works again!

Though I'm still not entirely sure they believed me that the updates being installed didn't cause the VPN issue, and don't cause the laptop to go slow...