Yeah. My dad's system, an approximately 4 year old Vista PC, has been getting cranky lately.
Seems it doesn't like sending everything a printer needs to print more than one page of documents at a time anymore, AND we've got a memory leak SOMEWHERE that is brutally taking up 75% of system resources.
Well, my dad has no patience for workarounds (like printing one page at a time or moving the files via thumb drive to MY computer, which prints just fine to the same printer), and he's getting cranky that I can't just wave my hand and fix it.
He can still function somewhat on the web, but he doesn't LIKE reading his pdf reading assignments for his college classes on the monitor, he wants hardcopy.
So my actual web access for what I want to do is going to be severely limited for a while until we get the situation resolved.
--Frustrated and looking way too long at Vista Control panel, reboot screens, and so on,
--Fox
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
I hate being used as tech-support by family members... it never ends well.
Relevant Oatmeal. Other possibly
relevant oatmeal
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
From here, the best I can recommend is Wire's idea. Maybe he could try Linux, if all you're doing is word processing and internet. OpenOffice and Firefox yay.
Also: From your computer, print out
this flow chart and put it next to his computer.
---
The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."
>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI
If you (or your father) have not run Spybot, do so. If you have an anti-virus package (other than the MS abortion), have it scan the system. If this solves the problem, well and good. If not, save the data files off to either a dvd or external Hard disk.
Then, either re-format and reinstall, or format and install linux (I'd suggest Ubuntu 10.04). Copy data back from backup.
Expect to spend from 3 to 4 hours for a Vista re-install, backup inclusive.
For Ubuntu, likely 2 to 3 hours, backup inclusive.
... okay, I *like* Linux, and even I am baffled as to why you guys would recommend -- to *FOX'S DAD* -- that he switch to Linux.
Seriously, that's got to be one of the most inane suggestions ever. Proselytize somewhere else; the goal here would be for Fox to *not* have to babysit his dad with the computer, not make the babysitting worse.
My recommendation is that if you can, upgrade to Win7, which is a helluva lot more stable and friendly than Vista. Also, hand your dad the phonebook and tell him to look up tech support. Of the two I imagine the first one is easier in the short term, but until/unless you can shake his tech-fu dependency on you, you're going to be stuck with doing his dirty work for him.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
Linux has gotten a lot better for useability lately, actually, especially the Ubuntu distro. And I'd imagine the fuss of changing over might well be worth it in the end, when it's followed by the lack of things breaking later. I've never had a Linux system break on me, unless I specifically did something as root to break it. Once you get it working, it stays working. So I get less family calls that start with "Ian, the computer's gone funny again,"
I just set up an 80 year old granny with a Xubuntu-running laptop there yesterday.. it took a couple of hours explaining things to her, but that should be it.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
I'm not trying to spread it around as the solution to every problem o.o Vista+Memory Leak+Crazy Printer Issues = (to me) New OS
I just didn't exactly feel that suggesting to buy 7 (~100$ for the cheapest) and upgrading it would be any kinder. It would probably be easier to do keep it in the family, as it were, for less of a learning curve. Just a bit more expensive and slightly longer. I will mention however, in my opinion the hardest thing is learning the different interface. For browser-based or simple office tasks (word processing/spreadsheet/slideshow etc), there's likely little difference in actually doing it. If you're doing much more than that though, things would get messy.
Do forgive me if I'm seeming like a fanatic preacher. I hate them. If you can spend the money for 7, that's likely your best bet. It'll work and you'll have time to work out how to get away from the cycle.
---
The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."
>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI
kevncody Wrote:If you (or your father) have not run Spybot, do so. If you have an anti-virus package (other than the MS abortion), have it scan the system.
And if you don't have an anti-virus package, get one (
here's a free one, there are others) and make sure it stays up-to-date.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
I'm sorry I can't offer any more help than has already been given, but you might find this song funny, or at least appropriate:
Tech Support For Dad.
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber." --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.
Linux is fine and good...if the printer model Fox's dad has can work with it. A memory leak suggests spyware but that is not always the case. Have you tried bringing up task manager, if the computer lets you, and seeing which program may be eating so many resources? Maybe it's something that's been recently installed? If you can I suggest you do a system restore to about a month before the problem started manifesting. At least it will buy you sometime to figure what is wrong.
Another thing you can try is the msconfig program -- Start -> type msconfig on search bar. That will let you decide which programs get loaded at boot up and if you have identified a likely culprit for the memory leak prevent it from loading until you can uninstall it.
If worse comes to worst a complete reinstall should be done.
Beyond that, nothing I can think up.
Been trying that. It seems to be MS Bloat, or a convincing simulacra thereof.
The real problem before I nuke it down and try again is trying to find the serial code for his copy of Office 2007 so that he doesn't get his knickers in a twist that he's "Not doing it right" for his schoolwork. We started using Open Office way back when he started, but he kept freaking out that it wasn't what the school was using, despite compatible output.
Y'know the "OMG, I don't have Windsor and Newton Number 3 sable brushes! There's NO WAY I can ink for DC/Marvel!" despite much cheaper and identially functional synthetic brushes available sort of thing.
Or... "I can't submit this manuscript to the editor! I typed it on a cheapo typewriter and not a Smith-Corona model 417 Excelsior with the ebony keys!"
