Serious question, do you check cable connections before deep diving?

I had a client's machine that wouldn't post after a parts swap. Wasted time pulling the motherboard and testing the PSU. The problem was a slightly unplugged fan header blocking the boot process. Pushing it in fully got the system running right away. It's a small thing, but now I always do a visual cable check first.

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia3912mo ago

Twice, reseating the motherboard power cable solved it.

alexr652mo ago

Oh man, this reminds me of a forum post I read a while back. Someone had a similar issue where their PC wouldn't boot, and it turned out to be a slightly loose 24-pin connector. I guess even a tiny gap can mess with the power delivery enough to stop everything from starting up properly. So yeah, checking all those cables first makes a lot of sense, even the ones you wouldn't think matter. It's crazy how something so simple can cause such a headache.

ramirez.john2mo ago

A loose fan header stopping a computer from posting is wild to me. In my experience, those are just for cooling and shouldn't affect startup. Your mileage may vary, but I'm doing a full cable inspection first from now on.