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

[Philippine Mango]

Here is another one I tried to forget, one time I was working on a dell (yes we all know it sucks) and I just fiddled with it, so as the case was open I turned on the machine but forgot to plug in the 4pin molex connector into the motherboard (big mistake) I plugged it in with out thinking and soon as I did I saw a large spark and poof! I fried my first CPU! (P4 1.7GHZ) Told dell and they sent me another CPU. Last one, got a new antec power supply and accidentally plugged in the FDD power cable one notch off to the left

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[ebene]

Was installing new RAM sticks and forgot to plug the computer back into the wall

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: BentValve
The very first build I had was in about 99' .. . I screwed the motherboard directly to the case and wondered why it would not work. Hey, at least I figured it out on my own what I had done and no damage had been done.

Don't feel bad, I did the same thing. I also put in a Cyrix PR100 in wrong in the socket (wasn't notched back then). Turned on the power and POOF, all kinds of electrical noises came from the case followed by smoke and a burning smell. Not good.

 

[drpootums]

buying a 1.4 Tbird from my friend (and a mobo) and not knowing there are 2 power inputs to the mobo...

"ohhhh...so that's why it wouldnt work" a quote from when i took it back to him saying it wouldnt work...

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Buying an S3 Trio video card just because it was a "new" AGP card.. Was supposed to be fast right?

 

[webie]

A long time ago in a company far, far away? I wrote ?format c: /s? instead of ?format a: /s? just trying to create a boot floppy. Needles to say I confirmed the ?erase all data warning? assuming it was the floppy.

The funny part?

The client just brought the PC to the office for a 5 min. ISP configuration.

 

[ebene]

Wow, that must've blown !

 

[Baked]

Buying retail. But I was young, and who the hell knows how to build a computer from scratch when there's no internet and you're only the 2nd guy in your class with a computer.

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: 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.

What was wrong with the Savage 4s? I had one, and they were great budget cards! Ran at only 120 mhz IIRC correct (I had the savage 4 gt) and I lived with it through 2001 till pc died and I upgraded to Win2k and found out that there are no real dirvers (well ones that allow firect3d and opengl ) for the savage4 Then I paid 40 dollars for a G4mx420 and I'm still crusing on this sucker...made half life 2 look beautiful

But what would you have done? Bought a TNT instead? Puh lease. IF you were expecting to get TNT2 Ultra frames outta that....no way~ but that was one of my best 50 dollar purchases.

 

[MrCodeDude]

Starting the computer with the CMOS jumper in restart. Only needed to buy a replacement battery from Radio Shack and it came back alive.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Quasmo
bought a dual pentium 3 motherboard for $200 untested from a trade show.

Thats's bad!

 

[Googer]

The commie 64 was fast as heck if you installed an Epyx Speed Loader Cartrage on the back.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Jedi2155
I fried a stick of my Mushkin PC3500 Level II BH-5 by cleaning it with a wet rag......(static)

They make special chemicals for cleaning parts like that.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: halfadder
We shared our laser printers on a network back when even the cheapest models cost $4000.

But come to think of it, a few A/B switches would have saved us days and days of token ring networking "fun".

a/b switches are a pain in the arse, net working is easier way to print.

 

[Gothgar]

whoa whoa whoa, no need for three posts in a row, there is an "Edit" button

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Working on them while intoxicated, still can't seem to avoid that one.

 

[Regs]

Baught a Celeron 700 Mhz from Dell with Intel Extreme Graphics.

 

[Zebo]

Ha i made it just the other day. I've told hundreds of people how to OC, OCed a64 many times myself. But the other day when raising HTT i forgot to adjust LDT ratio and even started a thread on how crappy board was cause It was failing to post. (I thought yet another 939 board I have fails to reach high HTT) In all fairness the LDT option was not in location I expected so I simply forgot about it.

I got owned.

Working on them while intoxicated, still can't seem to avoid that one

That's the only way to fly.

 

[paladiin]

The 2nd computer I built on my own (was a whopping 133Mhz Pentium) I also did the "screw the mobo directly to the case" thing. Thing about it though, it worked for a while, then would just reset. I had the hardest time figuring out what was wrong with that thing! haha!

Next biggest mistake, if you can call it one, was picking up a 5900u 256MB when PNY had the infamous "wrong box" deal. Even for $189 after rebate, I still ended up not liking that card. Ended up selling it on ebay and picking up a 6800nu though, so it worked out in the end.

 

[mircea]

In my first OC attempt, I went straight to the FSB and raised it from 133 to 166, leaving the CPU multiplier where it was. and rebooted.
The rig was rebooting after 3-4 seconds. My brand new 2100+ was trying to work at 2700+ speed.
It was summer so I had to wake up at 2am in the night after I left the room windows opened, and do a really fast BIOS run to the FSB settings and restart.

 

[twitchee2]

not getting a MAC...but sense i dont have the money im sticking with PC

 

[Alcoholik]

HAHA nice... lol dells suck... at least you have seen the errors in your ways.

 

[P0ldy]

Originally posted by: webie
A long time ago in a company far, far away? I wrote ?format c: /s? instead of ?format a: /s? just trying to create a boot floppy. Needles to say I confirmed the ?erase all data warning? assuming it was the floppy.

The funny part?

The client just brought the PC to the office for a 5 min. ISP configuration.

How'd you explain that one?

 

[hopejr]

I had an IBM JX, and I was just learning BASIC. The executable was on the boot floppy. I thought all the programs on the boot floppy were programming languages that I could try. I saw FORMAT.COM and typed in FORMAT at the prompt. That was our only boot floppy

About 6 months later (when I knew a bit more) I also had a 286 with MS-DOS 6.0 on it. It booted into Power Menu. I worked out how to get into DOS on it, and was playing around and made an empty file called DOS.COM in c:\dos. Later on, I found out about AUTOEXEC.BAT and wanted to boot the 286 into a dos prompt instead of Power Menu. So I replaced the "menu" line at the end with "dos". Oops!! It tried to load that DOS.COM file and froze. The only way I was able to fix it was when I found out you could press F5 to skip config.sys and autoexec.bat. LOL

 

[Macro2]

Buying Intel thinking "netburst" would enhance my internet experience.