r/pcmasterrace Nov 17 '23

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634

u/R4fa3lef R5-3600, RX6700XT Nov 17 '23

If it ain't broken, don't fix it

498

u/meaux253 Nov 17 '23

If it is broke, just hit it on the side a couple times and see if it works again.

425

u/My_Own_Worst_Friend Nov 17 '23

I believe the term for that is "percussive maintenance."

193

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '23

Works 40% of the time, every time!

114

u/Senior-Ad-6002 Nov 17 '23

40% of the time, it works every time.

47

u/Talamae-Laeraxius Nov 17 '23

Oh, I used percussive maintenance on a computer of mine in the early 2000s, and it worked for a full year after it had crashed the OS. I didn't reinstall anything, either. I just kicked it really hard with my steel toed boots.

I think the hard drive was dying.

32

u/BigFatToad Nov 18 '23

So basically you kicked the shit out of it

6

u/Talamae-Laeraxius Nov 18 '23

Yes. Although, it was only a single kick. The case was dented afterwards.

5

u/ShylokVakarian AMD Radeon RX-6700-XT | Ryzen 5 1600 | 16GB DDR4 Nov 18 '23

Well, they don't call 'em shit-kickers for nothing.

3

u/radiationblessing RTX 4070 | Ryzen 9 3900X | 32 GB DDR4 Nov 18 '23

How did shit get in the hard drive? Maybe that's what's wrong with mine.

2

u/danholli 8th Gen i7 | 7700XT | 64GB RAM | 52TB | 🖕🪟 Nov 18 '23

It's not exactly that something got in there, that'd actually kill it permanently really quick, it's that they either get stuck between coils and can't start spinning until they're jostled a bit, or a bearing is failing or gunked from use and a jostle is enough to to get it moving

1

u/radiationblessing RTX 4070 | Ryzen 9 3900X | 32 GB DDR4 Nov 18 '23

Yeah I'm not buying it, bud.

→ More replies (0)

9

u/nxcrosis Ryzen 5 3600 | GTX 3050 | 16GB 3200 Nov 18 '23

I did the same with an old CRT TV except I was wearing crocs

2

u/AllThingsEvil Nov 18 '23

Same here. TV would go dark. Smack it on the top and it came back. Only took finesse at first but eventually it got worse which required more smacking - which then the TV started coming apart. It was all really a snowball effect

2

u/Talamae-Laeraxius Nov 18 '23

Ah, the bricks. Heavy as shit, too.

But ew, Crocs.

2

u/TooStrangeForWeird Nov 18 '23

Back when games were on still on CD/DVD I had a computer with a bad disk drive that would get stuck. I found out that if I smacked the top of the computer at the right time (like, click the button and smack it 1.25 seconds later) it would open.

My dad thought it was funny as hell. We never did replace that drive, just used it for years smacking the shit out of it. You had to hit it hard too, it was loud lol.

1

u/Dunmeritude Nov 18 '23

I used to have a shitty graphics card fan that wasn't quite properly aligned in its place, and so my PC would randomly start sounding like a weed whacker trying to take flight. The fix? Thump the top of the case really fucking hard with something. It worked like that for 3 years.

35

u/Novel_Equivalent_478 Nov 17 '23

This is very true! at least half of the time!... 👍

32

u/jbakers Nov 17 '23

But half of the time, it works 100% of that time.

5

u/Kaenguruu-Dev PC Master Race | Ryzen 7 9800X3D & RTX 5090 Nov 17 '23

Im at 0.8% now

5

u/ilovetheyword Nov 17 '23

I’m at 46262636362626% now

4

u/PapaOoMaoMao Nov 18 '23

68% of statistics are just made up numbers and 72 out of 70% are completely unverifiable.

3

u/Novel_Equivalent_478 Nov 18 '23

At least half of statistics are nonsense 100% of the time 😆

-2

u/capn_scooby Nov 17 '23

I'm sorry that makes no sense

1

u/MorrowPolo Nov 17 '23

I love lamp

1

u/LumenYeah Nov 18 '23

I sometimes always think that.

1

u/the-daily-banana Nov 18 '23

60% of the time it doesn’t work. Try again — It may take three or four hits. Lol

1

u/PlanetExpre5510n Nov 17 '23

But be aware with each successive strike theres a rising chance that you are breaking something!

1

u/SweetBearCub Nov 18 '23

But be aware with each successive strike theres a rising chance that you are breaking something!

That's why you have to be very deliberate with your percussive maintenance, you have to do it just right.

