DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Installing RAM in recent Macintoshes is laughably easy: a lever on the side of the case allows the panel to drop open, giving access to the components. The DIMM banks are not obstructed in any way; clipping in a new stick of memory takes only seconds. Reconnecting the peripherals takes another minute at most.

So I followed these few steps and thumbed the power switch on my wife’s Mac. Nothing happened. “Uh-oh,” I thought with the first stirrings of despair, “here we go again.” I must have the worst hardware karma in the state; every computer I own expires at my touch.

I checked all the connections and tried again… nothing. I opened the case and removed the new DIMM… nothing. I checked all the internal power connectors… nothing.

At the recommendation of an Apple technician, I tested the motherboard battery. To my great joy, the battery was completely drained — the needle on the multimeter did not even twitch.

Radio Shack stocks this part, so I was able to repair the system quickly. The new DIMM worked fine, of course. I did a little jig of relief.

Then, feeling high on accomplishment, having banished at least a few of the hardware gremlins that have set up residence in my office, I eagerly leapt into the stack of parts that will comprise my new webserver — I installed the CPU, cooler, SCSI card, and RAM on the motherboard, and set the board into the case. I mounted all the drives and ran all the cables. I double-checked every connection, wired up a monitor and keyboard, and with anticipation thumbed the power button… which did nothing. The computer was DOA.

Imagine my surprise.