83% of the time - it's the CABLE!

[ChrisGreaves]

I once knocked around with a guy called Campbell. he formulated "Campbell's Law" - 83% of the time - it's the CABLE!.
He said he formulated this after solving many, many hardware problems.
Came the day even Campbell's Law failed, but we ended up formulating Greaves's Corollary - 13% of the time it's the other end of the cable.

Today I took delivery of my new battery for the laptop; it's been 2 years I put it off.
Plugged 'er all in, charged up to 100%, then unpluggged the power and ran'er down until drained. (What FUN it was typing something up in an easy chair in the living-room ...)
Plugged it back into the power-source in the office, left it for an hour then noticed - no orange "power light" on the laptop.
Panic. $100 down the tubes?
Check everything - cable runs from the UPS through the power block, green light on on the power block, cable runs out of the power-block into the laptop.
Nada.
Check (Control Panel) power-meter. No battery!
What?
After much dithering I found that the battery cover had slightly unclipped, just enough to disengage the contacts, but not enough to actually fall out; must have happened when I picked it up to carry it back from the living-room to the office.

Moral: 83% of the time - it's the CABLE!

[ChrisGreaves]

I once knocked around with a guy called Campbell. etc.

Same day. A friend/colleague is dropping in for a cup of tea. A cat(Jupiter) sits on window-ledge. I take a photograph, u/l to computer, drag out the trusty HP310 photo printer, sheet of glossy etc etc.
Try to print off the cute picture of "Jupiter watching for Michelle".
Nada.
Same amount of panic (I'm also trying to bake cookies from scratch at 15 minutes notice, boil the kettle etc)
No matter what I do, even re-plugging the printer cable, nothing.

After she was gone I fired up the Windows Troubleshooter, ran through all the options until I got to about step ten "try using a different USB cable".
Waddya know?
Of the dozen or so USB cables lying around (3 cameras, 1 scanner, 2 printers, 1 MP3 player etc.) the one I'd grabbed fits the socket but not snugly; just enough to make me think that I'm connected, but not enough to fool the computer.
Change the cable and, two hours too late, I have a lovely glossy photo.
Moral: 83% of the time, it's the cable.

[HansV]

So Campbell is the real name of The Cable Guy...

[ChrisGreaves]

So Campbell is the real name of The Cable Guy

Hah!
Gord Campbell was, for a while, editor of Computing Canada, a nation-wide trade journal.

[John Gray]

Hmmm. Interesting. I can't remember the last time I had a problem with a cable.
The usual problem is that it's not long enough, but you can't blame THAT on the cable!

[ChrisGreaves]

Hmmm. Interesting. I can't remember the last time I had a problem with a cable.

Are you, perhaps, largely wireless?
A deal depends, too, on the environment. If one spends a lot of time with amateurs ...

The usual problem is that it's not long enough, but you can't blame THAT on the cable!

Well, I'd still classify that as a cable issue. I'm not trying to assign blame here as much as offer an observation about the source of the hold-up (I hate to say "problem" now!).
"Check the cable". How's that?

[stuck]

Solve your wireless cable problems with Speed Spray

[ChrisGreaves]

Solve your wireless cable problems with Speed Spray

"... return the unopened bottle ..."
I love it!