• jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Somewhere in the not so distant future…

    Google Search: “Install printer driver windows 11”

    Result from random blog:
    “My first experience with printer drivers was 35 years ago. My grandma had an IBM PS2 that ran MS DOS and an HP Deskjet printer. It connected to the computer via a parallel port and printed a whopping 1 page per minute. Every year at Christmas, Grandma would print off her famous pecan pie recipe and we would all gather around the printer, eagerly listening to the sound of the print head slowly whooshing back and forth in anticipation of the tasty goodness to come. Blah blah blah. Five more pages of meaningless stories that have nothing to do with installing print drivers followed by a solution that only works for Epson printers.”

  • .Donuts@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I can’t believe they are getting away with so many bullshit non-solutions to the point where you wonder if they even know how to read.

    I wonder if they trained AI on this. Might explain some things

  • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    “Help! My computer is slow after an update.”

    “Try reinstalling window and reformatting you drive”

    “Help I can’t find my documents!”

  • deranger@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Applies to macOS as well. These official support forums are such garbage.

    Windows: did you run sfc /scannow and chkdsk? (This has never solved a single thing in my entire building PCs life, so since about 1999.)

    macOS: did you reset SMC and PRAM? (This is basically a fancy restart and with Apple Silicon devices, it is literally just a restart.)

    • Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Same as the useless windows troubleshoot program that pop off every time a program crashes “Looking for the problem that caused the crash. Oh i found nothing”.

      I’m convinced it’s just those 2 pop ups and are placed just for giving the impression of doing something, but actually doing nothing.

      • LwL@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I have very positive experience with that thing actually. It fixed many a wifi issue for me (interestingly, while also saying it couldn’t find the issue. It just fixed it. Probably ran something as part of its diagnostics that happened to also fix the problem)

    • DV8@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It’s suggested more than it helps, especially on MS support pages, but for sure sfc fixes a particular set of problems. Out of about 16 times I’ve used it professionally it’s solved the issue about 12 or so times. (In 20 years, so damn you for making me feel old) And when it didn’t it’s usually because the file is also corrupt in dllcache.

      Chkdsk is/was useful, imho, if you run it with the /r parameter. In my experience it became irrelevant for user systems with ssd’s.

      Both are tools. Don’t blame the tool for being used for something they’re not meant for. You could technically use a power drill to hit nails in a wall, sometimes, but someone suggesting a power drill in place of a hammer doesn’t mean it’s a bad tool.

      • deranger@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        To be clear, it’s not that I’m saying sfc /scannow and chkdsk are altogether worthless, it’s just that they’re reflexively repeated as a solution to seemingly every issue posted on those forums. It’s more so the advice is frequently useless for the given issue, rather than the specific commands themselves.

  • Maalus@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    "I see you have problems with GAME NAME crashing. I have played games since my childhood they always let me immerse myself in the world and relax after a stressful day (…)

    (…)

    Useless suggestion

    (…)

    Even more useless suggestion that requires you to launch a command prompt

    (…)

    If that doesn’t help, download our totally-not-a-virus.exe to prevent crashes in OTHER GAME YOU WEREN’T GOOGLING"

  • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    That’s the support forums. It gets worse with actual support, that goes all chummy friendly, adds emoji and exclamation marks randomly. I would not have been surprised if my last exchange with MS Support ended with “tee hee”.

    They’re weird.

  • TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Looked up how to “close tabs to left” on Edge* since there’s a button for right but not left. Click MS help link, the dude legitimately recommended moving all the tabs backwards then closing to right.
    He also said you could do control click on them and “close selected tabs” which worked… decently. Still mad there’s not a button for closing tabs to left though.

    * this was on my education laptop where I can’t use Firefox and Chrome doesn’t save cookies so id have to log into everything every single time for ‘safety’

  • voracread@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    It is acceptable if it just used to lay a strong foundation for the work towards a solution. Instead you will probably get another such answer if you come back after doing it and then total silence while you keeping refreshing.