Help Desk first stop for most computer issues

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Tiffany Colburn
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Computers play a vital role in everyday business for most of Team Incirlik's Airmen. When problems with these systems occur, the first step used to be contacting your local Client Systems Administrator. While the CSA still provides computer-related support, the process now begins with a call to the U.S. Air Forces in Europe's Consolidated Help Desk.

For issues such as deleting and creating user accounts, unlocking accounts, installing patches, loading printers and installing programs a call to the help desk at 94-478-HELP starts the ball rolling. The objective behind calling the help desk up at Ramstein first is to ensure the proper accounting of computer support; otherwise we will mask the importance of our local CSAs who we all know do a lot of the "heavy lifting".

"The help desk will open a trouble ticket and refer action to the correct (local) office," said Staff Sgt. Shadrine Jackson, 39th Communications Squadron, Noncommissioned Officer in Charge of Information Management. "The help desk can fix some of the problems, for example, unlocking accounts, resetting passwords and updating users' information; however, the majority of maintenance or trouble-shooting is done by Incirlik CSAs."

The help desk is the first point of contact even for computer issues occurring after normal duty hours

"If it's a problem the help desk cannot fix using remote tools, and it's a mission critical problem, the help desk will call the group CSA or appropriate office on-call representative," said Sergeant Jackson.

Individual users are required to adhere to several preventative measures to help ensure their systems stay up and running.

"Users cannot load unauthorized files or software on their computers," said Sergeant Jackson. "Another important point to remember is to log off, not shut down, your computer (at the end of the day) so patches and other updates can be loaded."