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Spent three days on a 'simple' power supply swap because of a bent pin I missed
Customer brought in a gaming rig that wouldn't boot after a storm. I swapped the power supply in about an hour, but it still had no power. Checked the wall outlet, the power strip, even the cable. Finally, after two more days of checking parts, I saw one of the 24-pin ATX connector pins on the motherboard was bent flat against the plastic. Had to straighten it with a tiny flathead. Has anyone else had a problem hide in plain sight like that?
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josephmartin2mo ago
That 24-pin connector is a classic trouble spot. I always start with a bright light and a close look at the motherboard header before I even unplug the old supply. Sarah_Patel25's loose cable is another good example, but for me, a visual check of every pin and socket is step one. It saves you from chasing ghosts later when the real problem was right there the whole time.
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sarah_patel252mo ago
Ugh, tell me about it, I once spent a whole weekend on a dead PC only to find the front panel power switch cable had just wiggled loose.
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ellis.susan2mo ago
Oh man, that's the worst feeling! Honestly, I've gotten so paranoid about loose connections now that I basically reseat every single cable before I even start real troubleshooting. Tbh, it feels like a waste of time until it actually fixes the problem and saves you hours of headache. Those tiny front panel wires are the absolute worst for coming undone if you just look at them wrong.
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