Abracadabra! Harry Potter, ghosts, and magic at the help desk

During my years working at a locally owned PC repair shop and at a company that provided tech support for thousands of computers, I learned the essentials of troubleshooting basic computer problems — namely, don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s your best bet to identify the crucial detail that helps you get to the root of the issue. Even then, finding the solution sometimes comes down to a bit of intuition — and maybe a touch of magic even a boy wizard might appreciate.

The ghostlike sounds in the machine

One item high on IT’s list of Most Irritating Things to Troubleshoot has to be the phantom noises users report that happen “every now and then” but are “really annoying.” Nothing quite beats spending an hour with a system and not being able to reproduce the problem.

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I figured that’s exactly how I’d be spending my time when a customer brought in a personal computer that was making “strange noises” while in use. When asked to explain the mysterious tones coming from the system, the user narrowed it down to “whoosh,” “creaking,” and “ghostlike.”

I thought that those descriptions made this problem particularly peculiar — not exactly the normal grinding sound you get from a failing system fan or, heaven forbid, a faulty hard drive.

Once the customer left and I had the system in the back, I ran through the typical process of elimination, first checking the fans and running tests on the hardware. Everything came back fine.

Once in the operating system, I started going through various power settings and running a stress test, but I was still unable to reproduce the noises. Then I noticed something: The mouse pointer had been changed into what appeared to be a wand. I immediately checked the preferences and found a “Harry Potter” desktop theme installed.

At this point I was grinning, relieved to have ended the goose chase much earlier than I had originally feared. I grabbed some speakers, hooked them up to the system, and went to the sound profile on the computer. One by one, I went down the system sounds and confirmed that this theme included WAV files such as “whoosh,” “creaking,” and even “ghostlike sounds.”

After letting the customer know the system was fixed, I waited until they came back in to go into detail as to what I’d discovered. It was much easier to show them what the source of the strange sounds was versus explaining it over the phone. Plus, it was good for another round of laughs.

Of mice and mirth

We all know how much fun it is to provide remote support for keyboards and mice that aren’t working, don’t we?

Well, a particular user in the company was having problems with her wireless mouse. We spent a solid 15 to 20 minutes on the phone going through all the basic steps, such as making sure it was turned on and confirming that she had successfully changed the batteries. I even remoted in to make sure this wasn’t one of the “fun with corrupted drivers” moments.

Everything checked out just fine. The next step was to have her reseat the USB receiver for the wireless mouse into a different USB slot.

Her tech level hovered somewhere between “casual user” and “I use it because the job makes me,” so I explained the next move by saying, “I want to try one more step. Do you know the small receiver that is plugged into your computer through a USB port?”

This prompted her to respond, “Oh, yes! Do you want me to plug that back in?”

She had unplugged it before calling our support desk while she was trying to figure out why the mouse wasn’t working. I had to mute my headset temporarily while I took a moment for a facepalm and a big sigh.

I had her plug the USB receiver back in, and she yelled out, “Oh wow! You’re a genius! It’s working now!”

I figured this was an occasion to hold my tongue and accept the compliment so I could get off the phone before I let my sarcastic nature get the best of me.

All in all, it can be a relief when a problem turns out to be so simple. I gotta admit — they’re also memorable in their own way.

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This story, “Abracadabra! Harry Potter, ghosts, and magic at the help desk,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more crazy-but-true stories in the anonymous Off the Record blog at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.