Low tech solutions for high tech problems

[Bub]

Do you have low tech solutions for high problems?
I don't mean buy an Apple or read the directions.
Have you faced a tech problem and found a simple answer?
LL, as I recall, told us about a computer problem that was caused by a broken key on his keyboard.
I couldn't get email because I spelled net with two ts (ie nett).
My low tech solutions are (1) reboot and (2) check spelling.
Let me go out on a limb and propose that after all these years programmers have developed systems that us simple folks can not destroy.
Oh yes, another simple rule (3) don't set up a computer and drink wine.

 

[Doc Manhattan]

My favorite low-tech tech fixes:

Put your failed hard drive in a freezer to have a chance at data recovery.

Dropped your cell phone in water? Pack it in rice.

 

[Frost]

My Computer at work freezes all the time. I kick it and eventually it works again.

Sure the kicking is probably unrelated to the working again part, but it makes me feel better about having to work all day on a crappy and outdated computer that freezes all the time and is probably overworked, so it's a solution of sorts.

That's pretty low tech I think.

 

[Hunter5117]

In the early '90's I was partner in a PC business. People would bring in their computers with dead hard drives hoping we could recover something from them. One fix that worked about 80% of the time was to take the hard drive out, take it in the back room (so no one would see) and whack it with a rubber mallet. It would not last for long but usually long enough to recover their lost data to a new drive. Never knew if it was the platter bearings or the head actuators, but whatever was seized up would come back to life for a short while.