[ArGee]

PC World once asked me to devise a test for national chain repair shops. Back in the day my first suggestion was to take the ram that had to be inserted in pairs (yes, I’m much older than 32-bit PCs) and put the DIMMs into the wrong pair of sockets.

But readers cried that I had asked too much when I suggested making a small break in the parallel HDD cable. They said HDD cables are almost never the problem. I came up with that particular test because I had troubleshot that problem myself and thought it would be easy.

Apparently, 3 of the 4 chains recommended a new motherboard.

[Tax-chick]

Apparently, 3 of the 4 chains recommended a new motherboard.

And 3 out of 4 HVAC services recommend a new compressor.

[moose07]

You scared them ,ArGee.
The insides of PCs scare the daylights out of people in general.

[NoCmpromiz]

PC World once asked me to devise a test for national chain repair shops.

So that was you...

I remember that test. Caused me to add 'check drive cable' to my list of stuff-to-do-to-resurrect-dead-pcs...

But I never did find a bad one.

I’m much older than 32-bit PCs..

Which means you know the difference between a XT and an AT? And you know what MCA is. And the numbers 8088 and 80286 mean something.

Unless you go back further than that in which case Z80, Osborne and KayPro are meaningful. And CPM is magic.. ;-)

Disclaimer: I never played with a CPM machine. I entered the era of personal computing with a version of something that Bill Gates bought and repackaged. What I now remember of DOS commands is marginal.. But I still have my DOS 6 book buried in the stash somewhere just in case..