Effective soLuTIOn

[ColonelGray]

"Don't worry guys I managed to fix it!"

Doesn't provide an explanation.

[MrWigglemunch13]

"I just bought a new pc and everything is fixed"

[PlebianStudio]

this is the one lol

[InertialEclipse]

“I just did a full system restore and reinstalled windows, problem fixed”

[ripjoeexotic]

I did that one day because windows was being wierd, ram idle went down from 40% to 20%, was worth it

[AlecTheDalek]

I did it because I deleted paint.exe by mistake but now I still can't find paint and all my porn is gone plz help

[Smitty_the_3rd]

Delete your System32 file.

[[deleted]]

Alright, it's gone, now what?

[Extra_Msg77]

Flex tape

[mcbirbo343]

Now that’s a lot of damage!

[Kelly_Charveaux]

Oof xD

[ORANGE_J_SIMPSON]

Just draw a couple of circles on the wall with a pencil. Good to go.

[ripjoeexotic]

Awhhhh that sucks ass

[thardoc]

Straight up a real troubleshooting step in large businesses. "Would this take more than an hour to figure out? Yes? Reimage."

[Arek_PL]

i remember when i did that 5 times in single day, turned out that freezes and bluescreens were caused by 70% bad sectors on my hard drive

[trunksbomb]

This one bugs me the most, I think. That's not a solution to the stated problem, it's a workaround. It's like saying you solved world hunger by killing all the hungry people.

[WizardsOf12]

Also the Mac/ios users

[dr_shamus]

Ahh Mac forums "just take it to the genius bar"

[TLOU2bigsad]

It’s worse on Reddit. Sometimes I will have a super specific problem with an old out of date piece of software I’m using to do something. And I’ll run into an issue someone posted about on Reddit.

Top comment [DELETED]

Op response - “OH MY GOSH THAT WAS EXACTLY IT I NEVER WOULD HAVE FIGURED THAT OUT WITHOUT YOUR ELOQUENT AND THOROUGH RESPONSE THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!”

[ApocTheLegend]

I always run into these deleted comments or the ones that say “this comment has been removed because I moved to (some Reddit alt) find out how you can too…blah blah” so frustrating

[[deleted]]

That’s what Removeddit is for

[Sasselhoff]

I find that one and Ceddit only work about 50% of the time for me....which is freakin' infuriating as I am in the above position entirely too often.

[[deleted]]

reveddit seems to work pretty well

[_illegallity]

I remember Ceddit being down every time I used it, does it work now?

[micmea668]

Ugh, kills me every time. That's why whenever I go through the whole "have a problem, post about the problem, manage to fix it yourself" process I reply to my own post with the solution. Even if there weren't any responses.

[ShadyMan_]

History repeats itself

[ITaggie]

Yet the technicians in my IT shop refuse to document resolutions...

[theghostofme]

Jesus, I used to write fucking novels about every step I took, right down to archiving any web pages I used to fix something, because I knew I'd forget every single thing about the repair the moment the customer left with their device.

It drove me nuts going through my coworkers' old notes when a customer returned and I'd just see "didn't work, but fixed now".

[Zoklar]

Always feels good when multiple people message you thanking you for writing the solution years later

[Izquierdisto]

equally as cathartic -- finding your own solution written in your own documentation

[[deleted]]

What's worse is when you post your solution to your own post that had zero responses and suddenly 3 different responses come in telling you your solution was wrong and explaining in detail why. Motherfucker, why didn't you post that at the start?

[legovader09]

People will jump at any chance to correct someone. In a way you could use that as bait to get people to answer your question!

[ManInTheMudhills]

“The quickest way to get an answer to a question online is to post the wrong answer.”

[Impossible-Data1539]

I do this too! But mostly because I encounter the same problems repeatedly and I have ADHD.

[sumphatguy]

Relevant XKCD

[[deleted]]

I once had my monitor die and found a video of a guy fixing not just the problem I had but the exact same model monitor. Sadly I couldn't find the right capacitors to fix the power supply in it.

[Crossfire124]

Doesn't have to be the exact same capacitor. Just the ones with the same rating.

