Caught in moral dilemma...

WARNING!!! This is a vent. The experience decribed below left me unhappy and just plain mad! Please feel free to skip this thread. I will not be offended.

My wife has a coworker who is, at best, computer semi-literate, and not too bright. She is a nice person, though. It's just that her elevator misses several top floors.

Her home computer (an old Dell) failed. I talked extensively with her husband over the phone, and after describing what happened (a lightning strike right next door while the computer was in use, no surge suppressor, etc.), walked him through several tests, etc. We came to the conclusion that his power supply and/or motherboard was toast.

I offered to go out to their house and do hands-on tests, and if, necessary, take the computer home and rebuild it. With a Dell, that means a new case/PS, motherboard, and copy of Windows XP Pro.

The husband declined, and said he had a friend in the next block who built computers, so he would have him check it out and do what's necessary.

Well, he did. They got what was essentially a new computer (for more than I would have charged, but that's a different story).

Unfortunately, their "friend" loaded it with all kinds of stuff that they didn't know how to use, and they couldn't find any of their old documents and their library of pictures. Could I come out and help?

Naturally, this was asked through my wife (it's her coworker's computer, remember). So I agreed. My wife and I went out there yesterday (about 70 miles from our house to theirs).

What a mess! Remember that we are dealing here with someone who is not the brightest bulb in the pack! And her husband is only a little better.

First, he gave them a new hard drive. That's okay. He put their original hard drive in the case (a very cheap 39.95 special with a 200W PS) as drive D:. In theory, that too is okay, except for two things. First, my wife's coworker couldn't grasp the fact that her CD drive is now E:, a fact of life that seemed beyond her. And second, their "friend" left the old operating system on the old drive, so everytime they tried to open a file on the D: drive, the system would freeze and require rebooting.

It took about 3 hours and several reboots to find and retrieve all their data. Several very strange inter-operating system problems! For example, I could MOVE files from D: to C:, but not COPY them. Once all the data files were moved, the system refused to reformat the D: drive. I had to reboot and open Windows in safe mode in order to format the drive (which took forever!). Then, and only then, could I delete the partitions on physical drive 1 so that 5 GB (out of 80) weren't stolen for an OS that was no longer there! Then and only then could I create a new basic (whole drive) partition (couldn't do it in safe mode for who knows what reasons), set the new partition as drive E: (I set the DVD/CD drive as drive D: to make the coworker happy), and reformat again!

Then comes the moral dilemma. Their "friend" loaded the new drive with Windows XP Pro SP3, Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, Adobe CS3 Master Collection (as a "favor" because they are into digital photography), and a sh!t pot full of other small stuff. None of these are legal copies! None of the big stuff (Windows, Microsoft, Adobe) can be registered or updated. And naturally, there are no disks with the machine.

I, personally, am a fanatic about not using pirated software. Everything on my systems is duly licensed and registered. Even the shareware. And here I have been asked to work on a machine with over $2500 worth of completely illegal major software!

Well, for the sake of my wife's relationship with her coworker, I kept my mouth shut, cleaned up the system, showed them how to organize and access their DOC files and their pictures, and gave them basic lessons in how to use their "new software." But I was not a happy camper!

What would you have done if faced with blatant piracy of very high-priced programs? Bear in mind that the owners of the machine are essentially innocents. It was their "friend" who is the actual thief.

All in all, It was a very long and stressful five and a half hours. Ruined my weekend.

Thank you for allowing me to vent. I do feel a little better having gotten it out in the open.

ugh, sorry about that..........I'd be tempted to go into the command prompt and type "rm -rf *" (or whatever the DOS equivalent would be) and go "oops, must have been another power surge, sorry!"

You'll find that life is much more pleasant when you have no morals. No morals = no dilemmas.

^^LOL

I think that the real problem was someone imposing upon your time for unpaid professional services.

The piracy issue -- They're going to get caught, ya know, when Windows phones home for an update.

CS3, same thing.

Give it some time.

helping friends & family out with computer problems is a veritable minefield. In this case I'd be telling the owners of the P.C. that as the software is all stolen, do not be calling you for help when it fails again.

How about reporting the guy that built the machine to MS?

joeseph wrote in post #6312316
helping friends & family out with computer problems is a veritable minefield. In this case I'd be telling the owners of the P.C. that as the software is all stolen, do not be calling you for help when it fails again.

That's not a bad idea. You have your standard to live buy, if it's not using illegal software then that's that.

I would at least let them know that most, if not all, of the software on their computer is stolen/ pirated. As you have stated, they are not the brightest folks so they may not even realize this.

After that, I would curb your computer help. I was the resident computer guru for our family and friends. Unfortunately, more and more time is being required to fix these machines now. A simple power supply swap is rather quick and painless. Hunting down a nasty virus or spyware/adware program can take an entire day (because most folks don't want their hard drive completely wiped).

I will typically take a look at something and if it is a quick fix I will do it. Anything else I tell them to call a "professional" (someone who is getting paid)!

20droger,
Well first you should have taken a photo of them!

Then just inform them of there illegal software and the problems they might/will encounter with it.

I personally would have told them to go and deal with the people they bought the computer from!

Don't let it bother you though, at least it ain't your computer

Hey as a last resort there is always this option that had me laughing

egordon99 wrote in post #6311830
ugh, sorry about that..........I'd be tempted to go into the command prompt and type "rm -rf *" (or whatever the DOS equivalent would be) and go "oops, must have been another power surge, sorry!"

So there is some truth to the phrase:

No good deed goes unpunished.

It's also been my experience that someone getting something for nothing will be the most vocal if not satisfied

I think you should get a medal for driving 70 miles out of your way to spend 5 hours helping people you don't know

Forget everything else, that right there says you are a man of very high moral standards, a credit to society and in need of a beer

I would, as a cover for my own derriere, mention the issue of licensing to them. The first time it won't update they will call the last guy who worked on it....

Shoot, the next time it falls down a crevice from an earthquake they will call the last guy that worked on it. These situations tend to resort to 'You touched it, you own it'.

And I am encouraged that there are some folks out there still bothered by this type of stuff. Thanks for that too.

Moppie wrote in post #6312543
I think you should get a medal for driving 70 miles out of your way to spend 5 hours helping people you don't know

Forget everything else, that right there says you are a man of very high moral standards, a credit to society and in need of a beer

Amen to the beer! Maybe two!

And in response to other comments, I did politely tell them that the software was not legal. I warned them of the dangers of trying to register or update it.

Auto update was turned off, and I did not turn it on.

Yeah, 70 miles wow. Depending on how you feel about it you could always find out exactly who "rebuilt" the computer for them and then turn that person into the pirated software website. Anonymously of course.

Windows and photoshop are the 2 top pirated softwares in the world. MS admitted making it easy to crack XP in the beginning as to spread the software faster. I remember reading the article on it back when XP was young. I do not agree with pirating software but I am a firm believer in staying out of other peoples business when it comes to things like this. The builder is the friend of the ladies husband and I am willing to bet that they will take his word over yours in a heart beat. You got used in this situation to fix is screw up with the multiple OS install. Just chalk it up to a lesson learned and forget about it.

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