Even though I use my computer every day, if you asked me how it works, you’d be met with a deafening silence. I’d like to imagine it as a magic box (probably full of elves) that does as I say and instantly answers my most burning questions. While this might sound absurd, most adults are of a similar opinion, as the majority only have basic skills that revolve around email and web browsing. That’s why tech support personnel often struggle to deal with us technically challenged folks. 

Luckily, a place online exists where they can vent their frustrations that accumulate on the job. Called the “Tech Support Gore” subreddit, it gathers all tech support guys and gals and encourages them to share the worst ways people have mishandled their technology. Scroll down to find the most abysmal examples that caused tech support workers to cringe inside, and don’t forget to upvote the ones that made you appreciate every IT professional.

#1 Found On Facebook

Image credits: [deleted]

#2 I Think It Needs A Little Bit More Solder

Image credits: Subclips

#3 High School Chromebook

Image credits: ItsRao

In today’s technological world, digital literacy is crucial to communicating, accessing information, and developing careers. In fact, 70% of all jobs worldwide will require their employees to be digitally skilled by 2025. 

However, research shows that 40% of employers struggle to find candidates with the necessary technological proficiency, indicating that people in the year 2024 still are not up to par with their digital skills. 

#4 The Network Is Down

Image credits: 80558055

#5 I Found This Spicy Pillow At A Vet Clinic. Surface Pro 4, About 7 Years Old

Image credits: GreenEggPage

#6 User States “PC Runs Like Crap”

Image credits: OnnPurpose

2021 data from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) revealed that 2.9 billion people are still offline and have never browsed the World Wide Web. Unsurprisingly, 96% of those live in developing countries.

Even those 4.9 billion Internet users don’t have the opportunity to go online on a regular basis. Many who are digitally excluded may face challenges like poverty, illiteracy, accessing electricity, and lacking digital skills and awareness.

#7 The Coax Cable Is Broken? No Problem My Dear, Just Raise The Router With Lunchboxes And Use A Needle (It Actually Works!)

Image credits: themo98

#8 Customer Dropped His Camera In Salt Water, Rice It

Image credits: PRiMEFiL

#9 Ticket: “The Switch Is Noisy And Reboots All The Time, Cannot Diagnose.”

Image credits: DacianDan

In developed countries like the US, only 7% of people never went online. This is strongly linked to age, as older Americans are the least likely to use the Internet. Education levels and income also contribute to people not being online. 

#10 If My Mental Health Was An Ethernet Cable

Image credits: AffectionateToast

#11 My Friend Wanted To See The Inside Of His Phone

Image credits: Remarkable_Day7135

#12 “Why Won’t My WiFi Work?”

Image credits: Fabio-the-proto-fox

Despite some people still being offline, the vast majority of the global population is now using the Internet. That said, according to the World Economic Forum, only 5% reach level three of digital proficiency—the highest level of skill. 14% were below level one or had a very basic understanding of technology. 

#13 Rate My Nas

Image credits: UsernamesAreHard97

#14 I Had To Install A Gpu From 2012 In A 2018 Cyberpower PC And I Lost Screws So I Had To Improvise

Image credits: Sabbath_lives

#15 Friend Asked If I Can Recover Her Photos

Image credits: Lavadragon15396

The majority (28.7%) were at level one, which meant they could solve a problem using email and a web browser. A quarter falls into the second level at which they could complete a task using an online form and navigating through several pages and applications. 

#16 Dell Engineer “Fixed” My Desktop

Image credits: Visolas

#17 Disk Drive

Image credits: YourLocalKidney

#18 User Left Their MacBook In The Fridge Overnight Because It Was Overheating

Image credits: MrMattXD

Unfortunately, the general view of people’s technology proficiency seems bleak. The good news is that we all personally can make improvements on this front, which can benefit us in better job opportunities, personal development, and increased social engagement.

#19 Very High Quality Apple Charger

Image credits: kastamonubamyasi

#20 Queens, NY Is Not Somewhere I’d Like To Be A Phone Tech

Image credits: djspacebunny

#21 My Friend Doesn’t Have M.2 Screws, So He Used The Sticker From A Package To Hold His Nvme Drive In His Computer

Image credits: Tom60chat

Where to start may depend on a person’s digital skill level. If they’re green as grass, there are many introductory courses they can begin with. For example, libraries organize introductory courses on computer literacy, which can be ideal for older people who might not have previous digital knowledge. 

#22 But Why?

Image credits: encephalophagous

#23 Nothing Like A Little Game Of Chicken When You Need To Plug In Your Ethernet Cable

Image credits: pinkyepsilon

#24 Ticket Says “I Think The Projector Just Had A Heart Attack”

Image credits: FromPaul

Those who already have a basic understanding of the internet and technologies can also up their game by checking out online courses or videos. This can help to learn specific skills like using photo editors, Excel, or various communication software like Microsoft Teams or Zoom.

