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    #41
    Re: Computer stupidities

    Heres my story,

    When i was younger i used to play with the older AT systems with those Pentium PC Chips boards, belive me those boards were crap, the RAM sockets were kinda weird too they were DIMMs but they didnt hold properly. Well I blew one of the systems by connecting a USB header the wrong way, after effect wsn't good though. Even though the PC still worked well but there were burnt traces. Oh well. Thats how most Free stuff ends up.

    Theres another one that will scar me for life, even though i didnt do it. Well i passed those AT systems to another person as i had spare ATX systems and they were of no use.
    Well the person used the PC for about a month or so then wanted to explore computer hardware and started stuffing around inside.
    Well this person wanted this old Pentium 233 PC to run XP so the person took the RAM out of the other PCs and stuffed it in. When i say that i mean The person forced the SIMMs in and damaged them, but to add to the damage, the PC was still on?!!!!

    Then it didnt work so the person did it with other PCs, so 3 dead PCs in one day.


    My two cents.
    Don't find love, let love find you. That's why its called falling in love, because you don't force yourself to fall, you just fall. - Anonymous

    Comment


      #42
      Re: Computer stupidities

      I was swapping an intel 386 for an amd chip of the same generation.
      I never really took into consideration that the notch has a reason for being there and after the chip was installed I powered on the system.

      No POST but then I spotted the cpu had a light spot on it...infact, it almost looked glowing.

      Wait a sec...THE CPU WAS BURNING UP!!!

      I immediately killed the power but it was too late. I now have a chip that shows my first attempt at a cpu upgrade. It no longer works but there is a small white dot on the topside of the chip where the temperateure rose very fast due to three volts blasting through the wrong pin on the cpu.

      Out of all this, the motherboard survived but lives with a small butn mark on the ZIF socket. A battle scar as I would call it
      Find Nedry!


      Check the Vending machines!!

      <----Computer says I need more beer.

      Comment


        #43
        Re: Computer stupidities

        I never understood why PC case manufacturers makes those terrible grills for fans. There is sometimes actually more plate than holes. Yes, it's for security on side or on the backward side of case...but intake fans under HDD positions? There is plastic cover over the whole forward side!

        Another terrible thing is schools, state institutions etc. computer buying. They either buy quaility, but still pricey PC's (HP and so) or total crap with terrible PSU's and cheapo displays. Than they of course do terrible interferences into the grid and kill themselves.

        Two years ago, they even had to buy air conditioning in my school! I am 100% sure if we had better PSU's which do not waste 50% of power into heat, we won't need them or at least just one conditioner instead of two per room. Now the electricity is burned by the PSU's and displays and than burned again to transfer the heat outside of house...
        Less jewellery, more gold into electrotech industry! Half of the computer problems is caused by bad contacts

        Exclusive caps, meters and more!
        Hardware Insights - power supply reviews and more!

        Comment


          #44
          Re: Computer stupidities

          Worst thing I've done is cut the wires with side cutters when trying to cut the zip ties to replace a PSU
          I love putting bad caps and flat batteries in fire and watching them explode!!

          No wonder it doesn't work! You installed the jumper wires backwards

          Main PC: Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz, Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H-MVP, 8GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600, 240GB Intel 335 Series SSD, 750GB WD HDD, Sony Optiarc DVD RW, Palit nVidia GTX660 Ti, CoolerMaster N200 Case, Delta DPS-600MB 600W PSU, Hauppauge TV Tuner, Windows 7 Home Premium

          Office PC: HP ProLiant ML150 G3, 2x Xeon E5335 2GHz, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 120GB Intel 530 SSD, 2x 250GB HDD, 2x 450GB 15K SAS HDD in RAID 1, 1x 2TB HDD, nVidia 8400GS, Delta DPS-650BB 650W PSU, Windows 7 Pro

          Comment


            #45
            Re: Computer stupidities

            Oh, old thread, but some good anecdotes in here...

            Hmm, I burned up a brand new 1.33 Athlon Thunderbird (very expensive at the time) by powering it on with no heatsink... Before motherboards had much in the way of thermal protection.

            Also, back in the AT days, power supply connectors weren't keyed, so it was possible to plug them into the motherboard backwards. Well, I did that accidentally. I powered it up, and POP! it launched a capacitor across the room. (At the time, I was pretty new to computer repair, didn't really even know what a capacitor was...)

            Moral of the story? Always do a once-over before hitting that power button.

            And for a funny not hardware related one, I accidentally printed an email to my company's plotter the day after I was hired... I quickly disposed of my 5 foot wide email before anybody noticed. Little did I know that they log print events and got questioned about it the next day anyway.
            Last edited by yyonline; 04-26-2010, 11:37 PM.

            Comment


              #46
              Re: Computer stupidities

              Hmm. Come to think of it, I've done more than that. Once I put the AT connectors backwards on an old board, but the PSU cut out before any damage was done, thankfully

              Another time, I had an old PSU I wanted to test. I decided to test that it would even power on first by shorting the green and black wires. I plugged it in and BANG. it blew up. I yanked the plug from the back of it and noticed that the voltage switch was set to 110v, and I had given it 240v!
              I love putting bad caps and flat batteries in fire and watching them explode!!

