(part of an ongoing saga. See the previous articles, as well – here and here)

Just because you buy a PC form a certain manufacturer, that doesn’t entitle you to owning the tech. Owning – as in – I called tech support and Owned the tech, or The customer called me and I owned him – both examples do NOT apply. The only thing you own is the pc, nothing more, and not even the software on it. You are only allowed to use the software, you don’t own squat. Remember that the next time you call for technical support. And all you technicians out there in help desk land, you need to listen as well. You don’t have the right to be rude, or talk down to the customer no matter how much you may think they deserve it. You don’t own anything either – You both need each other! No tech = no support, No customer = nothing to support = no job.

Nothing turns a tech support call south than attitude, whether it’s the customer – either out of frustration, or a false sense of superiority, or the technician from a long day at the office, or inability to deal with newbies. Communicating technical support problems and solutions is not easy by any means. It takes a special knack to fix a problem without seeing it, and describing a problem to a technician when you’re not a technician. Try it sometime, as a test, maybe try telling your spouse of children how to make a sandwich over the phone, and give them every detail of how you want it made. Harder than you think!

Customers – Do not challenge the technician, let them initiate the call, and go through their procedures. They do this every day and are trained to deliver a speedy solution. Let the technician speak, and keep your answers to a minimum yes or no. The technician will take you through the steps to get you off and running as quick as he can.

If you do not agree with his solution, or feel that he has not completed the task, politely explain your concerns and continue the call. If you are polite and explain your concerns calmly, you will be able to work with them until the problem is resolved.

If the solution provided is not acceptable, or inadequate, again say so. If you have reached the end of the road, then ask to be escalated to 2^nd level support. Note that you cannot just haphazardly ask to be escalated. It’s like a get out of jail free card, use it wisely. Make sure you are entitled to the support you are requesting. Make sure the product you are having problems with is indeed covered under your support warranty.

No, Microsoft Office does not come with Windows! So forget about yelling at the PC manufacturer because they won’t support you for free. Call Microsoft.

Don’t even think about getting angry or name calling! Technicians have enough stress fixing problems, let alone social working. Want to end a call and get nowhere? Try raising your voice or calling a tech a name. And don’t think they don’t share information. They can easily put a note in your history that says rude, or irate, or that you name call. See what kind of support you get the next time you call. And you know what, You deserve it. You ever call your mechanic a name, how about your doctor? I think you get the point. Respect and love your tech! It’s all good!

Technicians – Not every caller is stupid, and they are people too. Try putting a smile on your face before you answer the call. Believe it or not you mood is transparent to callers, and a bad mood can turn a routine call into a supervisor’s glare in an instant. Your tone of voice can be misinterpreted and sound like you are a computer god – dictating to your minions. Vocal inflections, or worse yet a monotone voice will convey the no-care , I’m better than you attitude. You’re there for 8 hours, might as well relax and stay awhile.

Bored, feeling burnt out? Been on the same product queue for months, ask to be cross trained and breed some new life and interest into your tech support abilities.  If you know you’re going to be in this product queue for a while, find ways to make it interesting. Try to streamline the common answers. Think about the questions you often solve. Think about the questions and answers you ask the customer and find a way to improve the process. If you ask questions and the customer asks you to repeat it, then reword it.

If your call is too cold and stiff, try making light, talk about the weather, offer some friendly advice to avoid problems such as the customer is experiencing. Offer some links, or websites for reference – check with your  employer’s policies first though, make sure you’re not breaking any rules, or sending them to the competition!

If you don’t know the answer – say so. Don’t bother confusing the matter. Tell the customer you don’t know the answer, and try to find the answer. If you cannot, offer them some tips to finding it themselves. Or call them back with the information – again, if your company allows that practice.

Scripts – By now, you must have the caller greeting script permanently forged in your brain. Try changing it slightly to suit your personality. That can work wonders in your attitude and customer perceptions. You’re not a robot and we know that!

Let the man speak – by god man! We know its frustrating listening to a non technical person explain their problem. They get emotional and tell you everything except what you need to hear to fix the problem. Regardless, part of your job – admit it or not – is to counsel and advise. You have to help the customer as well as the problem they are experiencing. This takes a good ear, some compassion, and some patience! You never know who is on the other end of the phone. Respect the customer, and all is good!