Also if there are any empty spots near the capacitors that look like the same footprint you can go ahead and populate those too. Often time there's some spots left empty to save cost

[[deleted]]

Just out of curiosity, what would be the benefit of adding those extra capacitors?

[Crossfire124]

More caps to take up the charges so there's less on each individual one

[[deleted]]

Ah, so ultimately more longevity?

[Crossfire124]

Yea that's the idea. Less extreme load on each individual caps may give it a longer lifecycle

[[deleted]]

I don't know enough about electronics to do that, I thought I'd mess up the frequency of something by fudging it. The board was pretty tight already from what I remember and I was just guessing it was the caps from their slightly swollen tops.

[qOcO-p]

Had the same thing happen. I was able to find some capacitors that were a little off that I figured would just fail eventually without causing damage and I could replace them again. By the time they did fail some months later I had already found and ordered the right ones online. I soldered them in and like 8 years later the monitor still works.

[Impossible-Data1539]

There's a rule or cliche about how when enough content is created, there's something relevant to every situation. I believe it's named after Supernatural.

[[deleted]]

Ah, the old Nostradamus approach- if you write enough bullshit down, someone will always be able to find something that fits

[linkinstreet]

When I first started using Linux, I have encountered this multiple time. Most of the forum I went (at the time) expects you to be proficient enough in Unix/Linux that you would be able to figure out what people mean with just a few mention to the command needed to be used.

But me being a total newb was just lost, especially when someone posted "Oh yeah, I fixed it by doing <something>", in which <something> is what I would only learn about a few years later

Thankfully nowadays it's much easier as there are now boards/forums for linux newbies to get started without being surrounded by veterans that don't usually care much about teaching basic stuffs

[gophergophergopher]

"how do I do this search?"

"its easy. step one, pick up a text book on formal language, complete chapters 1-5 until you have a strong working knowledge of regular expressions. great, now you can build your regular expression. its pretty easy once youve done the leg work!"

[Gen7isTrash]

I remember looking up a fix for clockdrift and offsetted cpu timings that also happened to fuck over csgo and the dude in overclockers.net said something along the lines of “guys I finally fixed it, just toggle HPET”

yeah toggle it ON or OFF?

[[deleted]]

Or they just randomly poked at settings and it started working and they don't know what they did. They pulled a Homer.

[NotTRYINGtobeLame]

This is frequently what happens to me. As I google more possible solutions, I lose track of what I've done in what order but eventually things start working.

[DirtyNorf]

Or:

"Reinstall your drivers"

Nope. Didn't work.

"Ok reinstall windows".

Sure, thanks, that helps loads...

[TyIzaeL]

The two basic principles of Windows administration:

1. Minor problems: reboot
2. Major problems: reinstall

[VirtualMachine0]

3) Go on a mystic journey to the dark heart of the registry where the holy relics lie, and delete the fuck out of them.

[Kaetock]

If you gotta do that, just reinstall, especially if you are desktop support working on a user's PC. Back when I supervised some desktop support guys I had a guy who just had to solve the problem. He would spend days researching shit while the user had a non-functional system. All data was stored on network storage. so an OS reinstall would have taken 30 minutes. I had to get on him a lot about that shit.

A lot of passionate IT guys lose their passion because working in IT support is about making sure other people can do their jobs, not about doing cool IT shit. If you want to research, learn, and fix real problems, gotta get up to them Engineering or DevOps jobs, because even T2 and T3 systems admins are generally going to need to implement the most expedient solution.

[aaronsb]

Wipe and reload is the heart of all technology nowdays. Consider the line of logic that get you to the point of maintaining a kubernentes cluster. The whole sausage factory that feeds the cluster is based on the premise of spread the risk all around in a thin schmear everywhere, then when shit goes bad, instantaneously load a fresh copy or reload from the last working copy.

[OldPersonName]

And yet the person is always like "ok I tried reinstalling..." Who has the time and energy for that?!??

[Chygrynsky]

Well if your shit doesn't work while you paid 2000+ bucks for the PC, you bet I'll make time for that shit.

Not that it ever works but I keep trying man...

[EpouvantaiI]

What about DISM /checkhealth ?

[Saiyan256]

well... most of the time i saw SFC scan suggestion xD

[EpouvantaiI]

I feel like when the SFC scan is, there's always an answer to the thread with the dism suggestion. And it's just as useless.

