Post Your Biggest Graphics Card Mistakes

[jpishgar]

Never air dust your computer while it is running. Seems like an obvious thing, sure. But being tied to your computer, reliant on that connection, it can be tough to bring yourself to turn it off for something as simple as regular maintenance. Thinking, well, I'd like to keep Netflix up and running while I perform this dumb chore, it might not dawn on you to turn the thing off. Lesson learned the hard way.

Those little red pipe sticks you plug into the end of the canned air? Sometimes they shoot off of the nozzle at high velocity. Sometimes they shoot into the spinning fans of your running graphics card, if you happen to try dusting while your machine is on. Sometimes you panic after realizing you've harpooned your very expensive graphics card. Sometimes.

Now that you have my embarrassing confession, let's hear yours.

We want to know what your biggest mistake building PCs has been as it relates to Graphics Cards. What mishaps have you had that make you look back and go "Oh man, what the heck was I thinking?".

Consider this a no judgement zone - and a fun means of tech-related therapy.

Include images, if you've got 'em. If we get some good horror stories, we might even turn this into an editorial feature and showcase our communal misery.

-JP

p.s. Check out the other threads, too.
• Post Your Biggest CPUs Mistakes
• Post Your Biggest Graphics Card Mistakes
• Post Your Biggest Motherboard Mistakes
• Post your Biggest Storage Mistakes
• Post your Biggest Cooling, Cases, & PSUs Mistakes

 

[mrdzin]

Well, this story is not about Graphic card, but it's still funny. A friend of mine, while run test his computer, wanted to have a look at one of the RAMs, so he just casually pulled one RAM out while the PC is still running. And the result is he fryed his whole computer ) Well, not everything is dead, but the mobo and the RAMs for sure LOL.

 

[jpishgar]

Wow. Pulling the RAM out while it's running? Yikes.
Good rule of thumb: TURN EVERYTHING OFF.

 

[17seconds]

GTX 480 with reference cooling.

 

[jimmypokemon]

I uh, was like 10. Was really interested in computers. bought a 900 dollar gpu only to when i got it home, to it not being able to fit. I couldn't even return it. I have put it in another desktop so yeah. )=

 

[Ambular]

Hm. Not exactly a graphics card mistake per se, but close...many many years ago when I bought my very first shiny new VGA monitor, I couldn't figure out why it seemed to be stuck in EGA mode, and called a techie friend who lived over an hour away to drive out and help me troubleshoot it. It took him about five minutes to find the little slide switch on the back of the monitor marked EGA/VGA and set it correctly.

ETA: Wow, now that I stop to think about it, it might actually have been an EGA monitor with a CGA/EGA switch. Good Lord, I'm old.

 

[Ryan_78]

I uh, was like 10. Was really interested in computers. bought a 900 dollar gpu only to when i got it home, to it not being able to fit. I couldn't even return it. I have put it in another desktop so yeah. )=

dang that's expensive.
well this was like some time ago. when I tried to fit an AGP card in a PCI slot. thankfully didn't damage it. also I almost broke a fan header for the GPU when I realized there was a latch for it. also forgot to plug the video card in once, like forgot the power connection. I was taking it out for cleaning and then I put my side panel on w/o my gpu.

 

[kikogeorge123]

putting a gpu in pci slot not express 2.0 i wanted sli with 9600gt and 8600gt

 

[Epicness937]

a friend of mine when i was dusting my pc i left to get more compressed air and i came back to see he had put a bunch of MAGNETS for "decoration" INSIDE my case

 

[SlightlyEdible]

Never air dust your computer while it is running. Seems like an obvious thing, sure. But being tied to your computer, reliant on that connection, it can be tough to bring yourself to turn it off for something as simple as regular maintenance. Thinking, well, I'd like to keep Netflix up and running while I perform this dumb chore, it might not dawn on you to turn the thing off. Lesson learned the hard way.

Those little red pipe sticks you plug into the end of the canned air? Sometimes they shoot off of the nozzle at high velocity. Sometimes they shoot into the spinning fans of your running graphics card, if you happen to try dusting while your machine is on. Sometimes you panic after realizing you've harpooned your very expensive graphics card. Sometimes.

