Geriatric geek guidance
Now I'm a geek. I'm proud of the title and I've worked in the IT industry for nearly 20 years. But until recently to our mum my job description was “he does something with computers.”

But in recent years she'd been thinking about upgrading from her Amstrad PCW (I'm not kidding) to something that would allow her to use “some of the internets,” as she'd heard you could play bridge online. Mum is to bridge what women are to Warren Beatty's fingers. So for her 60th I gave her a laptop. We don't go big on presents in our family, £20 maximum, but I'd upgraded and had enough doorstops so why not?

There was one problem, Ihadn't used it for a while and couldn't get the sound to work on the thing. The sound card seemed to be working, so I replaced the drivers. No joy. Spent a few hours (and a few beers) running diagnostics to check that the thing really was functioning and they came back all clear. Had another beer and decided on the Aliens Approach and just wiped the system and reinstalled from scratch. Call it an hour's work, with that again updating all the software. Would it play? Would it buggery.

So eventually I ran out of time and had to give it to her crippled. She was still thrilled to get a laptop but the failure rankled. What was I doing wrong?

The next night I got a call from mum.

“I've solved that sound problem by the way,” she faux-casually dropped into the end of a 15 minute monologue on her calendar of events for the next month and previous fortnight. I'm usually on autopilot by this time, or carrying on a game of Civ2 on mute, but that statement was the mental equivalent of a high pressure hose up the jacksie.

“How,” I spluttered.

“There's this little volume knob on the side and it was turned down. I'm surprised you missed that, working with computers and all,” came the oh-so smug response.

There are faceslap moments and then there are the other times when you just want to headbutt the nearest wall until sweet oblivion comes. For every Christmas ever after we have a new tale of the geek who did it wrong.
(paxvobiscum, Thu 15 Jul 2010, 18:30, 4 replies)

lol, mums are great :D
*clicks*
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Thu 15 Jul 2010, 18:42, closed)

I'd bet upto €20 it was a toshiba
they've caught me in the past
(tubeman trousers, Thu 15 Jul 2010, 21:06, closed)

done that too
on TWO bloody things with Ubuntu so you can imagine the trouble I had trying to 'fix' them until my ten yr old says 'mum whys the sound dial turned down'
(Bernardate, Fri 16 Jul 2010, 17:19, closed)

I did that too.
It was a desktop. I redid the drivers, bought a new sound card even, spent days and days fretting over it...

...you know how Windows has a little mute button in the right of the taskbar?
(Falstaff's Spiritual Successor, Fri 16 Jul 2010, 10:01, closed)