One of the desktop guys reported they could no longer image machines through SCCM. Turns out the networking team had removed all of the iphelpers we needed because it looked cluttered.

Another ticket SCCM sever is down. Checked into it. Building was hit by lightning and it fried the server. Along with the backup server. Fun times.

Client : There are flames coming out of the back of my pc.


Me : Hang up and call the fire brigade.

or perhaps…

Client : I can connect to the wireless network at work, but not at home.


Me : Do you have an internet connection at home?


Client : No.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s had to deal with burning computers @david.thomson 🙂

I used to work on planes in the military and we had a ticket once that the plane was hit by lightning and they lost all electrical power and had to come down mostly manually. Turns out the lightning hit the nose cone and shot through the middle of the plane, burning out every electrical component it hit as it blew a hole in the tail. Just the nose cone was 90k. Just one of the components from the electrical rack was 180k. All told I believe the costs ran over 1 million just in parts.

Military plane story. I was in the back of the plane while we were towing it. The guy who hooked it up to the tug failed to lock it down properly. As we backed up the plane came loose and started rolling down the hill. We hit the brakes and the plane did an enormous wheelie then slammed into the ground hard enough to blow out the shocks. This was a KC-130 if you want to look up how big they are.

Do you miss those adventurous days or are you happy to be in an office now?

I miss nothing about the military. I have to many stories of other people almost getting me killed. In that job and the others that came after it. So yeah I’m good now.

In a ticket from someone high up the food chain I was asked that since our website was on Internet Explorer, I should also make sure it is on Firefox and Chrome as well. Easiest ticket I ever closed!

“My computer smells.”

Found a dead mouse that was rotting. The mouse slipped in through open brackets from an old graphics card that was replaced.

Hey there. We are running out of Band-aids and Advil on the check-in side of Circ. I will borrow some band-aids from the check-out side. I checked with Kayla and these items are not on her stocking list of supplies that she handles. Should I send in email?

Please tell me you took a picture!

Once in a desktop support position I had a ticket for a broken keyboard. Ticket listed out some troubleshooting done, so I came with a replacement keyboard in hand.

I did a quick check and confirmed the keyboard had an electrical issue and wasn’t working. Replaced it and took the old one back to our trash box.

I get a call a few minutes later from the user saying thanks for the replacement. I asked what happened to cause it, and the casually told me that he got a really bad bloody nose, leaked all over the keyboard, and even though he wiped it up the keyboard still wasn’t working.

So, I handled a keyboard that was shorted out due to excess blood in it. You don’t normally expect to need training in handling human fluids in a standard IT position.

And then there was that time that someone spilled their bowl of leek soup on their keyboard, and it was still full when I cam to look at the issue. Our back office smelled like soup for weeks, even though I poured it out in the sink.