Two hours to find a loose screw on a Dell motherboard

I spent an entire Tuesday afternoon chasing a random boot failure on an Optiplex 3050. Swapped RAM, tested the PSU, even reflashed the BIOS. Turned out a single standoff screw had come loose and was shorting something underneath the board. Took me 4 hours total for what should have been a 10 minute check. Has anyone else had a stupid hardware issue like this that made you feel like a rookie?

3 comments

3 Comments

felix4148d ago

Charles nailed it - that sinking feeling when you realize the answer was staring you in the face the whole time. I've had similar moments where I swapped whole components before noticing a loose cable or a misplaced jumper pin. Makes you feel like a total amateur, even if you've been doing this stuff for years.

charles6408d ago

Man that hurts just reading it, feel your pain brother.

nguyen.angela8d ago

Man I saw a buddy rebuild his whole carb once before realizing he forgot to hook up the vacuum line.