it’s been a long week, chasing ghosts.
Couple weeks, actually. I spent most of last week several hundred miles from home working on a machine that- for reasons unknown to us all, would go into feed hold completely at random, at least once a shift. We have now run three days without issue, but i’m not off the hook till the warranty expires.
Yesterday and today I spent chasing another ghost at another customer. They “Repaired” the machine, at which it stopped working. But they didn’t cause it, oh no. Two days of digging until I found the ribbon connector they had failed to reinsert correctly. In the meantime I fixed several other issues on the way to finding out what the real issue was. This is what they pay me for. Agita.
I always loved those calls when you’d find clear evidence that the customer tampered with the equipment, and their response was, “Hell no, I never touched it.”
I understand that people don’t want to get in trouble, but damn, own your mistakes. That’s how you learn.
Trouble Call From Hell:
A WANG work station would occationally go blank, revert to the sign-on screen, all work lost.
Cabling replaced.
Work station monitor and keyboard replaced.
New port used.
Power analyzer installed to check for AC fluctuation.
WANG tech flown in from Mass. (or is it Conn.?)
One week and 120+ man hours later NOTHING WORKED! Problem persisted.
By this time the DDA had become aware of problem and “…wants answers!”
Another work crew on the opposite wing noticed a microwave antenna on roof above office. BINGO, blame microwave interference. No technical reason but we got to close down the work order.
Stretch: I am familiar with that type of service call myself!!
Gotta love it.
No over-endowed lady hitting too many keys at the bottom of the keyboard or the odd static spark when the wonderful user came back from lunch?