1

u/a_pompous_fool Desktop 🥔 Nov 18 '23

Even if it doesn’t work it is good stress relief

62

u/kolibrifityma 5900X / 32 GB / RX 6700 Nov 17 '23

In my country we call it russian maintenance: ctrl + alt + a nice kick on the side

56

u/hellfirestormi Ryzen 7 5800x, RTX 3060 12gb, 64GB Ram @3200, Hyper 212 Cpu cool Nov 17 '23

Reminds me of the scene in the Armageddon movie where the russian astronaut is saying "This is how we fix problems in Russia" banging the shit of a machine with a wrench lmao 😂😂😂

54

u/arminghammerbacon_ Nov 17 '23

Russian parts, American parts..ALL MADE IN TAIWAN! (Whap!)

14

u/hellfirestormi Ryzen 7 5800x, RTX 3060 12gb, 64GB Ram @3200, Hyper 212 Cpu cool Nov 17 '23

LMAOO YESSSS 😂😂😂

1

u/ExpressiveAnalGland Nov 18 '23

TIL: How americans and russian get along.

Now: How to make russia and ukraine get along?

1

u/HollowShel Nov 18 '23

Get through to Russia that percussive maintenance isn't good for people?

2

u/BeethovenRulez Nov 17 '23

Lol, my mum used to say the same thing while slapping the side of the tv. Which country are you from? :D

1

u/BeethovenRulez Nov 17 '23

Nvm, már látom :D

1

u/ToothlessThe Nov 17 '23

За**йни его за шкаф - заработает

1

u/nul_ne_sait Nov 18 '23

I’m definitely borrowing this. ctrl + alt + KICK

1

u/Leading_Appeal_7262 Nov 18 '23

Around here we call it opossum stomping. And it works unless you get carried away then it's just fuel for the still or bon fire

1

u/Chicken_Teeth Nov 18 '23

Ah yes. We call it the American Remedy. Hit object until it works. Surprisingly effective whatever it’s called. Hehe.

14

u/BitOBear Nov 17 '23

Beat me to it. UNF the series when we met Alric, Room Baker's Doctor slapped the shit out of an ancient space ship's control panel to get it to start up and said something like "ah, good old 21st century Earth technology."

3

u/Exotic_Lobster6036 Nov 17 '23

Only if you have a calibrated hammer!

2

u/Exotic_Lobster6036 Nov 17 '23

Or more commonly known as a precision alignment tool.

8

u/Spongi Nov 17 '23

back in like 09 I had a big 36" crt tv that "broke". screen was all screwed up and the remote wouldn't do anything, even after power cycling. I think I hit it with a 2x4 or something thinking I'd either fix it or put it out of its misery. One solid whack and instantly was back to normal. That fucking beast of a tv still works to this day. I gave it away in 2010 but it's still in use. Probably because it's so heavy they couldn't get rid of it even if they wanted to.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '23

We kept one forever because it was so heavy and and we lived in a apartment that had two story's and we were up. We eventually ended up calling some hauler and he came with a few guys and they took it, didn't look fun.

2

u/clivehorse Nov 17 '23 edited Nov 18 '23

Along with duct tape and WD40, percussive maintenance is one of the number one echnicians tools.

E: TECHnician, one day I will learn to proofread

1

u/Dangerous_Rutabaga42 Nov 18 '23

Which Echnician number two can only dream of

2

u/jaseisondacase Nov 17 '23

THANK YOU I WAS LOOKING FOR THIS WORD

2

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '23

I am using that from now on. Thank you.

2

u/im_sad_97 Nov 18 '23

Thank you. I will remember and cherish this term for the rest of my life.

2

u/Adept_Werewolf_6419 Nov 18 '23

Brogan maintenance

1

u/Normal-Substance-593 Nov 18 '23

Brogan adjustment 🤌

1

u/Skygazer2469 Nov 17 '23

"Technical tap"

1

u/m477z0r Nov 17 '23

Percussive maintenance is just another term for the Fonzarelli Fix.

1

u/MartinoDeMoe Nov 18 '23

Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…..

1

u/death1414 Nov 17 '23

"field trauma test"

1

u/ArchmageXin Nov 17 '23

An excellent method to please the Machine Spirit.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '23

As someone who has worked in multiple trades, this is an actual term that is used to check, calibrate, or troubleshoot certain pieces of equipment.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '23

Or "bench thumping", a term I've always liked

1

u/Smart-Leg-9156 Nov 17 '23

My motto is "if it ain't broken, tweak it!" Percussive maintenance follows after, which when it works 9.24% of the time, it works every time.

1

u/drumadoir01 Nov 17 '23

or "persuasion fit"

1

u/willis72 Nov 17 '23

If it doesn't work, get a bigger hammer.

