It can sound like a joke, and I'd never believe in such a story, but the problem is that it happened to me...
I work in a Chemical Physics Institute, Russian Academy of science, as an IT support engineer. Our main job is to maintain LAN and internet connection, and we also assemble PCs for scientists and troubleshoot them.
Once we assembled a machine for a Doctor of science who works in a dfferent building - an XVIII century palace with XIX century electric wireing, half of the rooms still have 127V outlets. Our building is only 20 years old and all electricity is almost perfect, we never have blackouts at all - some multi-million dollar equipment can be broken if the power supplies will fail for a second or two.
So, we bring him his brand-new computer, plug it and check everything. Two days later he calls me on the phone and says: "My computer doesn't start up any more!"
I ask: "Does it show anything on the screen?"
- "Nope, screen is black!"
- "Does it beep?"
- "Nope, no sound at all!"
- "Do the LEDs on the font panel light up afte you tun the power on?"
- "No, I flip the switch and nothing happenes at all"
- "Hmm... Can you check the power cord?"
- "How can I do this?"
- "It is a cable that comes out of the back panel and is plugged into the wall electic outlet"
- "Oh, can you wait by the phone, I will burn a match, you see - someone cut off the electicity!"
............................. ....
The worst thing was that I _really_ had to explain him why his PC doesn't "start up"...
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With respect,
Pavel Pavlov,
Commissar 25th IAP WB VVS
