What is the biggest newb mistake you have made since you got interested in computers?

[Sunner]

Going to the Openboot prompt and running probe-scsi-all while Solaris was still running.
Me = WTF???!?!?

 

[asm0deus]

i felt like a n00b when i was screwing my a64 hsf on (its just weird to me, im too used to socket A) but my biggest n00b mistake seems to be taking my 33.6 modem out while the PC was on. spark = everything broke. this was 10 years ago but i was very sad.

 

[Tiamat]

When my floppy disk didnt read correctly (file names were cut off), i figured that it was not formatted correctly for that computer or something. I found an option called "format disk" and I chose it. The formatting worked. But my data wasn't there anymore.

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

Fried a MB in 1998 doing an upgrade. There was an extra screw post under the board and it shorted.
Haven't fried anything since, and I've built 5 machines from scratch.

 

[stevty2889]

Was running a 400mhz FSB CPU overclocked to a 533mhz FSB.(1.6ghz northwood) Got a new 533mhz FSB cpu(3.06ghz P4), figured I would try running it on the motherboard(Asus P4T-E) I already had, since I could overclock to 533mhz FSB anyway, figured it might work. It did, for about 2 minutes, until both the motherboard and the PSU started to smoke..

Once I was able to afford a new motherboard it turned out the new CPU was fine, but I was definatly quite worried after what happened to the mobo and psu. Then I made my next mistake..oooh, a 400w psu on e-bay for $20. My first experieince with a generic PSU..that brand new motherboard didn't last long, pos generic Powmax PSU took out my new motherboard. Again the CPU survived, and after getting my 350w enermax, and replacing the motherboard again, it's run fine since.

 

[jlarsson]

Either buying a dell, or a geforce4 mx (i had a geforce 2 ultra at the time).

 

[sharkeeper]

Hooked a servo cable up with the wrong polarity and threw a switch that the manual said NOT to touch. $30k down the drain instantly.

Cheers!

 

[BentValve]

I have another confession to make:

A few years ago I was cleaning my Athlon XP2000+ CPU for install in a new build ...I forgot what it was now but it was an oil based cleaner.

Booted up and poof! it was gone in seconds ...the oil effectively insulated the core and prevented the heatsink from doing its job.

I only use water now.

 

[mordantmonkey]

definately buying a dell, no wait, buying a freinds 6mo old dell and taking over the payments for him. i was noob on the fiscal level too! well i was only 17 at the time.

 

[NiKeFiDO]

Originally posted by: nick1985
buying a dell.

It was a Dim 2400 too...integrated video, no AGP slot.
But it was only $300 with no monitor! (2.8Ghz, p4, 256mb RAM)

I then proceeded to buy a Dimension 4600 mobo and a 9800pro 128mb (right before they dropped in price) and another 256mb RAM stick. (Another $300 about, actually more)

At least i managed not to ruin the CPU while switching mobo's.....

...yeah

 

[ViviTheMage]

i took out my gateway cpu...not knowing what it was and took a hammer to the pins, and tried putting it back and going 'woops' and told my dad we shoudl get anew computer cause it broke somehow and i built the next one...still runs!! haha, back in...99-00 ?

 

[Dug]

Forgetting to download drivers before putting new system together.
No driver for nic to get on Internet.
Had to go to friends house to get drivers.

 

[ohnnyj]

I was having some issues with my computer as it seems to be slowly dying and was reinstalling XP. When the menu came up to format the hard drive I saw two drives listed and thought that's funny I only have the one hard drive. I clicked on the first which said Class Files 74MB and thought this was some sort of extra helper files that Seagate may have put on the drive to help people install it. So I went ahead and did a full long format on this part of the drive so that maybe I could get this space back and have the full drive ready to go. Well I did so and then rebooted and formatted the other section, loaded Windows, and everything was going fine...until I tried to access my Zip disk that had a lot of my Class Files on it. That is when it clicked, needless to say a Zip disk given a long NTFS format can no longer be read, so all of my school files (many irreplaceable) are no more. The funny thing is, I even had two other backups. One was on this very computer, but I had formatted the other hard drive thinking trying to fix my dying computer, and the other was at work which I had also recently formatted to speed the thing up.

Lesson: Remove Zip disks before a fresh install (in fact I don't even know why I left the thing attached).

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

I received a new 486 system (my first one) back in like 1991 and the monitor had a removable cable that if misunderstood (AND I DID) could be reversed so that you could accidentally plug the wrong end on the monitor and the other in the joystick port.

Only a real DUMASS would do that! Talk about a quick cloud of smoke??? The IDE controller that had the joystick port on it had a ribbon cable that caught on fire instantly!

What makes this worse????

They sent me a replacement system and I DID IT AGAIN because I didn't know what my first mistake was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Imagine my pain when they sent a field tech out the next time with a new system when he explained to me basically what a NOOB I WAS!

 

[JonnyBlaze]

my first noob mistake was when i was 9. i got my second pc that had a hard drive. my first one didnt and booted from a floppy. for what ever reason i needed to boot from a floppy, so i unplud the ISA MFM controller card, boot from a floppy then thinking id just plug the card back in and have hard drive access, i did it! there goes my first fried mobo.

JB

 

[mircea]

So I go to Best Buy (or so they say) and look for a cheap (newer) video card. I had a Vanta series so I choose a GeForce2 MMX and go to the service desk to ask if it's better than what I have. He asks me if I have an AGP motherboard or is it only PCI. That's the first time I realized that there is more to PC's than unscrewing the case, wich was all I did to a computer before.

So I had to ask for a drawing of the diference between PCI and AGP to go home and check which one I have.

 

[Broadkipa]

My first computer was a brought one with a Pentium 100 CPU. after about a year I decided to upgrade to a P200 MMX cpu but to do this I needed a bios upgrade. This was new ground to me but I went ahead anyway, flashed the bios, rebooted, nothing, just a black screen with a flasing cursor. I felt sick in my stomach thinking I had screwed my PC. After several reboots and no better result I was going to give up when I decided to check the bios settings, to my relief all the settings had gone and all I had to do was redetected hardrives etc reboot and all was well. I have never forgotten that event and even today bios flashing makes me nervous.

 

[imported_asfd]

buy anything from frys.
1. bought a wd drive: the infamous whinning makes me return it.
2. bought another ibm hd: unfortunately it is a deathstar decorated w/ fry's rebate.
3. bought cheap card from fry's: no working/compactible at all.
New Murphy's law: you will return whatever u bought from fry's.

 

[everman]

Bought a Savage4 video card...I think it was a savage4 iirc.... Pretty bad performance.
Never really done anything very stupid though, I always do a lot of research before doing anything.

 

[Texun]

Plugging the floppy drive cable in bass-ackwards... and I sometimes still catch myself doing it after 10 years of building computers.

 

[Maxil223]

Posted On G4TechTV.com, but then i got smart, and switched to ANANDTECH, which I then got the knowledge from all you anandtechians and assembled my first computer.

 

[Chaotic42]

Trying to hot swap a 3.1GB IDE drive.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: nick1985
buying a dell.

Same here but that was before I got interested in computers. I am still saving up for my first build so I have not really made any mistakes yet. Those n00b mistakes will come in April when I build it!

 

[sauria]

Turned it off by unplugging it

 

[jukeboxjoe]

Not backing up info before installing OS upgrade...lost a month's worth of music work, songs, lyrics and sequences. Damn, still hurts to think about!