Out of the blue, I got a text message from my 18 y/o son - "What's the password the BitLocker key for my laptop?" - That's odd, it doesn't have BitLocker set up ...
This is followed by, "What's the password for the J*****@C****.net account?" - I tell him. It isn't working. I try it out on two separate computers and it is working.
I ask him to describe the problem more fully. When he logs on to the laptop, he says, he gets a black screen.
Has he got the laptop set to output to an external screen? No, but I still ask him to send me a picture of the keyboard, so I can confirm which function key changes the video output. I get a picture of the external keyboard he's using. No, I wanted the laptop keyboard. This is duly sent, and things become a lot clearer. There is indeed a black screen, but also a mouse pointer. I feel he could have mentioned that. So, I Google "Windows 10 black screen with mouse pointer", and find that it's a Windows Update problem that can be resolved with ctrl+alt+del and running task master and then Windows Update. Which is what happens; all sorted and happy child.
Other things he could have told me or explained more fully:
When he asked "What's the password for the J*****@C****.org account?", he was referring to the Microsoft account that uses that email address, rather than the email account. Hence why the password wasn't working.
He only got the BitLocker screen after starting in Safe Mode
He had upgraded to Windows 11
Still, on the plus side it's good to know his old dad's fuddled fifty-something brain can still show his teenage supercomputer noggin a thing or too. Gotta love 'em!
Nicely diagnosed there. I get the same attempting to provide remote support to my parents - they leave out so much key information, use different and incorrect terminology and then fail to properly follow instructions as I give them. Love them to bits but my blood runs cold when they call me with a computer problem.Originally Posted by hogthrob
At 18 that conversation should have been him helping you.
My father in law couldn't read a PDF the other week and didn't want to disturb us on holiday. He got an 18 year old to help who signed him up to a £20pm Adobe subscription billed annually after a 2 week free trial. £240 to open a PDF.
Cancelled it in time but are 18 year olds thick these days? If it was a Snapchat issue it would have been fixed in seconds and for free, presumably like your son's laptop.
I feel your pain chaps. The parent thing especially!
Last edited by Jubal; 30th September 2022 at 10:34.
If you are IT support for parents & the like do yourself a favour & install Teamviewer at both ends.
I was going to suggest the same. It's expensive for the paid version but there's a free personal version.
It saves so much grief and time, as you can entirely dispense with all the "What can you see? Click on the confirm button. Where's that? In the bottom right of the window. I can't see a Window!" chat.
I'd estimate it cuts down the length of a support call by a factor of 5 and the frustration by a factor of 100!
This is a big reason I have an iPhone again, you can screen share on facetime in iOS.
If you look after your relatives'/friends' computers, use a program called TeamViewer to remotely access them; it will save you hours.
ETA. I see it has already been mentioned.
Bloody hell, that was a lucky catch!
As I was reading this I thought it was a spearphising attempt at first!
Sent from my SM-S908B using Tapatalk
I trust that you confirmed that the text was actually from your son before handing over any authentication credentials!
There's a whole class of scams that involve sending a message from a "child" to their "parent" saying something along the lines of "I've changed my phone so please use this number for me instead. Because my number has changed, I can't pay for my rent/food/tuition/whatever so could you please make a payment for me and I'll pay you back. Here are the bank details..."
They like to think that we are the clueless ones. Duhhh
Work colleague of mine got a "dropped/broken phone" variant of that just yesterday morning. Thankfully her child was sitting beside her in the car at the time otherwise she said she would have fallen for it
Pha, wait till you drive a LOT of miles to find they've put the TV Remote batteries in the wrong way round! As you say, love them to bits....
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
Yep, quite annoying. I've now set his computer to open all PDFs in Chrome. Hopefully that's foolproof but no such thing really
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