Thursday, August 03, 2006
An actual computer problem?!
Last week, we started receiving calls from customers who told us that Internet Explorer was just shutting down on them after being open for no more than 15 seconds. They stayed connected, and it didn't matter what web site they were going to, IE would just die.
At first, we were a bit stumped. We recommended the usual stuff that seemed to make sense: updating and scanning with antivirus and antispyware software. When that didn't help, we cautiously suggested that reinstalling IE might help. However, we knew that we didn't know a specific cause or solution, and we'd say so; our ideas were just that, and we weren't guaranteeing they'd help.
All of that changed when some person called our general reception line.
Caller: "Hi, I heard some people are having Internet Explorer close, have you heard that?"
Me: "Well, yes, some of our customers are having their browser windows close unexpectedly."
Caller: "I heard it had to do with Yahoo toolbar, did you hear that?"
Me: "I had not heard that, no."
Caller: "OK, bye."
I don't know if that person was even a customer of ours, but she'd provided a solution to the problem. When next I had a caller with the same issue, we went to add/remove programs, and lo, that caller did have Yahoo toolbar installed. And so I asked if she'd mind uninstalling it, since we'd heard a suggestion that it might help. She didn't mind. I asked her to restart and call back with the result. Shortly afterwards, that customer called back to say that uninstalling the toolbar had fixed the problem. As far as I'm aware, everyone experiencing that issue had Yahoo toolbar, and uninstalling it addressed the issue.
Now, I don't know for sure if the toolbar itself was the problem, or if it was some other software conflicting with the toolbar, but it was a weird technical issue and one of those rare times where it had us slightly stumped. In fact, if that random person hadn't called and pointed me in the right direction, we might not have found a solution for some time. It just goes to show that sometimes we get frustrated by an actual technical issue.
At first, we were a bit stumped. We recommended the usual stuff that seemed to make sense: updating and scanning with antivirus and antispyware software. When that didn't help, we cautiously suggested that reinstalling IE might help. However, we knew that we didn't know a specific cause or solution, and we'd say so; our ideas were just that, and we weren't guaranteeing they'd help.
All of that changed when some person called our general reception line.
Caller: "Hi, I heard some people are having Internet Explorer close, have you heard that?"
Me: "Well, yes, some of our customers are having their browser windows close unexpectedly."
Caller: "I heard it had to do with Yahoo toolbar, did you hear that?"
Me: "I had not heard that, no."
Caller: "OK, bye."
I don't know if that person was even a customer of ours, but she'd provided a solution to the problem. When next I had a caller with the same issue, we went to add/remove programs, and lo, that caller did have Yahoo toolbar installed. And so I asked if she'd mind uninstalling it, since we'd heard a suggestion that it might help. She didn't mind. I asked her to restart and call back with the result. Shortly afterwards, that customer called back to say that uninstalling the toolbar had fixed the problem. As far as I'm aware, everyone experiencing that issue had Yahoo toolbar, and uninstalling it addressed the issue.
Now, I don't know for sure if the toolbar itself was the problem, or if it was some other software conflicting with the toolbar, but it was a weird technical issue and one of those rare times where it had us slightly stumped. In fact, if that random person hadn't called and pointed me in the right direction, we might not have found a solution for some time. It just goes to show that sometimes we get frustrated by an actual technical issue.
# posted by Terry @ 12:32 PM 
