Isn’t it insane when machines don’t act like machines sometimes?

This IT worker was left confused when a client’s computer started acting up.

Check out the full story!

Internet slows down the computer

Back in the day I used to moonlight as personal IT after work. Mostly “remove viruses without loosing data” situations. This one was different.

This is where it gets funny…

I get a call from an used that was referred by a previous client. The issue is described as computer gets slow when using internet. We agree on a meeting at their home.

What I find there is an ancient desktop running a Athlon XP 1400+ CPU.

The user shows me the setup and it looks like he’s taking proper care of his windows XP installation, no bloat or typical user stupidity.

UH OH…

Then we get to using internet.

The user downloads/uploads files to an FTP server. The data contents are not my business, but he makes a download to show me the issue.

As soon as he starts downloading, the computer starts freezing to the point where the mouse cursor is lagging. I look for what may be causing it until i notice the CPU usage.

That’s weird!

Turns out the users internet provider has been better than expected and given him an uncapped connection.

The user was downloading at over 300 mbps, at which point the CPU simply could not keep up with the managing of data and just handing the simple FTP download protocol would take all of its resources.

The user had issues understanding what was going on because “why would using internet need my CPU”.

He knew something was up!

However after a while I managed to talk him into understanding he needs a new machine and I cannot solve the issue without replacing the computer.

Since I didn’t “fix it” I didn’t get paid, but it was still an interesting experience I never saw before or since, where the CPU was a bottleneck for a download.

YIKES! That must have been confusing!

Why didn’t he ask for his payment though?

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this one.

This user knows it is always a memory issue!

This user thinks there was a way to fix this issue!

This user explains how the problem might have gotten fixed.

This user knows how heating a computer works!

Exactly! This user knows that this guy deserved to get paid for his services.

Someone here seems a bit confused.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.