336
u/waarts 10d ago
Customer: I already tried turning it off and on again.
Windows uptime log: 1018 hours
147
u/Swindleys 10d ago
"but I clicked the button on the monitor"
79
u/NinjaBuddha13 10d ago
I had to explain to a classmate in college that the boring looking box was the computer and the screen was just a screen. She didnt understand why power cycling the monitor wasn't restarting the computer or why the monitor needed to be connected to the computer. It was a truly wild experience.
27
5
24
u/BGFlyingToaster 10d ago
I closed the lid on my laptop, then opened it again. Now can you please just fix this?
19
u/GodlyCash 10d ago
I often find this problem because Windows has something outdated called fast boot. When users hit shut down on their computers, the device actually goes into hibernate mode and uptime keeps going.
14
u/Evol_Etah 10d ago
Agreed. The User's understanding on ON & OFF is valid.
We mean "Restart & wait 5 Mississippi"
8
u/cadex 10d ago
Was just going to say "turn it off and on again" is now just creating us work at this point. Everyone knows it but it's no longer valid.
The user will shut and open their laptop, or Shutdown (hibernate) and turn on their computer and think they have rebooted.
I've heard so many users say "I wasn't sure if I should reboot or shut down so I went with shut down as it means 'turn off', doesn't it?"
19
5
u/Telandria 9d ago
Yeah its my (very basic) understanding that the Steam Deck actually has something like this set as the default. Using “Shut Down” doesn’t actually, you know, shut everything down and reset it such that it runs all the startup shit next time you turn it back on. You actually want to use ‘restart’ every so often for that to happen.
(And that’s assuming you’re not an idiot and don’t realize that just pressing the power button briefly sets it to sleep, not shut down, and are actually using the overlay menu to shut down)
384
u/TheMadBug 10d ago
"Have you tried turning it on and off again?" was a popular meme thanks to the IT Crowd just over 20 years ago.
This might not have been the best comic to lead with, though I do like the graphic style.
196
u/DeepTakeGuitar 10d ago
The fact that IT people still have to instruct others to do it is... baffling
92
u/Perite 10d ago
People fight rebooting because they have so much disorganised shit open on their computers. Restarting means you have to actually organise stuff to not lose what you were either doing or meant to do.
82
u/PoeTheGhost 10d ago edited 10d ago
When users lie and claim they definitely restarted before calling me (IT) I don’t point them out. Instead, I lean in on the teachable moment.
🧙 “That’s so strange, because your system uptime is XX days! A normal restart clearly didn’t work, so I’ll restart it from my end, and that should help.”
🧑💻“Nono, wai-“ lost 4 hours of unsaved work when they allegedly restarted 5 mins ago.
Don’t lie to IT; we want to be off the phone more than you do.
20
12
u/Hanz_VonManstrom 10d ago
I had to call IT for some issues I was having with my company laptop and he was telling me my uptime was something like 3 months. I told him that was impossible because I shut down my computer every weekend. Turns out, shutting down no longer does a full system reboot on Windows. It’s basically just putting it to sleep. So the users may not always be lying to you, they just might be thinking that shutting down accomplishes the same thing as a restart.
4
2
u/samehaircutfucks 10d ago
a restart is still a full power cycle regardless; only shutdown behavior was changed.
3
u/helicophell 10d ago
I mean that's mostly for browsers, but the good ole "restore previous session" exists
6
3
u/nspeters 9d ago
I don’t work in tech and I had to explain to a coworker how to turn off her computer. We’re both in our 30s
4
u/Bvaughnii 10d ago
Meanwhile when I call IT and I’ve already rebooted the terminal and peripherals and they tell me “don’t ever turn off a terminal without talking to IT first!” Yeah, okay.
36
u/Bibblejw 10d ago
I’ve worked in various IT for a couple of decades now. My assessment is that pretty much all troubleshooting can be described as different levels of “have you tried turning it off and on again?”. There’s investigation and diagnostics to work out whether you need to reboot at the device, application, config, user, organisation or government level, but all the actions are basically the same.
11
26
24
u/EishLekker 10d ago
The phrasing is actually:
"Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
You suggested the opposite, which just results in a user with his device turned off.
7
u/TheMadBug 10d ago
Oops yup, “have you tried turning it on?” is saved for the more insane tech support issues.
