Notes to self…

I will remember:

# To clear the damn CMOS whenever mounting a motherboard, even if it’s only been out for five minutes.

# To leave alone heatsinks that have been attached to running processors and not try to remove them to swap them for higher cooling capacity ones, unless I really want to spend hours with a magnifying glass and razor blade straightening CPU pins after the CPU adheres to the heatsink and pulls out of the zif socket when removing the heatsink.

# That “Master” is not necessarily the correct setting on some drive models if they are the only drive on the controller.

# That some switching power supplies are bloody unstable until they have a reasonable load on them.

# That Win2K / 2K3 Server tends to freak out on install when asked to delete XP partitions.

# To replace that damn run of CAT 5 that has the connector with the retaining clip busted off.

# That some problems that appear insoluable at 4am can suddenly have simple solutions at 9am.

# To plan ahead to acquire longer IDE cables when assembling rack-mount machines.

# To loc-tite motherboard standoffs when putting them in so they don’t unscrew from the case when attempting to remove the screw from the MB.

# To grab manufacturer’s updated drivers BEFORE running Windows Update.