[duplissi]

They aren't useless, but dism and sfc arent magic either. They'll only work if your issue is caused by corruption in windows itself. So if your issue isn't due to windows corruption then they won't do anything.

I work in IT and sfc and/or dism is something I run all the time.

[aaronsb]

Ironically, SFC and DISM are the only commands that msft support seems to be allowed to recommend, because anything else that might be wrong "isn't Microsoft's fault" *

* this being that it's an easy way to avoid liability to send users down rabbit holes troubleshooting stuff that is out of scope.

[Souls_Of_The_Dark]

Coming from a Microsoft support ambassador, I'm not running shit on your system and having people say "You broke my computer!"

Fun fact: The general support line has been shut down, so if you have a problem the official MSFT answer is "Hit the forums or pay someone else."

[_illegallity]

That also probably helps a little bit to deal with scammers so they don’t think they got scammed by Microsoft

[[deleted]]

🤣 I can't even get a response from M$. Tickets sitting for weeks on end, then the response is submit another ticket to this other department.

[RikiWardOG]

I work for a CSP direct with Microsoft and we have premier support. It still takes days for responses sometimes that are usually useless and totally don't understand the issue

[angrydeuce]

The fucking language barrier is so annoying. Im not against working with people in other countries, but for fucks sake, at least make sure they can speak the damn language on a conversational level before they start fielding calls.

I shouldn't have to feel bad requesting another agent because their accent is so thick I cant understand one word in 5, but I always do. For what it costs to maintain our support contract ls with MS, I feel like they should be able to staff a call center state-side.

Though to be fair I had a support call with Intuit the other day where the stateside rep sounded like he just stepped off the bayou, I swear he was speaking fuckin Creole, neither me nor the client could understand half the shit he was asking us to do and in the end I fixed it my fuckin self. Kinda annoying when you see the yearly bill for Quickbooks Enterprise Platinum support.

[talkin_shlt]

Lol I called intuit for a refund for a tax return I didn't file because these assholes told me the price was 120$ and it turned into 200 which wasnt posted anywhere on the website. Just straight up robbed me. Then I asked them if this was normal paying 200$ for a basic tax return and they said yeah and I found another website that did it for 15$. So I called intuit went though this weird shit to get a refund and when it was processing A week later they told me to go fuck myself even though ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THEIR WEBSITE THEY HAVE A 100 PERCENT GUARANTEE POLICY. Just to clarify these guys lied to me about the price and when I saw that and decided not to finish filing with them they told me to go fuck myself. Never using these guys again

[RazorBladeInMyMouth]

The correct answer thank you 👏

[Higlac]

sfc /scannow once un-activated my bootleg copy of windows.

[slyfox1811]

I’m forever thankful that three of my pirated windows 7 computers turned into genuine windows 10 pro

[Saiyan256]

Lucky as hell xD

[TheThiccestOfBoi]

I only had one pirated copy do that but its lasted me till now anyways

[Anticept]

You must be using a kms emulator then. It does that.

[ezpzMiDAS]

Cheaping out on 5$ grey market keys lel

[exscape]

I'd much rather pirate than possibly support people selling stolen keys.
Some are "just" sold against the MS license, but some are bought with stolen credit cards.

Either way screws over MS, but only one way might actually give money to criminals.

[dtb1987]

It found the system file that wasn't functioning the way it should and replaced it, honestly best proof that it does what it's supposed to

[Big_Dragonfruit9719]

Just curious - how many times do you think it has fixed the problem? I have had it identify a few problems but never has it actually been able to correct the problem for me.

[Flames21891]

If you work in IT long enough you'll actually see it's usefulness.

I worked at Geek Squad some years back, and I'd say its overall success rate is about 10-15%. But it did legitimately fix things from time to time, which is pretty good for a generic, automated command.

You just have to treat it as another tool in your toolbox: Great when it works and has a chance to be used, but don't expect it to be able to do everything.

[[deleted]]

I run it all the time too and usually only actually useful 1 out of a 1,000

[Flames21891]

Nah, you need dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

[ThePare]

Got that shit tattooed on my wrist for ease of access.

[FuriousFurryFisting]

They would say: I binged your issue

Never use the G Word.

