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Ok, a customer came to us saying he had a product that is just randomly rebooting. It sure must be a software issue.

I got the task and worked my way through ~10k lines of assembly code (8085 processor on board) Weeks go by, i tested every single god damn funktion they had, analyzed every vector they put in, finding NOTHING...

Meanwhile the hardware department analyzed and tested some possible culprits on the product for me. I had NO idea what the problem could be...

Then hardware department said: oh, they forgot a resistor on the FUCKIN RESET PIN OF THE PROCESSOR!!!!!

fml...

Comments
  • 3
    Curious as to why you jumped at it being a software issue. Random reboots in embedded electronics are more commonly a hardware issue in my experience. I'd certainly be having them check the basics first before jumping into ASM debugging!
  • 4
    @AlmondSauce boss said I had to since the hardware is old but the current software was comparably new and according to the client "this has never happened before!!!!"
  • 4
    @Synthron Ah fair enough. Still though, hardware issues can lay undetected for decades before coming to light - decoupling caps can often be omitted entirely for instance, and no-one will notice for years until a slight power spike causes random brownouts 😁
  • 3
    @AlmondSauce i know, but if boss says I should work on it, then I'll work on it ...
  • 0
    @Synthron aha! There you could have caught him.

    Software always behaves the same, right? New behavior would then suggest hardware problems?

    Update: nevermind. Software was updated too? In any case. I feel for you, I write software for machines too. Fixing hardware issues with software 😆
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