Appreciation post: That 5 minute chat with a retired radio engineer

I was swapping out a failing PSU in a customer's Dell Optiplex last Tuesday when this old guy walks in and starts talking about how he used to fix tube radios. He watched me for a second and said 'you know, that fan header is probably gonna crack if you don't support the board from underneath.' I never thought about that with these cheap office PCs. He was spot on and it saved me 20 minutes of headache later. Has anyone else had random advice from a stranger that actually improved your process?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthony1278d ago

haha, that's a good one. I had a random dude at a hardware store tell me to use a bit of isopropyl alcohol on a stubborn CPU cooler once instead of just yanking it. I thought he was crazy but it worked like magic, no bent pins and no thermal paste mess all over the place. I still do it now, just a little drop around the edges and it pops right off. It's funny how those random tips from strangers stick with you more than any manual.

ninas708d ago

oh man, that brings back a memory. @anthony127 my buddy Dave tried to pull his cooler off dry last year and ended up taking the whole CPU with it, pins bent all to hell. He was so mad he threw the motherboard in the trash. I told him about the alcohol trick but he didn't listen, said it sounded sketchy. Next time I ran into him he had a new board and admitted he should have just tried the drop of alcohol. Have you ever had a tip that sounded too weird to try but ended up working?