Help-desk requests: Weirder than you thought.

There seems to be no shortage of weird requests IT workers get, judging from readers who commented on the April 11 Management Watch entry, "Have a sense of humor? Become an IT worker."

A survey from Robert Half Technology showed that CIOs had been asked all kinds of oddball questions. "How do I remove a sesame seed from the keyboard?" and "How do I pirate software?" Help-desk professionals had encountered requests such as “Can you help me repair a washing machine?" and "Will you show me how to use the mouse?"

We asked you to share your own experiences, and just when you thought it couldn't get stranger, it did.

Reader DC submitted this anecdote:

I once had a customer call in to report that her coffee cup holder was broken. When I went to her office to find out what she was talking about, I discovered that she was using her CD tray to hold her coffee cup. The weight of the cup and coffee made the tray come off the track so when she tried to close the tray it wouldn't move; thus the call to IT...

Another reader sent this gem:

How about this one: A lady says, ‘My computer won't turn on.’ Short moment of silence. Then she says, ‘does it matter that the power strip it is plugged into is under water?’

And reader Utah told this story:

I once had a customer call for help because the communications equipment in her facility was failing (this was back in the late 1980s). When pressed, she revealed that she'd been preparing for an inspection of the computer room by ‘soaping it down’ and shortly thereafter it had just ‘started a-smokin’. *sigh*

Have any other weird requests? Keep ‘em coming.