Computer mistakes you've made??

dalehitchy1 · 30 Sep 2011 at 01:18

Share you stupid mistakes

Bout 3 years back I was really annoyed with my stock fan I got with my CPU.... I cnt remember why.... Anyway my mate came round and I was wanted to show it him... So i began to pull it but was abit stiff... Pulled abit adder and it came off..... Then I remember looking down at my pc and thinking.... Where the hell is my CPU?? It was stuck to the bottom fan / heatsink and a few pins had bent.... It didn't work after that

Just realised earlier tonight that I've installed my psu with fan facing up.... Not hugely bad but hearing that it will last longer with poss lower temps inside comp.. Need to change it

Maxi011 · 30 Sep 2011 at 01:24

Put motherboard in the case and screwed it in before putting the IO shield onto the case.
Do this all the time

dalehitchy1 · 30 Sep 2011 at 01:29

Maxi011 said:
Put motherboard in the case and screwed it in before putting the IO shield onto the case.
Do this all the time

Also chucked my old case away with my io shield still on.... I remembered the day the bin had been collected

Buchanan0204 · 30 Sep 2011 at 01:56

Spent 3 hours trying to install an in built webcam on a laptop... Every driver I tried failed!

3 and a bit hours later, I realised it never had a webcam...

Admiral Huddy · 30 Sep 2011 at 08:23

Maxi011 said:
Put motherboard in the case and screwed it in before putting the IO shield onto the case.
Do this all the time

I still do this.. or the damn LAN lugs get caught on the outside.

That's about it really.. touch wood

oxygene · 30 Sep 2011 at 08:28

Back in my younger days I had a plugged in older pc (pre 1ghz) cant remember the exact model. But it was back when they were still routing a full mains voltage to the power button. I had it plugged in while removing some components and one of the wires touched the case. The house fuse blew, and part of the case melted. I still to this day thank (random deity) that I wasnt touching the case at the time!

mad_weegie · 30 Sep 2011 at 08:37

When i first got a pc, back in the 1996/7 i think , such of the days of low space on hdds, i thought it would be wise to delete this folder called DOS622 as i thought, wow thats taken up space i dont need that...... enough said

Skepticx · 30 Sep 2011 at 09:23

My gfx card fan was being very quiet so i thought i would put my hand near it to check if it was on, accidentaly hit the fan and two fins popped off.

Lemin · 30 Sep 2011 at 10:08

One build i dropped the stock cooler & broke the fan, luckily it wasnt needed. Then 10 mins later dropped the new 500G HDD & broke that & had to take one from my PC to finish build. Both times it was not taking care when removing from packaging.

Hagar · 30 Sep 2011 at 10:14

mad_weegie said:
When i first got a pc, back in the 1996/7 i think , such of the days of low space on hdds, i thought it would be wise to delete this folder called DOS622 as i thought, wow thats taken up space i dont need that...... enough said

But at least we got three floppy disks to reinstall it in those days. Most of my efforts on a PC in the early 90's was spent on juggling space on a 40 Mbyte hard disk and in 1Mbyte ram, I am sure I made many similar mistakes.

I booted up my upgraded 486 DX2 80 without a heatsink, luckily it did not really need one in the time before I shut it down. Before the days of ZIF sockets, you had to push like a ****** to get it in.

Leezy · 30 Sep 2011 at 10:16

Went to measure an old motherboard with a tape measure to see if it would fit in a new case i was looking at, however the motherboard was still in the PC... and the PC was on.

blew the whole thing, instead of buying a new case i had to buy a whole new setup! lol

Azarathal · 30 Sep 2011 at 10:20

You destroyed a pc with a tape measure? Impressive

Leezy · 30 Sep 2011 at 10:26

yeah as soon as the metal end piece got within about 10mm away was just a big spark and a frightening smell

Not my proudest of life acheivements to say the least..

Spikey Willow · 30 Sep 2011 at 10:30

Haven't done anything too bad, but the worst thing was probably when I was vacumming near my PC and the cleaner accidently sucked up my headphone wires which were still plugged in at the time. They snapped and broke, and there was an electrical burning smell

Brian8bit · 30 Sep 2011 at 10:34

I had a bad habit of not turning my computers off when I was fiddling about with the innards. Several times when I've been switching out graphics cards, I would lay the machines on their side, open up the side panel, remove the screw from the expansion part and then without thinking, reach in and grab the card to pull it out of the motherboard. You would think doing that once would be enough to teach you not to do it again. But I've done it far too many. Then you're left with that spaced out lightheadedness and your arm aching from the shoulder to your finger tips that you get after a good electric shock.

Stone22uk · 30 Sep 2011 at 10:40

I installed my Akasa Venom cooler with the plastic peel off cover still on the bottom.. doh! Lucky i noticed before i switched it on though

reflux · 30 Sep 2011 at 10:44

First build, crossthreaded a screw into a standoff and it took serious effort to get the motherboard out again.

Couple of years ago, was refilling my w/c loop and tugged a bit too hard on one of the CPU hoses... cue tons of fluid on my GTX280. Ripped it apart to dry it off and ended up putting some nice screwdriver marks on the PCB in the process. It didn't work very well after that....

ukgeezer1 · 30 Sep 2011 at 10:44

Was house sitting for a wealthy friend some years ago, and decided to have a LAN party. Watercooling was a new thing back then, unfortunately my friends yellow coloured water escaped from his system and all over their expensive rug. Was not invited to house sit again funnily enough!!!

Levirginien · 30 Sep 2011 at 19:28

To prevent his crawling baby from smatching his new laptop he had just taken out to check the specs, a colleague decided to put it away on top of the fridge...Due to vibration, the laptop ended up on his tiled floor...A total lifespan of roughly 2 hours...

ian54 · 30 Sep 2011 at 19:50

Advising someone who'd spilt coffee over their keyboard to rinse it under the tap and dry it out in the airing cupboard overnight, before they told me it was a laptop.