Air conditioner problem

[Ed W]

The unstately Wagner manor was getting gawdawful hot.  I walked down the master hallway (when you only have one, it gets to be the master hall) to the thermostat and pushed the button to lower the temperature setting.  Nothing happened.  The air conditioner remained silent.  But the digital display flashed on and off.  Something was up.  Sighing at yet another gadget to fix, I removed the front plate to get the model number.  Then I was off to the computer to download a copy of the manual.  Minutes later, I was back at the thermostat with the manual in hand.  I tried to enter the programming sequence, but the device stubbornly refused to allow any changes.  Right about then, I noticed that the master switch was set to the oh-eff-eff position.  Yes, it was off.  The air conditioner works now.

...and yes, it's true that I'm a professional electronics technician.  Why did you ask?

[custosnox]

ya know, I used to work as tech support for direct tv, and people would get so mad at me when they called in saying they had a blank screen and I would ask them to turn the tv on.  Of coures, after they cussed me out because they thought I was calling them stupid, I would ask them to please turn the tv off then back on.  As soon as they pushed the power button to turn it off you would hear the tv come on in the back ground, very quickly followed by the click of them hanging up.

edit: Just saying it's better to realize you missed the obvious and admit it then to make a fool of yourself.

[sgrizzle]

The unstately Wagner manor was getting gawdawful hot.  I walked down the master hallway (when you only have one, it gets to be the master hall) to the thermostat and pushed the button to lower the temperature setting.  Nothing happened.  The air conditioner remained silent.  But the digital display flashed on and off.  Something was up.  Sighing at yet another gadget to fix, I removed the front plate to get the model number.  Then I was off to the computer to download a copy of the manual.  Minutes later, I was back at the thermostat with the manual in hand.  I tried to enter the programming sequence, but the device stubbornly refused to allow any changes.  Right about then, I noticed that the master switch was set to the oh-eff-eff position.  Yes, it was off.  The air conditioner works now.

...and yes, it's true that I'm a professional electronics technician.  Why did you ask?

If you want to swap A/C repair stories, I got a doozy...

[Red Arrow]

Step #1 in Navy electronics troubleshooting.....

Turn the on/off switch to the on position.   

Another one was:
Replace defective (component) with known good (component).

It does no good to replace a bad component with another bad component.

[Ed W]

I had a computer on the bench once that was dead as a hammer.  The ATE showed no activity at all, and when I checked the power supply, it was at zero volts.  This computer had a pass transistor that would be at 8 volts in normal operation but went to 12 volts if the processor detected a failure.  This one was at zero because some tech who looks exactly like me hadn't fully seated the rear connector.  In fact, there was about a half inch gap and those tiny electrons were too puny to jump across it.