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Tech Support People Are Sharing The Worst Cases They’ve Seen While On The Job (30 Pics)
There's a subreddit called r/techsupportgore, and its name perfectly describes its content: people who fix computers upload photos of the nightmarish scenarios they find themselves in. From melted extension cords to server rooms that look like a jungle, some of these hardware disasters are so bad, you can't help but feel for the folks who have to fix them. So continue scrolling, check out the pics, and don't be surprised if you cringe to the brink of passing out after only a few of them.
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#1
Ticket Said "Camera Flickers To Fuzzy Brown Image Often"
One of the moderators of the subreddit, Coffeechipmunk, said the most popular posts there are those that depict situations just moments away from exploding. "[It's] very dangerous, but very cool looking. They probably get so big because people post the pics and you think, 'Wow, that's just a bomb at that point,'" they told Bored Panda.
The subreddit was created on the 29th of February, 2012, and since then it has grown into a 427K member-strong community. They aren't interested in trivial things like cracked screens or anything -- just the filthiest, nastiest gore there is. And it doesn't seem that it's drying out, too. Just think of all the people who acquire a new gadget or an appliance and are so eager to use it, they skip the operation manual (myself included).
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#2
“The Printer Isn’t Working”
"A lot of the content on the subreddit does rather well, except for people coming for actual tech support, they get redirected to the right subreddit. For actual tech support gore, though, it seems like broken screens and slightly messy wires are the current posts that don't hit too hard," Coffeechipmunk explained.
They think the reason why r/techsupportgore got so popular is quite a simple one: "Honestly... it's very fun," Coffeechipmunk said. "In a time where most of the internet can be incredibly serious and most times saddening or angering, r/techsupportgore is fun because you go on it and you can laugh (and/or cringe) at the crazy posts. Where else can you see a post like, "Wow, these cables really are messy" to, "A lizard fried my motherboard" back to back? I love our growing community. They're a bunch of people that just enjoy tech and to some extent, the worst of it."
#3
End User Had A Heater Next To The PC Which Was Randomly Shutting Off And She Thought She Had Smelled Burning A Couple Of Times. It Is Literally Screaming
If you are, however, afraid that you're gonna end up on this subreddit, there are things you can do to prevent it. There's plenty of information on the internet that you can utilize to become more tech savvy. There are forums, websites, and YouTube channels dedicated to specific fields where you can find comprehensive information on how to reset your iPhone and how to fix a malfunctioning laptop. Heck, if you're feeling really adventurous, you can even learn how to code.
When it comes to technology, the information is out there and it's available. You don't have to study computer science to know this stuff. Like a blacksmith who has an exact feel for how he needs to beat a piece of metal in order to mold it, knowledge and regular use of it will make you better at technology.
#4
I Can't Even...
#5
Hospital Server Room
Peter Kelly 4 years ago
This didn't suddenly get in this state! There must have been a long succession of technicians that kept adding to it without anyone saying, "STOP!!!"
Max L. 4 years ago
IT Technician in today world is the key figure needed by a manager to charge a user to plug a cable the same users plugs in at home without problems.
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Tiari 4 years ago
I doubt there are any hospitals in lockdown right now...
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Randomcthulu 4 years ago
I worked at a hotel where all the cables for the server were the same color blue. I was installing a physical firewall for tech support and they told me to plug in the blue cable. I had to email them a pic so that they could understand my problem. Literally heard the tech say "Oh s**t...we'll send a technician to your site."
Ivana Junas 4 years ago
My gf just went ballistic - she does tech stuff, sees this often, detests fixing it, doesn't understand why people do spaghetti in their server rooms.
Jace 4 years ago
Because they’re too lazy to re-route the cables correctly and want a “quick fix”... which makes things HELL in the long term. This is why we can’t have nice things.
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Chris Lee 4 years ago
We had an ongoing contract to provide computer wiring into large computer rooms with the usual suspended floors. My manager wanted to know why I took twice as long as everyone else. I explained that, rather than hurling the cable under the floor w***y nilly, I threaded it through the spaghetti like mess using the proper cable trays. "Well don't do that!" he yelled. Get it done quickly like everyone else. A week later, after several major installs, I was asked to return and remove the cable I had installed 'quickly'. It took me about 5 hrs to thread it back through the mess that looked like that above, but this time it had a large connector on one end. "Why did you take so long?" yelled my manager. I explained that I had laid it in straight line and it had been buried and tangled by subsequent installs. "Well why didn't you use the cable trays and do it properly?" he said!
