“Is your computer connected to a power outlet? Yes? Could you please unplug it and plug it back in for me?”
It’s a much larger problem when there are several different cables.
Also: please check the other end of the cable, the one that isn’t plug in the wall, yes that one, plugged on the screen, unplug and plug it back in please.
“the serial output from my test unit turns into garbage and it happens at completely random times!”
“Did you make sure they were plugged in all the way?”
“WHAT?!?! ARE YOU SUGGESTING I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING?!?!”
Some time later
“Yeah, it turned out to be the serial connection was loose.”
It is worse in HW prototyping where sometimes loose wire is all over the place
“Where does this green wire go?”
I appreciate HW engineers and techs. I’m not afraid of datasheets, circuit diagrams, or a mso and they’re always patient enough to explain things to me so I can make the rocks behave. Or at least tell me how to go from diagram to board lol.
As someone that works writing firmware for SAS devices… it’s happened all too many times
That sounds like a classical OSI layer 0 problem.
Layer 8!
Layer 40320
At a former job, there was one – and only one – lady in customer service who would actually reboot and do all the basic troubleshooting steps before calling IT. If we heard from her, we knew something was legitimately broken. Oddly enough, I’m married to her now. Best decision I ever made.
Have you had to reboot her yet?
Did pretty much the same with a new server recently - spent ages debugging why it didn’t find the SAS disks. Turns out, disks like to have power connected, and no amount of debugging on software level will help you.
Always turn it off and on again. Then check cable and physical connections, then start the real troubleshooting. I have fixed over a thousand computers as a hobby. So I’m no pro, but I know that much.
I have rebooted it more than 10 times, and have checked literally every other connection but somehow forgot to check the actual SAS cable.
Happens to the best of us🤣
I spent what felt like an eternity debugging a website because it wasn’t updating. You gussed it, I was looking the build output of webpak in the wrong folder.
Me: *PTSD’s in SCSI chain
So many dongle failures, and so many sprung tension latches.
I’d rather troubleshoot for days than try to reboot or check cables.
“Hello IT, have you tried turning it off and on again?” pause “Is it plugged in?” pause “You’re welcome”
