Visa: it's just everywhere. Trying to buy something online, I suppose. No wonder it didn't work. Note the card hasn't even been activated yet.

From 1994 to 2002, Rod Shelley worked as a PC technician at a major computer-retail store in the US. After seeing all kinds of wacky, operator-induced computer issues, Shelley decided to start documenting them. He wanted to inject a little humour into the often frustrating world of technology and hopefully educate a few of the technologically clueless along the way.

In 2000, Shelley published his collection of humorous photos online under the title 'Stupid Computer Tricks'. In 2002, his gallery turned into an overnight success. Unfortunately, due to bandwidth concerns and a series of hosting problems, Shelley was forced to take the gallery down.

However, Shelley has allowed ZDNet.co.uk to republish his photos. The captions are Shelley's. You can learn more about Shelley and read his musings on photography, technology and computer repair on his website, Rod's Lair.

Photo reprinted with permission from Rod Shelley.

Here's a new activity: let's see how many modems we can load into Device Manager. Maybe we can load more web pages this way?

Save time: insert two CDs at the same time.

The autoexec.bat file isn't used much anymore in these non-DOS days. This one was used once. If I was this guy, I'd take stock of my circle of friends.

This poor sap couldn't figure out how to unplug the telephone line from his modem. Solution? Just yank out the whole connector block. Then, get a shock when the service centre won't cover the modem under warranty.

What was the complaint here you ask? "It won't read CDs." Gee, I wonder why? "Insert CD-ROM in drive D and a half:"?

The front cover doesn't fit.

This is what happens when you replace an OEM drive with a standard one.

This laptop floppy drive was "choking" on a large rubber band.

Uhhh ... Is this an error?

'Grandpa Computer' appears to need a shave. This was brought to the service centre because the floppy drive was intermittent. I can't imagine why.

"What do you mean 'out of memory?' I still have some room on my screen!"

The owner of this shattered laptop was actually expecting this to be covered under warranty.

Three shortcuts all to the same place. Just in case they get confused.

This motherboard was mailed to our service centre in this nice box, wrapped in a plastic bag and cushioned by static-generating foam. The letter asked us to check the board for problems. If it didn't have any problems before, I'm sure it does now.

The story on this one? "I don't know what did this. It was fine, then the next morning, it looked like this." Right. A gnome crept inside the case and exploded during the night.

Here's an elegant example of precision hard-drive mounting. Hey, it saved 20 cents on screws.

Uh, sorry, this is not the right slot for this casino token. My service manager was watching over my shoulder as I removed this rattling floppy drive from an ailing computer. I shook the drive and this token fell out. The manager just walked away shaking his head.

Here's a variation on the multiple shortcuts idea. I guess this is in case they get confused?

This person really, really, really likes AOL. Really. What they lack in knowledge, they make up for with persistence.

I don't think there's going to be much data transfer on this guy's network, at least not from this computer. I hope his IT department wasn't responsible for this.

Here's another "floppy drive won't read" problem. Note the disk label. Note the label sealing the disk's protective access cover shut. His Quicken data should be quite safe.

Can't get the IDE cable to reach the hard drive? No problem. Remember, you can fix anything with duct tape.

Okay, I have no idea what was behind this one. The red stuff was semi-gooey, like lipstick. Either the kid got into some mischief, or someone ticked off the girlfriend/wife/significant other.

Yet more floppy torture. This is almost understandable but, still, there's a reason floppy disks look the way they do and CDs look the way they do. That little indentation on the CD drive tray really isn't for holding your coffee. It's for those three-inch mini CDs.

This one came in for "operating system not found". Please note the two blue sockets on the motherboard at bottom centre. Note that these are the IDE controller sockets. Note the black socket next to them. That is the floppy drive cable socket. Note that there are no cables in any of them! Note the IDE cable going from the hard drive to the CD-ROM drive, and nowhere else.