@futzle I have a friend who used to have this aura where hardware would just break down near him. Harddrives would fail if he plugged in the power to the desktop. Boot would fail if he pressed the power button.
I don't know if the aura wore off or if computers just became more reliable by the later 90s compared to the earlier 90s, but he doesn't have this anymore.
I'm the opposite. People will tell me something is not working, I repeat the exact steps they tell me, and it works. I have the wizard's touch.