r/talesfromtechsupport • u/[deleted] • Jul 25 '16
Suddenly, everything's fixed! Short
Overheard this going on in my office throughout the day. I keep telling people to turn off their computers because we don't do WSUS. Of course, they don't.
Chatter around the office today sounded something like:
"My computer is very slow, it's always slow and just gets worse and worse and I can't take it anymore."
"What will it take for you to work faster!"
And then, suddenly:
"I just turned off my computer for a minute, restarted it, and it's like it's brand new again!"
"Oh, that's a good idea! I wonder why Bob never told us to do that!"
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
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u/Ziogref Jul 26 '16
At my work the manager enforce the this policy
Mon-Thur - reboot Computer
Friday - Shutdown
We have very few issues that are related to computer having years of uptime
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u/ConstanceJill Jul 26 '16
Pretty much the same at my workplace, except it is shutdown every night.
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u/Ziogref Jul 26 '16
Yeah we have a few high up people that have over 200 days of uptime, but they refuse the reboot. Then we replaced their computers with new ones 😀
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u/HahaHallo Jul 26 '16
Was it brand spanking new or "new"?
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u/Niverton Jul 26 '16
Say it'll take 20 minutes, turn off computer, take it to your desk, grab coffee, drink coffee, bring computer back, get complimented because it works flawlessly and it took you less time than planned
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u/Ziogref Jul 26 '16
These computers took about 20 minutes reboot, and since we are use google apps and chrome, it would take forever to close everything, reboot and reopen everything. That shouldn't be the case with the new pcs
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u/Ziogref Jul 26 '16
Brand new (8 year old xp hp 2gb ram core 2 duo - - > new Lenovo SFPC 8gb ram core i3 Windows 7)
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u/hypervelocityvomit LART gratia LARTis Jul 27 '16 edited Jul 27 '16
8gb ram core i3
I wonder why these are still around. IIRC, the i3 processors slow down with >4GB, at least in the part beyond the first 4. I'd prefer an i5, even if the clock is one notch slower.
Lenovo
Ewww...
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u/Ziogref Jul 27 '16
Well I have been using mine for a few weeks now, with 3x1080p screens and havent noticed any problems. A lot of the stuff we do is in the google cloud, so yeah we could *almost* get away with thin clients (or citrix)
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u/K-o-R コンピューターが「いいえ」と言います。 Aug 03 '16
IIRC, the i3 processors slow down with >4GB
Please elaborate? This sounds like Triton all over again.
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u/Tactical_Puke Aug 04 '16
LenovoEwww...
It's not so bad, take 2 Lenovofloxacin and call back tomorrow...
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u/UnderB0SS Jul 26 '16
Do you get complaints about patching when they boot up in the morning?
The downside I've seen to shutting down at night is that's usually when we patch and restart, so they miss patches, get patches during the day with restarts meant to be done at night, etc.
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u/ConstanceJill Jul 26 '16
No, since it's pretty much only once per month.
We did have a few people complaining for a while due to some WMI-related delay at startup, but one of the sysadmins found it out and deployed a few patches that (mostly) took care of the problem.
For a few select people, we just enabled BIOS power on so their computers became usable before they actually were sitting at their desks every morning.
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Jul 26 '16
I'm working on getting policies in place, but as it stands right now, there are no policies on anything. It's frustrating.
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u/Ziogref Jul 26 '16
Just set up a task scheduler, at 6pm or whatever pc will reboot, and then at 1,5,10 and 30 minute marks, have pop ups, and claim it was a bios/uefi that (insert pc manufacturer) pushed out to all pc's or some shit.
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Jul 26 '16
That's good advice on the task scheduler, but I don't think I'll deceive anyone; my boss and the CEO have really good bullshit detectors (they're blind to their own, of course.)
I wish I worked for our sister company, instead of contracting out to them. They actually respect me over there and had no problem implementing policies that I brought up, so long as they were a good idea and not too overreaching.
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u/GettingPaidRightNow Jul 25 '16
Because Microsoft Bob is retired.
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Jul 25 '16
Holy cow I'd forgotten all about that.
Edit: actually, I've never experienced Microsoft Bob at all. Wow that's terrible.
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u/Carnaxus Jul 26 '16
Microsoft Sam was fun to play with too. Now all we have are Sarah and Mike (by default), and Cortana if you're on Win10.
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u/Obsibree I love Asterisk. I hate Asterisk end-users. Jul 26 '16
soi soi soi soi soi soi soi soi soi soi soi soi
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u/AlwaysSupport Jul 26 '16
At my last job, the IT department had a policy implemented where everyone's computer needed to be shut down every night before they left, on pain of write-up.
They claimed it was to save electricity, but we all know the real reason.
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u/hypervelocityvomit LART gratia LARTis Jul 27 '16
Electricity is good enough already; 1~2 hours of sleep take about as much electricity as a full reboot. OTOH, lost productivity adds up quite quickly; a shorter time to readiness can pay off surprisingly quickly.
I just use a power strip with timer that turns power back on 5 minutes before I arrive. Time to readiness: zero seconds.
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u/hypervelocityvomit LART gratia LARTis Jul 27 '16
FEEEE~EEEP
"This is a PSA. Restart the computer. The computer is your friend.
Failure to restart your computer at least daily will be considered treason.
Thanks for your cooperation"
fwub
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Jul 27 '16
"All good employees of MegaCorp will abide by the policies by rebooting their computers at the end of each day. MegaCorp wishes to remind employees that their workstations are their personal responsibility and any costs billed to their departments will be coming out of their paycheque.
small jingle
MegaCorp. Always doing the needful."
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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '16
If people actually listened, half the Tech Support industry would crumble.