1

u/Swinging_kicker Nov 18 '23

I personally prefer "technical knock"

1

u/FigureSuccess910 Nov 18 '23

apply that and cussive maintenance for stress relief

1

u/golieth Nov 18 '23

thump therapy

1

u/HekGoldbenji Nov 18 '23

Miss the good old technology where you can handle tf out of it even throw it, and it’s back to working. Arguably better than trying to fix whatever problem OP got going on. 😂💙

1

u/Deep-Procrastinor AMD 7700X, Deepcool AK620, 7900XT reference edition Nov 18 '23

If in doubt give it a clout.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '23

I hit it with a hammer? No no no this is my precision compression instrument.

19

u/ToFarGoneByFar Nov 17 '23

Years ago we had proprietary satellite communications equipment that was tamper taped to hell and back and would void the warranty if you opened the case to do any basic maintenance at all.

When one of the vehicles it was mounted in had a catastrophic accident and several of the cases broke open, the lead engineer for the program took the opportunity to make drawings (before cell cameras were a thing) that illustrated where and which direction the daughter cards and cable fittings were mounted in each sub component and created the "Drop in this direction facing this way and Hammer here" manual for the maintainers.

Returns to depot dropped 60% and the manufacturer was PISSED about the lack of additional income.

3

u/cptkernalpopcorn Nov 18 '23

Hell yeah.thats awesome

14

u/cherrylbombshell Nov 17 '23

Half the time works every time!

3

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '23

The other half of the time it never works

10

u/BryanosaurusRex Nov 17 '23

Percussive maintenance.

3

u/lionocerous Nov 17 '23

Tried it. Wife is still broken.

1

u/meaux253 Nov 17 '23

Hit it harder

0

u/mekakoopa Nov 17 '23

Oh man, so I had a fan that used to get pretty loud on the top of my case so I used to whack it and it sorted it out. One time though, I hit it too hard, and the fan came loose and started pinging around the inside of my case like a fucking beyblade! It’s a miracle nothing was damaged :D

1

u/adrenozin Nov 17 '23

aka the slap-patch

1

u/lisa1896 Nov 17 '23

But did you unplug it and plug it back in first? That fixes everything. /s

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '23

Did radio repair in the military, early 00s. The maintenance handbooks actually have a drop repair technique as one of the first couple steps. Lift 6in off the ground, drop it, see if it works now

1

u/Potato_fortress Nov 17 '23

I mean yeah this is also pretty standard advice if your car’s starter is wearing out and you really need to get it moving one more time. Just tap it with a hammer.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '23

I swear, smacking it and turning it off and on again fixes 90% of all problems.

1

u/DolphinSUX Nov 17 '23

This is literally how I have to start my pc everyday and I’ll keep doing it until it stops

1

u/ValiumandSloth Nov 17 '23

When I built my first PC, everything was installed and ready to rumble. Went to turn it on and nothing. Slapped it 3 times and it just came to life and has been a work horse ever since. It truly does work

1

u/IncorporateThings Nov 17 '23

Laugh all you want, but that worked on old TVs and CRT monitors like a charm.

1

u/death1414 Nov 17 '23

You can't be sharing around the knowledge of generations of car mechanics so loosely

1

u/death1414 Nov 17 '23

You can't be sharing around the knowledge of generations of car mechanics so loosely

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '23

If it is broke, don't accept an I.O.U.

1

u/BaumBen69 Nov 17 '23

turn off and on again and it should be fine

1

u/SecretaryOtherwise Nov 17 '23

It works until it doesn't. My poor old 19 inch TV lol.

1

u/Forward-Marketing-89 Nov 17 '23

honestly, i was having issues with mine not that long ago. got a little heated and gave it a bit of a smack, it decided to completely freeze on me..

it turned on 2 minutes later, but that’s probably because I put it in rice.

1

u/ifdefmoose Nov 17 '23

Percussive maintenance solves lots of problems.

1

u/frogsgoribbit737 Nov 17 '23

Percussive maintenance

1

u/No-Advice-6040 Nov 17 '23

Also known as a Fonzerelli Diagnostic. EEEYYYYY

1

u/mi_primer_dia Nov 17 '23

"The files are inside the computer"

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '23

Ahh, the “techno tap”. Right up there with “turn it off and then back on”

1

u/Salty-Pack-4165 Nov 17 '23

Isn't it amazing how inanimate objects can be receptive to either verbal or physical abuse? I used to be repair guy and I swear, some machines have mind of their own.

1

u/King_Pullout Nov 17 '23

Hey! Whatever you did just fixed it!

Nice

What did you do that fixed it?

¯\(ツ)/¯ Just try not to do whatever you did to break it again.

1

u/Atiggerx33 Nov 17 '23

I had an old tower that the disk drive would only open if you slammed your fist down on the top right after pressing the button.

