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I bought an Intel P4 processor. No, wait. I bought an Intel 820 sdram based motherboard. No, the most stupid thing I did to my computer was buy a celeron 266 without cache. Well, maybe the pentium pro 150 wasn't too smart either.
But seriously, dumbest thing I did was cut one of the wires to my ATX power supply when removing a wire tie. Had to patch it with a cable lug.
But seriously, dumbest thing I did was cut one of the wires to my ATX power supply when removing a wire tie. Had to patch it with a cable lug.
A pin to the power supply connection in my hard drive broke, leaving only 3 male connectors to fit in the power supply. So I grabbed 4 wires and connected one end to the power supply cable, and taped the other end to the metal pins on the underside of the hard drive. I did this with all 4 wires. The connection wasn't secure enough, so I held it all down with a C-clamp (note: no soldering tools were available).
Sooo...then I started it up and amazingly, the damn thing worked! As I lowered the Hard drive back into the case, the wires shifted, crossed, and shorted out the whole thing.
Oh well
Sooo...then I started it up and amazingly, the damn thing worked! As I lowered the Hard drive back into the case, the wires shifted, crossed, and shorted out the whole thing.
Oh well
Lowered my mb off the case with A Brand NEW GF2 GTS card still plugged in. Luckily all it did was bend the hell out of the mounting bracket. They make those cards to last these days. I might i shot myself if managed to brake my card before i ever used it
I was once securing a modem into my case while the computer was still on (I had been testing different dip switch combinations, if I remember). Anyway, I dropped the screwdriver, which hit the motherboard. There was a large spark and the computer shut off. Started off fine and ran from then on, thankfully enough. But i felt pretty stupid.
Buy an i820 asus and a creative geforce.. sigh have to run my memory clock on 75 mhz instead of 100 mhz in order for my pc to run stabily
Hey man i dont know .. i just think i do !!
Hey man i dont know .. i just think i do !!
I flashed the bios of my brandnew Socket-A mainboard with a PentiumIII flash utility..... Luckily the mainboard manufacturer felt sorry for me and replaced it free of charge (they said the Via chipset had been damaged beyond repair???) Now my new system works great (with the old bios revision ).
).The first CDROM drive I ever bought was a 4x from Reveal. I installed everything, and the cdrom would not work. spent hours and hours with thier tech support (mostly on hold), to no avail. Loosened the screws, an it worked. After three days, I felt like a fool.
bdaley
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- Dec 31, 2007
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I was messing around in the case with it plugged in and the PC running (I know, pretty stupid but I was in a hurry) One of the power connectors caught on the case frame and shorted out the MOBO. Luckily everything else still worked fine.
I power off and unplug the power cord before I touch ANYTHING inside the case now.
I power off and unplug the power cord before I touch ANYTHING inside the case now.
Ran fdisk to add and remove some partitions. Then tried formatting some partitions on a different disk before restarting. This caused a problem with drive letter assignments and formatted the boot partition on the other disk. DOH!
Also I have an MSI AMD750 mobo and cheap generic RAM. It let me put the ram in the wrong way round even though the bump is ment to stop it (why I didn't check, just thought it was stiff!). Luckily, the only damage was that the memory slot I plugged it into is unstable. I also have a big black mark down one of the pin connectors on the RAM which looks really cool. I'll never have a bad word to say about generic RAM if they can widthstand that kind of punishment!
Also I have an MSI AMD750 mobo and cheap generic RAM. It let me put the ram in the wrong way round even though the bump is ment to stop it (why I didn't check, just thought it was stiff!). Luckily, the only damage was that the memory slot I plugged it into is unstable. I also have a big black mark down one of the pin connectors on the RAM which looks really cool. I'll never have a bad word to say about generic RAM if they can widthstand that kind of punishment!
personal experience:
I was putting together a brand, spankin' new Pentium processor (the only one around, in the 486 age) into a serious killing machine, with double tower case (meant for two-mobo servers).
I plugged in the hard drives, and booted up the machine, leaving it open for any minor fixups.
It was due to this incident that I have learned NOT to play with case screws over the open machine. I dropped one of them, it came down on the HDD's open circuit board, and since the drive was angled (hanging outside by cables), the screw went sliding down the whole surface of the board, leaving sparks and smoke in a beautiful diagonal line until it came to the edge and fell to the floor.
