For a moment, nothing. Then, the sweetest sound he’d ever heard: the low, friendly ding-dong of a device connecting.
Not the gentle hum of the cooling fan. Not the soft click of a notification. Just the hollow, dusty silence of a black screen and a blinking cursor that wasn’t even blinking anymore.
Windows didn’t recognize it. Device Manager showed a sad yellow triangle next to “Unknown USB Device.” Error code 43. The death rattle of a driver.