Dumbest thing you've ever done

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: Bob Anderson
When I did my first build in November 2005 I dutifully attached an anti-static strap to my wrist and grounded it to the metal case chassis, only to realize after the build was completed that because the PSU wasn't plugged into an AC socket, I wasn't grounded!

No problem there. You don't need to be grounded to get static protection.

All that is needed is for everything that is being handled to be connected to everything else. There is no need to connect everything to ground - in fact, in some circumstances this is discouraged as it is a potential safety issue.

The advantage of connecting everything to ground is that it provides a convenient reference point.

 

[Schadenfroh]

buy a generic PSU.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Forgot to pull wall power while changing a fuser on a Lexmark 4059 laser printer. I was prying power connectors off the fuser with my screwdriver and BAM, DC got me. I jolted back, stood up, and waited for the tingling to stop. I twitched the rest of the week....and always double check power on laser printers...

 

[ding5550123]

I once thought that a system's HDD had failed and was begining to walk out the door to buy a new one when come to find out the HDD was unplugged.

 

[Srfrbum]

About 10 years ago, My dad told me that anything electronic you put in the microwave for even 2 seconds, will break and never work again. Only thing going through my head was, " Bullshiiiiiit." The next day I put my dad's laptop in the microwave for 2 seconds expecting nothing to happen. I press 2 , and start. I hear a cracking sound, and see smoke come out of the laptop. I take it out, and the screen cracked, housings cracked, keyboard cracked, motherboard fried, and everything else along with it. Man, did I get my ass kicked when my dad got home.

 

[blert]

Installing a $200 stick of RAM with the system powered on. Up to that point in my life I had never seen blue flames, nor been knocked on my ass by electricity.

 

[sjandrewbsme]

Originally posted by: Srfrbum
About 10 years ago, My dad told me that anything electronic you put in the microwave for even 2 seconds, will break and never work again. Only thing going through my head was, " Bullshiiiiiit." The next day I put my dad's laptop in the microwave for 2 seconds expecting nothing to happen. I press 2 , and start. I hear a cracking sound, and see smoke come out of the laptop. I take it out, and the screen cracked, housings cracked, keyboard cracked, motherboard fried, and everything else along with it. Man, did I get my ass kicked when my dad got home.

lol

 

[Tarrant64]

Leave a PC on the back trunk of a car and drive off. Not me, room mate.

Did I laugh? No. It was my file server. Did I find out? Yes. $500 check and a sorry note on my desk when I got home from school. It was worth maybe $100. Profit.

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: sjandrewbsme

Originally posted by: Srfrbum
About 10 years ago, My dad told me that anything electronic you put in the microwave for even 2 seconds, will break and never work again. Only thing going through my head was, " Bullshiiiiiit." The next day I put my dad's laptop in the microwave for 2 seconds expecting nothing to happen. I press 2 , and start. I hear a cracking sound, and see smoke come out of the laptop. I take it out, and the screen cracked, housings cracked, keyboard cracked, motherboard fried, and everything else along with it. Man, did I get my ass kicked when my dad got home.

lol

If I had been at that microwave.


Dead.

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: Srfrbum
About 10 years ago, My dad told me that anything electronic you put in the microwave for even 2 seconds, will break and never work again. Only thing going through my head was, " Bullshiiiiiit." The next day I put my dad's laptop in the microwave for 2 seconds expecting nothing to happen. I press 2 , and start. I hear a cracking sound, and see smoke come out of the laptop. I take it out, and the screen cracked, housings cracked, keyboard cracked, motherboard fried, and everything else along with it. Man, did I get my ass kicked when my dad got home.

Just 2 seconds did that much damage?? I would have ended up living under a bridge if I had done that!

 

[thescreensavers]

Originally posted by: ScrapSilicon
push pwr button front of case ..nothing.. hmm..push again a little more firmly..still nada.. :light: ..plug power cord into back of psu ...*bingo* :roll:

mines kinda similar except I keep forgetting to hit the switch at the back of the PSU every time when I build a computer.

 

[lxskllr]

I hooked the front panel usb headers to the mb backwards. Two dead cameras, one dead mp3 player later I found the problem. I thought there was a short in the wire or something, because I successfully used thumb drives on the port After opening the box for an unrelated reason I saw the problem. Pretty stupid mistake. They could hardly make the connection any easier

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
(suggestions welcome BTW, as long as they don't involve me buying a cutting-edge rig just to demonstrate how it goes together... /me is not wealthy )

You should really put some google ads on your page, mechBgon. Then you'll have more cash to upgrade and make a new guide, which will get you more hits and more cash, etc...

