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Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)

cs.cmu.edu

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Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)

#171

Post by [deleted] »

98codes wrote: post #156
jjbinx007 wrote: post #49

We had a similar problem at work in the late 90s. A member of staff reported that their mouse would stop working between certain hours of the day. It had apparently been okay in the morning, stopped working over lunchtime then started again later. On some days it would work perfectly all day long, but on others it would stop working between those hours. The biggest clue was it would always work perfectly on overcast…

I had a similar problem, but in the opposite direction. My cable internet speeds at home were fairly good (for the US, anyway), but sometimes would absolutely bottom out. Not dead, just glacially slow. After troubleshooting everything under the sun, I came to realize that the problems would happen not when it was raining per se, but when it was heavily foggy or misting. Normal to heavy rain was fine. Called the cable…

[deleted]

Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)

#173

Post by 13of40 »

MalcolmDwyer wrote: post #133
jjbinx007 wrote: post #49

We had a similar problem at work in the late 90s. A member of staff reported that their mouse would stop working between certain hours of the day. It had apparently been okay in the morning, stopped working over lunchtime then started again later. On some days it would work perfectly all day long, but on others it would stop working between those hours. The biggest clue was it would always work perfectly on overcast…

We have a countertop ice maker that gets jammed up and overloaded with ice on sunny days for a similar reason. There's an infrared beam and sensor. When the ice tray is full, it is supposed to block the beam, and then the machine stops making ice. On a sunny day, there's enough bright light in our kitchen to fool the sensor so it keeps making ice. We have a random magazine that we put on top of it to make it work cor…

I had a VCR back in the day that refused to function if you opened its case. It turned out that instead of using physical switches inside it used pairs of lights and detectors that would give false positive results when ambient light shined on them.

Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)

#174

Post by jacquesm »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #71
hinkley wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I learned a lot of things from my father. Unfortunately a lot of them were what not to do. Don’t buy cheap tools that you’ll have to replace three times in the lifespan of one that costs 50% more. And don’t buy GM. Mechanically they may be reliable, but 90’s GM forgot how to make paint stick to metal and had to pay to repaint a massive number of vehicles that simply pealed if parked outside for too long. How? And the…

>I joked when I moved to Seattle that the main problem is since there is no salt, there are still Citations on the road and that is unnatural. Their place in the natural order is the junk yard. This was the fate of many British Leyland cars, even the ones that people genuinely liked such as as the classic Mini and the MGB were practically hygroscopic.

I loved the Mini, but I loved my Maxi even more. That was the most useful car ever bar none.

Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)

#176

Post by dotancohen »

karmakaze wrote: post #102
maweaver wrote: post #34

> Moral of the story: even insane-looking problems are sometimes real. To me the moral of the story (and my experience) is: user's problems are usually real, but don't trust their ability to diagnose the actual cause.

Stated another way, distinguish observations (facts) of a story from the inferences--don't dismiss the observation/facts when rejecting inferences. This is analogous to an XY problem.

When the client states that he has a problem, he is always correct. When he tells you what the problem is, he is always wrong.

Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)

#177

Post by lostlogin »

98codes wrote: post #156
jjbinx007 wrote: post #49

We had a similar problem at work in the late 90s. A member of staff reported that their mouse would stop working between certain hours of the day. It had apparently been okay in the morning, stopped working over lunchtime then started again later. On some days it would work perfectly all day long, but on others it would stop working between those hours. The biggest clue was it would always work perfectly on overcast…

I had a similar problem, but in the opposite direction. My cable internet speeds at home were fairly good (for the US, anyway), but sometimes would absolutely bottom out. Not dead, just glacially slow. After troubleshooting everything under the sun, I came to realize that the problems would happen not when it was raining per se, but when it was heavily foggy or misting. Normal to heavy rain was fine. Called the cable…

Moisture in copper cables is what slowed me down too. It was in a section up the road from me. However now that fibre is installed, it’s glorious and works in the rain.

Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)

#178

Post by zie »

rsynnott wrote: post #129

> Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. This feels very contrived; who organises a supermarket like that? "Where's the ice-cream?" "Which flavour? We keep them separately, to make an anecdote work." (Like, the moral of the story still works, but the specifics feel very dubious...)

Lots of stores have end-cap coolers which have product they really want to sell in there, usually at a discount.

I could def. see Vanilla Ice Cream being in that container for a while for whatever reason.

Or it could be a small/local grocery store and the owner/manager really likes Vanilla, and did it for their own convenience.

Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)

#179

Post by xethos »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #119
SkyPuncher wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to armchair and guess that your brother needed a new battery. My (GM) car gets really funky startup behavior when the battery gets old. It will often turn the starter fine, but the electronics can get stuck in weird states until I disconnect the battery (essentially a hard reset).

Subaru just had a class action lawsuit about their stupid car infotainment systems draining the battery. https://www.subarubatterysettlement.com/ The dealers wanted a ton of money to diagnose the issue, even though I suspected it must have been the infotainment system draining the battery. I just ended up replacing the infotainment system with a cheap CarPlay compatible one and the problem went away. Problem is I can…

> Problem is I cannot get money from the class action settlement since the original infotainment system is already out and I fixed it myself.

You only fixed it because it was a problem though. Not a/your lawyer though, so good luck and have fun navigating the American legal system!

Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)

#180

Post by jacquesm »

huehehue wrote: post #26
pryelluw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What brand model is it?

Mercedes 450SLC

Wiring harness issue. Reseat any and all connectors from the battery to the distribution box (there may be two of those depending on the model year) and reseat all of your fuses, if any of them go in too easy then use a small screwdriver to force the contacts to be closer together (or slightly twist the fuse tab, not the most elegant solution but sometimes those contacts in the fuse box are so far recessed that you can't get at them). Good luck!
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