#25 No Better Way To Do This

Image credits: Jugghead58

#26 “Our Printer Is Printing Dark Pages.”

Image credits: jstep32x

#27 Intruder Breaks Fan On Inverter Then Dies

Image credits: Vampire_Filip

The most important thing during this process is patience. This, of course, is easier said than done but learning takes time. Using a new program can be confusing and frustrating in the first hour or two but once you get the hang of it, it’s smooth sailing from there. In addition, try to use technology more in day-to-day life and look something up online (or ask those around you!) you might not be familiar with doing. 

#28 Cheap Solar Powered Portable Charger Took In A Little To Much Sun Light

Image credits: ThatsPurttyGood101

#29 I Was Wondering Why My Internet Was So Slow. Now I’m Wondering Why It Worked At All

Image credits: Hungry-Sir7892

#30 Colleague Came Down To It Complaining Their Company Phone Wasn’t Charging Fast Enough

Image credits: kong_not_my_godzilla

#31 When You Aren’t Confident Enough To Do A Bga Soldering

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#32 Can’t Tell If The Kids Wanted To Watch Dora Or Play Dark Souls

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#33 My Motherboard Died

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#34 WiFi Is Kinda Slow On The 3rd Floor Can You Check It Out?

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#35 Delidding A Ps3

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#36 They Told Me That The Computer Wasn’t Turning On

Image credits: Verygafanhot

#37 Celebrate 25 Years With An Imac Graveyard

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#38 Spicy Pillow Becomes A Hot Pocket. Causes Evacuation

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#39 Random Access Point That Just Showed Up One Day. Is Not On Our Controller, But Has Been Configed To Use Our Ssid

Image credits: FKFnz

#40 Parents Had Flakey Internet And Had To Keep Restarting Equipment In Order So My Dad Built This Contraption To Start Them Up With Timers In Order

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#41 Customer: Phone Fell Out Of Handbag

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#42 Upon Disassembly, I Think I Can See Why This Rx580 Doesn’t Work

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#43 How Amazon Shipped My Replacement Hdd’s For My Nas For Work

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#44 Being A Alarm Engineer This Just Brings Pain

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#45 I Was Hoping Replacing The Coax With Ethernet Would Be Easy. I Was Mistaken

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#46 50 Bucks For Chromecast Audio?? No Thanks – I’ll Gut My Google Home Mini!!

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#47 Is This An Acceptable Bend Radius?

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#48 The Most Disgusting Still-In-Use Charger I’ve Ever Seen

Image credits: MagicPropaneMAN

#49 Me: “Has Your Phone Had Any Contact With Water?” Customer: “Not That I Know Of…”

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#50 This Was Brought To Us With The Words “This One Broke, We Need A New One.”

Image credits: BroLegendCZE

#51 Just Received A Router For Repair. Wondering Why It Won’t Turn On

Image credits: PaulR282

#52 I Will Kill All Of The Isps That Do This

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#53 This Image Used By A Musicstore As A Form Of Ad

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#54 Yes, That Is Fiber. Yes, They’re “Finished”

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#55 The Network Is Down

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#56 I ❤️ Public Schools

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#57 Costumer Came In Today Almost In Tears Asking Us If We Can Recover Her 5+years Of Work Data

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#58 Who The Fsck Designed This Motherboard ???

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#59 Shopping Mall Visitors Gradually Pick Off LED From The Panel

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#60 Mac Bench

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#61 What In The Exact F**k

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#62 I Got A Gpu On Ebay From St. Petersburg, Russia Before The War Started And It Obviously Was Harvested From A Highly Secure (Ts?) Workstation

Image credits: Cellbuilder2

#63 Boss Sent Me Down To A Clinic To See If Anything Was Salvageable

Image credits: Baked_Potato_732

#64 I Was On Vacation And The Restaurant Was Complaining Why Their Wi-Fi Wasn’t Working. I Wonder Why

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#65 Its Still Running!!

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#66 My Mil Was Due To Catch A Flight At 6.00am But She “Doesn’t Trust Technology” So She Tried To Photocopy Her Digital Boarding Pass Off Her Phone. The Tech Support Question Was “What’s Wrong With The Photocopier”

Image credits: CharlieDancey

#67 Residential Client Says They Need Data Off Their Old Hard Drive… (Pen For Scale)

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#68 One Of My Customers Having Fun With Their Water Jet Cutters

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#69 “I Heard A Pop, And A Crack, Now My PC Won’t Turn On.”

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#70 Why Is My Projector Overheating?

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#71 PC From A Pool Supplies Store ?