Needless to say, drive was shot as surely as with a gun...
to make things more interesting, I was 15 years old, and my boss was sitting on a chair above me (I was sitting on the floor while putting the computer together). Add to the fact that the 40MB drive was full of local car-insurance company data... ahh, the look on his face, as he stood towering above me... not something I'm likely to forget
Almost equally nightmarish experience was with a co-worker of mine -- we were putting custom computer together (clone 386/486s) in the back of a computer shop. That day he had a bad streak of defective motherboards -- he'd put the computer together, but it wouldn't boot... after 3rd or 4th in a row, we were seriously teasing him. After fifth we were getting concerned.
After sixth, we realized the mobos were not, in fact factory defective -- it turned out he walked across the carpet leading to the tech room and forgot to ground himself (no fancy wrist straps in those days in that part of the world)... so he basically burned six perfectly fine motherboard... I'll leave it to reader's imagination to realize the hell that followed
I was putting together a brand, spankin' new Pentium processor (the only one around, in the 486 age) into a serious killing machine, with double tower case (meant for two-mobo servers).
I plugged in the hard drives, and booted up the machine, leaving it open for any minor fixups.
It was due to this incident that I have learned NOT to play with case screws over the open machine. I dropped one of them, it came down on the HDD's open circuit board, and since the drive was angled (hanging outside by cables), the screw went sliding down the whole surface of the board, leaving sparks and smoke in a beautiful diagonal line until it came to the edge and fell to the floor.
Needless to say, drive was shot as surely as with a gun...
to make things more interesting, I was 15 years old, and my boss was sitting on a chair above me (I was sitting on the floor while putting the computer together). Add to the fact that the 40MB drive was full of local car-insurance company data... ahh, the look on his face, as he stood towering above me... not something I'm likely to forget
Almost equally nightmarish experience was with a co-worker of mine -- we were putting custom computer together (clone 386/486s) in the back of a computer shop. That day he had a bad streak of defective motherboards -- he'd put the computer together, but it wouldn't boot... after 3rd or 4th in a row, we were seriously teasing him. After fifth we were getting concerned.
After sixth, we realized the mobos were not, in fact factory defective -- it turned out he walked across the carpet leading to the tech room and forgot to ground himself (no fancy wrist straps in those days in that part of the world)... so he basically burned six perfectly fine motherboard... I'll leave it to reader's imagination to realize the hell that followed
Stupidist thing, hmmmmm
Well, besides buying an 820-SDRAM combo....
I was working on a desktop computer from Packard Hel...I mean Bell. It was one of those computer cases that had room ONLY for the floppy, CD and hard drive. I was replacing the small hard drive for a brand new 1.6 GB hard drive (remember when that size was huge?). Well, since there was not room, I installed the new drive, took the old drive out and left it connected as the slave, storing it in a balancing act on the bezel edge of the open case. Well, I was working on the PC when I noticed the hard drive teter-toter. I then saw it hit the pot metal of the case and saw it sparked. Once the smell cleared, I did not hear and any of the hard drives spinning. I pull the plug and plugged it back in, but had to removed the now fried drive to get it to boot.
Oh well, guess I really didn't need the stuff on that drive anyway.
Well, besides buying an 820-SDRAM combo....
I was working on a desktop computer from Packard Hel...I mean Bell. It was one of those computer cases that had room ONLY for the floppy, CD and hard drive. I was replacing the small hard drive for a brand new 1.6 GB hard drive (remember when that size was huge?). Well, since there was not room, I installed the new drive, took the old drive out and left it connected as the slave, storing it in a balancing act on the bezel edge of the open case. Well, I was working on the PC when I noticed the hard drive teter-toter. I then saw it hit the pot metal of the case and saw it sparked. Once the smell cleared, I did not hear and any of the hard drives spinning. I pull the plug and plugged it back in, but had to removed the now fried drive to get it to boot.
Oh well, guess I really didn't need the stuff on that drive anyway.
Well I have three entries:
1. The first time I ever built a computer(486) I was rellay scared but somehow got everything working. But the case wouldn't go on and I had to force it really hard. Turns out there was a screwdirver in the way and I broke the powerbutton. I had to turm my computer on and off with a surge protector.
