# That was fun **URL:** \ **Category:** Chatting over the Back Fence\ **Created:** [August 20, 2013, 2:24am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302 "2013-08-20T02:24:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![System1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@System1](https://forums.suse.com/u/System1)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 2:24am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/1 "2013-08-20T02:24:43Z")
About 10 years ago, my wife and I bought a SentrySafe fire safe to keep stuff in. About 3 weeks ago, I tried to open the safe, and it wouldn’t open. I’ve run into a situation where I might need some legal documentation, so the need was somewhat pressing. I’d been e-mailing, and in the end, I had to call to get help. Today was the day (they’re only open until 6 PM ET, so I had to take time out). I talked to a support rep, and went through basic troubleshooting steps. No dice. So I got escalated to a senior technician (after I got disconnected and reconnected once at the front-line support). We tried a few things, and then she suggested whacking the safe with a rubber mallet. 5 times above the keypad, 5 times to the right of the keypad. Whap whap whap whap whap Whap whap whap whap whap entered the code, aaaand… Nope. OK, try 10 times in each location, and a little harder. Whap whap whap whap whap whap whap whap whap whap Whap whap whap whap whap whap whap whap whap whap entered the code… [click] Dammed if it didn’t open. And the document I needed _wasn’t in the safe_. It was in my wallet. m-/ But they’re sending me a replacement keypad and solenoid since it sounds like the one we have is sticking. Apparently it’s a known issue. It was amusing, though, to be escalated to a “senior technician”, whose instructions (after reviewing everything we’d already done) were to _hit it with a hammer_. This was what I spent about 20 minutes on hold for. ## Jim Jim Henderson, CNA6, CDE, CNI, LPIC-1, CLA10, CLP10 Novell/SUSE/NetIQ Knowledge Partner ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 7:12am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/2 "2013-08-20T07:12:24Z")
LOL – Susan Novell Community Chat Moderator [http://forums.novell.com/faq.php?faq=novfor#faq\_rules](http://forums.novell.com/faq.php?faq=novfor#faq_rules) [http://www.ncci.org](http://www.ncci.org) NCCIrregulars Web Site [https://www.facebook.com/groups/NCCIrregulars](https://www.facebook.com/groups/NCCIrregulars) Please read the following before posting in here: [http://preview.tinyurl.com/27zopdy](http://preview.tinyurl.com/27zopdy) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 4:45pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/3 "2013-08-20T16:45:27Z")
HAHAHAHAHA!!! That’s hilarious! I’ve been tempted to suggest that as steps to take when on the phone helping a user… – Stevo ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/4 "2013-08-20T16:51:08Z")
Jim, I guess your safe is running Windows. I use rubber mallets to troubleshoot AD. JayZ. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/5 "2013-08-20T17:37:43Z")
Thanks Jim! I needed a chuckle today. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kgroneman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f1d935/32.png) [@kgroneman](https://forums.suse.com/u/kgroneman)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/6 "2013-08-20T18:48:13Z")
LOL! That reminds me of that old anecdote about the company that couldn’t fix a machine so they called a consultant/engineer. He came in, hit the machine with a hammer, and handed them a bill for $5,000. They were outraged and demanded an itemized invoice. Here’s what it said: 1 - Hitting the machine with a hammer: $10 2 - Knowing where and how hard to hit the machine with a hammer: $4,990 I’ll stick with my tumbler safes. 🙂 – Kim - 8/20/2013 9:44:05 AM ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/7 "2013-08-20T18:55:53Z")
Kgroneman, [color=blue] > I’ll stick with my tumbler safes. :-)[/color] circus performer-based security never really caught on in this country… – Shaun Pond ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/8 "2013-08-20T19:21:45Z")
On 20/08/2013 16:55, Shaun Pond wrote:[color=blue] > circus performer-based security never really caught on in this > country…[/color] Oh, I dunno. those white faced clowns are more scary than any guard dog I ever saw… ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/9 "2013-08-20T19:36:07Z")
On 20/08/2013 17:21, Dave Howe wrote: [color=blue] > white faced clowns[/color] ## … and now we’re back to the support reps! 😉 Simon Novell Knowledge Partner * * * ## Do you work with Novell technologies at a university, college or school? If so, your campus could benefit from joining the Technology Transfer Partner (TTP) program. See [novell.com/ttp](http://novell.com/ttp) for more details. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/10 "2013-08-20T20:28:21Z")
On Tue, 20 Aug 2013 16:36:07 +0000, Simon Flood wrote: [color=blue] > On 20/08/2013 17:21, Dave Howe wrote: > [color=green] > > > white faced clowns[/color] > > … and now we’re back to the support reps! ;-)[/color] How, Pale face. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 8:40pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/11 "2013-08-20T20:40:12Z")
