Ha ha. But this is no joke.
As is my long standing superstition when building servers, I don't final torque every fastener until I try to boot the machine for the first time. I also don't even mess with any of those cheesy metal slot covers til all the hardware is showing AOK.
So after struggling a bit to cram 3 pci-e 16 cards, 7 drives, 5 fans and an oversized ps into a atx case, I booted the machine and checked that both bios and windows showed everything ok. Then as I was f'ing with one of those infernal alloy slot covers, the unthinkable happened:
Screw cam-out, followed by that sickening tinkling sound, known well to all who would dare build their own. With no exit sound. Ugh.
I don't know about you but I usually just try shaking the box a bit to get it out. But after applying 20 or so gentle tilting and tapping movements, I lost my cool and starting shaking the thing passionately. Could hear the screw moving but couldn't get it out. Then after a brisk movement or two the sound stopped altogether.
It probably came out, but it might not have. And I can't tell for sure because I have screws just like it all around the area... Shook it a bunch more, nothing. Looked everywhere I could see, nada.
So the question is how long do you mess around try to find where the screw is or went before deciding, f'it and just turning it on?
5 minutes? 15 minutes? Forever? Would you tear the whole thing down to the stand-offs before assuming it's OK?
Is there any trick to finding loose screws, high-power air or something, any ideas welcome.
But I don't think I can hold out much longer... Thanks.! :)