Hot take: stop guessing on dead boards, I lost 4 hours at a client site in Mesa last month

Avery Roberts · 2026-09-15T06:45:05.180579+00:00

On a Tuesday job in Mesa I had a Dell OptiPlex that would not POST, and instead of pulling the RAM and reseating it right away I spent 4 hours swapping power supplies and clearing CMOS like an amateur. The fix was a single bad stick in slot 2, found it in under a minute once I actually ran a POST card instead of trusting my gut. My rule now is simple: test the cheap stuff first, every single time, no matter how sure I am. Anyone else got a dumb story where the obvious thing was the answer and you skipped it anyway?

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Hot take: stop guessing on dead boards, I lost 4 hours at a client site in Mesa last month | Computer Technicians - Librear