I've replaced Alfredo's computer with our backup server. This machine has 12 processors, 24GB of RAM, top-of-the-line GPU with 4GB of video memory, and a 500GB SSD. A single machine slightly slower than this one runs every program in all the companies for all the users. This machine has also been used regularly by me for over a year, where it has been put through every conceivable test and has never crashed. Replacement value is around $6000 if you want to keep it.
After the last rebuild, I had a discussion with Alfredo where I related that something he was installing might be causing his issues. This seemed the only possible conclusion after going through so many machines(4) and so many rebuilds(6). We agreed that I would do just the minimum software install he needed to do his job, even avoiding the older version of AutoCAD to see if this would be more successful. 6 hours into today's rebuild, I got his hard drive running correctly on the new hardware and booted to the desktop. The first thing I notice is iTunes installed on the computer. iTunes is notoriously buggy and a portion of it runs every time you turn on the computer, whether you launch it or not. Sure enough, this portion of iTunes was in a permanently crashed/corrupted state. On his previous computer, this would have crippled about 75% of the machines performance and caused all kinds of other issues.
The rebuild mentioned above was completed late Wednesday night/Thursday morning of last week. The first mention I hear of any issues is third-hand from Caroline this morning (Sunday), causing me to cancel my plans for the day and respond immediately to an issue that should have been brought to my attention and addressed during the week.
Due to the issue being caused by actions completely in control of the user, and the unnecessarily urgent nature of the response, please find attached a bill for my time.
