[justusthane]

This observation isn't directly applicable to this story in particular, as this case the fix did require some in depth troubleshooting knowledge of the subject.

That being said, I'm often struck by how often something can be fixed by just opening it up and looking at it, even if you know next to nothing about the internals.

Two examples, both car-related:

- I used to drive an old Ford Ranger, and one day it started running like crap. Horrible acceleration, engine running rough. I made an appointment with a mechanic, but the day before my appointment I thought "What the heck, I might as well look at it." I popped the hood and immediately noticed that the air filter housing was cracked in half. Patched it up with duct tape, and it was good as "new".

- One of my wheels started making a godawful constant squealing. I couldn't drive 10 yards without turning heads. I brought it into the mechanic, where they took the wheel off and promptly a pebble fell out of the brake calipers. Had I just jacked it up and taken the wheel off myself, I would have saved a trip to the mechanic.