A call came in to the help desk: a user explains that they are getting a warning on their computer that their wireless mouse has low signal strength.

The user explains that she has recently changed the battery on her mouse. Cool, this saves me one step. Perhaps it needs to be paired with the USB adapter again.

I explain to the user that we need to re-pair the two devices so perhaps they will talk together better. I explain where the “Connect” button is on the mouse; she presses it. I explain where the “Connect” button is on the adapter; she presses it.

Well, oddly enough, now the mouse fails to respond at all. I thought perhaps she didn‘t press one of them enough to activate the button. She tries again in the correct order, to no avail.

Suddenly a thought pops into my head – the connect button sure is hard to get to on the adapter.

Sure enough, she unplugged it before pressing the connect button. It has to be plugged in (to have power) for it to work. Who‘da thunk it needs to be plugged in to work?