              No wonder it doesn't work! You installed the jumper wires backwards

              Main PC: Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz, Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H-MVP, 8GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600, 240GB Intel 335 Series SSD, 750GB WD HDD, Sony Optiarc DVD RW, Palit nVidia GTX660 Ti, CoolerMaster N200 Case, Delta DPS-600MB 600W PSU, Hauppauge TV Tuner, Windows 7 Home Premium

              Office PC: HP ProLiant ML150 G3, 2x Xeon E5335 2GHz, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 120GB Intel 530 SSD, 2x 250GB HDD, 2x 450GB 15K SAS HDD in RAID 1, 1x 2TB HDD, nVidia 8400GS, Delta DPS-650BB 650W PSU, Windows 7 Pro

              Comment


                #47
                Re: Computer stupidities

                I don't make mistakes. - YEAH, RIGHT!!!
                Mann-Made Global Warming.
                - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.

                -
                Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

                - Dr Seuss
                -
                You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
                -

                Comment


                  #48
                  Re: Computer stupidities

                  I use a progie called DVDFab 6. The last time I used it it told me my DMA channels were not activated. I checked and on the Primary IDE the Hard drive was using DMA. On the secondary IDE the setting for my DVD drives was locked down to PIO mode. Try as I might in windows I couldn't change this setting. After two days of trying to change this setting I went back to the progie that told me that it wasn't set right in the first place. Right on the "General Tab" there is a "Reset DMA" button.... I clicked that buttom and with no drama at all the program reset my secondary IDE to DMA mode.
                  "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                  Mark Twain

                  "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                  John Paul Jones

                  There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                  Rod Serling

                  Comment


                    #49
                    Re: Computer stupidities

                    Last winter me and a couple guys were in my basement working on our senior design project, which involved building a set of electrostatic loudspeakers. A little background: electrostatic loudspeakers require a step up transformer to be hooked up between the stereo amplifier and the speaker itself to boost the 10-20VAC audio signal up to the 500-1000VAC range. We were conducting some frequency response testing, using my laptop as the audio source. As a precaution, we were taking advantage of the SPDIF audio output on it to decouple it from any high voltages. I eventually sat the laptop down wrong, snapping the 3mm-Toslink adaptor in half, which left me no choice but to use a good old analog connection between the laptop and reciever.

                    Because we were troubleshooting some hardware issues, we weren't terminating the tranformer connection properly; I believe we were just twisting and taping the ends. For one reason or another, the tranformer got moved, one of the high voltage connections touched the case of the amp, and sent what we estimated to be ~6-700VAC through the ground circuit of the amp and (via the RCA interconnects) the soundcard of my laptop. The soundcard produced a god aweful screech, but by some stroke of luck the laptop continued to function normally, with the exception of the sound card. There is some damage to the motherboard, as I've replaced the soundcard, yet it still doesn't function. Regardless, I'm pretty lucky that it still works at all.
                    Antec Mini P180
                    Corsair 650TX psu
                    Core i5-750 (stock speed)
                    2x 4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1600
                    Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2
                    ATI FireGL V3600
                    (1) 36gb WD Raptor
                    (2) 1TB WD Caviar Black (Raid 1)

                    Comment


                      #50
                      Re: Computer stupidities

                      Originally posted by pentium
                      I was swapping an intel 386 for an amd chip of the same generation.
                      I never really took into consideration that the notch has a reason for being there and after the chip was installed I powered on the system.

                      No POST but then I spotted the cpu had a light spot on it...infact, it almost looked glowing.

                      Wait a sec...THE CPU WAS BURNING UP!!!
                      Haha I completely forgot about that in the olden days they didn't key the CPU pins. You had to line up the arrow or flat edge to the one on the socket.

                      I haven't touched a computer that ancient since the early 90s.

                      On later generation pin CPUs they removed some pins from one or two of the CPUs corners making a flat edge of pins so it could only be inserted one way.

                      I had some customers who didn't let that stop them and they bent some pins before giving up. In any case it prevented you from making your own silicon space heater .
                      Last edited by Krankshaft; 04-27-2010, 08:16 AM.
                      Elements of the past and the future combining to make something not quite as good as either.

                      Comment


                        #51
                        Re: Computer stupidities

                        After a long day working on several computers at a local shop (no longer around), I had a system up, and it was locking up at post. They had some proprietary ISA card in it. I was thinking, I need to pull this out to see if that was causing the lockup.... Well, being tired, I yanked out the ISA card.... before I powered off the system.

                        Needless to say, the IDE card didn't make it.... But, the system worked after that! LOL

                        Comment


                          #52
                          Re: Computer stupidities

                          A couple years ago I put a Linux computer together for me to play with. I was letting a couple friends use it as a shell as well. Well, I didnt have a case so I built it on top of a motherboard box on my desk. Not too long after I built it I dropped a fan on the hard drive. It was dead within hours.
                          I still get bugged about that one. I did rebuild it in a case the second time around though.

