Techie was given strict instructions not to disrupt client. Then he touched one box and the lights went out

On Call Welcome to another instalment of On Call, The Register's weekly reader-contributed column that tells tales of times when tech support turned troublesome.

This week, we're again sharing a story from "Kent," who last week told us how a client held him hostage.

This week, a client held him responsible for something he didn't do.

"I was contracted to modernize a live-testing center – the sort that runs high-stakes exams," Kent explained. "These are places where silence is sacred and panic spreads faster than Wi-Fi."

Kent told us the site had four testing halls, two of which were in use when he arrived.

"My remit was comprehensive: new desktops, new servers, new switches, and new UPS systems for the two unused testing halls … without interrupting the tests in the other rooms."

"The production servers were on their own UPS stack, isolated and left untouched until cutover," Kent ...