Troubleshooting

We use these two-way radios at work. I mean we work on them, not that we use them for communication. A few days ago, I upgraded one of mine, and suddenly the screen went blank a few seconds after powering on. I tried a few times and it was still the same... Needing to use that particular software version, I asked around for a solution. I didn't find one, but someone found that I could plug the radio into the computer USB port and the screen would switch on (albeit with a "warning" colour), and I could use it as normal.

So that was what I did... until today when someone came to my cubicle to discuss another issue. I happened to mention this problem, and showed her how it happened (by powering up the radio, letting her see the screen turn on, and then turn blank). When she saw that, she pressed a button on the radio. As if by magic, the screen turned on.

What did she do?!

She adjusted the screen brightness.

Turns out that the screen brightness can be adjusted with a button...gradually becoming dimmer until total blackness. Something must have been set wrongly in this software version... making the screen black by default. I didn't really check it out... it was enough that it was working!

This is what happens when you work on something that has so many features, you don't know half of them!

Oh, and she said she had encountered the same problem before. That was how she knew. Well, I'm sure glad I showed her the problem!