(I’m still flabberghasted I took this call. It starts out pretty normally, but ends in a complete loss for word)
Caller: “I have two monitors on my computer, and there no image on my left monitor, where everything normally is shown”
Me: “Okay, is there any power lights on the left monitor at all?”
Caller: “No, just the one on the right monitor”
Me: “Okay, we need to ensure all the power cables are plugged in securely to the wall outlets”
Caller (after shuffling around a bit): “Yeah, they all appear to be plugged in.”
Me: “Okay, that’s odd. Can you swap the power cables for each monitor, so they are plugged into each other’s power outlet?”
Caller (shuffles some more, much longer than it should require): I can’t get one out. Is there a trick to getting it out?”
Me (alarmed something just went wrong): “No….it’s a power cord. You just pull. No power outlet has a lock-in system….”
Caller: “You mean the cord on the back of the monitor, right?”
Me (realizing what’s going on): “Nonononono! I said the POWER cord at the OUTLET. You know…in the wall.”
Caller: “Well….what do they look like?”
Me: (dumbfounded)
Caller: “I’m not a computer person”
Me: “Uhhhh…It’s a power cord. It has three prongs, and looks like a power cable that you would plug in for your TV, your radio, your blender at home…..it’s a POWER CABLE!”
In the end, I had to send a technician out to check power cords.
kill it, kill it with fire!
Why wouldn’t you just swap out the power cables from both of the monitors? They’re meant to be removable….unless I’m misunderstanding something here.
the reason you’d tell the caller to swap them at the wall is so that they don’t accidentally swap the wrong cable, and grab the hdmi/vga instead of the power.
People who consider themselves “not computer people” put up a mysticism around computers that makes them unable to think of any of the parts…even the power cable..as if it were a normal machine…because of this, you have to be very specific and careful about what and how you tell a caller to do.
To answer your question Rusty, some people can not tell the power plug at the back of the monitor and the VGA cable.
I used to work for tech support at Phones4U, I once had a call about a computer not turning on. Standard troubleshooting is to swap out the kettle lead to check if it’s a bad fuse. The staff on the phone refused to touch it because “they weren’t an electrician”. How do these people cope at home?