Yes, when he took courses at a brick and mortar school he obsessed about Ticonderoga Number 2B pencils, too. (>.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
If he does not play games with his machine and you can hack it, try him out on a ubuntu livecd.
Toss it on a flash drive and you can boot of it for him to try out. It will even let you install stuff from ubuntu repositories onto the usb stick.
My standard rule for relatives - tell them to get a Mac.
Why? I don't know much about them, and thus I can tell them to LEAVE ME ALONE and bug my Dad, who happens to be a Mac expert.
Problem solved.
Thanks, Fang! [How's Phyllis Diller?
]
Gonna try the whole shebang on Monday or Tuesday.
Most of what I need [Dad's legal] keys for IS Microsoft stuff so the site was helpful.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
Okay, I'm going to assume you can't simply move out of the house or something. Otherwise I might suggest that. Whether you have a job or are just going to college, this is starting to seriously cut into what free time you have away from those responsibilities. And obviously you can't just tell him that you're not going to help him. He already knows you can, and thus the parental guilt trip extraordinaire.
(Useless to point out that you were foolish to let your relatives know that you can do computer tech support. You're probably beating yourself up for that already. ("WHY couldn't I have just pretended to be in accounting? A nice socially acceptable job such as garbage truck driver? But no!" But I digress for the sake of comedy. ^_^) )
So, you can't get out of the house... You can't NOT help your dad...
I want to say that on this next point I am dead serious. Not joking at all.
At this point, you really need to start charging your dad consulting fees on an hourly basis if you aren't already. You may as well get SOMETHING out of this if it's going to screw with your life this much!
We've all seen how often your dad freaks. Obviously he needs someone on call 24/7 to hold his hand. If he were having to call tech support constantly, he'd soon run out of any free calls the warranty program offered and would be well into paying them on a regular basis. Not to mention running up his phone bill or cell-phone minutes waiting on hold.
Find out how much a paid-for tech support plan/warranty costs. Divide that up into months, days, weeks, hours. Then halve that cost (family discount of course) and sell it to him that way.
Point out that he's been taking up your valuable free time for free. If he had to get on a plan, there would be a lot more frustration with him having to wait on hold and paying much more as pointed out above.
If he tries to say that he's providing room and board and helping him out is a small price to pay, then point out that you can't get away at any time of day or night to do your own thing without him calling upon your help. You are effectively on-call 24/7. Make sure to point out that if he were to actually hire a professional to do that, the cost would be extreme, and that you're willing to do it for pennies on the dollar by comparison.
Give him the ultimatum. Pay you or you stop providing any help.
If - absolutele WORST case, he tries to pull the classic parent ultimatum, and say that it's his house and his rules and you'll do it or you can leave and find your own place. Ultimatum right back and tell him that he can do that if he likes, but then he'll either have to pay for a tech support plan/warranty or call you for help. And either way he'd still have to pay. But if he forces you to move out, you'll charge FULL PRICE for your services. Gotta pay the bills somehow, and if you're going to be on-call 24/7 anyway...
That's my suggestion. If it's too extreme, I can understand. Maybe go a little more softly on the ultimatum thing. Maybe start suggesting it more subtly. But do it constantly. Let him understand that he is taking up and monopolizing your time. And that you really should be getting something in compensation for it.
I'm thinking either he'll pay you eventually or he'll try harder to learn on a more permanent basis so that he doesn't have to call/pay you so much. If you're subtle enough, maybe you won't have to give him any kind of ultimatum, but make him think it was HIS idea.
He had his sticker shock moment today, finding out how much the Geek Squad charges to fix stuff like this, since it was mostly out of my experience.
What I REALLY need to get competitive rates for is Tutors and Copy editors.
Thanks for the help guys. I'll keep ya posted.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
I can say little that hasn't already been said.
So I shall simply say: Good luck
Here's hoping you can get some sanity in your life in regards to this.
-Terry
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"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
Foxboy Wrote:The real problem before I nuke it down and try again is trying to find the serial code for his copy of Office 2007 so that he doesn't get his knickers in a twist that he's "Not doing it right" for his schoolwork. We started using Open Office way back when he started, but he kept freaking out that it wasn't what the school was using, despite compatible output.
Y'know the "OMG, I don't have Windsor and Newton Number 3 sable brushes! There's NO WAY I can ink for DC/Marvel!" despite much cheaper and identially functional synthetic brushes available sort of thing.
Oh, dear...
VladimirTherin Wrote:If he does not play games with his machine and you can hack it, try him out on a ubuntu livecd.
jpub Wrote:My standard rule for relatives - tell them to get a Mac.
Er, guys... Considering Foxboy's dad doesn't want to use OpenOffice.org instead of Microsoft Office, is he
really going to consider using a computer that isn't running Windows?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Considering he doesn't really know how to use Windows? Yep.
Weirdest damn thing.
I was going to spend all day today reinstalling Windows for Dad, right?
Well, last night we had a temporary power outage due to construction near the main branch line for the area.
And Damn if dad's computer didn't work fine afterward?
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
Ah ha! Fox, just out of curiosity does your dad leave his PC running 24/7, if so there's your probable cause for the memory leak problem. Then again for some Windows glitches a complete power cycle usually is a fix for 'em. Seen it many a time with checkouts & Self-serve units.