lol @ tech support at my uni.

Kristoph

Kristoph

Kristoph

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11 May 2007
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I'm sat here about 10ft away from the desk and a student has just turned up to ask for some help with a 'virus' on his laptop.

Apparently his browser has been hijacked, and the 'tech' support guy is saying he may need to reformat his laptop, so he's talking him through how to copy all the stuff off and make backups!

HOW DO THESE PEOPLE GET THESE TYPES OF JOBS!

It's ridiculous.

I'm half tempted to offer the guy some help with it myself.
 
Tech Support = unappreciated.

I hate it when people say why dont you do your job properly.

It takes a whole what ten minutes to download an image onto a laptop rather than spend ages trying to get rid of a "virus". They have other things to do rather than fix student laptops... :rolleyes:
 
If the laptops in a very bad state the quickest way will be a format and re install of Windows.

Tell the user to quit looking at porn :D
 
I did that job at my uni in my third year and if it's the users own laptop then the tech guy shouldn't even look at it, nevermind give advice. It really isn't worth the hassle
 
I agree, it's really not worth the hassle telling people how they might be able to clean it. Backup files and wipe is the best unpaid option :)
 
Nine times out of ten a wipe and reinstall is what we would do for a virus infected machine.
With this option you know that the whole process is going to take 1-2hrs at the most and the end result is a clean machine that is working.

Once you start getting involved with the cleaning process you can easily spend 1-2hrs trying various things, running full virus scans etc and at the end of those 1-2hrs still not actually have a clean, working machine.

Of course we wouldn't allow our machines to become infected with a virus in the first place - but if it happened that is the option we would take.
Sounds like the technical support people at your Uni are in fact extremely on the ball and are answering questions based on real world experience - starting a process with a guaranteed result in an amount of time (wipe & reinstall) is a better option than an unknown result in an unknown amount of time (attempting a clean-up operation).
 
stoofa said:
Nine times out of ten a wipe and reinstall is what we would do for a virus infected machine.
With this option you know that the whole process is going to take 1-2hrs at the most and the end result is a clean machine that is working.

Once you start getting involved with the cleaning process you can easily spend 1-2hrs trying various things, running full virus scans etc and at the end of those 1-2hrs still not actually have a clean, working machine.

Of course we wouldn't allow our machines to become infected with a virus in the first place - but if it happened that is the option we would take.
Sounds like the technical support people at your Uni are in fact extremely on the ball and are answering questions based on real world experience - starting a process with a guaranteed result in an amount of time (wipe & reinstall) is a better option than an unknown result in an unknown amount of time (attempting a clean-up operation).
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Spot on there mate. :)
 
jonshaw_uk said:
i try not to offer advice to users with personal pc probs as it usually ends up with them doing something wrong and saying i told them to do it
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exactly.

i tend to avoide giving people advice on their personal computers as it has nothing to do with me, i don't get paid for it and if things go wrong they will blame me.

quite simply... Helpdesk doesn't care :p
 
mp3kla said:
HOW DO THESE PEOPLE GET THESE TYPES OF JOBS!
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I'm tech support, and tbh, after a day dealing with utter noobs, I'd go for the reinstall option over removing spyware/viruses/adware anytime.

Takes what, five/ten minutes to copy a Windows image across?

Can take half an hour of hassle to remove some viruses.
 
Reloading the system is nearly always quicker than installing a dozen antivirus/spyware applications, updating them and running them all. Generally all you need to do is backup the profile from docs & settings folder.
 
mp3kla said:
I'm sat here about 10ft away from the desk and a student has just turned up to ask for some help with a 'virus' on his laptop.

Apparently his browser has been hijacked, and the 'tech' support guy is saying he may need to reformat his laptop, so he's talking him through how to copy all the stuff off and make backups!

HOW DO THESE PEOPLE GET THESE TYPES OF JOBS!

It's ridiculous.

I'm half tempted to offer the guy some help with it myself.
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What's funny is you're laughing because you know it all, yet you're in the wrong. If a machine is infected it's easier and quicker just to wipe it.

The jokes on you.
 
EWRR no because when he copies his files back onto the laptop he could have the same problem!!!
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Point is his SYSTEM is clean, and the files- which could be infected, which aren't system files can then be scanned.
 
Like the others say, depends on the situation. Most of the time we format reinstall after backing up data however there may be instances where preinstalled software that came with the laptop cannot be reinstalled or the client has lost their discs which may sometimes pose a problem.
 
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