jadej50•1mo agoMost Upvoted

That client who tried to tell me their computer was 'haunted'

Had a walk-in last Wednesday, lady in her 60s, insisted her Dell was possessed because the screen flickered at 3 AM. I found a failing power supply, the 5V rail was bouncing all over. She argued with me for 20 minutes that it was ghosts, not hardware. Anyone else get customers who think weird PC behavior is supernatural?

3 comments

3 Comments

blakestone1mo ago

Saw a story online about a guy who blamed his frozen screen on a poltergeist, turned out his cat had been sleeping on the power strip and unplugging it slowly. People just want a wild story over a boring fix.

mianelson1mo ago

My husband had a client once who swore her computer was haunted because files kept disappearing overnight. Turned out her grandson was sneaking in after she went to bed and deleting things as a prank. She was so embarrassed when we figured it out, but honestly a family member playing tricks is a lot more common than a ghost.

moore.beth1mo ago

Honestly, people just love a good ghost story over a boring hardware fix. I'm not saying that lady was lying, but if you actually look at what a failing power supply does, it mimics all kinds of creepy stuff. @blakestone hit on something real - most of these 'hauntings' are just a loose cable or a weird setting in the bios. Like, your screen flickers at 3 AM because the power grid dips, not because a spirit decided to mess with your Dell. It's way more likely you've got a bad fan or a dying hard drive than a poltergeist. Tbh, I'd rather fix a haunted PC than listen to another person argue about 'energy fields' or whatever when it's just a ten dollar part.