| From: Karen Lewellen via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | When the issue started, it turned out that the machine was working, but the | port had stopped. Correctly diagnosing a problem is often the first 90% of fixing it. It often isn't easy. (Often it is easy, but we don't remember those events.) | However the real issue, how my landlord manages hydro in my apartment, means | that the issue as it did last night can start again. How does your landlord manage hydro? It is unlikely that a hydro problem will damage a serial cable. I think that a surge powerful enough to melt copper would first fry the electronics. Serial cables can be damaged by rabbits, by wheely chairs, by desk drawers, by excessive flexing and other physical trauma. The soldering of the connectors can fail due to mechanical stress (especially home-made cables). Pins can get bent and even break. Over the years, contact oxidization can happen. <http://melslilzoo.blogspot.com/2016/09/rabbit-proofing-for-your-indoor-rabbit.html> This contains a picture of a rabbit laying waste to cables on a desk. My experience is that they find cables on the floor, behind a desk. Or ones that come too close to their cage. | Please do not feel you are not providing solutions, because you have in the | past just as here. I'm glad to be corrected.