🐿️Pinecone Attack

c/computer-technicians

30

felix385•6h ago

My server PSU blew a capacitor and took down the whole office network

Happened Tuesday morning around 10am. I was just sitting down with my coffee when the whole rack went silent. Opened up the power supply and saw a blown cap - leaked all over the board. Had to scramble to find a spare ATX PSU that could handle the load, then rigged it up with some adapters. Got things back up in about 45 minutes but it was sketchy. Anyone else had a PSU failure take out more than just one machine?

0

carter.jennifer•2d ago

Shoutout to the tech who showed me a better way to test RAM

Had a stick go bad on a client's Dell last week in Austin, was about to run MemTest86 for an hour. The senior guy just said 'boot HCI MemTest off a USB, it finds bad sectors in 5 minutes flat.' Tried it, caught the error in under 3 minutes. Anyone else use that over the usual tools?

29

lindaw29•2d ago

Turned out thermal paste pump-out was real - lost 10c on my GPU

Honestly, I thought the whole thermal paste pump-out thing was just people being too picky. I'd been using the same cheap tube of paste for years on my own rigs. Then I rebuilt a client's gaming PC last month, an old 1080 Ti that kept hitting 85c under load. After repasting with a thicker thermal pad material instead, it dropped to 75c and stayed there. Tbh, I only tried it because a forum dude in the UK swore by it. Has anyone else had a similar fix mess with their temps?

10

umab86•5d ago

Can we talk about how thermal paste used to be such a mystery?

I remember back in 2006 when I built my first PC, I was terrified of applying thermal paste. Everyone said you needed the perfect pea-sized dot or your CPU would fry. Fast forward to last month, I was replacing a cooler on an old i7-2600k build for a client. I did my usual cross pattern with the paste, slapped the cooler on, and bam, idle temps dropped 15 degrees. Honestly, I think the hype around getting it perfect was overblown. Now I just spread a thin layer with a plastic card, no worries. Has anyone else found that thermal paste application is way simpler than the forums made it seem back then?

14

maxhart•5d ago

I finally admitted my old server was just a space heater with extra steps

Last month I was troubleshooting a client's Dell PowerEdge that kept throwing thermal warnings. It's a 12 year old R710 sitting in a closet that's barely ventilated. I spent 3 hours cleaning dust out of the fans and reapplying thermal paste, and when I fired it up it still ran hotter than my toaster oven. My buddy who used to run a datacenter told me flat out 'that thing's not a server anymore, it's a nostalgia project.' He was right. I replaced it with a little HP MicroServer I found on Craigslist for $150 and it sips power. The R710 is now sitting in my garage waiting for me to turn it into something stupid. Has anyone else held onto old gear way longer than they should have just because it still technically works?

20

rosek73•7d ago

My boss talked me out of buying a $500 PSU tester and I'm glad he did

Last week my boss saw me looking at a fancy PSU tester on Amazon and told me to just use my multimeter instead. He said 'you don't need a $500 gadget to tell you if a rail is dead, you need to know why it's dead first.' Been following his method for 5 days now and I've already fixed two power supplies by tracing bad caps instead of just swapping them out. Has anyone else found that the basic tools actually teach you more than the specialized ones do?

11

karen275•7d ago

That time my backup drive failed and I lost 6 months of work files

Last Tuesday my external hard drive started clicking and my computer wouldn't see it anymore. I had been meaning to set up cloud backups for months but never got around to it. Lost client records, invoice templates, and some grooming photos I was saving for a website. Has anyone else had a drive fail suddenly like that and what recovery methods actually worked for you?

17

eric_price•8d ago

Vent: People keep telling me to ditch Cat5e for Cat6 on every single job

I was at a IT meetup in Austin last month and this guy kept going on about how Cat5e is obsolete and we should all be pulling Cat6 even for basic office setups. Look, I get it, Cat6 is better on paper. But for 90% of my small business clients who just need internet for email and spreadsheets, Cat5e handles 1 gig just fine. I've been running Cat5e in a lawyer's office near downtown for 5 years now and they've never had a speed issue. Why push people into spending triple on cabling when the bottleneck is always their ancient router or the ISP anyway? Anyone else getting pressured to upsell on cable specs for no real reason?