Without customers, there are no jobs. And of course, we’re all someone else’s customer at some point.

Furthering my articles on tech support; If you have ever called a tech support line, I’m sure you been frustrated to no end. Just getting to a live person seems to be a secret. You have to learn to navigate silicone sally’s virtual menus. Sounds like an adult movie title, ok, ok – don’t get excited. You can’t avoid the stress though. Press one for sales, 2 for support, 3 for support in English, then you’re in the support menu… press one for desktops, 2 for laptops, 3 for both…

If you are a wearing a clown suit; press 4, if you are not, press 5. You get the picture.

Eventually, you’ll get a live person.

• Step 1 – Did you write down all those menu choices you made to get here? Better do it now. You’re going to need to call back, and you might as well save yourself some time. By no fault of the technician on the other end (mostly)

I have been known to – accidentally – hang up on some callers. Purely by accident… cough.. cough..You will either be cut off, or put on hold, transferred and put in another queue.

• Step 2 – remain calm, you’re going to be on the phone for a while. If you have a cordless phone, switch to a corded phone. If you have a headset phone, use it. Go get a coffee, or a drink and relax.
• Step 3 – capture as much pertinent information as you can possible comprehend. Be ready for the technical support you are calling to receive! The more information you can offer, the better your chances of a successful resolution.

You’re probably wondering why I used the word ‘chances’ in regards to a tech support call? As if it were a contest? Well it is like a contest, sort of. The prize is you get your problem resolved, quickly and properly the first time.

If you tell the technician “My internet doesn’t work” that doesn’t help him at all. Try going to your mechanic and saying “My car makes a noise” see his response. Now, try that over the phone, where the technician can’t see anything. My point is he is trying to help you, so help him by getting as many details as you can.

• Step 4 – do some research beforehand. If you see an error message, try searching google for it. Use the exact phrasing and put that in your google search. You may find a little more information to help troubleshoot the problem – you might even fix it yourself.

Technician’s have a difficult enough time dealing with the different possibilities and configurations of computer hardware and software. To make matters worse, they can’t see your screen, so they are working off experience and memory. There are some remote support utilities to enable them to access and control your computer, but that in itself requires technical support to get working.

The possibilities of software and hardware problems are endless, so in gathering information to help troubleshoot the cause, you can help in the solution. One important consideration is to only capture the relevant information of an error message. Some error messages are paragraph upon paragraph. The technician doesn’t need to know or hear you repeat that information back to him. Give them the summary. If there is a specific mention to a file name, or a location, relay that information.

• Keep your cool and remain polite! Technicians are people too and a polite and friendly voice will do wonders to getting the problem resolved in a manner that everyone will enjoy.

How eager do you think the technician is to help you if you’re angry with him? Did he actually cause the problem? Don’t shoot the messenger! If you’re angry and confrontational, you’ll get nowhere. Not only in tech support, but pretty much anywhere.

Think of the technician’s role. He just got off the phone with someone just like you – frustrated, in a hurry, and completely unaware that they themselves most likely caused the problem in the first place. Although that may not be a completely accurate statement all of the time, it’s pretty true MOST of the time. A good technician will fix the problem without laying blame, or complaining. A good technician is of course hard to find.

To be continued…

We’ve all had to call technical support at one time or another. We’ve all had good and bad experiences with them. Looking in from the consumer’s perspective, we have complaints abounding. Most complaints can be summed up:

-          The technician had poor people skills and didn’t care about me or my problem

-          The technician had poor language skills or spoke too quickly to understand

-          The technician had poor technical skills, and didn’t know anything

Imagine that? A technician that doesn’t know it all! In my IBM days, it was a common saying that if you could walk and chew gum, and you were polite, they could train you to fix computers. Oh, how sadly untrue!

And for the record – it’s the other way around! If you can fix computers, we can teach you to walk and chew gum – virtual gum, and walking through a cyber-world. – Just kidding.

I’ll start out with some scenario from the Consumer’s Perspective, then I’ll give the Technician’s Perspective.

Consumer Scenarios

1) You’re an Idiot, and we know everything.

