Have you ever accidentally fixed something?

[RockSolid1106]

Yeah. Have you?

 

I have a cheap shit pair of headphone, of which one side wasn't as loud as the other one. Yesterday, I accidentally tripped on the wire which I somehow left dangling around the desk, and that just pulled the headphone out of the jack and slammed it to the ground. And I just thought I broke them. They were cheap ones and I expected nothing from them. But to my surprise, the low-sounding side started to sound just perfect! And now, both the sides are at the same volumes. An accidental fix!

[BondiBlue]

Sounds like you've experienced percussive maintenance. 

[whm1974]

A few keyboards I think...

[Jtalk4456]

not so much physically, but being help desk I've experienced many times over the years where a cx calls in at their wits end, they've tried EVERYthing to get their stuff working. I get on the phone and magically it starts working, I haven't even got the account pulled up to do anything yet and it just works cuz IT's on the phone. XD
 

[Bitter]

All the dang time, I work on cars and sometimes in the course of diagnosis you unplug and reconnect something a few times and the problem vanishes. Sometimes it comes back, sometimes it does not.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

PC wouldn't boot for days with secure boot and tpm.

I enabled secureboot and tpm again to try to fix it, but had to leave.

I came home, forgot about it, and bam it  boots up fine. 

I really don't know

[WkdPaul]

On 7/13/2021 at 2:17 AM, BondiBlue said:

Sounds like you've experienced percussive maintenance. 

People are unaware that this is an actual thing (people can lookup "hit starter to make it work" or some variant to see someone bring back a car starter to life using a hammer).

 

23 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

not so much physically, but being help desk I've experienced many times over the years where a cx calls in at their wits end, they've tried EVERYthing to get their stuff working. I get on the phone and magically it starts working, I haven't even got the account pulled up to do anything yet and it just works cuz IT's on the phone. XD

That's so common !

 

I tell them the computer/server got scared when I got on the phone.

[da na]

Often it's just ribbon cables that slip out of place, was working on a Windows 98 machine a while back and the ribbon cable for the front panel LEDs I guess I had accidentally tugged so it was just out of the slot. Dog knocked a chair over, it hit the table where the laptop was, LEDs worked again. Lots of stuff like that that happens. 

 

Another common one, this happened today actually. I've had issues with the start menu not coming up after a GPU driver install. IDK why. I got back to my desk today after about an hour away, I guess my GPU drivers had crashed since the screensaver said it couldn't run since I didn't have a Direct3D compatible GPU. Start menu also didn't work. I open Task Manager, I am about to hit End Task on Start and the Start menu appeared right before I ended the task...

 

Or when you go to fix someone's urgent computer problem, you restart it and it works fine...

Edit: used to have a phone where the battery connector would shake loose (awful design), if you dropped the phone hard enough it would fix itself

[tikker]

23 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

not so much physically, but being help desk I've experienced many times over the years where a cx calls in at their wits end, they've tried EVERYthing to get their stuff working. I get on the phone and magically it starts working, I haven't even got the account pulled up to do anything yet and it just works cuz IT's on the phone. XD
 

Why is this so universal lol. It doesn't work one bit, yet the second you enlist help it's like "nah we're good now".

[WkdPaul]

11 minutes ago, tikker said:

Why is this so universal lol. It doesn't work one bit, yet the second you enlist help it's like "nah we're good now".

It's the worst when it's an intermittent problem! It's never present when you're trying to show it (I was on both side of this) 

[tikker]

17 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

It's the worst when it's an intermittent problem! It's never present when you're trying to show it (I was on both side of this) 

The most "extreme" example I had was back in highschool. My calculator (TI Nspire, old battery model) died. Swapping batteries didn't work, smacking it didn't work, nothing seemed to make it work or last for mroe than a second if it did on a rare occasion. Then I bought a new one (the cool new colour screen version) and after a week of not doing anything the old one for some reason just freaking worked fine again and still does today. Naturally I got "accused" of just wanting the new version, which granted I did, but I swear the thing was actually broken...

[Jtalk4456]

1 hour ago, wkdpaul said:

I tell them the computer/server got scared when I got on the phone.

That's exactly what I say most of the time too XD

[LloydLynx]

I fixed a dead hard drive by hitting it on the desk, testing it, hitting it a few more times, then it started working. It still works to this day.