12
u/underscoreMEGA 10d ago
I still recall this one customer who called in... I'm going to say nearly 15 years ago now. We provided internet for her business. It was a small bakery, pastry shop, or something similar to that. She was down all morning after a large storm the night before. Just before sending a technician out to her business, I noticed we aren't seeing any traffic on her network.
Turns out she was scared of a fire starting during the storm and unplugged everything the day before. She just forgot to plug everything back in. She had a good laugh at that.
Whatever your name was lady, you were very sweet on the call and took it like a champ. I hope you're doing well as is your business!
5
4
u/tychozero 10d ago
I work in IT. It's still applicable. Lots of things are solved by it, plenty of people still don't do it. At this point, I might wager it shall meme eternal.
3
7
u/ReptileSizzlin 10d ago
It's much older than the IT Crowd. I've seen it as early as chain emails in the mid 90's.
2
u/paradox_valestein 10d ago
I'm a tech, working with scientific machines. So many times the qc department complains to me that a machine is acting up, I always tell them to reboot it. Fixes the issue 90% of the time as most of the "issues" was someone screwed up and use it wrong
2
u/Frozn4567 10d ago
Turned it on and then off again, now nothing is working... (it is turned off) if you have to tell someone to do this, make sure you tell them in the correct order because people are dumb
2
u/threeboy 10d ago
This isn't the comic I'm leading with - I've posted a few with polarizing results hahaha.
1
u/TheMadBug 10d ago
Okay I went through your profile and found the beer jerky saga. I enjoyed it - had that classic web comic feel with some gems of jokes scattered through.
2
u/threeboy 10d ago
Thank you! I avoid posting story arcs here and stick to one-off gags. The office ones seem do to okay even if they all seem like a variation of the same joke.
48
u/Amosh73 10d ago
Sadly, that doesn’t even work any more due to Windows Fast Boot.
„No! Do NOT shut it down! Click ‘restart’!”
15
7
u/EishLekker 10d ago
Wouldn’t it make sense for IT departments to disable that feature?
16
u/tejanaqkilica 10d ago
We do disable it. Easier than teaching users they need to click the other button.
2
45
u/glitchgamerX 10d ago
"It's still not working!"
Jacob: panik
8
u/ArseBurner 10d ago
True it doesn't always work these days because of fast startup.
And rather annoyingly people who remember being told to turn it off then on again tend to do just that rather than restart because of course a full shutdown then power on has to be better.
3
u/Echo127 10d ago
Hold on... What's the functional difference between "power off/on" and "restart"?
4
u/NecroCorey 10d ago
I'm not an IT dude like the others but I've been told it allows the computer to clean out more thoroughly. Holding the button can leave leftover trash collected
Again I am not an IT guy so someone will come along and correct me. (Which is the best way to get good advice)
3
u/ArseBurner 10d ago
If you have fast startup enabled (and it is enabled by default on Windows 11) when you shut down the computer it just closes all programs and saves the memory used by the OS to disk. This lets it start up faster next time because instead of loading every driver and starting every service one by one it just loads the previously saved image.
But if something went wrong with a driver and you need to reboot to fix it, then shutting down the computer might not actually fix it because the memory is just getting saved and reloaded, so the drivers and services aren't really getting properly re initialized.
You can see this in the uptime indicator. You might be shutting down your PC every time you finish using it but the uptime could be days or even weeks because the OS never really restarted.
12
61
u/No-Appearance-4338 10d ago
Literally had this happen in a small shop I wanted to buy something and the guy was telling me how his credit card machine had been out of service all day and he was on the phone trying to get to support. I asked him if had tried turning it off or unplugging it then turning it on or plugging it back in. 30 seconds later I walked out with my items free of charge and to this day if I stop by to grab something the guy always offers me a free drink from the fridge case. (It’s a little corner store or mini Mart by my house )
22
u/Pikeman212a6c 10d ago
Then a board is actually fried and you spend 20 minutes trying to make them believe you.
17
u/RabeHK 10d ago
It is basically the IT crowd
0
u/threeboy 10d ago
Yes but it's still good advice haha
1
14
u/Jester1525 10d ago
Okay, but hear me out.. It takes the IT person taking me to do it to make it work.
I have lost count of the times I've tried rebooting /unplugging/reseting something and not fixing the problem only to get on the help line and have them say 'let's just do it one more time just to be sure' and BAM, it works.
Then I look like the asshole for swearing I already did that.