As the customer, we’ve become familiar with that drab and monotone voice on the other end of the phone. They condescend you in every word and even mock you! You can easily imagine the tech’s face and actions akin to “whatever” I’ll bet you’ve often felt like they put you on hold to get their colleagues to listen in, and have a comedy central riot at your expense. Or worse yet, they put you on speakerphone. All the while, claiming to be getting their 2^nd level support team involved. As for 2^nd level support, he’s most likely the guy in the next workstation pretending to be the go-to-guy. Oh the tricks and webs we weave…

2) Passing The Buck

You’re on the phone for an hour, and the problem still exists. The technician told you to download the drivers and call back – your problem that you could access the internet. How can you download the drivers without an Internet connection?

3) He said, She said

You have a computer, a modem, a router and a VOIP phone. The phone doesn’t work, so who do you call? The ISP says, it’s not their problem and al is working fine with the lines in your house. How does he know, did he come out and check them? Taking his advice, you call the VOIP provider. They say it’s your ISP’s problem. You call back the ISP and relay the information, although you have not been given any reason, or information to convey, you just say – it’s your problem. ISP says it’s your computer.

The point? Well, the technician is basically trying to get rid of the idiot on the line. Pass the buck, find a place to lay blame, somewhere that the consumer can’t refute. Somewhere in techno-babble land. The customer won’t know what hit him!

4) Stats baby Stats!

Call Centres run on statistics. Plain and simple. More calls in less time, be polite so that the company look and sounds professional and that they care about you. Etiquette over technical abilities. Heaven forbid – a likeable technician? Although rare, they do exist, and I’ve personally been told this thousands of times. It is the technician’s job to take inbound calls, complete them as quickly as possible. Politely and courteously. If a call goes beyond the average talk time of say 3 minutes, it starts to impact his personal stats. Lower talk times are better, and he who handles more calls looks better to management.

Although technical abilities are nice to have, a good talker can get you on the line, confuse you and get you off the line without fixing anything. It should work – is the term that technicians use to get rid of you. They have either reached their personal limits of technical abilities, they’ve been on the call too long, their supervisor is waving his arms, or pointing at his watch, or the tech just doesn’t care any more.

5) Where am I calling for support anyways?

You may have noticed the trend in the last decade where technical support is outsourced overseas. My opinion of course, nevertheless – the reason for this trend is as I stated above. If you can walk and talk politely, we can train you to take technical calls. There are countries overseas with exceptional educational systems and language diversities. The technical infrastructure can be brought to these countries, and the training can be scripted. North American IT companies have already laid the foundations for tech support protocols, procedures, flow charts and problem resolution tools. These can be converted into online training and resources. Call centres simply need the manpower to field the calls, and use the problem resolution tools to fix the problems. Technician’s technical troubleshooting abilities will come later. This is not the case now, however it was 10 years ago. Lets face it, it’s cheaper for manpower, foreign governments welcome big business, and will help with incentives, training, location, land, resources, and of course tax breaks. If you wonder why the technician is overseas – now you know.

North American workers want too much, benefits, holidays, regular raises, perks, benefits and so on and so no. I should know, I am one too.

Overseas workers, well it’s a completely different ball game. It’s Cricket actually.

Technician Scenarios

Ok, lets start by first getting the usual stories out of the way.
PEBKAC – problem exists between keyboard and chair
ID 10T Error – spell it out – id10t, coffee holders, why is there 2 power buttons, my computer isn’t working…let me get a flashlight to see why etc.

1)      If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

How many calls have you taken in a case like this. The customer says, well I was looking through my programs and uninstalled everything I didn’t need. You of course roll your eyes, and wonder where this is going. Of course under your breath, you have to ask why?

If your car is working fine, do you start removing parts? So, now the caller wants you to help them repair everything. Of course this can go several ways – is the computer even in warranty, is it your company’s product, what exactly is wrong with it and so on.

It takes a special gift to be able to repair something without seeing it. Think about that next time you need technical support.

2)      Your error messages are unique

Windows is known for some of the most ridiculous and useless error messages (sorry to all the programmers out there) but it’s true. Fatal error, Fatal exception, Illegal Operation and so on. SWAT or the ETF should be here any minute. Callers have no idea what they are or how to fix them, so they call for support. Of course they have to read every single word of the error message, or worse yet, the terms and conditions of a EULA. ( Tip: stop them before they start, politely say no need to read the entire message.) The consumer feels that they are helping you, and the company make a better product, and you NEED to know this information.

