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Dropped $180 on a thermal camera to chase a laptop that was just overheating from a cat hair blanket
Customer brings in a Dell XPS 13, says it shuts off after 20 minutes every single time. I run every diagnostic in the book. Stress test, memtest, new thermal paste, you name it. Nothing. So I do the smart thing and buy a $180 FLIR thermal camera off Amazon because I'm convinced it's a hidden short on the board somewhere.
Two weeks of poking around this thing with the camera, mapping heat spots, taking notes like I'm doing brain surgery. Board looks perfect. Chip temps all normal. I'm about ready to tell the guy his laptop is cursed.
Then his wife picks it up and says oh yeah he always uses it on the couch with our cat. Cat hair blanket. The vents were packed solid. $180 camera, two weeks of my life, and it was cat hair the whole time.
I still have the camera but now I check the vents FIRST before I buy anything. What's the dumbest tool you bought chasing a problem that turned out to be something basic?
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