Appreciation post: The old guy at the shop in Tampa who swore by a $20 diagnostic tool

Three years ago, I was working at a big repair chain and we all used the fancy $500 diagnostic suites. This older tech, Frank, only used his basic multimeter and a cheap USB voltage tester he got online. He'd always find the same motherboard shorts and bad caps we did, just slower. Last week, my main rig went down and my expensive tool was bricked from a bad update. I dug out that same $20 tester Frank liked and found a blown VRM in under ten minutes. Anyone else have a simple tool they keep going back to when the fancy stuff fails?

3 comments

3 Comments

burns.ruby2mo ago

Fancy tools save time and catch more problems.

gavin_kim32mo ago

You spent how much on that license?

kevin_schmidt971mo ago

burns.ruby says fancy tools catch more problems but my expensive scanner gave me a phantom code once and the old pressure gauge I keep in my trunk proved it was a bad fuel pump. Sometimes the Simple stuff works when the computers just get in the way.