Bizzare repairs.

What's the most unusual or bizzare fix you've ever done?

I've been playing Deus Ex for several weeks now, and a couple days ago, it just stopped working right. Completely out of the blue. It would no longer run in full screen. I hadn't installed anything, I hadn't run any utilities, I hadn't made any system changes.

I thought maybe a file had gotten corrupted, so I tried reinstalling. Didn't help. I tried uninstalling and then reinstalling. Still had the same problem.

I ran a virus scan and a disk check, no problems. I tried rebooting, thinking maybe that would help. Nope.

I checked DXDiag, and it was now claiming that my video card did not support Direct3D or AGP Textureing? What the hell? I'd BEEN using Direct3D for months, and all of a sudden now it doesn't support it?

I tried upgrading the video drivers. Didn't help. I tried reinstalling DirectX, didn't help.

I was about to give up, and as a last, deperate effort, went to Matrox's web site to see about contacting their tech support. I noticed their forum area, and decided to look around and see if anyone else was having this problem. Found someone who had a similar situation, and decided to try his fix.

I had to launch Netmeeting, activate Remote Desktop Sharing, then disable it and close Netmeeting. Lo and behold, Direct3D and AGP were back and working perfectly!

What the hell???? What does Netmeeting have to do with Direct3D or AGP texturing? Absolutely bizzare fix!

What really makes me wonder, is how he figured out that was the solution. <IMG SRC="smilies/confused.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/confused.gif" border="0">

What I want to know is why didn't you Aug your mucsle fiber and drop some skill points into you hacking skills, I mean come on! <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0"> Can you tell I am Deus Ex FANATIC.

We are running Delgotto backup ( <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0"> ) on or win2k backup server, and in order to get it to back up open files correctly, we had to enable appletalk. WTF -- no macs here! Strictly a TCP/IP network!

Belive it or not I have heard about that problem. Have you ever run a net meeting? because Netmeeting automatically disables DirectX so it can run. If you end a netmeeting session without actually disconnecting and selecting file...exit. DirectX will be disabled untill you restart netmeeting and exit the proper way...I think I was bored one day and was browsing the microsoft knowledge base...and boy do you have to be bored to do that.

Sometimes a customer brings a machine which is really screwed up. When I turn it on after a day or a couple of days, it works fine. It makes me wondering. Are machines afraid of the techs?? <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

Quote:

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Originally posted by Captain Packrat:
What's the most unusual or bizzare fix you've ever done?

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Plenty of stupid stuff just like that, but luckily all found using MSDN or Google.

One thing that really gets me is when you have to install some completely unrelated piece of software to get an update or fix you require.

For example, we wanted Drag&Drop File-Upload through the browser capability for an internal web site which you need a certain version of FTP or something (can you tell I'm doing this from memory?) so the solution is to install IE5 on the server!

Sometimes it just doesn't make sense!

This was when I was working as a fire alarm tech... before I got into pc repair.

My company at the time had bought Acer laptops for every tech (and this is a nationwide company). The next year they bought another newer line of Acer's. I got one of the new ones. After I got it, I started it and about half hour later went to lunch and left it on.
I got back and it wouldnt start. I called our help desk and this is what he told me to do...
Close lid, turn it on to its lid where the bottom is facing up, and press down firmly with the palms of your hands from the bottom to the top. I did it.... and it worked.
Apparently the previous line of Acer laptops would have the same problem and that is where it was learned how to "correct" that problem . <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/tongue.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">

I think machines get "hiccups" I have had people call and say there machines wont power on or boot. They try all the usual methods, and I tell them to unplug it from the wall and plug them back in and low and behold it works. Never hear from them again on the issue.

Definatly a WTF.

This is not really on-topic, but i'll tell you guys anyway.

When I use to work at a small retail shop we had this customer who was a pig farmer. Believe it or not, he had the computer out in barn, he often forgot to put the plastic cover back on it, we could tell. He brought it in one day for service or an upgrade. The store stunk so bad, customers were leaving left, right and center for the next week! You won't believe the smell that poured out of it when Anthony (the other tech) opened the case up! :]

-BillTech