ugh. :( So is there any procedure I can follow, or diagnostic I can run to find out if anything is broken? I'm completely new to the pi and don't want to start doing tutorials and not know if things aren't working because I made a software mistake, or because I have a hardware problem. This is the r...

my cobbler has some of the pins connected to each other. is this wrong? If I cut the traces that are connecting the pins to each other, and can end up with each pin from the pi ending up on its own row on my breadboard will that work? I'm using an older Pi that a friend gave me. I'm not sure if it's...