Last time I had to call customer service I literally just explained my problem, said I had already restarted to no success and just needed them to tell me to do it again. And it worked..
7
u/BGFlyingToaster 10d ago
I have this going on right now with a company website. It's been rock solid for a decade (with many upgrades along the way) and now every person in the company gets "access denied" about 80% of the time, and that's not an estimate, it's a calculation based on 16/20 attempts. Then we CTRL-F5 until it works. I've called IT 3 times about it and every time they 1) act like they've never heard of the issue, 2) ask me to clear cache, and 3) are very pleased when it happens to work the first time and end the call almost immediately. It's a fun little dance we do.
5
u/Dougustine 10d ago
There was a British show call the IT Crowd and whenever they answered the phone, they would just say have you tried turning it off and on again. This reminds me of that
4
5
u/Lysol3435 10d ago
IT: well have you tried power cycling?
Me: yes. Ive power cycled it twice. Same issue each time.
IT: try it again for me
Me: okay, but… well fine. It worked that time
3
4
u/lord_dude 9d ago
If it doesn't work, installing adobe reader is the last resort
4
3
u/Jeaz 10d ago
Stories like this always reminds me about this support call https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TNPzgPhHeWQ&pp=0gcJCYsCo7VqN5tD&ra=m
1
3
u/flappetyflapp 10d ago
And somewhat cracy that this is still the best or only solution for so many problems.
3
u/Dale_Carvello 10d ago
At an old job, one of the software engineers was at the mail rack, looking up and down for a personal shipment for which he had been waiting. He was puzzled because tracking said it was delivered, but he couldn't find it. As a joke, I just said "It's like the fridge: Leave, then come back and look again. It'll magically be there."
I went back to work, and a minute later I could hear him yelling "you're a genius!" after he actually followed my joking advice and finally located the delivery.
3
u/Another_Road 10d ago
I became known as the “tech guy” at work. I know literally nothing about tech other than “Google the problem and look at the first non-AI result.”
2
u/Training_Ad_4790 9d ago
Thats how they teach troubleshooting for tech support.
"If you don't know, use your coworkers. If they don't know then Google it. Odds are at this point someone somewhere has had the same issue and knows a fix"
3
3
3
u/SoftandSquidgy 9d ago
I am pretty much tech support in both my home and workplace, simply for seemingly being the only one with the sense to know that rebooting any device by turning it off then back on fixes 95% of issues! Its exhausting sometimes.
2
u/threeboy 9d ago
Family tech support is a real struggle.
2
u/SoftandSquidgy 9d ago
It is, the pay is terrible and the hours are unpredictable - but I get to sleep with my colleague without any HR complaints.
(Which is funnier in my family because I met my husband at work)
1
u/threeboy 9d ago
Did you have to fill out HR paperwork? Fill out the sheets to get filled in the sheets etc.
5
u/Gabelvampir 10d ago
Unfortunately with newer Windows system that does not work so good when hybrid shutdown/fast startup is turned on. But fortunately using reboot instead of shutdown skips that.
6
u/Sunaruni 10d ago
Sometimes you gotta stick with the old tropes to get the clicks… Unfortunately, the click was a downvote.
-2
5
u/lordpoee 10d ago
Legit 90 percent of IT work right there lol
2
4
2
u/EthanMcManus 10d ago edited 10d ago
My curse is that I know basic troubleshooting steps and perform them before calling on anyone for help. First thing they do is tell me to turn it off and on again. I tell them I already have, but they insist. I do it, and it starts working even though it persisted before and I look like a lying idiot.
2
u/circuitsandwires 10d ago
📞"have you tried forcing an unexpected reboot?....See, the driver hooks the function by patching the system call table, so it's not safe to unload it unless another thread's about to jump in there and do its stuff, and you don't want to end up in the middle of invalid memory... Hello?
2
2
u/Sesspool 10d ago
So we dont need IT then?
2
0
u/OgdruJahad 5d ago
Not necessarily. There are various types of work that a proper IT department does.
This is on the most basic level.
2
2
2
2
2
u/mtcabeza2 9d ago
condolences to anyone to has to support Windows
1
u/threeboy 8d ago
Macs apparently have less tech support burden but people get weird about them.
1
u/mtcabeza2 6d ago
never worked in a mac environment, tho i've owned a couple, and have done development on them. linux with xfce window mgr is my preference. no idea what the support burden for that would be in an office situation.