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: goatjc

Originally posted by: BlameCanada
I had a cheap PS in a machine once, and the thing wouldn't turn on. I'd hit the button, it would start to power up and then when I would turn it to work on it, it would just stop. Kept doing that a few times until I saw one of the pins from a power cable had slipped out of the plastic plug and was dangling around inside the case. Luckily it was shorting out on the case and not something important .

I will never go cheap on a PS after I had this exact same thing happen to me.

1. The computer would not boot for the life of me, turns out, one of those USB to PS2 deals went bad, unplugged that, plugged the USB mouse into the USB port and not that converter, and started just fine.

2. Troubleshot a laptop on a docking station forever and figure out I forgot to plug in the docking station's power. . .I also could not find the audio output and it turns out there was one on the front of the computer behind a little latch deal on the docking station.

cheap PSU's should be banned lol

my mate, spent a wad on top components, then furnished them with a £40 600W triple fan Q-tec job

it did ok for a while, couple of months maybe

then there was a white flash, a loud pop and an acrid smoke. thankfully it didnt take anything with it. he took a leaf out of my book and ordered a Enermax PSU.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: jgar
used a magnetic screwdriver. No problems though. Just didn't think it was a good idea.

i use mags all the time. and i have wobbly hands so i've touched my fair share of components with them. ive never used a wrist strap either, and i put my last rig together on my bed and on my carpet in my room. nothings gone wrong, though i do now plug the PSU in first and just touch it to earth myself before starting work.

daftest thing i have done was when i was installing a VF700 Cu to my 6800GT

the GT's HSF was springloaded obviously and it used those plastic prong things that you have to squeeze together then push through the screw hole to release it.

now

i had a pair of needle nose pliers in a drawer.... but i have 2 screw drivers on the table.

yeah ..... i picked up the two screw drivers and pushed them together in a pincing motion to get these plastic peg things out. needless to say one slipped, took some of my finger and a surface mount capacitor with it.

i thought id ****** it.

i carried on regardless though, undoing the other pegs with the pliers.

thankfully the card still worked......and it worked at 420/1100 for the next few months untill i sold it on ebay to make way for 7800GT's in SLI.

i learned that some of the caps n resistors on the PCB's of these things sometimes arent related to the running of the GPU. they can be used for auxilary chips (like the DVI output) or VIVO chips, or even as a means for software to distinguish what type of card it is.

im assuming that the cap i knocked off, given its location, was to do with the DVI or the VIVO.

my card didnt have the VIVO chip so it was just s-video out... so it either didnt matter at all, or i had bust the DVI out put....which when i checked on a mates rig...i hadnt.

so whatever that little cap did....it sure as hell wasnt missed.

 

[JJ650]

I had a building "incident" that wasn't really my fault, but happened while in the middle of adding components.

I had a SlotA Tbird when they first came out and I was so stoked about. I had purchased it thru a company (I can't even recall the company now...they are defunct) that did the "thermal modifications" and had the goldfingers device for the overclocking. It had a an impressive array of fans and heatsinks attatched. I was installing peripheral parts one at a time and was in windows installing drivers.
MY buddy was curious about the fan setup. In order to get a closer look, it involved removing the cpu....while it was on. Idiot. Anyway, I didn't see him reaching in the case to pull it out until it was too late. I yelled, he freaked and pushed it back in.
In a matter of 2 seconds, he managed to manually abort my brand spanking new motherboard. Man I was miffed.


Oldie but goodie thread where I mentioned this same incident.


Old "stupid things" thread

 

[tapir]

I opened a power supply that I thought was dead and started thumbing through it with my hand---WHILE IT WAS PLUGGED IN. Zap. Thankfully it just made my arm feel like jello for a few seconds and didn't kill me. :shocked:

 

[Jaanpunjab]

Originally posted by: tapir
I opened a power supply that I thought was dead and started thumbing through it with my hand---WHILE IT WAS PLUGGED IN. Zap. Thankfully it just made my arm feel like jello for a few seconds and didn't kill me. :shocked:

Electrocution....always fun I must say.

 

[Jeeshman]

Best. Topic. EVAR!

Rather funny that *this* is the topic I decide to contribute to, since it requires me to describe my own stupidity. But anyway. Some incredibly stupid things that come to mind that I've done are:

1. 1. Just last week, the rear left speaker on my computer's surround sound system stopped working. I determined that it was due to a short where the speaker wires connect to the amplifier. So I shut everything off, opened up the amplifier, and couldn't see anything that appeared 'shorted.' I decided to turn the amp back on and see if I could resolve the short by applying pressure to various components. ("Brilliant!") Applying pressure resulted in metal touching metal somewhere very bad. Pretty sparks ensued. Replacing the amp set me back $350.
   
