Oh man, that "learned the hard way" part hits home. My dumbest moment was spending an hour on diagnostics for a dead board, only to finally see I never plugged the power supply back in after the last job. The tools said no power, and my brain just went straight to complex failure. Sometimes you just need a good old-fashioned look at the thing. I still feel my face get hot thinking about it, and my burned finger from touching that capacitor agrees.