Issues with Laptops

[theopus]

I am a IT admin where I work. Seems that the laptops have more stability issues then desktops. DO you find the same? Is there an increased chance for a "blue screen" or system lock up when you are popping the notebook in and out of the docking station when it is online and connected? I have a user that seems to have more issues then other users. He is constantly telling me on every lock up , application hang, blue screen.
I agree he should not have to put up with these issues.. I can not help but feel that the lock ups and application hangs are related to the way he uses his notebook. Impatience in starting an app. starting something else at the same time. Installing odd little utilities from the web.

just not sure what to tell him ( well in a professional way )

Maybe there is a utility I should be using that will scan a system and tell me what is wrong with it... It takes SOOO much time tracking down every lockup or app hang.

[saltynay]

its how you use it not laptops in general. Mine is rock solid I have brought it down omb of hdd space left and running a file server in the background on it and it has never failed me. My friends have exactly the same laptops bought from school all the same models with the same starting software and there is one person who seems hopeless with it he is down with technicians atleast once a week as I can't be bothered to fix it for him any more and because its a school laptop we get free 24-7 technical support so I would rather waste the time of the guys who have the job of fixing it rather then mine own.

The technicians here are so slow though!!!!! I swear they have no passion for their job and take a whole day to do a job which takes me an hour.

[jorsoft03]

Originally Posted by theopus

I have a user that seems to have more issues then other users. He is constantly telling me on every lock up , application hang, blue screen.
I agree he should not have to put up with these issues.. I can not help but feel that the lock ups and application hangs are related to the way he uses his notebook. Impatience in starting an app. starting something else at the same time. Installing odd little utilities from the web.
just not sure what to tell him ( well in a professional way )

I can almost guarantee you that most of his laptop problems are his own fault. People who don't understand technology are usually extremely impatient with it and rather than admit to themselves that they should learn a little about how to use their computer properly, they decide that there's no way around it and just do whatever they want. Open whatever emails they want, download whatever crap they want, and then call Mr. Tech Support to blame it on when any little thing goes wrong. I used to do plenty of tech support and repair at my previous job and there are a LOT of these people. I'd fiddle with the idea of only giving his account guest privileges for a week and telling him not to run more than 1 or 2 apps at a time. Most of his problems will probably go away then.
Most computer problems that the average person faces, really, are software based. There's an issue with spyware, a driver, missing system files, something like that and a majority of the time it's the user's own doing that's causing him/her the problem in the first place. Computers just don't magically break or blue screen, something's been done to them.

[jbvertexpc]

Most agreed with jorsoft03. Sounds like a lot of software related issues that you've got your hands on.

[Lady_Jade]

I had someone who asked me to look at their laptop the other day- they complained of it running slow and so on. When I checked it out they were running too many softwares at the same time with the little memory they have. I told the person to get rid of some of them which to me was useless. But the person refused, so I refused to look at em. If patients don't care what can the doctors do?

[chadwik01]

I work for the IT Department at my college and had an issue with a faculty member the other day concerning her computer being slow on startup. When I went to her office to check it out, she said she would show me the problem. The Windows startup theme had barely finished playing before she was continuously clicking in an attempt to open up IE. It was a laptop and not as powerful as her desktop computer. Still, problems like this tend to be due to the user.