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#72 Customer Brought This. They Said After Repasting It No Longer Boots

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#73 Brand New Fortigate 60f

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#74 My Psu Decided To Say No Today, Glad To Be Wearing The Brown Pants

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#75 Yeah, That’ll Work

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#76 Tried To Fix My Laptop, Heard A Pop

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#77 “I Need The Data Recovered From This! Cost Is No Issue!”

Image credits: the123king-reddit

#78 Good Ol Susan Complaining That Her Laptop Doesn’t Charge And That Her Docking Station Doesn’t Work. Well No Shit Here’s Why

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#79 Ladies, Gents, All Of The Above? None Of The Above! I Present: My Office’s Ftp Server

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#80 My Friend Payed 35$ For This Monstrosity

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#81 Boss Told An Unsupervised Very Junior Tech To Open Up A Customer’s 27″ Imac

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#82 My Friend Thinks His Phone Is Fine, What Do You Think? (And Yes It Smells Like Lithium)

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#83 I Thought I Had Seen It All

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#84 Just Had My First Day Back In School Today. I Find This Outside Of My Classroom. It’s So Tempting To Just Yank Out The Cable And Exchange It Atleast For A Shorter One. Please, God Help Me

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#85 After Some Construction, Customer Complained About Poor Wi-Fi Signal

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#86 This 3680w Timer Provided Power For Three Pioneer 65″ Plasma Sets That Turned On At The Same Time

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#87 Guess What Happened When The Client Tried To Cook Again? Recipe Not Included

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#88 Not Today, Death

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#89 I Brought My Computer To The Repair Shop And The Tech Guy Let Me Keep The Problem Child Part. It Seems Fine, Should I Put It In Some Rice?

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#90 Customer States That The Wall Has Always Been There…

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#91 Potting Compound Can’t Stop Me From Finding A Shorted Capacitor

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#92 Cpu Was Overheating With The Dinky Stock Cooler So I Stuck 2 Heatsinks Together. Dropped 10 Degrees Under Load

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#93 Someone Plugged A M.2 Sata Directly Into Sata Power (Found On Facebook)

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#94 Guy Comes Up To Me At Work, And Says He Wants A Car Charger. Then Proceeds To Show Me His Little Hot Pocket… 😐

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#95 Would You Remove It Or Leave It ?

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#96 User States Hdmi Plug Doesn’t Fit. User Is Right

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#97 My Friend Made A “File Server” – Then Asks Me Why He Cannot Access His Files

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#98 After Seeing Some Posts About Fake Ssds Just Being 1 Flash Drive. So I Opened One Of My Fake Ones To Check. One Sacrificed Tool And Slightly Damaged Pocket Knife Later, A Micro Sd Card Hot Glued To A Circuit Board

Image credits: Shamblamkamlba

#99 The Dumbest Thing I’ve Had To Do This Year

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#100 This Hurts To Look At

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#101 “My Mouse Won’t Work On My Chromebook!”

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#102 At Least The Pins Are Still Straight

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#103 DIY Phone Cooling Upgrade

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#104 This Is How Two Tablets Came Back

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#105 This Room At My School Doesn’t Have Ethernet Jacks, So Some Genius Decided To Disconnect The Access Point And Attach A Network Switch To The Ceiling

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#106 Our New Mascot, Student Sent This In Stating They Accidently Dropped Their Backpack From Their Second Floor Porch, Somehow I Don’t Believe That. Now It’s Our New Mascot Named Crash

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#107 Introducing… Power Over Duct-Tape!

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#108 It’s Called “Networking”

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#109 My Wife Was Checking A Receipt While Cooking And Turned On The Wrong Stovetop

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#110 Uncle Tried To Take Sim Card Out Of Phone

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#111 I Trying Telling Them Not To. Rip 2012-2024

Image credits: RingPristine7474

#112 Customer Brought This. They Said That Laptop Is Overheating And Something Might Be Loose Inside

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#113 Turning This Power Point Off Turns Of Internet For About Half Of My School

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#114 This Just Feels Wrong

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#115 Grandma-Proofed Remotes

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#116 Monitor At A Fast Food Place

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#117 I Always Buy Thinkpads For My Mom Since She’s Rough On Laptops And They’re Pretty Sturdy. She Still Managed To Break This One Though

Image credits: NeverMind_ThatShit

#118 Asked The New Guy To Make Sure The Printer Has Paper… [from R/Mildlyinfuriating]

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#119 They Called Us, Electricians, To Check Why Their Servers Were Really Loud

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#120 Built In USB Port On The Home Theatre Seats At A Friends House Is Outputting 30v And Has Killed A Phone, A Wii U Tablet And My USB Port Tester

Image credits: arkiser13

#121 A Friend Called Me To Ask Why There’s No Internet? (This Is What A Repairman From His Isp Did)

Image credits: FurryRevolution

#122 Student Dropped An iMac

Image credits: d00d00frt