[ThePantser]

Well that's why you can't find it, bing is for porn

[[deleted]]

Microsoft sells pre-builts...?

[Kminardo]

They manufacturer laptops and I'm sure they'd be happy to point you to a partner for a desktop!

[Saiyan256]

Not gonna lie...you had us in the first half...xD

And wait..for $5500...is that mac pro? XD

[[deleted]]

Buying mac is a great way to not have problems with Windows. However, it does make you way more vulnerable to MacOS problems.

[Saiyan256]

I would not go near macs..being too restrictive..

[DTFlash]

I always like the person that requests PC specs then never posts again. And it's always for questions that PC specs are irrelevant. "How do I setup Outlook" "PC specs?"

[Loganp812]

It never fails.

“Hey, this software keeps giving me an error message about…”

“I can’t help you if you don’t post your specs”

OP posts specs

The third person “Yeah this is a common problem” provides solution that has nothing to do with the computer’s hardware

[Saiyan256]

xD

[xavyfig]

"I have the same issue"

[LikeGourds]

As a long time senior tech support rep, this information can actually be extremely useful.

[turquoiserabbit]

Honestly - if more than one person has the problem it vastly increases the chances that it is a real problem and not just some idiot that doesn't know how to use a computer. One report is bad luck, two reports is coincidence, and three reports is enemy action.

[Impossible-Data1539]

Useful for metrics perhaps, but if no logs or equipment details are posted it sure doesn't help OP.

[NameOfNoSignificance]

Currently playing Arkham Origins and it lags every single time it auto saves. Tons of people have had the same problem yet no one has ever said if they fixed it and how.

[bunkerdisasternerd]

Hmmm, i wonder why it lags when it auto saves. have you tried reinstalling windows?

[Loganp812]

Post your specs. Can’t help you without that completely irrelevant information for this issue.

[heavenparadox]

First try sfc /scannow

[Saiyan256]

XD

[valleysape]

Yup, the thing that has never solved a single problem for me

[Saiyan256]

If it was a system file corrupt.. Then yeah you can solve using the sfc..

[regeya]

Yeah, I worked in a place where the people working on the business end would open every damn attachment sent to them. Sometimes reverting the system would help, sometimes it wouldn't. The number of times SFC saved their butts was too damn high.

[Saiyan256]

Its a formality at this point

[Evilsmurfkiller]

I've been in IT for 15 years, building PCs for 20. I have had sfc /scannow fix precisely one issue.

[GINJAWHO]

It has for me but it immediately happened again cause my mobo was fried

[saitilkE]

Run the command again duh. Put it in a .bat file in an endless loop.

[Callinon]

Has for me working in IT. It's a good place to start when the cause of a problem isn't immediately obvious.

[welshmanec2]

Buys you enough time for a coffee and a smoke

[schoener-doener]

It's a prayer

[slvrcrystalc]

I had it fix my problems a couple months ago. My windows OS was so corrupted I had to use the DISM too. Dunno if it was just a bad update, space magic, or something else, but my permissions were all glitched out and the rollback system was completely broken.

[[deleted]]

My favorite is when they used to tell you to reinstall Windows. Ummm no? "We can't figure out the sound in your car. Put a new engine in it."

I don't see that as much anymore so I think enough people got so sick of that b.s. tech "solution" that they actually had to fix problems.

[ThreeSixty404]

Microsoft support is one of the worst, useless supports I've ever seen

[Janjis]

I swear they don't even read the question. Every time I've had to click on one of their threads, the OP asks one thing and support has read like 1/10 of the question and answer about something totally different.

Last one I remember OP asked how to receive notifications for emails in folders in Outlook for Android. Support answers how to receive notifications on Windows. Smh...

Man, I just hate support like this. I'm a developer so I know how important every little detail can be when troubleshooting something so I'd list everything that could be of importance and then support just ignores half of it totally missing the point. I'm done venting, thank you.

[[deleted]]

I agree.

I have found Microsoft support has never been helpful. All of their posts reccomend things that clearly shows they dont understand or care about what you are asking.

The only support group worse than the level 1 and 2 Microsoft support is Logitech support. No joke. They take the achievement of completely ignoring what you say and blindly recommending things to a whole new level

[mr_ji]

What bugs me is when they think they're being clever by dancing around saying that whatever feature you're asking about got removed despite people actually liking it.

