User Said He Did Nothing That Explained His Dead PC – Does A New Motherboard Count?

On Call Friday brings the prospect of spending time with loved ones. But before we get there, The Register offers another instalment of On Call, the column that chronicles experiences from the global family of readers who have traumatic tech support tales to tell.

This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Michael" who doesn't do tech support at work but is considered the only technically literate member of his family and is therefore often asked to help out with errant PCs.

In the early 2000s, Michael's father called to protest that Windows was complaining of missing drivers and his PC would not boot.

Michael immediately suspected a change to the machine's hardware and asked his dad if anything had been altered since its last successful boot. His father answered in the negative.

After a bit of banter, Michael realized he would need to inspect the PC and drove to visit his papa. On arrival, he turned on the PC and witnessed Windows bleating about its inability to boot.

He again asked his dad if he'd installed any new hardware. This time, the "No" came after a slight hesitation that Michael recognized as the sign of a cover-up.

So he pressed the matter, and his father eventually admitted he "only replaced the motherboard."

• Tech support fill-in given no budget, no help, no training, and no empathy for his plight
• Devs sent into security panic by 'feature that was helpful … until it wasn't'
• After a long lunch, user thought a cursor meant their computer was cactus
• Techie fluked a fix and found himself the abusive boss's best friend

Michael's email to On Call contained his pithy reaction to his father's confession:

As such, Michael was in no mood to help repair his Dad's PC, and suggested he reinstall Windows from scratch as that would likely bring the machine back to life.

His father's reply did nothing to ligthen Michael's mood:

Michael now very much felt the need to visit a pub for what he hoped would be an anger-dousing pint. And he told his father as much, too.

He did eventually get his beer, and his dad somehow got his hands on a Windows disc. Michael's not sure how, or where the disc came from.

"Just thought I would share that one," he ended his mail to On Call.

Which brings us to the bit of the column where we ask you to share your story.

Its easy to do! Just click here to send us an email. We'll happily consider tales of family tech support in addition to our usual fare of corporate repair jobs you've needed to rescue. ®