Dumbest thing you've ever done

[Elcs]

I used Vista....

 

[Rebel44]

Switched PSU from 220V to 110V - I was lucky that it was 4 years old KME (it wasnt my PC ) and that everything alse survived...

 

[taltamir]

1. I was doing an upgrade but didn't wanna waste all the time and effort seating everything in case it didn't work... I had an idea: "I will just put in the CPU without HS/fan and ram and video card and see if it posts... If I hear a beep I will unplug it and finish connecting stuff"
I kept on trying too because for some reason it was sounding an alarm.. I figured it out though, it was doing that because I didn't plug in the cpu fan... Once I finished building that system everything worked fine...
2. Obviously I occasionally forgot to put on thermal paste OR forgot to plug in the CPU fan OR forgot to plug in some extra power cable (like CPU power) OR forgot to plug in the system itself to the wall and wondered why it wasn't working...
3. I shorted the mobo/cpu with thermal paste... I didn't understand why because arctic silver is supposedly non conductive... Turns out that the "arctic silver" that I bought from comp USA was a cheap knockoff from china that IS electrically conductive (I found instructions on how to identify the knockoff in the arctic silver site)
4. I erased all those useless extra hidden files on drive C... In my defense I was 11 and a computer expert told me to do it... That arse.
5. For years I would transfer data between computer / test hard drives /etc by putting a case on its side, opening it up, laying the drive on the case and plugging it in... The last time I did so the hard drive electronics short arcs of electricity at the case (they weren't touching, but they were about 3 mm from it) and went up in smoke. Now I make sure to place the HDD in an enclosure (although I have used a static bag as well since...)

And the grand finale...
6. I would routinely switch on the in sink trash disposal unit with wet hands... that is, I Would be washing/peeling vegetables and then push the trash into the disposal and turn it on with water splashing on the power switch with my hands...
I have seen (and felt) lightening shoot out from the grooves in the power switch 4 times already... every time it gave me quite a jolt, a scare, and felt like someone pushed my arm... But all things considered it wasn't that bad and was actually kind of cool...

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: 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...

I change fusers in printers all the time without unplugging. But they involve no screws

Now a corona wire....

 

[videogames101]

Ah the computer won't post!


oh, right... the 7800gt has to have it's DVI plug on the left port...

(but i still don't understand this, lol)

 

[Loop2kil]

I've pulled a pci card out of a running computer(dang quiet computers)

 

[TJones2]

Dropped a live electrical wire onto my computer case back in the 486 days when cases were made of heavy steal. The computer was running at the time, and the wire burned a dime sized hole into the case. The computer didn't miss a beat. Keep running like nothing happened.

 

[9nails]

Dumbest thing I've done... Back in the 486 days, we used to have to install chips on to the motherboard to increase cache. I put a chip in backwards by mis-identifying where pin-0 was on the socket. The computer naturally refused to boot in this configuration. Finding my mistake, I couldn't remove the cache RAM chip by hand so I used a small blade flat head screw driver to pry the chip lose. When trying to get the screw driver under the cache RAM chip, I pushed too hard and too deep and cut some traces. The motherboard wouldn't boot no matter what I did after that. And then I tried to solder the trace back together and fatally heated the components around the trace. To conclude the story, I ended up buying a new motherboard and left the cache RAM alone!

 

[QueBert]

My system wouldn't power on, checked PSU cord, was reseating cards, checking cpu, checking memory, ended up thinking it was a short so I took the whole MB out. Turned out it was the power switch on the PSU, I took the entire thing apart like 2 times and was racking my brain.

it's always the small details

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: 9nails
Dumbest thing I've done... Back in the 486 days, we used to have to install chips on to the motherboard to increase cache. I put a chip in backwards by mis-identifying where pin-0 was on the socket. The computer naturally refused to boot in this configuration. Finding my mistake, I couldn't remove the cache RAM chip by hand so I used a small blade flat head screw driver to pry the chip lose. When trying to get the screw driver under the cache RAM chip, I pushed too hard and too deep and cut some traces. The motherboard wouldn't boot no matter what I did after that. And then I tried to solder the trace back together and fatally heated the components around the trace. To conclude the story, I ended up buying a new motherboard and left the cache RAM alone!

you know what sucks about stuff like this (I've done it) back in the 486 days nothing was cheap, I fried some DDR once a few years ago, pissed me off, but it was like 40 bucks no big deal. In the 486 days I fried a ram chip and I bet it cost me 250 bucks to replace, not to mention I couldn't just drive to a computer store a few blocks away and buy a replacement it was hard to find a shop back then.

any mistake mad hardware wise back then was an expensive mistake

 

[taltamir]

and to think quebert that this is when we larned... via trial and error...

My first computer was a 486... after a few times paying a repair shop 200$ to reinstall the os after I messed things up I learned to do it myself... mmm, actually that wasn't on my first computer... My first computer I booted DOS from a floppy so there was nothing I COULD do to break the OS... it was later computers that I had to deal with those things...

