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Just had a client swear their laptop was haunted, turned out to be a $2 keyboard cover shorting the trackpad
This guy was convinced his new laptop was possessed. Said the cursor would move on its own and click things randomly. He was ready to RMA it. I was about to run a full malware and driver deep dive, but first I asked him to take off the silicone keyboard cover he'd just bought. Problem vanished instantly. The cheap cover was pressing just enough on the edge of the trackpad to ghost-input. Felt like an exorcist. What's the dumbest physical fix you've found that saved a ton of diagnostic time?
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owens.ben13d ago
Felt like an exorcist" is so accurate. I had a lady whose brand new monitor kept going black. She was sure it was a GPU failure. I spent an hour on the phone before she mentioned her cat liked to sleep behind it. The cat's tail was barely brushing the VGA cable loose. Pushed it in all the way and the problem was gone forever.
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andrewr6513d agoTop Commenter
That VGA detail is a classic. Most new monitors have moved to HDMI or DisplayPort for years now. The cat story still checks out though, pets and loose cables are a timeless combo. Makes you wonder what the modern version is, a cat batting at a USB-C dongle?
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