16

ivan873•9d ago

I chose refurbished Lenovo over a brand new Dell for my shop workstation

Everyone at my shop thought I was crazy for buying a $300 refurbished ThinkPad instead of a new $800 Dell. I needed something for light data recovery and diagnostics, not gaming or rendering. Six months in and the ThinkPad has been bulletproof, plus I saved enough to buy a decent monitor and a few extra drives. The Dell fans I know kept saying the warranty alone was worth the extra cash, but my refurb came with a 90 day warranty and I haven't needed it. Has anyone else had good luck with refurbished business machines for basic bench work?

21

barnes.morgan•12d ago

That time a customer's grandma schooled me on thermal paste

I was explaining to this old lady why her PC kept crashing, and she cuts me off saying 'son, you're using too much paste, it should be a pea size not a whole tube.' She pulled out a 2012 Dell she fixed herself and it ran perfect. Has anyone else had a random non-tech person drop knowledge that actually made you change how you work?

12

lisa_wilson87•12d ago

Had a chat with a retired network engineer that flipped my thinking on backups

Was helping my neighbor's kid set up a home server last Saturday and his grandpa walked in. He's a retired guy who used to work for a big bank in the 90s. He asked what my backup plan was and I showed him my external drive. He just laughed and said "son, I've seen whole data centers go down from one bad batch of tapes." Made me realize I need at least three copies spread across different places. Anyone else have an old timer drop knowledge on them that made you redo your whole system?

21

viola_cooper62•13d ago

A network engineer told me to ditch my 20 foot ethernet cable and go with a 10 footer instead

He said the shorter run cuts down on signal loss and I didn't believe him until I ran a speed test and my ping dropped by 15ms. Has anyone else seen that kind of difference with shorter cables?

27

betty_shah•14d ago

Dropped into a PC repair shop in Cleveland last month that still uses CRT monitors for diagnostics

I was killing time between appointments and walked into this tiny shop near the old industrial district. The guy behind the counter had three beige CRT monitors stacked on a metal shelf, all hooked up to different test benches. He told me he's been using the same Sony Trinitron since 1998 because it shows him signal interference that flat panels just hide. I stood there for like 20 minutes watching him troubleshoot a power supply by listening to the coil whine through a stethoscope. It made me realize how much we rely on automated tools now instead of just knowing the sounds and visuals of a dying board. Has anyone else run into old school techs who refuse to upgrade their diagnostic gear?

15

noahward•14d ago

Found a way to fix intermittent boot failures by checking the CMOS battery voltage first

Been dealing with a Dell OptiPlex that would randomly not POST for weeks. Turns out the CR2032 was down to 2.8V, swapped it for a fresh one and it's been solid for 5 days now. Anyone else skip the battery check and waste time on other parts first?

15

barnes.morgan•15d ago

That $20 thermal paste from a random eBay seller actually worked

I had a customer bring in a laptop that was overheating bad, and I was out of my usual Arctic Silver. Figured I'd try this cheap tube I bought on a whim from a seller in Hong Kong for 6 months. Threw it on their CPU and it dropped temps by 15 degrees Celsius under load. Still feels weird trusting it, anyone else had a sketchy component that ended up surprising them?

17

cole_mitchell8•18d ago

Had a weird issue with thermal paste application last week

I've always used the pea size method for CPU thermal paste. Last week I built a new system with an AMD 7600X and tried spreading it manually with a plastic card. Temps were running 8-10 degrees higher at idle compared to my old pea method builds. After three applications and re-seats I went back to the pea drop and it dropped right down to 35C idle. Has anyone else had similar results testing different paste application methods on these newer chips?