Daniel Mason 4 years ago
Reminds me of the lady in the Guinness world records longest finger nails
danielw 4 years ago
Eh. fingernails that long are just.... wierd and terrifying. This... this monstrosity could kills somebody. Okay, probably an exageration. but it it's a critical server for a hospital... then whoever set this up needs to learn cable management.... reliability is a thing. This impacts uptime by requiring...probably hours... just to get to the rack.
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chi-wei shen 4 years ago
Head of our company's IT department: If it doesn't look like cable porn you'll get problems later.
Wendy Emlinger (ManyTotems) 4 years ago
Amateurs, just plain amateurs. I've been in server rooms done by pros and they never, ever look like this.
Celtic Pirate Queen 4 years ago
I worked for an IT company and you would not believe how often this occurs. There's a reason we color code and label everything. Yes, it does take a little linger and cost a bit more, but you will NEVER have to deal with this b******t again.
M O'Connell 4 years ago
Except it's a hospital, and downtime must be minimized. Do you want to tell a ward their computers will be offline for a day while you tidy up?
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Jonathan Comly 3 years ago
CDi Luigi: Looks like she mad lots of spaghetti! Papyrus: Umm.. No? I did.
Damon Gates 4 years ago
Probably the server where they designed "The Maze" highway interchanges in the Bay Area.
Rodno7493527 4 years ago
The Flying Spaghetti Monster really does exist. He heals those in the hospital. Long live Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Teresa Groth 4 years ago
The person who accomplished this mess had too be hired as the head of the cleaning crew!
CADEN FRENCH 4 years ago
hey at least the patients can eat this spaghetti and then they really are patients
Joshua Selbitschka 4 years ago
I don't even do tech support and this is physically painful to see!
Simon Birkett 4 years ago
I was debugging a connectivity problem for a publishing house in Bangkok. They sent their work to London for printing. This was back in 1993 when a V42 bis was the fastest modem you could get. Their telephone cabinet was like this pic, but smaller and with more dust, ghekko poop. I told the boss-woman "The problem is your wiring cabinet looks like a rat's a**e." Ten minutes later I worked out she was a member of the Thai Royal Family! Whoops!
Jace 4 years ago
This is possibly just years of re-patching without giving a f**k about where the cables are going. The installation contractor or worker might have done the initial job correctly.
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arjelio mas 4 years ago
Was it maintenance guys who put the system in place? I'll bet it was tech guys who made that mess.
Michel Chartier 4 years ago
Seen it! That is real! Was exactly like this when I was asked to redo an Hospital Data Center in Montreal!!!
Khloe Ness 4 years ago
*screams: WHO WANTS SPAGETTI WE HAVE SO MANY ... BUT IT MIGHT KILL YOU!
Doreen Glynn 4 years ago
Looks legit. It’s how the lines and tube look when patients come to icu from surgery.
Fuffer Pish 4 years ago
Organize that while the hospital is full of covid people. seizures for everyone!
Jace 4 years ago
More likely MANAGEMENT should be fired, not employees expected to “get it done two hours ago”.
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Rabbit Carrot 4 years ago
The good thing is the wires are mostly the same and have the same connection so you can throw them all out and start again without having to waste your life trying to untangle them.
Jace 4 years ago
The problem is that you can’t tell what needs to go where. No one working on this can see the mapping. This mess makes me assume that too is a nightmare.
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#6
First Day On Job; Set Up Those 4 Wireless Speakers For You.
Ola Polowczyk 4 years ago
And here, dear children, you can see speakers resting in their natural habitat
#7
Told A User To Shutdown Their Virus Infected Computer And Ship It Back And To Label It As Infected. They Did Good
#8
Ancient Temple Of Asus
#9
I Need Somewhere To Set This Candle... Oh Here’s A Good Spot!
#10
"My Fan Was Making Too Much Noise!"
#11
I Should Tell Them It's Not A Touch Screen...
#12
"My PC Shut Off Suddenly And Won't Turn Back On"
#13
Quality Repost Here. (I Assume This Has Been Posted Before)
#14
One Of My Co-Workers Was Eager To Unpack Her New Mouse
#15
“My Space Heater Stopped Working”
#16
Professional Cabling At Pepsi
#17
AT&T Has No Idea Why Their DSL Services Is So Poor. It Must Be My Wires In My House. No I Don't Think So
#18
Someone Unplugged Something And Now The Office Internet Doesn't Work...
