Today is the 8th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day, so it is in the spirit of the event that I offer this post, which recounts nothing more and nothing less than a routine service call handled expertly. In other words, exactly the type of thing this day should be about:
The “blue screen of death” (BSOD) gets your attention in a way that other computer hiccups do not.
When the reaper arrived on my desktop yesterday it was the words “will damage the computer” that convinced me that a call to the helpdesk would be wiser than applying my virtually non-existent troubleshooting skills to whatever was ailing the thing.
Good decision.
After reading him a bit of the message, David Mahoney, a member of Network World’s crackerjack IT team, made it clear that this was no trifling matter. (I’m thinking at this point: “work day shot.”)
Mahoney arrived at my office within minutes. And within a few more minutes I was back in business.
Mahoney said he believes the hard drive is corrupted and that the BSOD could reappear soon … or not for months.
Dell would later tell him that they suspect the motherboard.
Despite my initial fears, I finished the work day without further interruption.
This morning, Mahoney arrived at my office with a replacement machine, both just in case and because a Dell technician was on the way to take a look at the balky one.
Of course, as a user, I couldn’t care less whether it turns out to be the hard drive or the motherboard.
All I know is that I stared a nasty BSOD squarely in the kisser and barely had a chance to blink before being able to get back to work.
Thanks, Dave.
