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Pro tip: check the surge protector before you swap the whole power supply
I was at a client's office downtown last Thursday, and they had a Dell tower that wouldn't even flicker on. I spent 45 minutes testing the PSU with my multimeter, pulling drives, checking the motherboard for blown caps. Everything seemed fine on the bench, but when I plugged it back in at their desk, still dead. Finally I looked at the cheap power strip under the desk. That thing had a burnt smell and the reset button was stuck. Swapped it for a $15 replacement from the hardware store down the street and it booted right up. Client was happy but I felt pretty dumb for not checking the simple stuff first. Anyone else ever chase a ghost like that when the real problem was something basic?
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lilyfisher8d ago
Oh man, I had almost the exact same thing happen with a server once. Worked on it for like an hour, swapping parts, checking voltages, and it turned out the power cable was just loose in the back of the unit. Felt so dumb but hey, at least the client never knew how long I spent on it.
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