An Internet friend of mine swears this is true, as it happened to him, in his office. He is the de facto computer repairman, only because he has seen the inside of one. One day, his boss asked him to do what he could to repair the cup-holder on the front of his personal PC. A cursory inspection revealed a CD-ROM tray warped beyond repair, and an expensive CD-ROM drive, useless.
Tech Support: “Ok, can you see the arrow in the middle of the screen?”
Customer: “Yes.”
Tech Support: “Good! Now trying moving the mouse around. Do you see the arrow moving?”
Customer: “No.”
Tech Support: “Not even a little?”
Customer: “No, not at all.”
I spent several minutes having the user follow the cable from the the mouse to the back of the PC. It was plugged in all the way.
Tech Support: “Ok, try moving it again. Up, down, left, right — anything?”
Customer: “Nope, still nothing.”
Tech Support: “Hmmm, maybe the table is too slippery — why don’t you try rolling the mouse on a book or a piece of paper?”
Customer: “Oh!! On the table!”
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I was working the help desk. One day one of the computer operators called me and asked if anything “bad” would happen if she dropped coins into the openings of her PC. I asked her if this was something she was thinking of doing. She said, “never mind” and hung up. So I got out my trusty tool kit and paid her a visit. I opened her CPU case and sure enough, there was 40 cents.