Someone asked me once on how to delete an icon on the desktop.  and this is probably not the silliest question he has ever asked me, its the only one i can think of. 

To be fair, not all icons on the desktop can be deleted normally but have to be disabled from some not-so-easy-to-find configuration locations

I am going to have to now nominate myself as the most clueless pc user because of what happened the other day:

It took a good 2 hours in a chatroom with people showing me pics of various motherboards and telling me where to look, to find out the model number of my motherboard. 

When it was all over, I had to go take a nap because I was all worn out from the stress of it all.

(hardware ain't my thing)

This pc isn't booting up though...seems like the motherboard is damaged (probably my own fault, too). 

oh well

That's enough to put a damper on your day - I guess I don't need to ask if you're backed up...

Backups only matter so much for home computers. (Servers are a different matter.)

I'm in a situation similar to app103 at the moment. However, I'm far too lazy to bother with the computer at all. So... I took it in to have it repaired. (Hardware problems and all.)

New video card. New CPU fan. $100 later at the shop and it works.

Get home. Power on. Nothing. Not fun.

Backups won't help as I don't need the backup data per se. I need the machine with its configuration and installed software (that I can't install elsewhere). Again, not fun.

Hardware problems are simply evil. You cannot fix them with a bit of knowhow and elbow grease. You need parts. There's no substitute for that.



And app103, don't feel bad about not finding the model number. Hardware vendors have mystical and magical powers. In particular, they have 2 powerful spells that they use on a regular basis:

1) "Find most obtuse place to stamp model and serial" (a most sinister spell indeed...)
2) "Shrink model and serial stamp for electron microscope use only" (again, a most sinister spell...)

Dark arts indeed! These hardware people are either in league with Satan or the Chinese. I haven't figured out exactly which yet... Though I do have my suspicions!

We're all clueless sometimes. Whenever I'm tempted to be smug, I think about when I have to take my car in to be fixed. The mechanic could be making up the names of car parts and I'd never know. (I suspect I've had a few mechanics who did this.)

And I've been driving a car for decades!  Some of them have probably wondered, as I stood there staring at the engine trying not to look like a total dink, "Geeze, how clueless do you have to be to not know that Ford hasn't made these with a carbeurator since 1985?"

This board is a select group. We like computers. We're interseted in them and curious about how they work. Using them is fun for us, even if it is sometimes frustrating. Not everyone feels this way.

And being in the user experience field, I feel like I need to point out that every "clueless user" story is really a "clueless programmer" story seen from the other side. Some developer(s) was/were too lazy or inexperienced or socially isolated to figure out how to make an interaction work for the person who had to actually use the program they were writing. Hilarity ensues.

ask how to operate the steering wheel

One learns something every day!  Steering wheel, you say!  I thought that thing was the valve wheel to open the fuel filler.
Fortunately, because I've never managed to get that open, I've never had fuel so the issue of steering hasn't yet arisen.

good point, CleverCat.

In response to nudone, I worked at a Chevy dealership in the parts department.  Just last Spring we had two service calls in two days from ladies who called from a parking lot asking for assistance because the battery went out of their keyfob transmitters and they couldn't unlock the car door.  I took the first call and it took me several questions before I could get my mind around exactly what the lady was telling me. 
Finally I understood her transmitter wouldn't unlock the car so I asked the lady what she had done with her key.  She said it was right there on the keyring with the transmitter. 
"Then why don't you just use the key to unlock the door manually?"
"Do you mean I can do that?"
"Yes Maam, just like in the days before transmitters, just put the key in the lock and turn it."
"Oh my God!  You're not going to tell anybody about this are you?"
"Of course I am.  This is too good to keep to myself."
Click.
Naturally, I told everyone in the shop so the next day when another lady called in with the same problem, the service manager thought I had put somebody up to it and it took a bit for him to realize that it was an honest call and the lady was just as clueless as the one the previous day. 

I even have to manually crank the windows up and down.

very off-topic I guess but I really miss that in newer cars - I wish they'd have both

Having said that I can still open the driver's door on my car with a key but I am instantly deafened by the alarm going off - which can only be turned off with the transmitter - so if the battery is dead ....

maybe the designers should get awards for "most clueless...."

Presumably because the locks are simply mechanical devices that can be forced, picked or bypassed with a coat hanger.

Today I was going to help someone with her new wireless router, but since it's a wireless router she refused to plug in the power adapter...