Vent: That time I spent 3 hours troubleshooting a loose power cable

I spent almost a whole afternoon at a client's office last Tuesday trying to figure out why their main server kept randomly shutting down, and it turned out the power cord was just barely wiggling out of the back of the PSU. After reseating RAM, swapping drives, and checking logs for 3 hours, I finally noticed the cable wasn't clicked in all the way. Has anyone else had a simple fix like that totally slip past you for way longer than it should?

3 comments

3 Comments

fionat5512h ago

Did you check the power cable first or does that usually not cross your mind?

henry15011h ago

Yeah, "does not usually cross your mind" is putting it mildly. I used to work in a big server room and I've done the exact same thing - spent a full morning swapping PSUs and reseating everything, only to find the cable on the other side of the rack was barely hanging in. Now I make it a rule to physically push every power cable in before I even look at software or hardware. Saves me from that embarrassing call to the client where you have to admit it was just a loose plug. Also started labeling both ends of every cable with those little colored tags so I can trace them without crawling around in the dark.

bell.jessica6h ago

Three hours. That's how long I spent tracing a network issue at a friend's house once, @fionat55, only to find out the ethernet cable was half plugged in on his end. I felt like a real genius telling him the problem was solved by pushing a little plastic tab into a port. Henry is spot on about the labeling too. I use zip ties with little flags now, otherwise I'd probably lose a whole afternoon untangling the mess behind my TV stand.