3)      Why do I have to give you my information?

Ever had a customer raise a fuss about giving their information, or even the machine information? Why is that, got something to hide? They don’t realize that everything needs to be tracked in the call centre’s tools and utilities. The information is used to call up history, case numbers, and previous calls. Technicians could care less about your personal information. They want to see the technical details to get the problem fixed.

4)      I want your name and extension

Yeah right, you bought a laptop computer and that earns you the right to call me whenever you need? I’ve purchased cars and homes with not even an extension number. I’m not referring to security and Information privacy, but rather customer expectations.

As far as privacy and security concerns go, each country is different of course. In Canada where I live, we are not required to give first and last names. As long as you can give the customer a way to refer to your case, or to you with an alias, or a employee number or a reference number, that is good enough. I’ve actually had customers look me up in the phonebook and call me at home. This was when I first started in technical support at IBM. You learn real quick after that happens!

5)      Salesman will say anything to close the deal!

The customer calls to say this computer was promised to have xray vision! More often than not, big box store salesman work on commission. They need the money just as much as you. Their employers don’t want to pay for product training and considering how quickly technology changes, it’s next to impossible to keep up. Sales staff often have to learn products on their own time. They may have made an honest mistake, or did what they had to – to get the deal done. Of course this leave the customer with false information and you are a representative of the company tat makes these products – whether you like it or not. Fix the problem, make it do what was promised or bear the wrath of the misinformed customer. Your only recourse is tell the truth and set the record straight, or escalate to Customer Care. Of course, you get dinged for the escalation, or for telling the customer their laptop can’t make ice cubes.

6)      You know everything about software

The customer complains that his computer won’t synch with his digital camera, or his home design software doesn’t work. Of course it’s your fault. You’re supposed to know about these things. The customer has no idea that there are support limitations. If it connects to your product, you have to support it. Customer Entitlement is not clearly defined. Sorry marketing and sales teams, this falls on you. As a technician, you’d love to say, does the computer turn on and operate properly? Thank you for calling our company, have a nice day – but you can’t. You have to at least try to offer some sort of assistance – without knowing a thing about the product. Like a Honda mechanic working on a photocopier.

Finally, Some funny (or stupid) questions
Can’t you just loom at my computer from there and fix it?
Can I see if my kids have been surfing adult sites?
Can you clean my computer of where I’ve been and my cookies?
Why do I have to pay for support, MSN comes with windows
Why don’t I have Microsoft word, it’s part of windows
My casino software stopped working
My stock market programs are not working
My kids did this and broke something
I get this error message, I don’t remember what it says, can you fix it?
My computer won’t power on
My monitor won’t show anything, it just blinks, or has no green light
Smoke is coming from my monitor, what should I do
I spilled coffee on my laptop and it started to smoke, is it ok?
Can I have your number so I can call you back?
I demand to speak with your supervisor, I want a new computer
If you don’t fix it now, I want a replacement
What do you mean not supported? It came with the computer

Just look at yahoo’s new answers for some of the typical questions. You’ll be sure to get a chuckle!

We’ve all had to call technical support at one time or another. We’ve all had good and bad experiences with them. Looking in from the consumer’s perspective, we have complaints abounding. Most complaints can be summed up:

• The technician had poor people skills and didn’t care about me or my problem.
• The technician had poor language skills or spoke too quickly to understand,
• Often, a common complaint is plain and simply – just poor technical skills.