#19
Customer Came In With His iPhone, His Glass Cracked, He Thought He Could Peel Off The Glass So He Wouldn't Notice The Crack Anymore
#20
Plugging In Your USB Receiver With A Hammer For That Flush Mounted Look
#21
"It Didn't Plug In, So I Bent The Pins To Make It Fit"
#22
Don't Forget To Tip Your Server
#23
My Friend Drilled Holes In His Mouse To Make It Lighter So It Would Give Him An "Advantage"
#24
My Grandpa Thought His Headphone Jack Was A Screw Hole
#25
Work For Local High School, The Disc Drive Wasn’t Working. Probably Been There Since 2012
#26
When The Acid Kicks In
#27
User "Dropped It Walking To The Car." It Came In The Day After The Super Bowl
#28
"But I Like It This Way, It's Convenient." -My Tech Savvy Aunt
#29
Round 2 Of How Students Treat Their Chromebooks In My School, I Have No Words
Add New Image
What do you think ?
misteriosa 4 years ago
I have such brainfarts sometimes, it hurts. 2 months ago, cable/net guys came to make a set up for a future tv upstairs, and moved the wireless router up etc. So, bunch of cables going into things. My children played around, and accidentally unplugged everything. Enter me, managing to plug all the cables in, except one- going from the tv receiver into oblivion. Rechecked everything, tried every hole, and after 30 mins of despair, decided to call the tech support for advice, knowing in my heart it would turn out to be something incredibly stupid, and preparing for the embarrasment. So I called, explained the situation, revised every cable I already plugged in, and leading to the one I have no idea about. 'So, it goes from the tv receiver, but I don't know where to plug it in, it says HDMI at the end of it', 'Did you manage to find the HDMI port on the tv?', 'No, I don't have a tv here yet... oh my God I knew the answer would be obvious and stupid sorry about this thank you'...
deanna woods 4 years ago
Some people don't need to be allowed to use technology because they don't know how to use it properly. You don't take a hammer or any other tool to devices unless you want to destroy it.
Catlady6000 4 years ago
That why there is an owners manual. Am I the only one who reads theirs? For everything from my car to my phone?
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Rose the Cook 4 years ago
Having an IT tech in the family the most common problems he was called to were, infant or pet had disconnected power OR said infant or pet had urinated on computer.
Monika Soffronow 4 years ago
The younger brother of a friend used to sleepwalk as a kid and he once opened the lid to the record player and, believing he was in the bathroom, proceeded to pee in it.
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*sigh*, The Yellow Teletubby 4 years ago
Well, at least now I know I'm not the worst when it comes to this kind of stuff 😂
Bob Hildebrand 4 years ago
...and then the coffee cup holder on the computer just broke off. They should make them more sturdy.
Micah Pettit 4 years ago
When working tech support for an online RAM and SSD company, one of my coworkers spoke to someone whose SSD stopped working. Instead of, you know, contacting the FREE tech support, they decided to go to the internet at large. They found a post somewhere (god knows what idiotic corner of the web they scoured) that recommended they put their SSD IN THE OVEN. To be fair, they apparently did get it to work again, but it ran very slowly. Gee, can't imagine WHY. Needless to say, replacement was denied.
Evil Little Thing 4 years ago
To be fair, there are some computer parts that gentle baking may fix - it softens and repairs micro-fractures in solder. SSD is not one of these things.
Load More Replies...
elia 84631 4 years ago
Most of theme seems that caused by stupid people and didn't have idea how to fix it
Liz-ard 2 years ago (edited)
Well, what does this tell us? It tell us that the tech-people that develops both hard and software do not understand how far behind the rest of the common humans are in catching up, evolving and understanding how the tech-people mean things to work. This generation and social gap is the deepest cut that ever have been between them. It excludes the elder generations: pre-1980, and make life difficult for pre-millenniumers, poor people and most people living in developing countries. I was young when the first PCs came. And scared of by a type recorder teacher that know very little about computers, typing lessons in DOS and a hysterical screaming “DON’t press C-A-T!!!” every time the lesson were (thank God!) over. When Windows new graphic platform came I got mesmerised and hooked. Still a noob at age 56 and still fighting to “get it”.
Megan Stone 4 years ago
I never thought I'd find tech dramas so funny!!! Thanks everyone, Hilarious :)
Jace 4 years ago
Most of the “user error” images are great for story-telling, but the majority of problems with stuff in this industry is the industry itself. Every legitimate criticism of the technology gets blocked by special pleading (a logical fallacy, which, in an industry you’d naively expect to be all about logic, is all too common).
