Sometimes it's the simplest solution...

[Nerdius Maximus]

Our internet's been running slow for several days. It's been one step above dialup, basically. My wife's taking some online courses, so this was especially frustrating for her.
She works for the cable company, and she had them test our modem, and they told us we were experiencing packet loss. The tech suggested that it wouldn't hurt to unscrew the coax from the back of the modem and screw it back in. I checked it, and it was a little loose, so I tightened it up. Problem solved! Four days of frustration, of unplugging the modem and router and plugging it back in, restarting the computer, running virus scans, and all I had to do was tighten up the coax. I feel ridiculous.

 

[Middle Earther]

I had problem accessing the internet at my university and went to see the IT guys, thinking my new laptop was screwed up big time.

He went into the "Tools" menu, unchecked or checked a box, and everything was fine!

It's a sense of relief and embarassment at the same time!

 

[trekkiedane]

Having played a lot with electronics in my time I always check connections and wires first when something goes wrong.

Somehow I don't really think of a computer as a piece of electronics though -just to say that I've been there

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

Having played a lot with electronics in my time I always check connections and wires first when something goes wrong.

Somehow I don't really think of a computer as a piece of electronics though -just to say that I've been there

Probably because when something goes wrong with a computer it's usually something really complicated. It didn't even occur to me that it would be something so simple.

 

[FPAlpha]

I know the feeling.. several weeks ago my dad bought an external harddrive and plugged it in.. didn't work.

He called me at work and went apeshit.. "This f....ing "§$%&/(!!!! piece of shit!!" I always have problems with my hardware" etc.

I came home (he stayed with me for a time because of medical checkups).. i check the new HDD and notice that it has 2 USB ports.. i plug them both in and the HDD works fine. The second one was an additional powerline as the HDD needs more juice than older external drives.

My dad sits there mouth wide open.. this you get by not RTFM and thinking all external HDDs are the same

 

[trekkiedane]

I have a not entirely dissimilar story, FPAlpha: A friend had bought a 500 GB external drive where she and her son wanted to store all the stuff they rarely use.

She told me that they'd been trying EVERYTHING but couldn't get it to work. Then, some later day when I was visiting, I decided to take a look at the thing.

She then brought her PC and the box she'd packed the drive back into because she wanted to return it. I hooked up the drive with the USB-cable, and connected the power-supply - and found no problem with getting it to work...

 

[The Grim Ghost]

Sometimes the KISS method really is the best!

Keep
It
Simple
Stupid!

Not calling you stupid or anything, but you get the idea!

 

[FPAlpha]

Just remembered something that happened to me too..

See.. years ago i was used to graphics cards that got enough power from the card slot. Then i did an upgrade with a more modern card and nearly went nuts because my PC wouldn't work.

It took me multiple reconfigurations, restarts and hours of work to figure out that the newer graphics card had a power connector and needed to be hooked up separately

Sometimes you just don't get it