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

[Hanpan]

Not buying a Dell...

for my family. While self build is great, tech support can be a real hassle and while I know both the pros and cons of dell, in many cases the pros actually far outweight the cons.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I built a Heathkit with a mighty Z-60 chip, 640k of memory, 2 x 51/4" drives and one 31/2" drive, no hardrive. While experimenting with IBM's pre-DOS, dare I call it operating system?, I changed the address of the memory. The eprom was programable. 'Catostrophic Error!' was the last thing it ever said in it's pretty glowing green letters.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Let's see....probably the single most painful mistake I made was reinstalling Windows 2000 almost 5 years ago without having backed up my encryption key. Imagine my disappointment as a young 15 year old when I couldn't get any of my files/documents from the last several months or so back. I obviously learned my lesson from that...I actually don't even bother encrypting stuff anymore because it's not worth the hassle (I don't have anything that important).

Other than that...I can't really think of anything. I've been into computers since I was a little kid (back in the oldskool DOS days, screwing with boot floppies and XMS/EMS/high memory allocation to get games to work, etc), and I managed not to destroy anything that I can remember.

 

[Rayden]

I plugged a joystick into the gameport while the computer was running. Fried the CPU. My dad swears I sabotaged it on purpose so we would have to upgrade.

 

[jonn]

back in the old days of a 8088 and my first computer, no HD, was playing in area's i shouldnt have been and found a file called autoex..... something or other, HMMMMMMMMM, must be something left over from one of the racing games i had on a disk, It wont hurt to del. that.....

 

[Deleted member 4644]

recommending that my friend buy a 5500 OC (thank god he only paid $30 AR)

 

[coejus]

Accidentally sticking my finger into a Tornado fan while I plugged the cord into the power supply. My old case still has blood spots all over the inside.

 

[boatillo]

Hehe I've plugged and unplugged joysticks and mice while my Amiga was running many times...never broke anything

Once I deleted everything in my "Program Files" folder under 98 by accident...good thing it was only hours after a fresh install, no harm then!

My very first build I just could not get it to boot up for the life of me, black screen and some crazy beeps from speaker, took it to friends house to see what he said. We looked up the beep meanings online to find out it meant I didnt press my AGP card in enough. Doh.

#1 - telling my gf to get me a geforce 5600 for xmas....now shes always nagging, 'i spent $200...'

 

[flexy]

putting an old Intel DX4 CPU on a board the wrong way - and then not knowing why the bord wont post, panic, sweat, anger....running to a pc-repair shop to let the board/cpu check out.....he takes the CPU out..turns it the right way, plugs it in and...the board works

 

[amol]

buying a firewire cable at bestbuy for $30 . . .

the only thing that makes me feel better is that:

1. i needed 4-pin to 4-pin

2. i needed it by the next day

 

[Ionizer86]

One time, when I was trying to gauge the noise that each of my computer parts made, I decided to stop my CPU HSF from spinning by holding it in place for a bit. No, my CPU didn't fry (I was only stopping it for seconds at a time) but I broke a fin off. Ever since then, I couldn't reglue it on properly, and since the balancing was really bad, my HSF kept making this really loud "zzzzf, zzzf" sound as it spun. Unbalanced fans are very very lound!

The broken HSF was a good incentive for me to get a monstrous Alpha PAL-8045 heatsink and a Panaflo L1A though

On another occasion, I was modding out a PSU by trying to switch out the loud fan for a Panaflo fan. It was unplugged, but I hadn't left the PSU out in the open long enough. Sure enough, I gave myself a really bad shock. It was intense! But I didn't give up and continued trying to switch the fan enough. And indeed, I managed to give myself a second really bad shock!

 

[abaez]

Originally posted by: Dru22
Also, punching my "WOOD" desk and about breaking my hand while playing UT2004 because I got killed.

LOL

When I bought my first AGP card I brought it home and was like.. WTF this thing doesn't fit in my mobo, it's BACKWARDS. (I was trying to plug it into the PCI slot). So I ended up taking it back (it was pretty far) and told the guy "The card is backwards." He looked at me like I was from Mars. He asked if I had an AGP slot and I was sure I did so he said go home and try again and if not come back. Needless to say I finally figured it went upside down in the AGP slot. Man did I feel dumb.