Barbara Baldwin 4 years ago
Most of these left me wondering what I'm looking at..call me clueless
Freya the Wanderer 4 years ago
Some of these are good arguments for keeping stupid people from breeding.
Catlady6000 4 years ago
Does no,one read, or at least glance thru the owners manuals for anything? A lot of these never would have happened with a little prophylactic reading
misteriosa 4 years ago
I have such brainfarts sometimes, it hurts. 2 months ago, cable/net guys came to make a set up for a future tv upstairs, and moved the wireless router up etc. So, bunch of cables going into things. My children played around, and accidentally unplugged everything. Enter me, managing to plug all the cables in, except one- going from the tv receiver into oblivion. Rechecked everything, tried every hole, and after 30 mins of despair, decided to call the tech support for advice, knowing in my heart it would turn out to be something incredibly stupid, and preparing for the embarrasment. So I called, explained the situation, revised every cable I already plugged in, and leading to the one I have no idea about. 'So, it goes from the tv receiver, but I don't know where to plug it in, it says HDMI at the end of it', 'Did you manage to find the HDMI port on the tv?', 'No, I don't have a tv here yet... oh my God I knew the answer would be obvious and stupid sorry about this thank you'...
deanna woods 4 years ago
Some people don't need to be allowed to use technology because they don't know how to use it properly. You don't take a hammer or any other tool to devices unless you want to destroy it.
Catlady6000 4 years ago
That why there is an owners manual. Am I the only one who reads theirs? For everything from my car to my phone?
Load More Replies... Rose the Cook 4 years ago
Having an IT tech in the family the most common problems he was called to were, infant or pet had disconnected power OR said infant or pet had urinated on computer.
Monika Soffronow 4 years ago
The younger brother of a friend used to sleepwalk as a kid and he once opened the lid to the record player and, believing he was in the bathroom, proceeded to pee in it.
Load More Replies... *sigh*, The Yellow Teletubby 4 years ago
Well, at least now I know I'm not the worst when it comes to this kind of stuff 😂
Bob Hildebrand 4 years ago
...and then the coffee cup holder on the computer just broke off. They should make them more sturdy.
Micah Pettit 4 years ago
When working tech support for an online RAM and SSD company, one of my coworkers spoke to someone whose SSD stopped working. Instead of, you know, contacting the FREE tech support, they decided to go to the internet at large. They found a post somewhere (god knows what idiotic corner of the web they scoured) that recommended they put their SSD IN THE OVEN. To be fair, they apparently did get it to work again, but it ran very slowly. Gee, can't imagine WHY. Needless to say, replacement was denied.
Evil Little Thing 4 years ago
To be fair, there are some computer parts that gentle baking may fix - it softens and repairs micro-fractures in solder. SSD is not one of these things.
Load More Replies... elia 84631 4 years ago
Most of theme seems that caused by stupid people and didn't have idea how to fix it
Liz-ard 2 years ago (edited)
Well, what does this tell us? It tell us that the tech-people that develops both hard and software do not understand how far behind the rest of the common humans are in catching up, evolving and understanding how the tech-people mean things to work. This generation and social gap is the deepest cut that ever have been between them. It excludes the elder generations: pre-1980, and make life difficult for pre-millenniumers, poor people and most people living in developing countries. I was young when the first PCs came. And scared of by a type recorder teacher that know very little about computers, typing lessons in DOS and a hysterical screaming “DON’t press C-A-T!!!” every time the lesson were (thank God!) over. When Windows new graphic platform came I got mesmerised and hooked. Still a noob at age 56 and still fighting to “get it”.
Megan Stone 4 years ago
I never thought I'd find tech dramas so funny!!! Thanks everyone, Hilarious :)
Jace 4 years ago
Most of the “user error” images are great for story-telling, but the majority of problems with stuff in this industry is the industry itself. Every legitimate criticism of the technology gets blocked by special pleading (a logical fallacy, which, in an industry you’d naively expect to be all about logic, is all too common).
Barbara Baldwin 4 years ago
Most of these left me wondering what I'm looking at..call me clueless
Freya the Wanderer 4 years ago
Some of these are good arguments for keeping stupid people from breeding.
Catlady6000 4 years ago
Does no,one read, or at least glance thru the owners manuals for anything? A lot of these never would have happened with a little prophylactic reading
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