 

[HGC]

I once spent many weeks doing a very complex tax return with hundreds of transactions on my computer.

I thought, why print out a hard copy? I don't have to file for a few weeks, and the computer is sound and I have a tape backup.

The OS crashed, and, to my horror, the tape drive ate the tape during the attempted restore. It was such a hassle to redo the return that I procrastinated until I owed the IRS penalties, interest, and interest on the penalties.

 

[QueBert]

this isn't related to the PC box, but about 17 years ago I was having a problem with the color on my 15" VGA monitor not being right unless I wiggled the hell out of the VGA cable every so often, it got worse and worse and more often. Until one day I couldn't fix it, so I went to my neighbors opened it using his tools and saw what was loose so I used his soldering iron to fix it. At the time I had no idea opening a CRT and fucking around inside is about the stupid and most dangerous thing you could do. Oddly enough *lucky hehe* nothing happened. I'm sure I came really close to killing myself, as for a good 10 minutes I was poking around in it everywhere with a screw driver looking for anything loose.

can you actually die from the shock of a CRT? I've heard yes, and I've heard no but it will fuck you up really good.


I think I'm amazed at some of the screw up I've done that resulted in no damage to hardware that should have killed it. I definitely think luck was on my side many times for my fuck ups.

 

[TehBluebear]

Joined up purely for this thread, hi guys!

Anyway. A couple of months ago (August - September time), I decided to upgrade my storebought Medion PC. I had already re-formated, and installed Vista Ultimate (Some could say that Vista was my first mistake, I don't find it at all bad however). So, everything was going swimingly, new P5B mobo, new 2Gb DDR2 RAM, and new XFX 8600GTS all purchased.

Came home, to start upgrading, and came to start installing my new mobo. Oh. Um. The PSU is kinda in the way... Yep, that's right. I had just bought an ATX board, when my case was mATX. My mate kindly helped out however, by giving me a full size case that he had lying in his garage. So, everything is all good, until I come to connect my PSU.

There were no 24-pin Molex connectors. Many /facepalms ensued.

Went off to a local PC hardware store, and bought a suitable PSU, and then connected everything up, and then wondered why it wouldn't switch on. I found that I had performed the old staple of "Dumbest thing" threads, and forgot to switch on the PSU. A few embarrassed seconds alter, the PC was up and running like a dream.

So yeah. I think you can tell that was my first build ever

 

[KAZANI]

Originally posted by: primesone
Do you see that red switch on the back of your psu, the one that lets you use it in different countries.
Don't change it's position while the computer is on.
While this may seem common sense to everyone, for some unknown reason i felt a need move it without considering what it was for.
What followed was a puff of smoke as it died
luckily the rest of the system still worked when i replaced it

You didn't need to change the whole PSU but only the fuse that burned.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: KAZANI

Originally posted by: primesone
Do you see that red switch on the back of your psu, the one that lets you use it in different countries.
Don't change it's position while the computer is on.
While this may seem common sense to everyone, for some unknown reason i felt a need move it without considering what it was for.
What followed was a puff of smoke as it died
luckily the rest of the system still worked when i replaced it

You didn't need to change the whole PSU but only the fuse that burned.

This reminds one guy I knew... his parents (who had quite a lot of money) told him they would only buy him a computer upgrade when the old one broke... Well, one day he got sick of the slowness and went back there and flipped the switch from 110 to 220 volts.. Needless to say he got his new computer to replace his broken one.

 

[Texun]

1. About ten years ago I traded my collection of 250 LP's in near perfect condition for a used 386SX laptop with a 20 meg hard drive and 2 megs of ram.

2. A friend of mine was used to splicing speaker wires while the amp was on and figured it should work with video cables. He had a laptop feeding his monitor using a bad VGA cable. The wires were exposed at the connector so he tried pushing the them in with a knife while the laptop was powered up. Once it grounded out against the laptop the on board video went out - POOF! No more laptop.

 

[DangerAardvark]

Originally posted by: Cogman
This list is long but I just had to add some of mine .

The first computer I bought I did not get a heat sink with it (What would you need that for?) It was a Duron 600 MHZ. I figured out later that you needed a heat sink, but I wanted to see my computer run. So I got a plastic bag and some Ice... Surprisingly I did not fry anything and the computer booted up just fine (I probably had some of my lowest temps ever!)

The thing that I do on almost every install (man, it makes me sweet like crazy when I do it) when im installing the heat sink, invariably the screwdriver will slip and hit the mother board, Man that always scares me half to death (though I have never broken a motherboard that way).

