I lost track of how many calls I took today with people having an issue with Xp shutting down on them. And no one wants to hear that they are going to have to phone microsoft for help. I have had people swearing at me, crying, threatening me, I had one man today tell me he hoped my children died (I don’t have kids, but still). Sorry folks, your ISP doesn’t support Windows. 
I realise that people can deal with this without phoning microsoft, but we are not allowed to offer support for the OS.
You ,obviously,have never tried to call Micro$oft.
Have you ever called Microsoft?
It’s hell, seriously, I think when bad people die, they have to call Microsoft for the rest of eternity.
~J
Then there’s the blame cycle:
Call the hardware manufacturer, and they punt you to someone else – a third party software maker, or perhaps your ISP.
Call that company, and they punt you to Microsoft.
Call Microsoft, and they punt you to your hardware maker.
And the cycle begins anew.
Well I’m just glad to hear other people are having the same problems I am. Like the “RPC call failure” shutdown, it’s only happened once to me, but still annoying. Sometimes when I go into screen saver mode, my XP system never comes out of it. The little MS boat disappears and that’s it, party over. But anyway, I’m glad it’s not an isolated problem with my PC. My condolences to someone who has to field questions on MS bugs.
You aren’t the only one that’s having that same problem, ccwaterback.
My computer shut down on me 4 different times today with that RPC call failure message. I downloaded the patch from MS and so far, so good.
I’ve heard a lot of people are having the same problem lately.
I feel for you guys, Magayuk, having to pick up the slack for Microsoft.
Have you got your Critical windows updates all installed?
I’ve done little today but answer the phone and email for this one. It’s rampant.
The Patch
and
I have a computer that is stuck in a perpetual cycle of boots. As soon as it finishes loading Win2000, it promptly reboots itself. No special boots work at all.
I might have to reformat the thing.
The worst part is? This was caused by a freaking MS patch.
You know, they have a patch to fix that. You should download it.
Seriously, they do.
I am just posting to say:
Fucking msblast sandy-ass worm can kiss my ass! It infected my home machine and shut me down everytime I tried to access Norton to figure out how to fix it and/or MS to get the patch.
But I also have to admit that what fixed it was two hours on the phone with my bro-in-law walking me through the process that finally fixed it – I know jack-shit about computers. And he’s tech support for Microsoft, so I can’t complain about them too much. He’s such a nice guy.
[sub]Of course, the worm exploits a vulnerability in Windows XP, a Microsoft product, but I’m overlooking that now that my computer works again.[/sub]
And it’s not just the Microsoft users, either! I’ve been having connectivity problems all day with OSX Jaguar. My computer isn’t rebooting or shutting down, and it may be due to ISP problems unrelated to the worm, but my broadband provider has an automated message warning that there could be disruptions due to this stupid worm.
The hell are you Windows users doing, dragging the rest of us down with you? For shame!
BTW, I am running a virus scan as I surf the Boards, and so far it’s hit four versions of this residing in my machine. I’m just waiting for the scan to finish before I nuke them and double check to make sure it’s gone.
Fecking viruses.
Thank you for the heads-up, but do you have any idea how one might install a patch on a computer so dysfunctional we may have to take it outside and shoot it?
Actually, it’s one of those Panasonic Toughbooks. Shooting it might not be enough.
2 thoughts… enable XP’s firewall to see if you can keep a connection long enough to apply the patch.
Or… download the patch to floppy and apply.
Make that 3.
Top of the list at Symantec: The fixtool for w32.blaster.worm
Thank you for the suggestion, but I do not think this is what my problem is.
The computer never finishes booting. I’m never able to reach the login screen.
So, what you’re saying is you know how to fix it, but refuse to tell customers because it’s not your job. Is there something that prevents you from telling customers that there is an internet based virus going around causing this and they need to do an update.
Is there some reason you can’t just give them Norton, McAfee or Microsoft’s websites? Is there a reason that you refuse to give the information that you have to these people when all they want to do is get their computer to work as quickly as possible?
You work at an ISP and this virus is effecting your customers. It is well within your area to help them fix it, as if you don’t, you’re helping spread the virus throughout your ISP and the internet. It doesn’t take long to show someone how to setup the Internet Connection Firewall or turn off Distributed COM. It doesn’t take long to have them write down a website.
How do I know? Because I work at an ISP that does it’s best to help customers. I don’t understand how any ISP management would feel that their technical support shouldn’t help with this problem. Yes you’re busy, yes it sucks talking to hundreds of customers a day, but that’s what you’re there for.
Next time someone cries at you, swears at you or wishes your children dead, realize that just telling the person you’re talking to that they can go to www.norton.com and get everything fixed will cause them to stop yelling, stop wasting your time and make their days just a little better.
It might make yours a bit better too.
HideoHo, the OP didn’t say he’s not offering support because “it’s not his job”. He said he’s not allowed to offer support. I would suspect his employer doesn’t want to be liable for bad advice given by employees in an area unrelated to their services. He might be fired for his efforts.
That’s Microsoft for ya, making trouble for customers and competitors alike.
I just set up my brother’s new XP computer with a wireless connection to my cable modem. I just got finished testing it and now I’m not going to let my brother turn on his computer until this thing settles down a bit and I can install Norton for him with a know fix.
I spent two horrendous weeks wrestling with a wireless ‘g’ router trying to get him a connection. Thank you very much tech support at Linksys. That last sentence was a joke, folks.
I gave up on that and went with a wired ‘b’ router for my computer and modem and a wireless ‘b’ access point half way across the house and a wireless ‘b’ card for his computer. 802.11 g is not ready for XP in my opinion or maybe it was just the range.
I did hear about this virus on the news this morning but it must not have fully registered with my brain. —Window XP–bad virus–Internet–.
I was so intent on using my day off to get this wireless thing working after all the frustration that I could have hosed his computer! Umm. I hoped it isn’t hosed…I did shut down and restart his computer and surfed to Fark and Google and a couple of news sites without a firewall or antivirus just to see if I hadn’t imagined that the thing finally worked… I don’t have email set up for him yet.
What are likely sources for and symptoms of this virus? Off to Norton for me…
This is only an XP problem right? I’m glad I’m using ME on my computer. Don’t laugh anyone. It works beautifully for me. I have come to loath XP in the time I’ve been ‘working’ with it on my brother’s computer. It is too smart/stupid for its and my good.
It reminds me of a copy machine we used to have at the office. It had this ‘detector’ thing that would get all bent out of shape if you tried to copy anything NOT the size of a standard piece of paper. “Wrong size! Wrong size!” We had to trick it to get what we wanted to copy to turn out the way we want it on the copy. Since we are a medical office and since all of our patient’s insurance card are, sorry Mr. Copier, little bits of paper or plastic you can just imagine that we had to ‘fool’ the smart/stupid copier all day.
Machines should not be so smart/stupid. Let us set them up the way we want them, not the way they think they should be.