Gremlins PC problems
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I'm just going to toss this out there to see if anyone has an idea I haven't considered, or maybe just to vent...
My boss has had problem off and on for the past 6+ years with her computer.
We built out the space we are in now 6+ years ago, right at the time I joined the firm full time. Shortly after we moved into our new digs my boss received a new white box PC. I can't recall if she started noticing issues right away, but I'm sure it was less than a year later.
She remarked that Windows would lock up, separately IE would lock up (EHR requires IE), Outlook would hang.
I did the normal things, I scanned for viruii, swapped the patch cable both in her office and the IT closet, moved her to a new port on the switch, scanned her HD with Spinrite, ran CCleaner, etc. The problems kept coming, random as they were.
Two years ago we upgraded her to a new machine. This machine too had issues, though only much worse - Word/Excel were exceptionally slow and error prone. About 8 months in the sound stopped working which was finally enough to get HP to replace the mobo which not only solved the Word/Excel issues, but my boss still had problems primarily with our EMR app and Outlook.
Three weeks ago I upgraded her again to Windows 8.1 Pro. I really want her buy-in that we can use Windows 8.1 in the office so she got the second unit. Overall she's OK with the differences between Win7 and 8.1. She's never asked or even hinted that she wants to go back (awesome!). But, of course, the IE lock ups and Outlook hangs (now Office 2013 Pro Plus) are still plaguing her.
Today we bought out our cabling company to test the cable with their Fluke. They tested from end of our patch cable to end of our patch cable with no found faults or issues what so ever (we did this one before around 4 years ago, same results).Now I'm going to mention that we have another single user (Sandy) who, when they sit at a specific computer, and only this one, when they use that phone there is a static discharge between her and the phone (VOIP - Internet if you wanted to know) that causes it to reboots. Sandy is not the normal person who sits at this desk, she is a temp and only work at this desk on the occasional Thursday when the main employee is gone. Sandy has a different desk that she sits at (Digital Intertel phone) that she has never had problems with.
I mention this because my boss has decided that since no other employees are reporting issues like her's, that at this point in time she's just going to move on and deal with the issues she's having like Sandy has to deal with the static problem that we could never solve (those from SW might remember my thread over there).
So, thoughts? Ideas? Shoulder to lean on?
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Take away her admin rights....problem solved
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@IRJ said:
Take away her admin rights....problem solved
Please explain how you think this would help?
That being said - she never did have a virus or malware (many other users do/did). and Local admin rights was required by our EMR vendor (same as now, but now I'm learning how to get around the need for local admin rights to install ActiveX controls).
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@Dashrender said:
@IRJ said:
Take away her admin rights....problem solved
Please explain how you think this would help?
That being said - she never did have a virus or malware (many other users do/did). and Local admin rights was required by our EMR vendor (same as now, but now I'm learning how to get around the need for local admin rights to install ActiveX controls).
You have to look at what is the same between PC swaps
- The end user
- Whatever files you have migrated over
More times than not, Number 1 is the problem. They dont have to have a virus per say. They might just love to screw around and know enough to be extremely dangerous
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If it was any other user I'd believe it was the user, but my boss is not the screw around type. She does her work and moves on. I really wish I could blame it on her... but don't believe it to be the case.
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Since you've tried replacing everything else, I think it is time you got a new boss
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Lol are you hiring Nic?
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Sure!
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Is your cable STP or UTP? Do you have any radio towers nearby?
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I'm on my phone so I can't look at the difference between STP and UTp so I can't answer your question. But no there are no radio towers extremely close and nobody else in the office is having any problems
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@Dashrender said:
I'm on my phone so I can't look at the difference between STP and UTp so I can't answer your question. But no there are no radio towers extremely close and nobody else in the office is having any problems
He's being silly. STP is shielded twisted pair and UTP is unshielded twisted pair. CAT5, CAT6, etc. are examples of UTP.
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in that case, it could be a funky ground. I tossed the STP idea out there because I've seen STP grounded on both ends act as an unintended grounding conductor. I can't say that I've seen similar behavior with STP.
It's also possible, though very remote and bizarre, that the user has some odd effect on electronics. My mother, for example, kills digital watches in less than a month and can only use analog.
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@Nara said:
in that case, it could be a funky ground. I tossed the STP idea out there because I've seen STP grounded on both ends act as an unintended grounding conductor. I can't say that I've seen similar behavior with STP.
It's also possible, though very remote and bizarre, that the user has some odd effect on electronics. My mother, for example, kills digital watches in less than a month and can only use analog.
No that's funny I too kill Digital watches. Yeah the boss. Is willing to chalk it up if to something like that
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I had a client like that too. No matter what PC she used the gremlins and weird stuff happened. A partial fix was the direct ethernet cable I ran from the switch up the wall and to her office, bypassing the jack. This slowed down the issues for her. It was "fixed" when the business moved to a new location. How's that for weird?
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It's helps my mental state to know that there are other simply unexplainable problems that people have run into.
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This is how I feel sometimes
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