I'm surprised I still have any faith in people

[tauren-wardrums.livejournal.com]

Guy came in the other day. Come to find out, he works for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's local crime office. Bear this in mind throughout everything I'm about to tell you.

He ordered a virus removal. Okay, standard procedure, even the best antivirus programs miss things, right? Except he had Norton 360. What I call "The Norton Virus". Yeah, it's that bad. I had to remove it before I could even run ComboFix; that's how horrible and useless Norton is. Oh, and did I mention that he had McAfee on there as well? Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

End of the day comes round, virus removal's done, guy wants a DVD burner. So I install one. Test it. Confirm it. Send it off. We get a hundred bucks, hooray. He calls me back Friday (the day after), says his DVD burner is doing...nothing. It keeps sending back the "Invalid Function" code. I tell him to bring it back in.

Edited for accuracy!Now, for any of you who've ever gotten the "Drive is not accessible: Invalid Function" error code, and I'm sure most of you who've gotten it have gotten it on a Dell, you know what I'm about to say. The rest of you, pay attention. The next paragraph contains a lesson for the newbies and those of you who haven't discovered this yet. You might want to copy it down for later.

This is a common problem with WIndows computers. I've only ever seen it on a Dell, but I've been informed that it's happened on other machines as well. It basically turns your drive into an unrecognized thing. To fix it you have to go into the registry and locate the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}. In there, delete the upper and lower filter entries. That's it. Simple fix.

So I fix the guy's computer and send it on its way this afternoon. He calls back as I'm closing the store. I've locked the door, the drawer is counted, it's five minutes after six (we close at six) and the phone rings. He leaves a message.

"Am I supposed to install these Windows Updates?" He then proceeds to describe the AVG system tray icon, which is completely unrelated.

These are the people protecting us. I'm sure glad my safety is in their hands. *shudder*

Comments

[bothunter.livejournal.com]

Not surprising. He's probably good at investigating crimes, but computers aren't his thing. This looks like he went to several "whiz kids" in an attempt to fix his computer before he went to you.

[tullamoredew.livejournal.com]

It's not dell, it's a windows bug with certain hardware, which gets detected incorrectly

[cirobi.livejournal.com]

Seems pretty typical of anyone who's talents are highly specialized. I'm sure they're absolutely brilliant at what they do, but some of the stuff that comes out of their mouth makes them sound like they're as dumb as a stump. And, this is why we have jobs. :D

[tauren-wardrums.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks. I've only ever seen it on Dell computers.

[tullamoredew.livejournal.com]

because the hardware used in them is standardised, so in every PC you will get the same stuff.

thing is, windows is supposed to support hardware in a certain way, and if you have to hack the registry to get a standard piece of equipment to work, it's a windows bug.

I know for certain Dell's hardware is very standard, and actually tested on windows thoroughly. My guess is that one of the latest windows updates introduces a regression - seen it happen quite a lot

[vadra.livejournal.com]

I do support for projectors.. and we get a lot of schools. about 90% of the times I have to think... "These are the people teaching our kids!"

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised how often a hotshot detective/agent interviewing a suspect is simply relaying questions IM'ed to him by a clueful but much less highly paid tech in the back room ..

[curmudgn]

Yep, UpperFilters/LowerFilters fix. I've used it many times and each time made myself look like a genius to the customer on the phone whose ODD had disappeared from DevMan. (Yes, three years on the phones in Gold. I have abundant experience.)

[tauren-wardrums.livejournal.com]

I'm sure once we get contact lenses with an AR image link he can just read a prompt without letting anyone know he's cheating.

[tauren-wardrums.livejournal.com]

That would explain the frequency of this happening. Still, it's good to know how to solve the problem.

[tauren-wardrums.livejournal.com]

This is probably the only reason I let these people live.

[tullamoredew.livejournal.com]

no argument there :)

[laurajpetri.livejournal.com]

As a former dell worker (my choice, not part of the lay offs) i've only ever seen it on dells as well. My HP and all the HPs and Compaqs and ACERs that i work with now, i've never seen it.
Though i do see how it could be on all of them.