2. I bought the cheapest ram on the market thinking it was a good deal. my computer crashed about once an hour.
3. I thought my Asus A7V motherboard was broken after tinkering with it for over 2 days. Turns out I just had to hit the onbutton on my case. Arrggg. Actually, from reading the Asus A7V help files I figured out this is pretty common. Its because those weird AMD's turn on for a second when you first connect the power supply and then turn back off.
1. The first time I ever built a computer(486) I was rellay scared but somehow got everything working. But the case wouldn't go on and I had to force it really hard. Turns out there was a screwdirver in the way and I broke the powerbutton. I had to turm my computer on and off with a surge protector.
2. I bought the cheapest ram on the market thinking it was a good deal. my computer crashed about once an hour.
3. I thought my Asus A7V motherboard was broken after tinkering with it for over 2 days. Turns out I just had to hit the onbutton on my case. Arrggg. Actually, from reading the Asus A7V help files I figured out this is pretty common. Its because those weird AMD's turn on for a second when you first connect the power supply and then turn back off.
Back in the day when Win95 was fairly new, my friend got his hands on an ancient laptop. The thing looked like a suitcase literally. We think it was a 386 16MHz...maybe. A whopping 4meg RAM running an old version of Win3.1. Well my friend in his infinite wisdom wanted to try a win95 install. Well of course parallel port CD roms weren't readily available then, so my bright idea of using my parallel zip drive to load win95 seemed logical. Well safe to say it seriously took over 1 hour to load the SETUP WIZARD! After an eternity, we tried to boot into win95, but it just sat there. I don't know if the thing ever worked again.
Jon
"Water-Cooled CPU Runner"
Jon
"Water-Cooled CPU Runner"
two things- 1st I spent about 1.5 weeks on tech support thinking my motherboard was broken on the first computer I built. an atlon 500. I actually just didn't know how to format/partition my hard drive. No one I knew had that helpful little floppy. Finally found one though.
2. then a week later after reading toms, I thought I was really smart so I talked my roommate into overclocking his k6 chip. It was a k6-2 or earlier. I upped the voltage all the way and speed on this AT board and melted the chip into the socket. heh. Glad it wasn't my computer.
"Are you saying that I can dodge bullets?"
2. then a week later after reading toms, I thought I was really smart so I talked my roommate into overclocking his k6 chip. It was a k6-2 or earlier. I upped the voltage all the way and speed on this AT board and melted the chip into the socket. heh. Glad it wasn't my computer.
"Are you saying that I can dodge bullets?"
Ahh this would have to be 3 things.
1. On my first self built computer, a Cyrix 166+ (which actually ran at 133 mhz) this thing sucked.
I was trying to take part of the case apart in the 5.25" bay area (dont remember why) and was using a screwdriver to pry it. the screw driver slipped(i was using alot of force) and scraped against the back of the motherboard, quickly followed by a loud four-letter word echoing though the house. After taking the motherboard out of the computer and closly inspecting i found that i had broken one(just one) of the little wire pathways leading out from the CPU which was right next to a group of about 10 of them(they were like 1/2 mm apart). Anyways i figured that the 'wires' on the motherboard were not actually exposed but covered with a very thin layer of insulation like many wires are, so i took a needle and scraped away at the pathway on either side of where the screwdriver cut it. i folded up a peice of aluminum foil to about 1/4 inch across and layed in ontop of the dmged area and coverd it with Duct tape, plugged it in and it didnt work. Turned it off and forcefully appyed pressure to the the tape on the back of the mobo and it WORKED@!@!!!! SO i put it all back together in the case and used a miniature novelty baseball bat and crammed it with force between the back of the motherboard and the case.. directly putting pressure on the duct tape. (the whole motherboard was bent) and it WORKED. after about 3 hours of use it would always randomly fail and you would have to fiddle around with the baseball bat to make it work again LOL!!.
