Working for IBM/Kodak in a joint venture to support multiple vendors (Gateway, Packard Bell, etc), I got a call to go see about a computer that’s eating floppy disks. Having my interest piqued, I called and she re-described the situation, and it sounded worth the drive.

I get there to see that she has her PC on a small table facing the bed, which acts as the chair/seat. It’s a small room. I sit on the bed, test the PC, put in a floppy, read/write, no issues. Eject is absolutely fine.

Thinking things are odd and that I need to see her do it, she sits down, does nearly the same thing I do, only in reaching down to eject, she isn’t facing the PC, she’s looking up & away (small space, remember) and she jams on the eject button and the floppy comes flying out, right under the bed, past the dust ruffle. She looks back at her PC and says, “see? No disk!”

I ask her to come out of the space and give me one minute. I look under there and all the disks were under the bed. She had even purchased a new box because they were vanishing. She was very embarrassed, but I spent an extra minute or two and helped her out on the appropriate amount of pressure to use when ejecting and made sure she practiced under supervision. She was happy, I was patient and I got a story that I’ve been telling for over ten years. 😀