   2. Like a few previous posters, I've also tried hooking up power to a floppy drive by "feel" and ended up plugging the 4-pin connector to only 3 pins. BZZT! Goodbye, floppy drive. There's nothing quite like hitting the 'On' button and immediately seeing smoke billowing out of the case.:Q
   
   3. Being in a hurry is ALWAYS bad--I once decided to separate a heatsink from a Socket 939 Athlon while the Athlon was still installed in a motherboard. Upon releasing the heatsink's retention clips, I discovered that the thermal paste had become "thermal glue" and the heatsink wouldn't come off easily. Since I was in a hurry (and apparently had suddenly forgotten everything I'd ever learned about modding computers), I decided brute force was the answer. I pulled really hard on the heatsink. The heatsink came off--and the CPU CAME WITH. Minus a couple pins, of course. That was also a $300+ mistake.
   
   4. I recently tried backing up my main system--backing up is always a good idea, right?--using my tried-and-true version of Ghost 2003. Ghost 2003 creates a virtual partition so it can boot to DOS via the C: drive and run the backup procedure in DOS. Then after it's done with the backup it gets rid of the virtual partition, re-writes XP's boot configuration using XP's 'bootcfg' command, and reboots into XP. Because I made a mistake when I started the backup procedure, the backup was going to take *2 days.* So I canceled the backup and rebooted. To a blinking cursor. Nothing I did would get the system to boot into Windows. It wasn't until then that it occurred to me that this was the first time I had tried to run Ghost 2003 after having installed Vista in a dual-boot configuration on a different HD. Three days later I learned that Vista completely changes the bootup procedure for ALL Windows installations it finds on a system. By then I had already started the laborious process of reinstalling XP, after having spent 10 useless hours in Recovery Console trying to resurrect the XP install. Brilliant!
   
   5. But hands down, the stupidest PC-related thing I've ever done was purchase a Geforce FX 5800 Ultra the day it came out. It was more expensive, slower, and 4 times louder than the competition! BRILLIANT!!!

 

[Imyourzero]

Originally posted by: Jeeshman
Best. Topic. EVAR!

Rather funny that *this* is the topic I decide to contribute to, since it requires me to describe my own stupidity. But anyway. Some incredibly stupid things that come to mind that I've done are:

1. 1. Just last week, the rear left speaker on my computer's surround sound system stopped working. I determined that it was due to a short where the speaker wires connect to the amplifier. So I shut everything off, opened up the amplifier, and couldn't see anything that appeared 'shorted.' I decided to turn the amp back on and see if I could resolve the short by applying pressure to various components. ("Brilliant!") Applying pressure resulted in metal touching metal somewhere very bad. Pretty sparks ensued. Replacing the amp set me back $350.
   
   2. Like a few previous posters, I've also tried hooking up power to a floppy drive by "feel" and ended up plugging the 4-pin connector to only 3 pins. BZZT! Goodbye, floppy drive. There's nothing quite like hitting the 'On' button and immediately seeing smoke billowing out of the case.:Q
   
   3. Being in a hurry is ALWAYS bad--I once decided to separate a heatsink from a Socket 939 Athlon while the Athlon was still installed in a motherboard. Upon releasing the heatsink's retention clips, I discovered that the thermal paste had become "thermal glue" and the heatsink wouldn't come off easily. Since I was in a hurry (and apparently had suddenly forgotten everything I'd ever learned about modding computers), I decided brute force was the answer. I pulled really hard on the heatsink. The heatsink came off--and the CPU CAME WITH. Minus a couple pins, of course. That was also a $300+ mistake.
   
   4. I recently tried backing up my main system--backing up is always a good idea, right?--using my tried-and-true version of Ghost 2003. Ghost 2003 creates a virtual partition so it can boot to DOS via the C: drive and run the backup procedure in DOS. Then after it's done with the backup it gets rid of the virtual partition, re-writes XP's boot configuration using XP's 'bootcfg' command, and reboots into XP. Because I made a mistake when I started the backup procedure, the backup was going to take *2 days.* So I canceled the backup and rebooted. To a blinking cursor. Nothing I did would get the system to boot into Windows. It wasn't until then that it occurred to me that this was the first time I had tried to run Ghost 2003 after having installed Vista in a dual-boot configuration on a different HD. Three days later I learned that Vista completely changes the bootup procedure for ALL Windows installations it finds on a system. By then I had already started the laborious process of reinstalling XP, after having spent 10 useless hours in Recovery Console trying to resurrect the XP install. Brilliant!
   