Imagine that? A technician that doesn’t know it all! In my IBM days, it was a common saying that if you could walk and chew gum – but were polite, they could train you to fix computers. Oh, how sadly untrue!
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If you’ve upgraded your computer display to LCD, your old CRT monitor most likely collects dust somewhere. Sending it to the local dump is not so easy. It is a very dangerous item. Its CRT (Cathode Ray Vacuum) tube must be disposed of properly. Usually you can pay a small fee to have the local dump accept it. Can you still use it? With Windows XP you can.
Windows XP supports two physical displays to be used on one computer.
First, you must determine what type of video adapter your computer has, and what physical slot-type your motherboard supports. If your display adapter is an internal integrated (onboard) video adapter, adding another display adapter will not work. It’s either internal or external. If your motherboard has (internal) or integrated video, you’ll have to buy a dual-head video adapter, or two separate display adapters. Dual-head display adapters have two video connector ports. Their drivers support dual display. They do cost quite a bit more, too.
If your computer has an AGP type slot, you can only add a PCI card. AGP slots are built into computer motherboards for the specific purpose of AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) video adapters. Motherboards can only physically support one of these cards. If you want to add another display adapter, it has to be a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) type of slot. Modern motherboards are dropping the AGP slot. Ultimately, there won’t be any support for them. PCI-X express (the next generation of PCI technology) is the standard today. It allows Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to come of age along with dual core CPU’s, and now dual core GPUs. They can even operate in pairs, called SLI mode – Scalable Link Interface – which is a special technology allowing you to pair up video cards to work in tandem. Imagine also having the ability to have up to four separate video cards in one computer. This is available now, from many of the major motherboard manufacturers.
Adding a second display adapter is not always easy and may not always work. If you are planning on taking this advice, your first step should take your tower to a local computer shop, to test out some of their display adapters. Of if you are the adventurous type, at least keep your sales receipt in case you need to return the item.
To be safe, purchase a PCI display adapter with at least 32Mb of onboard memory. Once installed, plug one monitor into each of the adapters and power them on. Windows XP will boot and ultimately find the new adapter card. Install the drivers (either on CD, or download them) and reboot the PC. Once rebooted, you can now configure and enjoy your new dual display system.
To configure the dual displays, right-mouse-click anywhere on the desktop, select properties.
The last tab is called settings, and you will notice that you have two monitors, labeled respectively.
Identify your favourite monitor by clicking the Identify button. If your favourite monitor is #2, simple drag it to the left to make it #1. You have the option of setting your desktop preferences; to have both monitors act as one; both act independently, as well as different colour quality, and screen resolutions. You may stretch the desktop to fill both monitors by checking Extend My Windows Desktop onto this monitor. Both your monitors should have the same screen size, maybe even think about buying a couple used CRT monitors to have a nice symmetrical look to your workstation.
You can actually have your e-mail open in one display, your icons and Internet browser on another.

The ipod as well all know has some amazing features. With its ability to mobilize our music and media files. It can serve up all a digital buffet of music and video, help organize your contacts, and allows you to play games and view the family photos.

All great and amazing, but one very important feature that many of us overlook is the ipod’s dirty little secret. I am referring to its ability to double as a mobile filing cabinet.

The average ipod has a 20Gb hard drive. If you are like me, I have about half of my ipod filled with music that I actually listen to. Once the honeymoon is over, and you organize your media collection to include what you actually listen to, you can free up some space on the hard drive. iTunes by default manages your ipod and the space on it. Change a few settings in iTunes and you can access those precious Gb’s of unused space.

The real benefit is of course the amount of storage you have. In comparison to USB flash drives, they typically offer 4Gb of storage at a reasonable price. Any larger, and the price seems to be slightly out of reach. Of course wait a few months and USB storage capacities will double and quadruple, and prices will continue to fall. For the here and now, you cannot beat the price per Gb of storage the ipod offers.

To manage your ipod hard drive usage follow these simple steps:
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If you have ever forgotten your windows XP password, you are in a mess. A few years ago, yes, but not now. There are ways to recover your administrator password with little or no money down!

Typically, you could have created a password reset floppy disk, however I don’t think I’ve ever made one of those personally. OK, Next option -  Load your windows xp recovery cd, and boot the computer from that cd. Then upon accessing the startup menu, you have the option to repair the windows XP installation. This effectively replaces your windows directory and reloads your windows files. You have the option to setup windows again and put in a new password. It does not easily allow you to recovery a password. Sort of like making a mountain out of a mowhill.

You run the risk of losing your my documents folder and other windows related settings, however it does not format the hard drive. This is the safest way to recover your password, but obviously not the best.

