Biggest bonehead mistake you've made when building a PC

[imported_Champ]

My indestructible Asus P5K

I plugged a power connector wrong the first time I ever built a PC (still dont know what I did)...saw a flash and a flame...took it apart called a friend. It continued to work!

overvolted the hell out of it and burned out several sticks of ram, the P5K still worked!

bought a shitty watercooler system from thermaltake, leaked everywhere!, all over mobo while running. then I removed the back brace that was stuck on it with glue pads supplied with gung-off and a screwdriver...decided what the hell lets see if it works...and it did!

I still use that mobo, although I feel bad for it

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

/me runs out to pick up a P5K mobo.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

RMA'ed a motherboard. Got a replacement, spent 30 minutes trying to attach the heatsink before realizing there was no retention bracket.

Yes, it's true.

 

[cross6]

#1 Installing a biostar motherboard with a AMD K5-75mhz pentium clone. (I'm old) This was the days of AT power supplies that used two identical connectors that could be reversed. Well, I reversed them. Loud hum then smoke

#2 Talking to a friend and distracted while plugging in a sound card. I forgot to turn the pc off and rammed it in and then heard the plug n play sound from my speakers and froze in terror! Worked fine.

 

[us3rnotfound]

I have never broken any component ever, never had a single hang up, and I'm not always that diligent with my work.

 

[us3rnotfound]

Originally posted by: palswim

Originally posted by: l0cke
I bent the pins on a S939 3500+ (great CPU) but I used a credit card to get them straight. Still working.

Yeah, I bent so many pins on my 3500 (often doing that pull-the-heatsink-off-but-oops-the-processor-came-too trick), but I would always take out my knife, straighten them, and then put the processor back in. It never stopped working up until I sold it on craigslist.

I'm sure we all know by now to run the system for a few minutes before attempting to rip the heatsink off, the CPU should stay mounted.

 

[Colt45]

There's been a few systems where I had horrible instability and random reboots.... and then I realized I hadn't plugged in the CPU fan.

Don't think I've ever really smoked anything though.

 

[Rastus]

I turned a computer on without a heatsink once. CPU got very hot very fast. I know it got hot because my thumbprint perfectly melted in to it. After turning it off, treating my burn, and putting the heatsink on, it worked fine.

 

[CKent]

Got a replacement MOBO from Gigabyte. (The third one, thank you very much).

My Gigabyte mb is being RMA'd as we speak. Sounds like a common problem with them.

 

[shocksyde]

Definitely forgot to plug the 12V 4-pin plug for the CPU in and spent hours pulling my hair out. When I finally realized what the problem was, I felt like a complete moran.

 

[Rakewell]

Originally posted by: CKent

Got a replacement MOBO from Gigabyte. (The third one, thank you very much).

My Gigabyte mb is being RMA'd as we speak. Sounds like a common problem with them.

Indeed. Their quality control is something.

My original MOBO worked for six months, then wouldn't post.

Their ITs sent me a replacement. Wouldn't post. Thought it was other parts, replaced EVERYTHING. Still wouldn't post.

Sent it back. Got a replacement. Learned how to put RAM into a motherboard. Works great now.

Spent about $120 on shipping.

Here's to hopin' they get your MOBO right on the first shot. :beer:

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Originally posted by: nkgreen
plugged in a dvd drive while the pc was still on.

plugged in an IDE drive while the pc was still on.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I've never had any major mistakes while actually building a PC, but I once inadvertently plugged the AC adapter for my dad's cable modem into his wireless router, which led to an instant and smoky death.

 

[acheron]

Originally posted by: StarsFan4Life
When I was 13 (13 years ago, lol) I was testing out a motherboard for a friend. We decided not to put the motherboard in a case nor put it on anything. I help it in my palm, plugged it all in, turned it out....and shocked the shit out of myself.

I dropped the motherboard and it never worked again....


DOUBLE WHAMMY!

Sorry, but that one cracked me up. Good work.

 

[potato28]

I bricked an Nforce 4 mobo from overheating and useless overclocking. Also, I tried to plug a 4 pin motherboard plug into my brand new (at the time) x1900GT and start my PC. Theres a few other ones, but I can't remember them.

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: CKent

Got a replacement MOBO from Gigabyte. (The third one, thank you very much).

My Gigabyte mb is being RMA'd as we speak. Sounds like a common problem with them.

They seem more hit and miss, my old Nforce 4 board was a POS that couldn't take more than 50 C on the NB but my P965 is still rock solid with a 3.5 ghz e5200 in it.

 

[Via]

After carefully piecing a PC together I pushed the power button. Nothing happend.

I ended up taking the whole thing apart before I noticed the power strip had become unplugged.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

How do you people install components while the computer is on? My tower is beside my desk on the floor; I would never think to work on it from there. I have a "work bench" for that... OK, it's just a flimsy folding table, but it gets the job done.

 

[Daishiki]

Originally posted by: Steve
Not a PC-building incident, but how many of you have locked yourself out of your own router?


*raises hand*

/raises hand
/hangs head in shame

 

[amdhunter]

Cracked the core on my shiny new Thunderbird 1.4GHz.