A new colleague needed to get his sound card up to run our secure Voip to discuss work matters. Someone volunteered to help him setup the on-board soundcard on his new PC.
After a while, I noticed they are still trying to get the soundcard to work. Apparently, everything seemed correct but there was simply no sound from the headset. So our helpful colleague tried various means to eliminate the possibilities.
Soon, six of us gathered at the cubicle, each asking some questions so as to figure out what could have gone wrong. A funny remarked went, “let’s see how many engineers it takes to solve this soundcard issue.” So I suggested, “why not just install another soundcard?”.
We grabbed a soundcard that was collecting dust nearby, plugged it in, rebooted and it worked! Windoze Plug & Pray magic! I wondered why go through so much trouble just to figure out that the on-board soundcard wasn’t working when we could have simply found another card?
Sometimes, engineers get very obsessed or engrossed with solving a problem without realizing that their obsession may not lead to a solution or meet the main objective. I believe the same applies to life too, not just engineering.
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