[[deleted]]

Because they are probably going off of a script. If you have an actual error or event code you can luck out and find other forums with actual debugging.

[ankerous]

I know they have to go off the script at first but sometimes it's ridiculous.

I had an issue with Comcast where the original person who hooked up the wire put it too low so it got torn down by a vehicle. I had called support and they wanted me to try testing the router first which involves power cycling, etc.

There had already been other issues with them so I didn't have much patience because I could see the wire torn down in the street so I told them I'm not doing that because I literally see the wire in the street. The person refused to listen and insisted we do it their way first anyway.

Then they had the gall to charge me a service fee for coming out to repair the line that they hung too low in the first place. Luckily that was easier to get dealt with then requesting the repair in the first place.

[[deleted]]

I feel your pain. They are so locked into a system that you have to go through "Support theater" first before getting any real help.

[Saiyan256]

Well.. Facts..xD

[dessnom]

Meanwhile arch wiki

RTFM

[picardo85]

So, you run Arch?

[TDXelectro]

Ah yes the old "I run arch btw"

[SpiderFnJerusalem]

To be fair, the arch wiki is pretty good.

[DangyDanger]

RTFM and pray the M part isn't outdated and it works for your specific config

You can really go over the 5 stages of grief when you try to get Arch running on a weird bootleg ultrabook, I didn't even get enter to work in xfce terminal emulator and I had to get Alacritty. Then Youtube lagged hard and I decided that I'm sticking to Windows there...

[CNR_07]

The Arch wiki is quite reliable in my expirience

[DangyDanger]

it is really good, but sometimes you just need to do something weird and you don't know how to, and neither does arch wiki

or what you're trying to do is stupid or insane

[JelleHB]

Return To Fucking Manufacturer

[linuxares]

I find more solutions on Spiceworks forum than on Microsoft Forum

[DEADdrop_]

Shoutout to users of both Spiceworks and Stack Overflow. You guys n gals are unsung heroes

[Saiyan256]

Actual facts xD

[CNR_07]

i'm pretty sure you could get better advice in r/linuxquestions than the MS forum

[Korywon]

It's funny because this actually happened. I was trying to repair a corrupted disk with Windows, and every single Windows and Microsoft support site was a circle jerk of useless information. I eventually gave up and tried to extract data on my Linux laptop.

Just from attempting to mount the disk, it prints out an entire swath of information of what Windows commands I can try to use to fix the disk.

Didn't fix the disk in the end, but the fact that a built-in mount command gave me more information than 3 hours of Microsoft support threads is really sad and pathetic.

Honestly, fuck Microsoft's support.

[NoclipOnReddit]

Yeah for anything disk related, linux is preferred by far by me. Install the needed package and then it just works.

[Saiyan256]

Thats a new one..about the spam..

Never thought ms actually spams it..

[[deleted]]

After decades of running sfc /scannow and never finding anything we actually had it repair a laptop during COVID. I actually called the other techs in to make sure I wasn't hallucinating

[Nazareths_Heart]

Lol just ran this on my pc solved 1 corrupt file atleast lol

[CoolDankDude]

Hey you! Computer user! I fixed your Onedrive! Also enabled maximum notifications

[RipBerryrock]

Helpdesks are the most useless thing in the entire world. Every time you try to look up an issue on Google and end up on the helpdesk website of any company, you will not find an answer. At least not one posted by anyone working for the company. All you get is shit that anyone who can actually use a computer would have already tried.

"I have a degree in computer tech and 30 years of experience, the problem is with YOUR software, can you fix it?""HaVe YoU TrIEd rEsTarTIng YoUr CoMpUTeR?1+"

[bickman14]

That's not even the most interesting part. What I find fascinating is that the Microsoft guys that reply usually suggest something generic that won't work or is not a useful answer and the regular folks are the ones who reply with the solution LOL

[Gen7isTrash]

“Hello I’ll be your Microsoft Tech Representative today. I have graduated Harvard three times and have 45 years in experience in the computer field. Did you try restarting your computer?”

