To be system adminstrator for your parent(s)

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My father is a special case. it is not his fault, but it keeps happening. The PC's and the digital tv break down montly like clockwork. Not just your nomal thing but sever out of the ordinary failures. He has 3 pc in case of failures and backup, and he needs them. He also has two different provider on using the phone lines and the other the tv company cable.

He has a modem whit a big button in front saying soft key. Translated it means self destruction button and dear dad had touched it regularly. It is not red you see.

So he took it in his mind that business internet is better. However the helpdesk has office hours and he is not able to speak to such people. Call it a fobia.

In his delirium het thinks that if everything is kept clean it words better. So he pulls the plugs, dust the thing, and touch the ******** button again.

On old years day.

he has kept all letters and bills of the other company dating back for years. he kept every little piece af scrap papers from them, expect the letter whit the codes. The times he was mad ad me for not putting things in the right places.

Got the new codes today and went home after extensive testing. And you guessed correctly, it does not work the moment he touches it.

That was the internet, now for tv. It is his third settopbox in 5 years. Two broken remotes, a lost remote,... You get the point.

I am a bit paranoid, I realize that. I suspect he creates some of the problems to let me do things for him. No need to tell how sick and tired I get.

 

When a family member asks me to take care of their computer, I tell them that I will only do so if they surrender complete administrative control to me. The ones who are willing to agree are the serious ones. It helps that I am a certified computer technician.
In the case with your dad, Merlanni, I'd take some paint and make the button red, then move the modem out of accidental reach.

 

Mother can take care of her computer by herself and father just don't give a crap about them, so I'm ok! Merlanni, couldn't you tell him not to touch that button, like, under no circumstance will you touch that button

 

My dad thinks he knows what he's doing, and my mum is clueless. I'm the resident computer expert in our house, which is sort of a bit dangerous as most of what I know is self taught. (OK I melted 1 computer...)

 

I'm a self taught myself and believe me I've ruined my share of computer in these years. Power supply shorting out, graphic cards melting, I can't remember how many times I formated and re-installed my OS. I got all that too. But I believe that error makes us more knowledgeable no?

 

My dad's a computer programmer. He system administrates our house. I keep him away from my computer because if he ever comes close enough to investigate deeply, he'll notice something wrong, look into it, and then after three hours of hogging my computer declare that it needs a system reboot. Bloody engineers.

 

I've got a friend who can program in several different languages, but knows better than to muck around with hardware. That's what she calls me in for...

 

No fears, Merlanni. There are a lot of people who bring down systems just be being in the same location, My Dear Wife, as an example! These things really DO happen!

Stefanina has it right, ie; "When a family member asks me to take care of their computer, I tell them that I will only do so if they surrender complete administrative control to me."

My own dad keeps asking what's wrong with the box I built him, and I always ask first: "are you online, have you downloaded all the patches/updates for the proggies I installed including the OS?"

Mr. Clueless almost always replies: " Wha...?"

Evidently, having a 'notice' from M$ about 'patches' requires a long-time phone converstion about everything from 'A' to 'Z', which he never remembers anyway, and I'm the only one that can fix anything at all, according to him.

So it goes, eh?

My Take: 'I prolly need to visit the old bstd more often'.....LOL!

Sound Familiar?

L`zard