Bad tech support: When in doubt, blame a virus

We talk a lot about viruses on the show and here on the site, but in reality, viruses make up a very small portion of day-to-day computer problems. In fact, many (if not most) problems that people blame on viruses are not actually viruses at all.

Many of today's computers contain at least 100,000 smaller files. These thousands of little files work together by linking and sharing jobs with each other. Viruses work by getting into that mix and confusing the files.

However, even without viruses at play, these files can get confused all on their own. In many ways a computer is like a living organism. Just as DNA, cells, the processes of life can get mixed up an mutated, the files and programs that make a computer work can also get corrupted.

There are so many combinations of possibilities that can cause even the smallest problem that often there is no way to completely troubleshoot a problem over the phone.

Often the folks at Dell, HP, your Internet provider or any other company that provides phone tech support get as frustrated as you do with the time it takes to resolve a given problem.

We have the luxury of being able to put our eyes on most of the computer problems we work on during the week. I have nothing but respect for the people who do phone tech support. In addition to dealing with dozens of angry or otherwise upset callers every day, they also must deal with the English/Indian language barrier. That make it tougher for both parties.

When phone tech support people have done all they can and the problem still hasn't been resolved, they often just say, "It must be a virus, Install a different Antivirus and call us back." This gets them off the phone and they know that the odds are that they will never have to talk to you again since the company has 300 or more other workers who answer tech support calls.

So, if you suspect that you have a virus download, install, update and run AVG Antivirus (Yes, even if you have Norton or McAfee). You will probably also want to do the same with AVG Antispyware. If neither of those computers finds a virus then the problem more than 99 percent chance not a virus.

I get the 99 percent chance from doing math. I see about 30 computers per week and of those that have viruses I can only remember two that had viruses that weren't caught by AVG. Now, ask me how many computers I've seen with Norton installed and updated that  were infected with viruses - no don't, I lost track several years ago. 

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