Times percussive maintenance has worked for you
Exactly as the title reads, when has being rough gotten the job done for you, whether it was necessary or not? Here are moments that make me thankful for dumb luck, and in a couple instances, SSDs not dying like HDDs do from shock.
Fixing a stuck pixel on 2 used monitors. Got a sharpie (with the cap on) put a paper towel over it. "Rubbing it out" wasn't working, so tapped the spot a couple of times with eh-level force, enough to make the screen wash out for a sec but it was fixed. Also watched a friend try on the second monitor mere moments later, shattering the LCD. I wasn't even mad, shit was hilarious. RIP $10 monitor. Works 100% of the time, 50% of the time.
Hammer-fisting Desktop chassis to fix an AIO that would stop pumping and make a terrible noise. This was right after moving the radiator to top of the case instead of front. It was pretty old, and the temps were getting high when it would stop pumping and start grinding after a few mins of being powered on. Told customer that AIOs are not serviceable and it's probably time to replace it. He asked if there is anything I can do, to which I replied "It might be a trapped pocket of air or gas, and I don't feel comfortable smacking YOUR computer to test my theory. It worked for me ONCE, probably dumb luck." and he insisted I at least try. Sigh, remove side panel and GPU... turn on, check the temps and wait. Starts grinding. I look at him and he just gives me a nod, to which I tilt it side to side then give it a couple of good paps on the opposite side of the case, close to where the CPU sits. Noise goes back to normal and temps drop slow but sure. Only left a tiny dent. TFW it just fucking works. Texted him few months later, no noise, great temps on all cores.
GPU fan was dead until someone flicked it a couple of times... Was doing a diagnosis on a friends GPU that would start artifacting on roughly half the screen. Was gonna run logs and temp monitoring, but with the case open I noticed that one of the fans was not spinning... So I literally flicked it a couple of times in autistic curiosity of "is this a fan?" and it just started spinning again. On top of that, I could no longer replicate the crashing. I explained this to my buddy, and said it's on the house since it was so random and basically a complete accident. Next day, he comes over and hands me a $100 bill and says I saved him from having to buy a new card and he hadn't hard-crashed since.
HONORABLE MENTION:
I wash heatsinks in a literal sink. LET THAT SINK IN. I literally just alcohol wipe the therm paste off, remove any fans and wash that bitch in the sink with a little dawn and a scrub brush. So easy, and canned air never took off caked-dust that easily. Rinse with alcohol for a quick dry or place in oven set to keep warm. I've been doing this for a couple years now and will never look back.