[Rauten]

On 7/13/2021 at 8:33 PM, Jtalk4456 said:

not so much physically, but being help desk I've experienced many times over the years where a cx calls in at their wits end, they've tried EVERYthing to get their stuff working. I get on the phone and magically it starts working, I haven't even got the account pulled up to do anything yet and it just works cuz IT's on the phone. XD
 

As a fellow HELLdesk, I feel you - like, 2 or 3 times a week.

I don't even need to tell them that the computer/software got scared, they say it themselves!

[Jtalk4456]

5 hours ago, SGT-AMD said:

They plugged it in and pushed the power button, so you can help them fix it....

 

that too lol, but I meant customers who actually did everything, did a 5 min off powercycle, checked connections, finger tightened (coax) checked the lights, windows network diagnostic, they're familiar with tech and just nothing will work for them then I get on and poof it's back alive no reason whatsoever

[Kilrah]

Accidentally not really, but unexpectedly yes...

 

Recently this... I bought that HiMD in an auction months ago and it was neatly packed in a foil and never took it out until recently, put it in, disc error - taking it out I noticed the case was actually split open and you could take the disc out - which was full of grime. Cleaned it, still no work, multiple tries. I have no idea why but thought "hey, these work somewhat thermally, let's try putting it in the fridge for a while"... left it in there for a day, put back in the player - worked! Did a format while the player was happy with it, format worked, filled it with music, worked... it's been a couple of weeks and it's just fine.

 

 

 

[sub68]

I one time smashed in a point and shoot camera lens.

so I turned it on and smashed it agents a table, it some how turned right on.

[Tan3l6]

Soviet electronics. TV just needed a little punch to the backside. But a bit too often.

Modern electronics would die.

[Red :)]

On 7/14/2021 at 7:39 PM, wkdpaul said:

People are unaware that this is an actual thing (people can lookup "hit starter to make it work" or some variant to see someone bring back a car starter to life using a hammer).

also known as the Jeremy Clarkson method

[sub68]

7 hours ago, Red said:

also known as the Jeremy Clarkson method

@wkdpaul @Red :) One of my favorite top gear scenes

[da na]

On 7/15/2021 at 2:42 PM, SGT-AMD said:

Been There, Done That with Radio Electronics: Intermittents are a pain no matter what industry you are in!

I've got a couple things where it only works if you have it at a specific angle, or if it stops working just kick it and it works again.

[RockSolid1106]

On 7/14/2021 at 11:09 PM, wkdpaul said:

People are unaware that this is an actual thing (people can lookup "hit starter to make it work" or some variant to see someone bring back a car starter to life using a hammer).

It’s not just for cars.

I have an Mi Band 3(a cheap smart watch). I don’t use it often so it’s battery is basically dead every time. So when I plugged it in, nothing happened. No display, nothing.

I searched on Google, and the first advice was to bang that thing onto something hard. And I was like “Are you kidding me??”

I kept searching and more and more websites mentioned banging it. And then I thought “That can’t fix it but let’s just try”.

I banged it a little not-so-hard the first time, so nothing happened. But then I banged it hard and it surprisingly worked!

[it_dont_work]

Hit a wombat and bent the bullbar on my old ute, hit a roo a month or so later and bent it back into place. 

[ZePat]

On 7/13/2021 at 2:33 PM, Jtalk4456 said:

not so much physically, but being help desk I've experienced many times over the years where a cx calls in at their wits end, they've tried EVERYthing to get their stuff working. I get on the phone and magically it starts working, I haven't even got the account pulled up to do anything yet and it just works cuz IT's on the phone. XD
 

This... literally.

 

I'm also IT and often get calls where "Hey, I want to print this file but I get this error!", I then proceed to remote in and BAM - it prints.  Or "This drop-down should show me this and that, but nothing comes up!" and once remoted in; "Oh! It's there now... must be because you logged in my session that made it work."  Uh, yeah, sure.  "Next time it doesn't work, just remote in to fix it ok?".  *facepalm*

[Freakwise]

uhh, i honestly have no idea how to tell this but, couple weeks ago my laptop "," is somewhat unresponsive and if i spam the damn thing it would continuously spam the "," non stop until i press other key

i literally did everything and when all effort bring nothing i start to think to buy a LP keyboard so i can carry it around easily

and guess what

 

the key suddenly work again without me doing anything, no restart, no windows update, no nothing