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Realized I was overthinking my diagnostic order for years
I always started with hardware checks, but after a weird boot loop case last week, I now check the event viewer first. It showed a driver conflict that would have taken me hours to find otherwise. Anyone else switch up their basic process like that?
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diana724mo ago
2003 Dell Optiplex with a bad ram slot taught me to never trust software logs first. Hardware failure can look exactly like a driver issue in event viewer. @blakefox I know you swear by logs but I've seen event viewer blame the wrong file three times this year alone. You waste more time chasing those fake leads than just reseating memory and cables. Boot loops especially can be a dying power supply or a short on the board that software cant detect. Event viewer is great for obvious conflicts but it should be step two after a visual inspection and psu test.
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burns.phoenix6mo ago
Had a similar thing happen with a random blue screen. Jumping to event viewer first saved me from a full afternoon of pointless hardware swaps. It's wild how often the logs point right at the software problem.
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