It's UITS to the rescue

We’ve all experienced this scenario: It’s finals week at Herman B Wells Library. You’ve finally snagged a computer and spent the day writing, citing, and editing when Microsoft Word quits unexpectedly. The biggest paper of your semester is due in 10 minutes.

Luckily, you can thank one of the University Information Technology Services staff members who have the solution. All it takes is a few clicks of the mouse and bam — that analysis of Kerouac’s “On the Road” is gleaming back at you like a beacon of white light.

Julie Byers, junior UITS staffer and computer science major, shares what it’s like to be the perpetual problem-solver when that spinning rainbow wheel just won’t go away.

What are some of the most common problems students have?

There are a lot of simple Microsoft Word issues, printing PDFs, and students in the business school who need help with Microsoft Access. And I’ve actually had a lot of people break the hard drives in their computers before. They’ll stick a flash drive in and break it, so pieces of it will still be in there.

I had a guy come up to me with his flash drive and tell me it wasn’t fitting in the computer, and there was a bunch of lint in there. He said, “Can you clean it out?” which was weird. So I cleaned laundry lint out of his flash drive.

Do students come to you and expect you to perform miracles?

There have been times when people’s computers have just completely restarted on them and they come to me like, “Well, can you fix this?” People expect you to know everything about computers, which we really don’t. For example, I’m really good with Photoshop but not so great with Access. I just try my best.

Does it ever get annoying dealing with students’ issues?

Well there aren’t many women in this field, and I’ve had guys come up to me who say, “Oh, can you get a guy to help me since they know it better?” And I tell them I know it just as well, but they don’t care. It surprises me because, you know, we live in the 21st century, and they still act like that.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve encountered on the job? Any meltdowns?

There will always be the ridiculous stories. But sharing specific details would break UITS confidentiality. I think if I talked about one, the person would read it and know it was about them.

Be the geek squad
Solve your own laptop mishaps like the pros.

Mac users: If the rainbow wheel has popped up and won’t stop spinning, it means your computer is trying to run application but failed. Right-click the application icon (i.e. Safari, Word, PowerPoint) and select “Force Quit.”

Everyone: If you spill water, unplug the machine and take out all removable parts, like the hard drive, CD drive, battery, and keyboard. Tilt the laptop on its side to drain out the water, then use a can of compressed air to blow-dry the inside. Let it sit next to a vent overnight.

PC users: If your laptop is operating slowly, the data in your computer may be “fragmented,” or scattered haphazardly. You can fix this by accessing the “defragmenter” tool in your settings.