On Tue, 20 Aug 2013 15:48:13 +0000, kgroneman wrote: [color=blue] > LOL! That reminds me of that old anecdote about the company that > couldn’t fix a machine so they called a consultant/engineer. He came > in, hit the machine with a hammer, and handed them a bill for $5,000. > They were outraged and demanded an itemized invoice. Here’s what it > said: > > 1 - Hitting the machine with a hammer: $10 2 - Knowing where and how > hard to hit the machine with a hammer: $4,990 > > I’ll stick with my tumbler safes. :-)[/color] While they are replacing the faulty component at no charge, I think I may well be looking for a totally mechanical safe the next time around. When I have the instructions for replacing the parts (I get to do that myself), I’ll see how the mechanism works - who knows, maybe I’ll figure out how to hotwire the thing and just apply current to the solenoid if it develops another problem. But as a “fire safe”, I’m a little surprised that the keypad is plastic. That seems like a recipe for it not opening after a fire. Seems that electronic backups stored offsite might be called for. 🙂 Jim – Jim Henderson, CNA6, CDE, CNI, LPIC-1, CLA10, CLP10 Novell/SUSE/NetIQ Knowledge Partner ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 12:22pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/12 "2013-08-21T12:22:15Z")
On 20/08/2013 17:36, Simon Flood wrote:[color=blue] > On 20/08/2013 17:21, Dave Howe wrote: > [color=green] > > > white faced clowns[/color] > > … and now we’re back to the support reps! ;-)[/color] no, they are red-faced clowns. Easy mistake to make though 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/13 "2013-08-22T13:29:55Z")
Ah - the good old “when all else fails hit it” trick. “Jim Henderson” wrote in message news:%OxQt.1930$4h.227@kozak.provo.novell.com… About 10 years ago, my wife and I bought a SentrySafe fire safe to keep stuff in. About 3 weeks ago, I tried to open the safe, and it wouldn’t open. I’ve run into a situation where I might need some legal documentation, so the need was somewhat pressing. I’d been e-mailing, and in the end, I had to call to get help. Today was the day (they’re only open until 6 PM ET, so I had to take time out). I talked to a support rep, and went through basic troubleshooting steps. No dice. So I got escalated to a senior technician (after I got disconnected and reconnected once at the front-line support). We tried a few things, and then she suggested whacking the safe with a rubber mallet. 5 times above the keypad, 5 times to the right of the keypad. Whap whap whap whap whap Whap whap whap whap whap entered the code, aaaand… Nope. OK, try 10 times in each location, and a little harder. Whap whap whap whap whap whap whap whap whap whap Whap whap whap whap whap whap whap whap whap whap entered the code… [click] Dammed if it didn’t open. And the document I needed _wasn’t in the safe_. It was in my wallet. m-/ But they’re sending me a replacement keypad and solenoid since it sounds like the one we have is sticking. Apparently it’s a known issue. It was amusing, though, to be escalated to a “senior technician”, whose instructions (after reviewing everything we’d already done) were to _hit it with a hammer_. This was what I spent about 20 minutes on hold for. ## Jim Jim Henderson, CNA6, CDE, CNI, LPIC-1, CLA10, CLP10 Novell/SUSE/NetIQ Knowledge Partner ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 1:57pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/14 "2013-08-22T13:57:29Z")
Arthur, also known as “percussive maintenance” – Shaun Pond ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 6:56am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/15 "2013-08-23T06:56:01Z")
persussive maintenance, I thought that was only for sewing machine technicians (friend of mine is a sewing machine tech and he’s the only guy who has ever said that) let’s not also forget the ‘calibrated tap’ 🙂 ## – gleach1 gleach1’s Profile: [https://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=934](https://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=934) View this thread: [https://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=469052](https://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=469052) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 9:49am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/16 "2013-08-23T09:49:03Z")
Gleach1, [color=blue] > I thought that was only for sewing machine > technicians[/color] well-known amongst TV repairers, especially back in the days of valves… – Shaun Pond ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/that-was-fun/24302/17 "2013-08-23T20:26:13Z")
On Fri, 23 Aug 2013 03:56:01 +0000, gleach1 wrote: [color=blue] > persussive maintenance, I thought that was only for sewing machine > technicians > > (friend of mine is a sewing machine tech and he’s the only guy who has > ever said that) > > let’s not also forget the ‘calibrated tap’ :)[/color] I got the replacement keypad and solenoid yesterday, and installed both. The funny thing was that in order to keep the door from closing (and potentially locking again - there’s a mechanical switch that allows it to do that even with the battery disconnected), I locked it with the door open. When I went to do replace the components, the door wouldn’t unlock again. Fortunately, I still had my hammer handy. 😉 Jim – Jim Henderson, CNA6, CDE, CNI, LPIC-1, CLA10, CLP10 Novell/SUSE/NetIQ Knowledge Partner