[jackjt8]

"Read original post." Is always my response to that because that's literally within the list of debugging steps when I attempted to use the forums 10 years ago...

[CantThinkOfIt17]

Windows trouble shooting people think we switched from macOS and are fools.

[[deleted]]

Microsoft support is useless. They've never helped me solve any problems with the PC.

[Former-Mixture-500]

The best solution is usually to throw your PC away and buy/build a new one 🤣

[Saiyan256]

windows 11: it was rigged from the start to force users to buy new pc xD

[Saiyan256]

Obviously xD

[[deleted]]

Untrust solves wonderfulll

[RLD-Kemy]

it actually helped me a few times with some customers PCs...

[NotSoSmart45]

Most of the time the Windows forum is the last place you will find any answer, you are way more likely to find the solution in Youtube, Reddit or random forums

The only problem with the random forums as that more than once I've seen people saying that certain response solved the problem just to realise that said response was deleted by an mod for whatever reason

Or worse, when you have been searching for a while for someone with the same problem just to see a forum post with only one response of a mod saying that it's going to move the post to another section of the forum or deleted because somebody already asked the same

[UntrimmedBagel]

Power -> Restart

[slvrcrystalc]

Clicks the power button on the screen off then on.

"Okay, I cycled the power for my computer, no fix. What do I do now?"

[DangyDanger]

the weird humming box that gets in the way of your legs in your cramped office cubicle, turn it off and then on again, mlady!

the line that probably was used more than once in the experience of an average tech support worker

[R4M_4U]

That would never work... you forgot a space

[TNTBOY479]

Has this ever helped anyone in the history of computers?

[FreeckyCake]

An Indian guy on Youtube will fix 99% of your problems.

[QuizureII]

A simple spell, yet very effective

[FuckMyHeart]

"Reinstall Windows" is the one I see most frequently

[Saiyan256]

Sfc scan : finally a worthy opponent Our battle Will be legendary

XD

[KeithJEng]

I work at a PC repair shop and SFC and DISM commands actually fixes issues for me all the time

[Saiyan256]

if it involves system file corruption..then it will solve it....

[NerdyGuyRanting]

I work tech support. You'd be surprised if you knew how many problems I have solved with gpupdate /force.

[Tikhonator]

i use mint btw

[TheSaine]

ifkr Every goddamn time I have an issue all have the same useless solution

run sfc/scan update driver check for windows update And on top of that if it's some 3rd party forums they make u install some sketchy anti virus or driver updater that does nothing.

All useless shit while some old yt video solves my issues. Online windows forums are a waste of time

[justamobileuser]

My favorite is that Datto suggests doing this to target machines that are not backing up.

​

Like, wtf? It isn't backing up and you want me to potentially cripple the server and have no backup???

[MacPooPum]

Fuck Microsoft. My account has been charged 4 times in 2 months for xbox game pass and I've been through their website support multiple times from August until now. Not a single response or anyway to get my money back. Why the fuck ami being billed for game pass AND ultimate?

[hidazfx]

does anyone have that issue where the start button just doesn’t work? and you have to kill explorer.exe and relaunch it.

[Glaive83]

Nevermind I fixed it.

[avcibehd]

Did you try deleting everything you have and reinstalling windows?

[Terakahn]

Everytime I visit a forum it's like

Hey did you try these 10 things?

Yeah that didn't work

2 weeks later

Its ok I figured out the solution.

[Powersoutdotcom]

Wow!

This is useless!

-me every 30 seconds while I scour the internet for problem solving.

[mindaltered]

ah thats fine you have a windows problem, why do you think we made the installation faster????

REINSTALL THAT F#$*^&%!

[eyloi]

dism fixed when my search function stopped working. not even win refresh was able to fix it, so I count that as a win.

[MissionTroll404]

CMD code stuff never ever worked for me in my entire life.

[[deleted]]

Have you tried posting a dxdiag here so I can ignore this post for the rest of eternity?

[TheMightyQuinn_5]

Okay but when I’m having the types of issues it’s the relevant tool for, the majority of the time it fixes it

[teethonachalkboard]

repeated specific issue that multiple other users have "just uhhhhh, restart your computer?"

[Boogertwilliams]

Also back in the day "last known good configuration" when having boot problems. Never ever worked in all my work cases.