I finally fixed a power supply by listening to a client's offhand comment

I had this old Dell monitor power supply that kept blowing fuses after about 10 minutes. I was sure it was a bad cap or something in the primary side. But the guy who brought it in mentioned he'd spilled a soda near the back vent like a year ago. I kind of brushed it off at first but then I thought maybe there was dried sticky crap bridging something. So I took the whole board out and washed it with isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush. Turns out there was a tiny bit of corrosion between two pins on the main controller chip. Cleaned it up and now it's been running for two days straight. Has anyone else had a weird fix come from a random detail the customer dropped?

3 comments

3 Comments

jessicaw112mo ago

Yeah the offhand comments are always the key...

walker.rowan2mo ago

Funny how the quietest person in the room usually hears the most.

uma3061mo ago

Wait, you're telling me that throwaway line my coworker said about "well at least you tried" was actually the real clue? I used to think those were just filler chatter, empty words people say to be polite. But then I had a boss who always made these little comments like "interesting approach" or "I see you went with that option" and I just shrugged them off. Turns out he was gently hinting that my whole plan was a disaster without wanting to be mean about it. Now I pay way more attention to the throwaway stuff because that's where people actually tell you the truth without all the formal filter.