A Confession: I don't understand computers

Submitted by Adam on December 28, 2006 - 5:57pm.

Riding Shotgun with Adam

I know how to fix computers, but I will freely admit that I don't understand them.

Today I saw two clients with very strange problems. One person had a problem that prevented their CD burner from writing and their computer from recognizing the sound card. However, the sound card and CD writer had just been replaced because of the same problem.

What was really strange was that the system sounds worked and the CD would record files just fine as long as you didn't use Nero.

After they had the CD drive and sound card replaced, everything had worked fine for about two weeks.

My other client with a strange problem had PeoplePC and which gave her an error the first time she tried to connect, but worked perfectly the second time.

Both clients seemed a little annoyed at my answer when the asked me what as wrong. I told them that I wasn't sure what was causing the problem, I just knew how to fix it.

How is it possible that you can fix something without understanding how it works? I have no idea.

One thing I have found though is that there are many problems that I can fix faster than people who understand computers. I am not bragging, it's just an observation. When someone has had years of book learning, they often dismiss many possible fixes because their education has told them that such problems aren't possible.

About three years ago I had a long argument with a computer geek who insisted that spyware does not cause pop-ups and that pop-ups can't happen while you are on the Internet. My experience with 30 computers per week or more told me otherwise.

In case you were wondering, the problem with the sound card and CD-writer were caused by a corruption in windows caused by a repair that was made by System Mechanic software. Even after recoveries and trying to undo fixes, it looks like it's going to be faster to start over with a reformat.

In the case of the PeoplePC problem, there were still some Symantec services running in the background. Once I shut them down, everything worked fine.

Aren't these programs supposed to fix computers? Rick and I hear often from people who tell us that we are crazy for running minimal utility software and not doing things like registry clean ups. Today I saw two examples that I can add to a long list of how systems run better with minimal security (Anti-virus and sometimes a firewall) than they do if you load them up with garbage like Norton System Works, Registry Cleaner or System Mechanic.

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