10

paul330•20d ago

Just realized most people are crimping ethernet cables completely wrong

Watched a guy at a client site last Tuesday spend 20 minutes on one cable. Kept stripping too much jacket, then the wires would twist apart. He finally got it crimped but the boot was inside the connector instead of on the cable. I used to do the same thing till I worked with an old IT guy who showed me to strip less than you think you need and push the wires in flat. Now I see it everywhere. Anyone else notice how many field techs just wing it with crimpers?

2

spencer_wood•20d ago

Just learned that most office printer issues are caused by people using the wrong paper weight

I was digging through a service log from a job in Phoenix last month and noticed 80% of jams were on 20lb paper when the manual says 24lb minimum. Has anyone else noticed this pattern in their repair calls?

7

craig.brian•21d ago

Fell for that cheap thermal paste scam on Amazon

Grabbed a 5-pack of some no-name thermal paste for $8 thinking it was a steal. Applied it to a clients Ryzen 5 and temps were hitting 95C under load straight away. Peeled the cooler off and that stuff had turned into a weird chalky mess after just 3 days. Ended up spending $15 on a single tube of Arctic MX-6 to fix it properly plus an hour of my time I cant bill for. Anyone else get burned by those mystery tubes from China?

11

mason209•1mo ago

Saw sketchy wiring at a coffee shop downtown - be careful where you plug in

I was fixing a router at a small coffee shop on Main Street yesterday and noticed the extension cord situation behind the counter. There were 3 power strips daisy chained together running a fridge, espresso machine, and 2 laptops. That's like 15 amps on a single 15 amp circuit with no breaker protection between the strips. I told the owner and she said it's been like that for 2 years. Has anyone else run into fire hazards like this at small businesses?

24

parkerb75•1mo ago

Just realized I wasted 3 hours troubleshooting a PC that just needed a power cord reseat

Spent my whole Saturday afternoon swapping out RAM, testing the PSU with a multimeter, even pulled the CMOS battery... all because I was too stubborn to try the simplest thing first. Customer brought in a Dell Optiplex that wouldn't post, no beeps, nothing. I was so sure it was a dead board. Turned out the 24-pin connector was loose by maybe 2mm. Charged the guy $45 for the diagnostic and felt like a complete clown. Anyone else ever go down a rabbit hole and miss the obvious fix?

19

hernandez.jordan•1mo ago

Upgrade mobo now or wait for next gen CPUs?

Stuck deciding between two paths. One side says grab a current gen board and CPU combo while prices are low. The other side says hold out six months for whatever AMD and Intel drop next. I went with the upgrade now route. Picked up a B650 board and a Ryzen 7600 for $380 total on a Newegg deal. Worked fine for three weeks. Now I see rumors about better efficiency in the next chips. Kinda kicking myself. Did I jump too early? Anyone else wrestle with this timing thing and regret picking one side?

1

dixon.daniel•1mo ago

Hit 500 motherboard repairs last week and it got me thinking

I've been doing bench work on the side for about 4 years now, mostly local drop-offs. Last Tuesday I counted up my repair logs and realized I'd hit exactly 500 motherboard repairs, not counting simple swaps or PSU replacements. Most were bad caps or blown mosfets on older Dell and HP boards from office PCs. Is that a decent number for a part-timer, or am I just slow compared to you guys who do this full time?

21

scott.grace•1mo ago

Latex gloves trick for thermal paste cleanup saved me 20 minutes today

I was swapping out a CPU on a customer's gaming rig this morning and the old thermal paste was that dried out crusty stuff (you know the kind). I usually use isopropyl alcohol and coffee filters but it takes forever to get it all off. Today I tried putting on a fresh pair of latex gloves and using my finger to rub the paste off first before wiping. It came off in 30 seconds flat and left almost nothing for the alcohol step. Has anyone else tried this or am I just late to the party on this one?

16

faith_perez•1mo ago

Shoutout to the retired IT guy at the library who told me to check DNS before swapping hardware

Last Tuesday I spent 2 hours swapping out a router at a client's office before some old timer at the reference desk asked if I checked DNS and that one question saved me from an hour of testing gear I didn't need to replace.