Many people have asked why I am going back to school for something unrelated to what I currently do for a living now. Let me share a true story that happened today; it may shed some light on the subject for you.
When systems at my company have exceeded their useful life we donate them or sell them to employees for $100, monitor included. Today a user who purchased one of these $100 systems a month or so ago came up to me and asked for some help. Normally we do not offer any tech support on the systems once they are purchased and leave the building but we have been known to answer a question or two if asked. For this particular user I decided I had the time and could answer her question. It seemed that since taking the system home she had not been able to get it to display anything to the monitor though the lights came on and everything 'sounded good'. I asked a few questions about how she had plugged in the cables knowing that for this system (a Dell Optiplex GX240) there was only one way the monitor could be connected.
USER: "I plugged the blueish thing with spikes in it into the other blue thing with the holes on the back of the tower."
I translated this into 'yes I plugged the VGA cable from the monitor into the video card of the machine'.
Tech: "Do you get lights and hear the fan running when you press the power button?"
USER: "Yes, it all sounds good, jut no picture."
Tech: "Do you have a green or amber light on the power button of the monitor."
USER: "all the lights are green, and some of them flash on and off a little and go away. Do you think I need to load Microsoft Word onto it to get it to work right.?"
Tech: "If you can't see the screen how would you get Microsoft Word loaded? When you press the power button on the monitor what color is the light?"
USER: "There isn't one on the monitor but the tower is green."
Tech: "On the bottom right corner of your monitor there should be a large rectangular button that pushes in and a light either on the button or next to the button will light up. Do you remember seeing that?"
USER: "Yes I hit it but nothing happened so I used the button on the tower and it turned green."
Tech: "What turned green? Was it the light on the monitor or the ones on the tower?"
USER: "The tower. Nothing lights up on the screen."
By now I thought I had followed the bread crumbs to the answer. I thought for a moment trying to figure out a tactful way of asking my next question.
Tech: "Do you have one or two cords plugged into the back of your monitor?"
USER: "It has the one that goes to the back of the machine."
Tech: "Right, but there should be another one that goes from the back of the monitor to a power outlet. Do you have that one as well?"
USER: "You mean the monitor needs to be plugged into the wall too?"
It appeared that this user was only given one power cord when she picked up her computer and was unaware that, much like her television, the monitor for her computer also needed power in order to work. I politely gave her an additional power cable and sent her on her way. Then I walked into the back room, shut the door, smacked my head against the table, and laughed myself silly. At least my users are entertaining when they make silly mistakes.
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