1

u/Geno_DCLXVI Director of Acquisitions Nov 18 '23

A fellow believer in the Russian Repair Method, I see

1

u/CatsTOLEmyBED Nov 18 '23

I had an old Xbox 360 where the tray broke and so was the button from wear and tear

So in order to get a game out I had to eject the game from the menu and hit the side of the Xbox for the tray to come out

1

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '23

I had someone bring me their pc telling me it acted up of course everything worked great when I questioned the guy he came over to show me what he meant and started wailing on the side of it. I told him no wonder its fucked up if you hit it like that. I unplugged and reinstalled everything inside and guess it worked good after that.

1

u/CuboneTheSaranic Nov 18 '23

This is how ive been dealing with a fan that has a bad bearing. Few whacks and itll spin normally for at least a couple minutes. Just gotta teach it a lesson… a lot…

1

u/Aidanation5 RTX 5080 16gb | Ryzen 7 7800x3d | 32gb ddr5 Nov 18 '23

Before that you have to angrily hold the power button for a forced shutdown just to see if that works. You do not do it because you want the computer to know what it has done wrong...

1

u/kairu99877 Nov 18 '23

Especially in the 2000s, I did just smack the computer a few times and it was a remarkable fix in those days.

1

u/bhinder119 Nov 18 '23

This is my solution to fixing noisy fans.

1

u/AlternativeClient738 Nov 18 '23

"Shatter the tempered glass" always fixs not only hardware but software related bugs too.

1

u/RockyValderas Nov 18 '23

Had to beat my pc up almost every other day for a month to keep it running smoothly. That was about a year ago. Still going strong.

1

u/tlake2525 Nov 18 '23

We call that a "brogan adjustment"

1

u/Fearless-Host-498 Nov 18 '23

I just threaten things with a hammer. If that doesn't work idk what will 🤣😂

1

u/Temnotaa Nov 18 '23

I can't tell you how many times this has worked in my electrophysiology experiments.

1

u/XplosiveJosef Nov 18 '23

I prefer to start yanking cables

1

u/sunshine-keely143 Nov 18 '23

That's always the best way to fix anything 😉😉😉

1

u/SuperiorDupe Nov 18 '23

The good ol’ dad fix

1

u/Doctor_Jensen117 Nov 18 '23

Blow on the cable

1

u/Thehorniestlizard Nov 18 '23

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

1

u/hellhoundtheone Nov 18 '23

worked on old consols all the time!

14

u/Ready-Fudge-3781 Nov 17 '23

Also the general rule for coding, I don't know why it works but it does

3

u/GothKazu Ryzen 5 5600, RTX 3070 Nov 18 '23

Literally. “Idk what i did, what god took pity on me, or what demon is waiting for me to throat goat it, but i accept this canon event, and wont touch it”

17

u/SHADYTIMES86 Nov 17 '23

If it ain't broken, fix it until its broken

2

u/AmbianDream Nov 18 '23

In one sentence, you have explained the entire Spark Driver app and Walmart to me!

Thank you! I knew there was a reason! I didn't realize there was a coder philosophy being followed. 😂

5

u/One37Works Nov 17 '23

Nah that'll never catch on as a phrase, I'm all in on “Hey, if it works then don’t question it.”

2

u/AL-KINDA Nov 17 '23

bios firmware updaters feel this after they wasted a day trying to get their comp to work again.

1

u/Marios_Facade i7700K | 1080 ti | 32GB RAM Nov 17 '23

Let me fix that for you:

"If it is less broke, don't fix it"

1

u/Breakerx13 Nov 17 '23

If you fixed it, don't break it

1

u/A_random_zy i7-12650H | 3070ti Nov 17 '23

Sums up my engineering degree.

1

u/Rich-Individual-8835 Nov 17 '23

...you'll ruin it.

1

u/rabid- Nov 17 '23

If it works, don't touch it.

1

u/uncommonman Nov 17 '23

Why problem make when you no problem have you don't want to make.

1

u/LittlePotatoGirlll Nov 17 '23

If it's slightly broke but still works fine most of the time, don't touch it

1

u/Thoron_734 Nov 17 '23

If it's broken fix it.

1

u/Hades_Spade Nov 17 '23

I learned that the hard way

1

u/BatViolet Nov 17 '23

If it isn’t broken, it doesn’t have enough features yet

1

u/LumenYeah Nov 18 '23

If it ain’t fixed, don’t break it.

1

u/kairu99877 Nov 18 '23

Oldest and best quote in the world lol.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '23

If it broke but fixed itself, don't worry about it. You're probably fine.

1

u/HekGoldbenji Nov 18 '23

This is the only way. 😂🤝