Spent a full day on a printer that just needed a cable swapped

Had a client bring in a laser printer that wouldn't connect to their network. I spent about 8 hours checking drivers, firmware, and router settings. Turns out the Ethernet cable had a single broken pin inside the RJ45 connector, but it looked fine from the outside. I only found it after testing with a cable from my own kit. Has anyone else been burned by a cable that looked okay but wasn't?

3 comments

3 Comments

jennifer2042d ago

Classic. That's the worst kind of fix, because you feel like a genius for finding it and an idiot for taking so long. Always test the cable first, but who actually does that every single time? I've lost count of how many hours I've wasted on "mystery" issues that were just a bad cord.

pat_fisher242d ago

Right? It's like the most basic step gets skipped every single time. What's the longest you've ever chased a problem before finding out it was just a bad cable? I once spent a whole weekend rebuilding a driver setup before I tried a different HDMI cord.

casey6822d ago

Feel your pain, man.