My old boss told me to always check the power strip first, and I finally saw why.

I was at a client's house in Tempe last Tuesday, looking at a desktop that wouldn't turn on. The guy was sure his power supply was fried. I was about to start pulling parts when I remembered what my first boss, Frank, always said. I got on the floor and followed the cord. It was plugged into a power strip under the desk, and the strip's switch was off. Flipped it, and the machine booted right up. Saved myself an hour of work. What's the silliest 'simple fix' advice that's actually saved your bacon?

2 comments

2 Comments

karenw902d ago

Frank was right, that's a classic. My version is always checking if something is actually plugged in. I've driven an hour to a site because a monitor was "dead." The video cable was just loose. Another time a whole network rack seemed down, but someone had bumped the main surge protector switch with a mop handle. Felt like a genius for just pushing a button.

matthewperry2d ago

Read an article once calling it "first-level troubleshooting." The writer argued half of tech support calls get solved by checking power and connections. Makes you wonder how many hours we waste skipping that basic step. Your surge protector story is the perfect example of a simple fix for what seems like a big problem. Ever run into a case where the simple check didn't work and it was actually something huge?