Oct 14, 2026, 8:55 PMI love hearing about hardware problems where it's like "well that can't have broken that way, just from doing that" and then there's follow-up and NOPE, it's really broken that way, from doing exactly that. huh. Computers are weird.
Oct 14, 2026, 8:57 PM@foone back in the 2000s my brother's GPU died from unplugging the DVI connector while the computer was switched on. we later found a tiny line in the manual that said it was not hot-pluggable. we got a warranty replacement anyway because lmao what.
Oct 14, 2026, 8:58 PM@foone my guess is maybe ESD caused it, but honestly I've got no clue how that particular failure occurred.
@gsuberland @foone maybe due to the order the pins disconnected, causing current to flow in unexpected ways?
Oct 14, 2026, 10:25 PM
@foone Even before the days when "off" just meant the thing was in sleep mode, I had a frustrating number of times that the solution was to actually physically unplug the damn thing and wait for all the capacitors to fully discharge. My mom didn't believe me that unplugging it was the thing that got it working again until I showed her. I told her the electrons were stuck, so you had to unplug it so the clog would come loose. (She also figured out the actual answer after explaining it, she just laughed at the joke and likes to tell others about it)
@JessTheUnstill @foone Unplugging, removing all cables, hitting the power button a few times, then plugging cables back is still one of the first things I do when things are acting weird. It solves problems quite often.
@JessTheUnstill @foone (and you have to make sure to remove the cables, as you can get stray power from both video and network cables, and of course USB)
@jernej__s @foone I was baffled the first time that I learned you actually have to physically unplug the coax cable from a cable modem for a few minutes to get the damn upstream node to reissue you a new lease. I'd been fighting network issues for days and pulling the power cord from the modem, but didn't know apparently just having anything attached to the coax, even unpowered, would keep my lease alive.
@JessTheUnstill That's a new one for me, but I hadn't had cable internet at home since 2007 (and I don't remember ever having to unplug the coax, though I did have to hold down the button it had while plugging in power a few times).
@JessTheUnstill @jernej__s @foone
Hi!
Network girl here.
I have never had to undo a coax cable to get that to happen.
Power cable yes.
But I also do this with an ISP tech on the line and they usually end up purging the ARP Cache.
Maybe undoing coax does that? Causes an ARP Cache purge?
@MedeaVanamonde @jernej__s @foone I don't know, this would have been Comcast in appx 2015 in Texas.
@JessTheUnstill @jernej__s @foone a usual script reader directive is to check and reseat coax at box and wall.
@foone That's in a similar headspace as my least favorite "It's working but I have no idea why. The code as-is should just fall over and catch fire if run."
I see it working, I just can't connect what it's doing to the instructions it's supposedly running.
@foone I once had a broken (like, physically) USB port on a Thinkpad, and the hotline argued with me, saying that any broken plastics must automatically be the customers fault. I still got them go replace it on my warranty plan, because wtf *that* should *not* break *there*.
I later ran an experimental series on a cheap USB hub and it turned out: yes, if you lever/tilt it just right, you can very easily break off the inner plastic tongue on a USB A port while unplugging a cable.
@foone https://users.cs.utah.edu/~elb/folklore/magic.html (Magic / More Magic Switch)