I should have said no!

C

Cajunheat

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Messages
340
About two months ago My Nephew's computer got infected with the dreaded antivirus xp 2009. Being the resident family geek he asked me to clean it up, which I did with the usual hassle connected with this bug. Anyway, I get a call yesterday, and his girlfriend family's laptop is infected with something. and could I clean it up. I should have said NO, because when he came over and pulled it out of his backpack this is what I saw
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What were they thinking??? I far as I can figure, this thing needs to be stripped down to the frame and rebuilt from the ground up. Even then with some of the damage I seen, it probably won't work. So, lesson learned next time JUST SAY NO!
 
So wait, they took it apart to get the virus out?

Why didn't I think of that?!!?!??!!
 
lol WTF?

you have to help out your family/friends, but what the hell is up with that? lol I'd tell them to contact you first next time before they decide to tear the thing apart.

part of me hopes that it wont work again (to teach them an expensive lesson)
 
After, what did you say to them due to that?

Guess they're out of a laptop eh. :/

Bit surprised by that, never seen or heard anyone do that before.
 
dr.stevil said:
lol WTF?

you have to help out your family/friends, but what the hell is up with that? lol I'd tell them to contact you first next time before they decide to tear the thing apart.

part of me hopes that it wont work again (to teach them an expensive lesson)
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I know my Nephew's girlfriend but, I really don't know her family, so I don't have any contact with them.Now my Nephew was surprised and a little bit embarrassed by the condition of the laptop. When he approached me, he was under the impression that all that was needed was cleaning up the malware and viruses. When I saw the laptop, to say I was shocked would be an understatement. I explained to him even though the basics are the same, laptops and desktops are two different animals and I have never worked on the internal components of a laptop before. His attitude was do what you can and if it doesn't work it's their problem. Well there are several issues 1. there are literally dozens of loose screws that I have no Idea where exactly they came from and 2. the two halves are electrically connected by several short ribbon cables and short wires and, there is no way to reconnect them without tearing the computer down even more. There is less than an inch of working room between the two halves when close enough to reconnect the cables and I can't get my big hand into it to do the job.
Needless to say I will be contacting the Nephew to pass on the job and make arrangements to return the computer.
 
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ouch, I don't want to be you right now lol. Did he mention how they got that far or what they were trying to accomplish? Laptops are not easy to work on, especially if you have no reference of how it was origninally put together lol

good luck my friend
 
Needless to say I will be contacting the Nephew to pass on the job and make arrangements to return the computer.
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This IS for REAL? OMG!!:D:D:D:D

It's hilarious but at the same time kinda sad that somebody is that confused about a computer.

Takes all kinds but I hope there's not many from that school district! :D
 
I always keep forgetting that you have to diassemble a computer to get the virus out! Next time I'll just bathe my PC in isopropyl alcohol instead of running SpyBot. :D
 
PC_User said:
I always keep forgetting that you have to diassemble a computer to get the virus out! Next time I'll just bathe my PC in isopropyl alcohol instead of running SpyBot. :D
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No no no...Tussin! Cures anything.
 
I hate getting those calls from relatives/friends and sometimes I just don't pick up because I know exactly what they want because they never call unless its a computer problem. I should start charging because I always waste time fixing it for free. It becomes a hassle sometimes.
 
Cajunheat said:
About two months ago My Nephew's computer got infected with the dreaded antivirus xp 2009. Being the resident family geek he asked me to clean it up, which I did with the usual hassle connected with this bug. Anyway, I get a call yesterday, and his girlfriend family's laptop is infected with something. and could I clean it up. I should have said NO, because when he came over and pulled it out of his backpack this is what I saw :
What were they thinking??? I far as I can figure, this thing needs to be stripped down to the frame and rebuilt from the ground up. Even then with some of the damage I seen, it probably won't work. So, lesson learned next time JUST SAY NO!
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tell him/her to go take it to bestbuy and pay them to fix it..

you have no idea how many times ive had family members or friends do this.. if it cant be put together in less then 10 minutes i sure as hell aint doing it for free..

if you really want to try and put this thing back together.. let me know the manufacture and model number and ill see what i can do to find the manual on putting this thing back together.. ive had to put a few of them together.. worst one was a friggin toshiba took me 6 days of putting it together and taking it apart constantly trying to figure out which connections i missed..
 
yadnom said:
I hate getting those calls from relatives/friends and sometimes I just don't pick up because I know exactly what they want because they never call unless its a computer problem. I should start charging because I always waste time fixing it for free. It becomes a hassle sometimes.
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But they're your family... :p
 
I rarely turn down friends or family, and I don't normally charge either... however, I do take my sweet time. :p If someone showed up with a laptop like that, I'd probably give it back to them in a year, lol.
 
all it takes to clear out most viruses is to disassemble the computer, and spray it down with Lysol. :)

I stopped offering my services freely a long time ago. If a friend or family member asks, I help though.
 
LOL! For someone who doesn't know how to fix a virus, they sure knew how to use a screwdriver and a bit of elbow grease. :D
 
Wraith44 said:
LOL! For someone who doesn't know how to fix a virus, they sure knew how to use a screwdriver and a bit of elbow grease. :D
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Exactly. What surprised me was that it seems to be perfectly disassembled with each component taken out. That's much harder than removing a virus or two.
 
PC_User said:
Exactly. What surprised me was that it seems to be perfectly disassembled with each component taken out. That's much harder than removing a virus or two.
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I wouldn't say perfect, they did a little bit of minor damage when they separated the two halves (ex: a thin metal frame bent and torn,a plastic screw down point broke off, and part of a plastic frame broke off). Also I think we would all agree the true definition of a technician is someone who not only can take tech apart but, can put it back together again the right way. The person who did this would in my book be classified a fool!
 
Cajunheat said:
I wouldn't say perfect, they did a little bit of minor damage when they separated the two halves (ex: a thin metal frame bent and torn,a plastic screw down point broke off, and part of a plastic frame broke off). Also I think we would all agree the true definition of a technician is someone who not only can take tech apart but, can put it back together again the right way. The person who did this would in my book be classified a fool!
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fool is just to nice of a work.. one work that comes to mind for me.. is "moron"..
 
PC_User said:
But they're your family... :p
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Yea, thats why I have a hard time saying no sometimes. Its usually the repeat offenders that I get tired of dealing with. I also tend to take my time as well like someone else mentioned.
 
You guys are ALL lucky: my family tech support consists of randomly getting phone calls and being asked to start Skype, usually after 11 or 12 in the evening when I'm about to go to bed, then spending two hours explaining in a language I don't speak nearly as well as English (family in Russia) why their PC is lagging when they have 50000 Firefox windows open (because they thought the minimize button was the close button) and other seemingly intuitive things.

:(
 
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