IT Horror Stories

At Swift Systems, we have a team of IT industry veterans who have seen it all. Reminiscing about past jobs and experiences, we have stories ranging from roach-infested servers, to crazy clients, to stories too risqué for the office.

Instead of hoarding these stories for bonfires and company retreats, we’ve decided to share two of them with you. Whether you get a kick out of our pain or learn a thing or two, I am sure you can relate if you have been in the industry for any amount of time at all.

Weekly 6pm Server Crash

A few years ago, our team experienced a peculiar reoccurring issue with one of our client’s servers. It all started with the client’s server crashing one Tuesday evening at 6pm. The team got a warning that the servers backup battery was low, then the server crashed just a bit later. As the team was trying to diagnose the problem remotely, the server rebooted and was working perfectly fine. This same thing happened two days later on Thursday, and again, no one could figure out why it was happening. The customer said no one was touching the server, and during that time there was no one even in the office. We went to their office and noticed that the battery wasn’t fully charged, so we decided to replace it along with the UPS gear. Unfortunately, that next Tuesday it crashed yet again.

That is when they noticed a pattern. The server was crashing every Tuesday and Thursday around 6pm. But why? We did the only thing they could: we went to the office that next week and waited.

At 6pm, like clockwork, a woman walked in and unplugged the server. As it turns out, the cleaning lady had been unplugging it in order to vacuum, and then replacing the plug a few minutes later when she was finished. Who would have thought a “Do Not Unplug” sign was the solution?

Second-Hand Smoke Kills

A team member of ours has an IT horror story about a client they worked with at an old job. This client was a great small business owner with a bad habit: he was a very heavy smoker. Not a two-smoke-break heavy smoker, but the type of smoker whose office has an ashtray every 6 feet. He had a small desk placed in the back of the office near the server.

One day this team member got a notification that this client’s server was overheating. Just a short time later, it subsequently crashed. Not sure what the problem was, he drove to the client’s office to diagnose the problem. After moving the three ashtrays right next to the server and opening it up, the problem was evident. The fans had stopped working due to a buildup of tar. In fact, the whole thing looked like it was covered in black sap. Apparently, after years of tar buildup, the fans on the server had finally been killed by second-hand smoke.

These are just two IT horror stories of the thousands we have to tell, but they’re a testament to the life of the IT guy.

The moral of these stories: IT guys go through a lot, and have some of the most stressful jobs out there. Thank an IT guy today, and ask them to tell you an IT horror story or two.

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