I add to this tricky problems:
- Bent pin on VGA monitor plug
At one job, I want back to the stock room to find three monitors
that were tagged "BAD (RED|GREEN) GUN". One was repairable by
straightening out the bent pin. The other two were too crimped
and broke off. Fortunately, we had a pile of (genuinely) dead
ones that could be stripped for the cables. This was in Antarctica.
Couldn't exactly send out for spares (until sunrise).
At that same place, the other techs ooh'ed and aah'ed when I
replaced a surface mount chip that drove the parallel port
on a Dell 316sx. (When I went to that service call, after half-
an-hour of debugging the machine (which still booted and ran),
the customer commented, "maybe it won't print because of all the
smoke that was coming out of it." I thought he was joking at
first. I mean, wouldn't you mention _that_ in the first five
minutes of describing the problem? Upon closer examination,
I could see the hole in the package. New chip, no problem.)
-ethan
