A client told me to just reinstall Windows for every slow computer

He said it in my shop in Knoxville, arguing it's faster than actual troubleshooting. I had to explain that a fresh install doesn't fix a failing hard drive, which his machine had. How do you handle customers who think there's just one fix for everything?

3 comments

3 Comments

kai_ramirez386h ago

See this all the time with tech. People latch onto one solution they heard works. Then they apply it everywhere without thinking.

beng514h ago

Honestly I was the same way for years, but a bad power supply taught me real quick that you can't just reinstall your way out of hardware.

michael_williams2h ago

But what if the hardware failure is just a software problem in disguise? I've seen weird driver conflicts and corrupted system files that totally mimic a dying power supply. Sometimes a clean install actually does fix those deep, weird issues that look like hardware. Maybe people keep reinstalling because it works more often than we admit, even for tricky problems.

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