Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Frustration
One of the things that really pisses me off is, when trying to troubleshoot one problem, I'm forced to sidetrack and solve a totally unrelated problem that's preventing me from troubleshooting the first problem.
This came up today at The Office. We received a bunch of equipment today, a Cisco router, some Cobalt RaQs. I also needed to get a managed power device configured for the Data Center Core Room. All these devices can be configured via a serial port. This is something I've done plenty of times before.
Only I can't talk to the Cisco router.
So I try one of the Cobalt RaQs.
Can't talk to it.
Try another Cobalt RaQ.
Can't talk to it either.
Try the managed power strip.
Again, can't communicate with it.
Okay, maybe the cable is bad. That happens.
Attempt to find a replacement cable.
Now, the cable I have is female-female. I have a male-male adaptor that I use, depending upon what I'm connecting to.
I can't find another female-female cable.
Male-male cables, yes.
Male-female cables, yes.
But not a duplicate of the one I have.
So my initial problem (testing the new equipment) is compounded by another problem—either the cable is bad, or the serial port is bad.
It is times like these that get me upset.
(Turns out it's the serial port on my workstation, which could either be a loose connection inside, or the serial port itself is completely burned out.)