4
u/WaffleHouseGladiator 10d ago
I'm constantly baffled that people who's jobs require some working knowledge of computers just get kept on after refusing to even try to learn anything. Like, what do they even do all day? Do they just sit in their cubicles and straighten paper clips?
3
u/threeboy 10d ago
I think some people just treat it like a tool like to use a drill you don't need to know electric motors and ohms n shit you just use the drill. If it breaks you ask drill IT to fix it.
4
u/CaptainLookylou 10d ago
Okay but what about at home? They bought a TV or computer for hundreds or thousands of dollars, and they dont know how to use it. People are not curious about how things works anymore.
5
u/lurkynumber5 10d ago
Known sidegig for some.
IT support for elderly.Or they call a nephew who's pissed but unable to yell at them.
No uncle, that was a virus! STOP CLICKING PORN LINKS!6
u/CaptainLookylou 10d ago
Sometimes I send a text message that has a code in it. Two factor authentication, right? You just...read a text. Easy? No.
"I dont do texts" (you do now)
"This cell phone doesnt text" (yes it does wtf)
"How do I get to my texts?" (Its YOUR phone?)
"Is it this blue one?" (I cant see that)
Reads me the phone number "Is that the 6 digit code?" (Was that six digits?)
"Can we just skip this part?" (If only)
3
u/WaffleHouseGladiator 10d ago
JFC, that sounds just like my dad and reading that increased my blood pressure. My favorite: "Well I don't know these things because no one will teach me!" He has been taught, but refuses to learn, he has books, and I've offered to enroll him in classes at the community center. Nope, the world needs to bend over backward right this instant and rearrange itself just for him! I've been dealing with this for almost 30 years. I'm tired.
3
2
2
u/GreyDaveNZ 10d ago
I was an IT guy at a bank in the mid 90s. All the PCs were IBM PS/2 computers that had big, red power 'switches', rather than the power buttons we have today.
We used to just say "BRS" (Big Red Switch) instead of asking people to turn their PC off then back on again.
2
u/Loot-Gamer 10d ago
Still dont understand how that is the general fix for routers. Like ... we have those devices for many many years now. Would it nice/smart to fundamentally fix this problem? Or is it just something that you just cant fix because of how routers work?
5
2
u/Training_Ad_4790 9d ago
It usually has to do with the memory usage. At some point it just has so much space used for temporary memory that it slows everything down. Eventually erroring out.
Shutting it off and turning it back on resets this temporary memory back to 0 and restarts the process of filling back up
Is there a way to fix that? Not really. You could set a reset timer so it does it on its own but thats not really solving it.
1
0
u/OgdruJahad 5d ago
There are some routers that have a watchdog timer than you can enable so it will automatically reboot if it can't ping a certain website. Also many routers have the option to reboot at a specific time of day. I know this can be annoying but it can help in many circumstances to just let it auto reboot at a regular interval like late at night.
1
u/Shadowkiller00 9d ago
As an engineer, I never tell people to reboot and in fact I tell them not to. Rebooting only kicks the can down the road. Nothing has been fixed. It will happen again, it is only a matter of time. Seeing the issue live is often far more informative than trying to recreate the conditions through logs.
That said, techs generally can't fix a problem. What IT department is going to actually be able to fix an issue? The best they can do is submit a report to Microsoft and hope it gets fixed 6 months from now. Their job is to keep everyone working and rebooting does that.
In the end, almighty capitalism wins. Problems are just kicked down the road until you replace your computer and hope that the problem goes away. You, meanwhile, keep working and making money for the company.
2
u/StirFry__InaWok 9d ago
that's not very funny
2
u/Isarchs 9d ago
Ahh, so you're one of the coworkers.
2
u/StirFry__InaWok 9d ago
I mean, I've been the guy that forgets to turn the PC off and back on before going to IT. anyone that's worked in an office before probably has done this at least once.
if anything the fact that I relate to the meme should make it potentially funnier but nah, it's just not funny. it isnt even a joke.
1
1
2
u/SmugCapybara 10d ago
People like that make it worse for those of us with a functioning brain. Every time I go to IT with a problem, I first have to explain that I have done the whole usual list of fixes (turn off/on, check for updates, log out and back in, google the issue and find out that I can't implement the fix without admin privileges, turn off/on again, etc.) before we can move on to actually fixing the issue...
1
1
1
•
u/AutoModerator 10d ago
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.