   5. But hands down, the stupidest PC-related thing I've ever done was purchase a Geforce FX 5800 Ultra the day it came out. It was more expensive, slower, and 4 times louder than the competition! BRILLIANT!!!

LoL! Nice first post -- and welcome to AT!

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Tarrant64
Leave a PC on the back trunk of a car and drive off. Not me, room mate.

I've opened up the rear hatch on my station wagon once, and on my van once, and had a PC fall out onto the concrete driveway below. Ouch!

 

[Jeeshman]

Originally posted by: Imyourzero
LoL! Nice first post -- and welcome to AT!

Thanks for the welcome, much appreciated!

(Woot, already doubled my total number of posts! )

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: Jeeshman
Best. Topic. EVAR!

Rather funny that *this* is the topic I decide to contribute to, since it requires me to describe my own stupidity. But anyway. Some incredibly stupid things that come to mind that I've done are:

1. 1. Just last week, the rear left speaker on my computer's surround sound system stopped working. I determined that it was due to a short where the speaker wires connect to the amplifier. So I shut everything off, opened up the amplifier, and couldn't see anything that appeared 'shorted.' I decided to turn the amp back on and see if I could resolve the short by applying pressure to various components. ("Brilliant!") Applying pressure resulted in metal touching metal somewhere very bad. Pretty sparks ensued. Replacing the amp set me back $350.
   
   2. Like a few previous posters, I've also tried hooking up power to a floppy drive by "feel" and ended up plugging the 4-pin connector to only 3 pins. BZZT! Goodbye, floppy drive. There's nothing quite like hitting the 'On' button and immediately seeing smoke billowing out of the case.:Q
   
   3. Being in a hurry is ALWAYS bad--I once decided to separate a heatsink from a Socket 939 Athlon while the Athlon was still installed in a motherboard. Upon releasing the heatsink's retention clips, I discovered that the thermal paste had become "thermal glue" and the heatsink wouldn't come off easily. Since I was in a hurry (and apparently had suddenly forgotten everything I'd ever learned about modding computers), I decided brute force was the answer. I pulled really hard on the heatsink. The heatsink came off--and the CPU CAME WITH. Minus a couple pins, of course. That was also a $300+ mistake.
   
   4. I recently tried backing up my main system--backing up is always a good idea, right?--using my tried-and-true version of Ghost 2003. Ghost 2003 creates a virtual partition so it can boot to DOS via the C: drive and run the backup procedure in DOS. Then after it's done with the backup it gets rid of the virtual partition, re-writes XP's boot configuration using XP's 'bootcfg' command, and reboots into XP. Because I made a mistake when I started the backup procedure, the backup was going to take *2 days.* So I canceled the backup and rebooted. To a blinking cursor. Nothing I did would get the system to boot into Windows. It wasn't until then that it occurred to me that this was the first time I had tried to run Ghost 2003 after having installed Vista in a dual-boot configuration on a different HD. Three days later I learned that Vista completely changes the bootup procedure for ALL Windows installations it finds on a system. By then I had already started the laborious process of reinstalling XP, after having spent 10 useless hours in Recovery Console trying to resurrect the XP install. Brilliant!
   
   5. But hands down, the stupidest PC-related thing I've ever done was purchase a Geforce FX 5800 Ultra the day it came out. It was more expensive, slower, and 4 times louder than the competition! BRILLIANT!!!

I've done #3 several times and never had a pin come off. I now try to rotate the hsf to break the bond though.

 

[Jeeshman]

Originally posted by: yh125dI've done #3 several times and never had a pin come off. I now try to rotate the hsf to break the bond though.

Ah yes, I should've pointed out that many times prior to that episode, I had rotated the heatsink to break the bond. So my decision to just yank on the thing, exerting massive force in an upwards angle, is even MORE stupid! (Most of the pins were merely bent all to h*ll, btw.)

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Just installed a HSF last night before removing the plastic from the base The REALLY bad thing was that it was not an easy install...had to remove the motherboard. Hung in BIOS forever, then temps in the 80's (C) I wonder why it didn't just blow up on me I went to bed wondering what was going on, then as I was falling asleep, I figured it out. Repeat the process of mobo removal this AM, and only 3 of the lock down pin thingy's came out, so I had to kinda reach in and pull off the plastic and half @$$ reapply Artic Silver, What a pain. Live and learn though...I'll NEVER do that again.