percussive maintenance

A photocopier at the National Central Library in Taipei, Taiwan. Percussive maintenance is sometimes applied to malfunctioning photocopiers.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəˈkʌsɪv ˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns/, /-tɪ-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɚˈkʌsɪv ˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns/, /-tɪ-/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: per‧cuss‧ive main‧ten‧ance

percussive maintenance (uncountable)

1. (humorous) The use of physical concussion, such as a knock or a tap, in an attempt to make a malfunctioning device or person work.

   His technical skills were limited to performing percussive maintenance: hitting malfunctioning equipment in the hope that it would then work.

   • 1986, Neil J. Rubenking, PC Magazine: The Independent Guide to IBM-standard Personal Computing, volume 19, New York, N.Y.: PC Communications Corp., ISSN 0888-8507, OCLC 949371841, page 229, column 2:

     If percussive maintenance and other home remedies have failed, you should try running a general diagnostic utility. Better yet, run several.

   • 1996, Alex Law, “Benz touts hydrogen-based fuel cell”, in Toronto Star:

     Early trips reported trouble that seemed to be fixed by using a wrench to apply repeated doses of percussive maintenance.

   • 2002 July 30, Adam Turner, “Multi-function devices ‘present untapped opportunities’”, in The Sydney Morning Herald‎, archived from the original on 25 July 2014:

     There was a time when all that was required to use the office copier, printer or fax machine was the ability to fish out paper jams and a knack for percussive maintenance – known in layman's terms as a good hard thump.

   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined, New York, N.Y.: Viking Books, →ISBN:

     Babies react with rage when their arms are suddenly pinned at their sides, and adults may lash out by swearing or breaking things when they hit their thumb with a hammer or are surprised by not getting what they expect (as in the technique of computer repair called percussive maintenance).