2. I took the fan AND heatsink off my Cyrix CPU (which already ran very hot) and turned it on cold, it made it all the way into windows 95 before it locked up and wouldnt start up again, i turned the system off and wet my finger and touched the CPU and it was hot enough to BOIL the water. the die itself was probably about 120°C
3. I bought my brand new 7200 rpm maxtor harddrive several years ago and it was kinda the top of the line HD at the time, i was holding it and someone in my house starteled me and i quickly turned around and SLAMMED IT againsnt my bed post.
1. On my first self built computer, a Cyrix 166+ (which actually ran at 133 mhz) this thing sucked.
I was trying to take part of the case apart in the 5.25" bay area (dont remember why) and was using a screwdriver to pry it. the screw driver slipped(i was using alot of force) and scraped against the back of the motherboard, quickly followed by a loud four-letter word echoing though the house. After taking the motherboard out of the computer and closly inspecting i found that i had broken one(just one) of the little wire pathways leading out from the CPU which was right next to a group of about 10 of them(they were like 1/2 mm apart). Anyways i figured that the 'wires' on the motherboard were not actually exposed but covered with a very thin layer of insulation like many wires are, so i took a needle and scraped away at the pathway on either side of where the screwdriver cut it. i folded up a peice of aluminum foil to about 1/4 inch across and layed in ontop of the dmged area and coverd it with Duct tape, plugged it in and it didnt work
. Turned it off and forcefully appyed pressure to the the tape on the back of the mobo and it WORKED@!@!!!! SO i put it all back together in the case and used a miniature novelty baseball bat and crammed it with force between the back of the motherboard and the case.. directly putting pressure on the duct tape. (the whole motherboard was bent) and it WORKED. after about 3 hours of use it would always randomly fail and you would have to fiddle around with the baseball bat to make it work again LOL!!.2. I took the fan AND heatsink off my Cyrix CPU (which already ran very hot) and turned it on cold, it made it all the way into windows 95 before it locked up and wouldnt start up again, i turned the system off and wet my finger and touched the CPU and it was hot enough to BOIL the water. the die itself was probably about 120°C
3. I bought my brand new 7200 rpm maxtor harddrive several years ago and it was kinda the top of the line HD at the time, i was holding it and someone in my house starteled me and i quickly turned around and SLAMMED IT againsnt my bed post
.DSutcliffe
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- Dec 31, 2007
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I would have to say that the dumbest thing I have ever done is right after i got my first IT job several years ago, I was working on a computer and talking to my boss at the same time.
I must have been distracted because I reached in and released the clips on the memory and pulled it out WHILE THE SYSTEM WAS LIVE.
Windows immediately bluse screened and I reached over real quick to power the machine off before my boss noticed.
Thankfully both motherboard and memory worked fine after that fiasco.
I must have been distracted because I reached in and released the clips on the memory and pulled it out WHILE THE SYSTEM WAS LIVE.
Windows immediately bluse screened and I reached over real quick to power the machine off before my boss noticed.
Thankfully both motherboard and memory worked fine after that fiasco.
This doesn’t involve destroying hardware but still kind of funny.
I had my first computer (a P166) for a couple of months and noticed there was a lot of extra files on it. U know how much [-peep-] comes on a new computer. So after removing all the useless programs I started deleting files I thought were junk. I had noticed that some files would give u warnings that your computer might need them so I got the bright idea to just delete them all and just keep the ones the computer warns me about.
Hey if I need them I can just get them out of the recycle bin, right?
Wrong, Not if u can’t load up windows.
But I learned.
I learned what a startup disk is and how to reload windows.
Later on I learned about “format” and “Fdisk”
Thx & Cya
I had my first computer (a P166) for a couple of months and noticed there was a lot of extra files on it. U know how much [-peep-] comes on a new computer. So after removing all the useless programs I started deleting files I thought were junk. I had noticed that some files would give u warnings that your computer might need them so I got the bright idea to just delete them all and just keep the ones the computer warns me about.
Hey if I need them I can just get them out of the recycle bin, right?
Wrong, Not if u can’t load up windows.
But I learned.
I learned what a startup disk is and how to reload windows.
Later on I learned about “format” and “Fdisk”
Thx & Cya
What about deleting the entire windows folder? Don't do that. Trust me, bad things happen.