                          Comment


                            #53
                            Re: Computer stupidities

                            LOL Behemot. I think these pics will explain the reasoning in the more metal than holes theory in building pc cases. I have never had one of these find its way into my PC but I did have some mice ruin one.
                            Attached Files
                            "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                            Mark Twain

                            "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                            John Paul Jones

                            There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                            Rod Serling

                            Comment


                              #54
                              Re: Computer stupidities

                              Probably my most memorable screw-up was dropping a screw into a PII machine (several years ago) while it was open and running. That put an end to that motherboard very quickly. Gave me a good excuse to upgrade to a PIII though!

                              Another good one is when I let another technician I used to work with (and am still friends with to this day) use a 550w server-class PSU of mine to test his motherboard. At this time, 550w was pretty much unheard of at the consumer level and everything was still using 20 pin molex, the 4 pin aux header for P4 CPUs had just come out. Well I was standing there helping a customer and I was watching him out of the corner of my eye; he kept forgetting to plug in the 4 pin aux, then plugging it in while the motherboard was running, unplugging it while the motherboard was running. I asked him to be careful with my PSU and he brushed me off, sure enough the next moment he did it again and the PSU released the magic smoke.

                              And one more that's not so computer related: A few years back my family chipped in to get my dad a Samsung DLP and surround sound to replace his VERY old Mitsubishi CRT projection set. Knowing full well he would not be happy dealing with a whole gaggle of remotes for the TV, audio receiver, cable box, etc I got him a Harmony remote (great little device!) Well I was visiting a couple weeks ago and he said the guide button was working intermittently, so I promptly tore open the remote expecting the contact to be worn. After cleaning it up and reassembling, it was still doing the same thing. Only then did it occur to me to try the original cable box remote only to have the same result. Turned out to be buggy firmware in the box.

                              Comment


                                #55
                                Re: Computer stupidities

                                Originally posted by Junk Parts
                                LOL Behemot. I think these pics will explain the reasoning in the more metal than holes theory in building pc cases. I have never had one of these find its way into my PC but I did have some mice ruin one.
                                Nice But you really rarely meet a snake in Central Europe...
                                Last edited by Behemot; 05-03-2010, 08:29 AM.
                                Less jewellery, more gold into electrotech industry! Half of the computer problems is caused by bad contacts

                                Exclusive caps, meters and more!
                                Hardware Insights - power supply reviews and more!

                                Comment


                                  #56
                                  Re: Computer stupidities

                                  Had a dead garter snake which was electrocuted under the deflection board of ITC222 chassis where flyback transformer pins are. Stink pervaded the shop. Ewww.

                                  Simply removed the dead carcass and repaired the solder joints and TV is fine.

                                  Cheers, Wizard

                                  Comment


                                    #57
                                    Re: Computer stupidities

                                    I live near a swamp and a river. There are all the snakes you could ever want crawling around my place. Got a black snake that I keep as a pet. I found him in the back yard last summer.
                                    "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                                    Mark Twain

                                    "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                                    John Paul Jones

                                    There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                                    Rod Serling

                                    Comment


                                      #58
                                      Re: Computer stupidities

                                      Originally posted by Junk Parts
                                      I live near a swamp and a river. There are all the snakes you could ever want crawling around my place. Got a black snake that I keep as a pet. I found him in the back yard last summer.
                                      Yeah, big snake is good guardian-it'll eat all the small animals preventing them from getting into your electronics

                                      Like this one
                                      Less jewellery, more gold into electrotech industry! Half of the computer problems is caused by bad contacts

                                      Exclusive caps, meters and more!
                                      Hardware Insights - power supply reviews and more!

                                      Comment


                                        #59
                                        Re: Computer stupidities

                                        Not quit on topic but....

                                        I had someone ask me how to clean mouse pee off cases once.

                                        .
                                        Mann-Made Global Warming.
                                        - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.

                                        -
                                        Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

                                        - Dr Seuss
                                        -
                                        You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
                                        -

                                        Comment


                                          #60
                                          Re: Computer stupidities

                                          Originally posted by Junk Parts
                                          LOL Behemot. I think these pics will explain the reasoning in the more metal than holes theory in building pc cases. I have never had one of these find its way into my PC but I did have some mice ruin one.
                                          Looks like a Red-Bellied Black snake. Very common around where I live
                                          I love putting bad caps and flat batteries in fire and watching them explode!!

                                          No wonder it doesn't work! You installed the jumper wires backwards

                                          Main PC: Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz, Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H-MVP, 8GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600, 240GB Intel 335 Series SSD, 750GB WD HDD, Sony Optiarc DVD RW, Palit nVidia GTX660 Ti, CoolerMaster N200 Case, Delta DPS-600MB 600W PSU, Hauppauge TV Tuner, Windows 7 Home Premium

                                          Office PC: HP ProLiant ML150 G3, 2x Xeon E5335 2GHz, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 120GB Intel 530 SSD, 2x 250GB HDD, 2x 450GB 15K SAS HDD in RAID 1, 1x 2TB HDD, nVidia 8400GS, Delta DPS-650BB 650W PSU, Windows 7 Pro

                                          Comment

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