 

[Juno]

Chose FX 5600 over 9800XT. That was back in summer '03.

 

[RalphTheCow]

Add me to the bought a Dell list. I just went for the Dimension 3000 and found out it has no AGP slot. But I'm not a noobie, just a forgettie!

 

[DyslexicHobo]

My friend wanted me to help build his computers, it was both our first build. We forgot the mobo standoffs, and we found them a little too late. His mobo got fried, but we were able to RMA it with no problems.

 

[jabronidan89]

Add me too to the I bought a Dell club. I was 13 at the time and hell nobody wanted to help me build so I just decided to go with Dell. Can't wait till I build my own in a few months, won't make that mistake ever again.

 

[masshass81]

My first build, but my cousin helped me out since it was his third so he supposedly was not a newb - never trusting him again... because 2 yrs later I open up the system to clean it and find out that....

- exhaust fan blowing INTO the case + HSF blowing ONTO the heatsink = LOTS of dust
- HSF on backwards....... (only HALF of the die was touching the heatsink!!! how did the cpu last?)

 

[webie]

Originally posted by: 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?

Computer Virus.

 

[2Xtreme21]

Buying a Radeon 9600SE because it was "HL2 Approved" and because the dude at Best Buy said it was a very nice card.

I kept it (because it was an upgrade... albeit VERY slight upgrade from my previous Geforce 4 MX440 (laff) ) for a few months before I wonder what the heck is slowing my PC down. Mmm hmm.

Now I'm running a 6800 and I got a (almost free) HL2 from ATI.

 

[Farmer]

Originally posted by: Macro2
Buying Intel thinking "netburst" would enhance my internet experience.

LOL!

Buying an FX-5200 because it fit my budget, buying an MSI mobo because of glowing reviews, removing IE from an XP install, bought RAM in the wake of the Taiwan earthquakes in '99 (was it?0

I also still keep thinking my Geforce256 Ultra is better than all the MXs. I guess these marketting devices get to me easy.

 

[Rand]

First system I built myself I used a miserable POS PC Chips motherboard. The assumption that even very low end motherboards should be at least basically functional and stable was.... erronous.

it also took about 3-4yrs to conclusively drive it into my head that making backups was a necessity.
I have nightmares about data I lost....

 

[Pandamonium]

I rendered a dual PPRO board I just bought on 2cpu.com's FS forum useless when I chipped the lugs off of the socket. Now I can't mount any HSF in one of the sockets. =/

 

[JC]

1) Back when RAM was expensive (Pentium 120 days), I made the company buy 2x16MB SIMMS for a 16MB upgrade because I knew you had to use pairs....but I didn't know they added up!

2) Took the tech line's word for it that you COULD NOT have more than 4 IDE devices in a system....then lost days and restock charges exchanging for a SCSI ZIP drive and card, and more days learning about IRQ conflicts and reassignment

3) The first system I built (Cyrix 586-120) suffered random lockups...I returned the mobo twice, they insisted it was fine...eventually traced it to the Everex sound card



JC

 

[cubby1223]

Putting the PSU back into my case after using it to help diagnose a friend's computer - I couldn't see too well in the case and though I had the plug to the floppy drive on right... but it was actually off by a pin, thus shorting out a positive cable with a ground. Luckily only the PSU & floppy were fried.

Another time, not my fault, putting together a system with all new equipment, I noticed the cpu fan was spinning unusually fast when first powering on. Moments later a puff of smoke arose from one of the ram chips. The new PSU was putting out 24v & 10v instead of 12 & 5v... Only the cpu survived that due to the voltage regulators. Everything else was DEAD.

 

[OCNewbie]

My dad paid like $650 for an 8088XT 10Mhz CPU, from some local guy. Had CGA graphics, 20MB hard drive, 5 1/4" floppy. Monitor was a PoS, and some weak keyboard. This was in 1991 I believe, was my first computer. Believe it or not, nothing comes to mind that 'I' have done stupid right off. I generally do a lot of research into stuff before I do things to make sure I do them right.