Got a job to replace a fried motherboard at a small business way out in Wyoming. Spent two days on the road, staying in motels and eating gas station food, which feels wild compared to today's remote fixes. Do you guys ever get sent on crazy trips like that anymore?
He was putting together a new gaming PC on his carpet and thought static was no big deal. One tiny shock killed the CPU socket right away. I tell all my clients to ground themselves before touching parts. A simple strap costs less than a new board.
I always left them alone thinking it was safer, but adjusting one setting cleared up a boot loop that had me ready to swap the whole board.
I keep seeing systems overheating because folks tuck them away in cabinets.
I used to leave all BIOS settings on default because I thought it was safer. Then I fixed a computer that kept ordering pepperoni pizzas in the middle of the night. The user had some weird power management setting that woke the PC up and triggered a script. After adjusting the settings, the pizza orders stopped. Now I always double check BIOS configurations before calling a job done. It's wild how a simple setting can cause such a mess. Who needs a haunted house when you have a haunted computer?