Recently, independent software developers and computer enthusiasts have developed their own methods of recovering Windows XP passwords. For the most part, this was born out of hacking into Windows XP, and for other malicious purposes, however nowadays, it is used for less harmful purposes – to help you and I gain access to our computers without having to reload them.

There are several methods to recovery your password, starting with software that you can purchase. There are hacks or workarounds also that you may wish to try, however nothing is as simple as it seems. These may end up causing you more grief in the end. You will have to know something about file copying, editing registry files, and lots of dos based commands. The final alternative – saving the best for last is a simple Windows XP password recovery cd. This CD is linux based, and is free. Prior to using this cd, you have to burn the image to a cd. This means that you have to download it, extract the ISO image to your hard drive, then use your favorite cd burning software (one that supports ISO images) and make a copy of the cd.  I know – what if you don’t have another computer to download and make this cd? You’re in a bit of a jam then, unless you can drop by a friend’s house and borrow their computer, or visit the local internet café.

To use the password reset cd, you simply boot the computer with the cd (you may have to access your computer BIOS and change the boot sequence) to allow you to boot from cd first. Once you have booted from the cd, you will be prompted with dos like text with questions. Most of the questions are straightforward and have been designed to allow the default answers to be used. Ultimately, you will be asked to reset the administrator’s account.

Be warned – you do run the risk of losing some data, especially encrypted files and passwords in other programs – that are linked to your administrator’s account.

The next time you boot the pc, your administrator password should be blanked out, and you simply hit the enter key to regain access. Don’t forget to change your password, and make a reset disk this time!

If your computer makes strange noises (I don’t mean through the speakers) and not what your children or friends may be listening to on the computer. I mean whining, or grinding, or general poor health sounding noises. Maybe you’re losing your bearings!

Computers have many parts and only a few of them move, thus only a few of them can make any noise, so this makes it much easier to source out and troubleshoot the noise.

Chances are that one of the internal cooling fans is the culprit. There can be several cooling fans in your pc, and laptop. If they stop working, you’ll know it in a hurry. When the processor gets too hot, it has built in thermal protection to shut it off. However there may be cases where the cpu fan is working and keeping the cpu within its operating limits however other components are boiling up.

PC Cooling Requirements:

-          CPU has its own fan

-          Hard drive needs to be cooled, as it has NO internal fan.

-          The video card – if newer – most likely has its own fan.

-          The power supply has a fan

-          The pc case itself will have at least one cooling fan, and maybe even another for airflow direction. It’s not uncommon for there to be three fans!

Laptops

-          1 internal CPU fan

-          Possibly 1 or 2 airflow fans inside the chassis

Computers have many parts inside from motherboards, mainboards, systemboards to modems and mice. The inside of a computer – although appears ominious and confusing, it’s pretty basic stuff. A case, a motherboard to accept all the physical connections such as memory, processors, cables, peripheral cards and ports.

Navigating inside your pc to locate the noisy fan should be broken down into specific areas to investigate.

In the case of a PC, the power supply itself is where the AC power cord plugs in. You will find a large fan there. If the noise is coming from the power supply, try gently tapping the pc case just above the power supply fan. The noise should intermittently stop and go. you can either replace the entire power supply for about $25 – 50, or have the fan itself serviced. The power supply is not intended to be serviced however, and not many PC repair shops will bother. If they do, they labour alone may be more than just buying a new power supply. Replacing a power supply should be done by an experienced technician. It is one of the most time consuming and difficult tasks.

If  the case fan itself is making the noise, these are easily replaced for about $10. They usually have a few chassis screws, or plastic connectors. The power plug is also modular, and can be easily disconnected. These fans can be bought just about anywhere. Bring the old one with you though!

If the CPU fan is the source, you have another semi delicate task, and may consider having a service technician handle the task. CPU fans are either screwed to the cpu heatsink, or in the case of newer processors, are actually part of the cpu heatsink. Replacing them may not be so easy. If your CPU fan has 4 screws, most like it can be replaced. The heatsink holds the fan, and may have to be removed to gain access to the fan. Careful not to disturb the cpu, and the thermal compound on the cpu. If you can remove the fan, take it to a repair shop to find a suitable replacement. There Are different types.

Fan’s are also a source of fashion for computers. They have LED’s and frikkin laser beams these days and can light up your entire case!