Restarted one PC and it lost keyboard and mouse (both PS2). Serial mouse worked, as did USB mouse. USB keyboard didn't. Couldn't get into BIOS to check USB settings cos the keyboard didn't work. Anyone know how to get into a BIOS without using the keyboard?! Phoned the tech support company we deal with and they sent out replacement motherboard. Had to send an engineer to fit it (I've added devices to PCs but never had to replace a motherboard).

Restarted another PC and the network card lost all it's settings. Another engineer was sent, and said these cards (D-Link) have a known problem with this. An update was downloaded and applied, which fixed it.

One of our Novell netware networks suddenly refused to accept more than 2 users (there are 30 licenses). It came up with an error saying the licenses may be corrupt and that removing and reinstalling them may be required.
- Tried to update licenses and found that the username and password used by the former IT manager didn't work. All attempts to find a working username/password from him and former IT assistants failed.
- In a desperate attempt to gain access I downloaded and ran a file called burglar.nlm, which allows a user to create a super user on Netware. Still couldn't get in.
- Meanwhile, the eight users shut out of the system (and thus unable to do their job properly) had started ringing me at 30 minute intervals to ask when they could go back in.
- I found out that the tech support companies who I thought were contracted to help us out with this system actually weren't.
- After a day and a half, someone from one of these companies phoned me and talked me through it (probably at the request of one of our directors). It boiled down to the fact that I hadn't been adding 'context' to the username. This amounts to adding a few characters before and after the username to tell the system what you want access to. Once I could get in, removing/reinstalling the licenses was easy.

I hate Netware.