Spent three days on a weird power cycling issue that turned out to be a bad SATA cable

Customer's PC would boot for 30 seconds then die, no blue screen. I swapped the PSU, tested the RAM, even re-seated the CPU. After two days of this, I finally noticed the HDD activity light was solid right before shutdown. Swapped the data cable and it fixed it instantly. Anyone else get tricked by a simple cable lately?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliver81118d ago

Happens all the time with the simplest parts. We get so focused on the big, expensive components that the cheap connectors become invisible. It's like checking the engine when the real problem is a loose gas cap. That moment you finally see it is equal parts relief and pure annoyance. Makes you wonder what else we're all overlooking because it seems too basic to fail.

luna55017d agoTop Commenter

So true. What's the most ridiculous "basic" failure you've ever chased down? Like, spent hours on something complex only to find a stripped screw or a $2 part that was the whole problem.