On my parent's first computer, a Compuke (Compaq) presario cds524, the mouse wouldn't work like 4 days after they bought it. I was trying to navigate windows 3.1 to play the couple of games my little brother installed on it, but I didn't know about the stupid tab button to change between the open windows. I deleted one folder (quicken I believe) and found that one open window dissapeared. I did this several times, not realizing I was deleting the preinstalled software as I went. I was just trying to get to the open folder with the two game icons in it! Oops! We found out that evening how much damage I had done. Now, this being the stellar Compuke year of 1994, they did not provide any restore disks with the systems they sold. If you lost your software, you either went without, or ordered restore disks from them. We ended up doing that which cost at least $85 can.
And it came out of my pocket! Snif! That sucked!
On my parent's first computer, a Compuke (Compaq) presario cds524, the mouse wouldn't work like 4 days after they bought it. I was trying to navigate windows 3.1 to play the couple of games my little brother installed on it, but I didn't know about the stupid tab button to change between the open windows. I deleted one folder (quicken I believe) and found that one open window dissapeared. I did this several times, not realizing I was deleting the preinstalled software as I went. I was just trying to get to the open folder with the two game icons in it! Oops! We found out that evening how much damage I had done. Now, this being the stellar Compuke year of 1994, they did not provide any restore disks with the systems they sold. If you lost your software, you either went without, or ordered restore disks from them. We ended up doing that which cost at least $85 can.
And it came out of my pocket!
Snif! That sucked!Back when my dad bought our first home computer, a 286 8Mhz/12Mhz Turbo, I was trying to free up disk space from our 40mb hard drive using Xtree Gold. I ended up deleting Command.com, which of course made my system incapable of booting properly to DOS, and I had to explain to my father who would be coming home from work, how I screwed up the computer! I was like 10-11 years old and knew little about computers or DOS, except for installing/running programs.
We got the 286 machine around the time 688 Attack Sub was released.
We got the 286 machine around the time 688 Attack Sub was released.
I wanted to add a hard drive to my first computer, but the problem was that the 3.5" bracket only had two columns of holes, and they did not line up exactly with any of the threaded holes on the hard drive. Instead of buying another bracket, I thought, hey, I'll just drill the holes a litte to make it fit. That worked ok, and I thought I had dusted it off, but about an hour later a little metal fragment must have come loose because the motherboard shorted out. No boot, nothing...
But hey, I saved two bucks on the cost of a new bracket
But hey, I saved two bucks on the cost of a new bracket
Ahh the stupidest thing , how can i forget it was like a thunder on a clear day...
I was taking my brand new full of critical software 3.1 Quantum fireball HD for a Backup burning, I wraped it with some plastic bags (stupid) and went on my way when i got to the Burning site they told me come bakc tumorow . "Ok" i replied.. on my way home in the bus i put the Plastic bags on my lap didn't secure them plastic on plastic slipps.
So guess what happened . It was like those slow motion parts
I see my Hd flies of the Bag flips couple of times in thin air and drops graicfully with loud thud on the floor..
All hell broke lose on me.. came home boot up.. with some hope. and then i Heard it ... oh yes you know what i mean
the Clicks when the head keeps trying to get to the damaged place ..oooh the humanity... click..click..click....
Since than I cary my HD in a double Antistatic bags in a fully Antishock Paralon Layerd Box in a size of 30*10..
<b>-----------------------</b>
-<font color=red><b>R.K.</b></font color=red>
I was taking my brand new full of critical software 3.1 Quantum fireball HD for a Backup burning, I wraped it with some plastic bags (stupid) and went on my way when i got to the Burning site they told me come bakc tumorow . "Ok" i replied.. on my way home in the bus i put the Plastic bags on my lap didn't secure them plastic on plastic slipps.
So guess what happened . It was like those slow motion parts
I see my Hd flies of the Bag flips couple of times in thin air and drops graicfully with loud thud on the floor..
All hell broke lose on me.. came home boot up.. with some hope. and then i Heard it ... oh yes you know what i mean
the Clicks when the head keeps trying to get to the damaged place ..oooh the humanity... click..click..click....
Since than I cary my HD in a double Antistatic bags in a fully Antishock Paralon Layerd Box in a size of 30*10..
<b>-----------------------</b>
-<font color=red><b>R.K.</b></font color=red>
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