It was just another busy afternoon at the helpdesk when a ticket popped up that instantly brought a smile to my face. The user had reported that their monitor was “dead” and insisted it needed urgent replacement. Of course, a part of me suspected there was more to the story—there usually was.
When I arrived at the user’s desk, they were staring at the black screen with a look of pure frustration. I asked if the monitor was powered on, and they gave me what I can only describe as a look of disbelief—as if I was asking whether water was wet. I decided to do the usual checks: power cable, connections, button presses… and there it was, the culprit in plain sight. The power cable wasn’t plugged into the monitor. Not even loosely. It was resting on the floor like it was taking a well-deserved break.
“Ah, I see,” I said gently, trying to hide my grin. “Looks like it’s a bit tired because it’s not getting any power.” The user looked genuinely surprised—as if I’d just performed some magical IT sorcery.
I plugged it in, hit the power button, and the monitor flickered to life. The user’s face lit up and they exclaimed, “Oh! I didn’t realize it needed to be plugged in! I thought it just turned on automatically.” I tried not to laugh out loud but failed miserably. We shared a chuckle, and I reminded them that monitors, unlike caffeine, won’t wake up without a power source.
The ticket was quickly closed, but the story of the “dead” monitor that was simply unplugged became an unofficial helpdesk legend that we mentioned for weeks whenever anything went “mysteriously wrong.”
Sometimes, the strangest tech problems have the simplest solutions. And most days, it’s the users who keep us entertained just as much as they keep us busy.