Just realized that retired IT guy at the diner was right about my whole setup

Some old timer in a flannel shirt told me last Tuesday to swap out my cheap SATA cables for some nicer ones with latches, said he'd seen loose connections cause more ghosts than a haunted house. I blew him off for a week, then spent three hours chasing a drive that kept dropping off in Device Manager only to find one cable wiggled loose when I bumped the case. Has anyone else gotten solid advice from a random stranger that you almost ignored?

3 comments

3 Comments

smith.nancy17d ago

Buddy of mine ignored a mechanic's advice about his timing belt and had to walk home.

finleyl3916d ago

Smith.Nancy’s buddy probably found out the hard way that timing belts don’t care about your luck. And @thomas_sanchez, I’ve seen the same thing you’re talking about with interference engines surviving a break, but it’s a total crap shoot. My neighbor’s old Civic snapped its belt doing 35 in a parking lot and the valves went straight through the pistons, cost him more than the car was worth. The difference between coasting to a stop and needing a new engine is sometimes just the RPMs when it lets go. Rolling the dice works until it doesn’t, and that walk home is the cheap version of the lesson.

thomas_sanchez17d ago

Call me crazy but I've seen timing belts go way past their recommended mileage. My uncle's truck had one snap at 150k and it just coasted to a stop, no engine damage. Most cars these days have interference engines but plenty of them survive a broken belt if you're lucky or driving slow. Sure it's risky but acting like your engine instantly grenades is a bit dramatic. Plenty of people roll the dice and win for years.