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At a time when the administration decided to form a "management department", ignorant of the reality (the execution of the work), pirate contractors intervened for "diagnosis" purposes in an RX (Siemens PolyLX); Their quote was not approved, so the "problem" was referred to the relegated Technical Department. From there it was up to me to evaluate the failure; In conclusion, a minor technical failure was masked by breaking (removing) the communications clock crystal from the diagnostic board. Obviously the management department did not take responsibility for the contractor's sabotage or name him. The methodology grows under the protection of the administrations and the work acquires the consistency of a swamp and a minefield.
On the left you see the manipulation and on the right a healthy plaque

Nice work by the pirates.

I have come across such "remedies" myself in the past (we can't really use the word "repairs" here, can we) ... just "making it work" (regardless of any safety features that may be overridden).

I recall many happy(?) days spent trying to return x-ray (usually) circuits back to original states before fault-finding proper could commence. Doing that without circuit diagrams provided much extra "fun".

Such endeavours would have been great if we had actually been paid for all the hours (days) worked. TBH, I'm glad I'm out of all that now ... but "I feel your pain".

I mention "x-ray" circuits, as they seemed especially attractive to the "quick fix experts"!

But I'm interested in the quote; what were they going to do? Board swaps?

Difficult to lay mines in a swamp, though.

The devices definitely become true "creatures" in the Frankenstein style



It's a vice that puzzle lovers share.



I estimate that by inhibiting access to the diagnostic port they were hoping to prevent a review of the fault and its possible solution; so that his proposal was the "only viable one"

Puzzle ... yes, it takes a certain kind of mind-set (patience, "never give up", etc.). Dogged perseverance.

Frankenstein .. no doubt I'm not the only one who has been "called in" to seek out an elusive problem with a machine, only to eventually discover (sometimes following many days of frustration) an interesting hardware "modification" of the afore-mentioned "make it work" type that could (and should) have been declared by the in-house biomeds within the first hour of arriving on site.

I have encountered this sort of thing a number of times. I appreciate that the guys felt the need to preserve their (or their friends') reputations ... but did they actually think the "temporary repair" could never be one day sniffed-out? Well, yes, apparently.

Let's call it:- "the sullen wall of silence".