I got my sister a Shuttle XPS system with a Athlon XP 2400+ Mobile. At the time, the 2400+ mobile was all the rage in over clocking, I had dabbled a little bit but did not really know what I was doing, I thought a 200W (may even have been a 150) power supply would be plenty.. That system never worked again.

not me, but my brother installed a heatsink on his computer backwards while I was away for like 2 years (I built the computer for him) Apparently some of his computer savy friends helped him with it. I swapped out the CPU and rotated the heatsink and Viola, everything worked fine (He traded a 2500+ Barton which was overclocking to 3200+ Speeds for a 2800 sempron.... I could have killed him..)

My last one I witnessed is a teacher allowed her students to play with some broken computers. It had not occurred to her that there might be dangerous parts in them. One of the kids opened up a monitor and pulled out one of the huge capacitors, He found a good shocking toy (The stupid teacher never realized that the capacitors can kill someone.) He punishment was I believe he shocked her a couple of times with it.

That is awesome.

 

[GenHoth]

Moved my computer while the HDDs were spinning, lost 2 good hard drives that way!

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Applied too much thermal paste, didn't realize until later
Spent over an hour trying to put the stupid LGA 775 heatsink in, plopped the board into the case, heatsink blasts out because the screws were too short... Gave me a scare. Curse you Gigabyte for not including some $2 screws with a $90+ piece of hardware. We had to run to Sears.
Had to re apply thermal paste.
Spent another hour attempting to connect the 4-pin power cord... Stupid giant heatsinks.

I will probably forget to plug in the switch when I try to turn the thing on.

I will also probably totally cock up dual-booting Ubuntu and Windows XP... And then drop my backup disc.

It should be obvious that I am a first-time builder here... Oh, and I'm 13 so my dad has to help me and he doesn't really know jack about computers.

 

[Amaroque]

I was messing around with friends brand new 286...

Everything was DOS only back then. Anyway, I found this program called "Fdisk.exe" I stared playing wih it, and when I rebooted the computer ...Ummm... There were several ppl there, so I promptly left.

It wasn't untill a couple years later, that I figured out what Fdisk was for. Oops!

 

[aigomorla]

AHAHAHAHA...

okey here i go..

i was re waterlooping my main queen rig. And i forgot to use a worm clamp on the outlet of my radiator. My RD-30 has A LOT OF head pressure at medium to high settings. I didnt know my meanwell was cranked up that high. [never rush a water build]

Anyhow i was starting my bleeding process and water shot out of the outlet, poped the tubing, and sprayed all over my mobo, video cards and psu..


LOL... took me a whole day to dry the entire thing out, but the queen had a nice shower, and she still works 100%.

Heres a picture of what i mean:

Side view, the radiator is the black thing with the fans sandwitched.
http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_0721.jpg

Imagine having the right barb shoot water into your entire system.
http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_0694.jpg

 

[JackMDS]

Did you ever think why the way HSF put on CPU need to change so often and why it is so awkward to use it?

What the reason to The Bizarre collection of plugs the lay and colors of cables?

And so on and so on.

If I did not know better I would assume that there is a secret Agency that is maintained by all computer?s components manufacturers that make sure that nothing gets into markets that is logical nice and easy to work. - -

 

[Denithor]

Wow, I have been chuckling for like the last hour reading these. I've done several of them myself (3/4 floppy power cable -- burned up cable but not PSU or floppy drive, reversed floppy cable to motherboard) and some other stuff also.

Spent the better part of two days trying to set up a raid array, hardware worked fine but Windows would not install correctly onto the array. Install would just stop at various points during process. Tried different memory, actually bought two new drives, etc, before finally figuring out that the stupid DVD burner was defective and not reading the OS disc correctly.

Broke an RDRAM socket because I pressed too hard on the memory stick when inserting (correctly aligned, just pushed too hard and it leaned over and broke out the side of the socket). Of course then the motherboard was toast because those things have to be used in pairs. Doh!

Formatting the hard drive on a system for a fresh Windows install, left my USB drive plugged in and saw a 1GB partition as well as the 160GB drive. Forgot my USB drive was present, assumed the two partitions should both be deleted so they could be merged. They couldn't. And my USB drive never worked right after that.

Set up Windows with a Zip drive plugged in. Windows assigned the zip drive letter C: and nothing worked right. Had to reinstall with Zip drive unplugged to get the letters straightened out.

Most expensive stupid thing: bought a Memorex 2x CD-R when they first came out for $350. Still regret that waste of money.

 

[RanDum72]

Another stupid thing I used to do: stripping wire with my teeth. My friend had this fancy Pentium MMX PC with a humongous 64mb RAM attached to his "home music studio". He wanted to add some more audio power so we got this Crown 500w/channel amp to hook up to a couple of JBL's and a Cerwin Vega sub held together by a passive cross-over. Because the amp is rack mounted inside a closet, I attached 12g speaker first to the amp, then ran the wires outside. Somewhere along the way, I turned on the amp just to see if it works and never turned it off. Guess what happens when you strip a wire thats attached to a high current amp with your teeth? I burned my lower lip and had tingling sensations in my teeth for weeks.