Now that you have my embarrassing confession, let's hear yours.

We want to know what your biggest mistake building PCs has been as it relates to Graphics Cards. What mishaps have you had that make you look back and go "Oh man, what the heck was I thinking?".

Consider this a no judgement zone - and a fun means of tech-related therapy.

Include images, if you've got 'em. If we get some good horror stories, we might even turn this into an editorial feature and showcase our communal misery.

-JP

p.s. Check out the other threads, too.
• Post Your Biggest CPUs Mistakes
• Post Your Biggest Graphics Card Mistakes
• Post Your Biggest Motherboard Mistakes
• Post your Biggest Storage Mistakes
• Post your Biggest Cooling, Cases, & PSUs Mistakes

Not realizing what messing with voltage and power limit does to temps, combined with using MSI Afterburner to max out fan speed at 40% because one doesn't like the noise.
May have caused a slight temp issue

 

[Ryan_78]

Never air dust your computer while it is running. Seems like an obvious thing, sure. But being tied to your computer, reliant on that connection, it can be tough to bring yourself to turn it off for something as simple as regular maintenance. Thinking, well, I'd like to keep Netflix up and running while I perform this dumb chore, it might not dawn on you to turn the thing off. Lesson learned the hard way.

Those little red pipe sticks you plug into the end of the canned air? Sometimes they shoot off of the nozzle at high velocity. Sometimes they shoot into the spinning fans of your running graphics card, if you happen to try dusting while your machine is on. Sometimes you panic after realizing you've harpooned your very expensive graphics card. Sometimes.

Now that you have my embarrassing confession, let's hear yours.

We want to know what your biggest mistake building PCs has been as it relates to Graphics Cards. What mishaps have you had that make you look back and go "Oh man, what the heck was I thinking?".

Consider this a no judgement zone - and a fun means of tech-related therapy.

Include images, if you've got 'em. If we get some good horror stories, we might even turn this into an editorial feature and showcase our communal misery.

-JP

p.s. Check out the other threads, too.
• Post Your Biggest CPUs Mistakes
• Post Your Biggest Graphics Card Mistakes
• Post Your Biggest Motherboard Mistakes
• Post your Biggest Storage Mistakes
• Post your Biggest Cooling, Cases, & PSUs Mistakes

Not realizing what messing with voltage and power limit does to temps, combined with using MSI Afterburner to max out fan speed at 40% because one doesn't like the noise.
May have caused a slight temp issue

dang hows it doing now

 

[SlightlyEdible]

Never air dust your computer while it is running. Seems like an obvious thing, sure. But being tied to your computer, reliant on that connection, it can be tough to bring yourself to turn it off for something as simple as regular maintenance. Thinking, well, I'd like to keep Netflix up and running while I perform this dumb chore, it might not dawn on you to turn the thing off. Lesson learned the hard way.

Those little red pipe sticks you plug into the end of the canned air? Sometimes they shoot off of the nozzle at high velocity. Sometimes they shoot into the spinning fans of your running graphics card, if you happen to try dusting while your machine is on. Sometimes you panic after realizing you've harpooned your very expensive graphics card. Sometimes.

Now that you have my embarrassing confession, let's hear yours.

We want to know what your biggest mistake building PCs has been as it relates to Graphics Cards. What mishaps have you had that make you look back and go "Oh man, what the heck was I thinking?".

Consider this a no judgement zone - and a fun means of tech-related therapy.

Include images, if you've got 'em. If we get some good horror stories, we might even turn this into an editorial feature and showcase our communal misery.

-JP

p.s. Check out the other threads, too.
• Post Your Biggest CPUs Mistakes
• Post Your Biggest Graphics Card Mistakes
• Post Your Biggest Motherboard Mistakes
• Post your Biggest Storage Mistakes
• Post your Biggest Cooling, Cases, & PSUs Mistakes

Not realizing what messing with voltage and power limit does to temps, combined with using MSI Afterburner to max out fan speed at 40% because one doesn't like the noise.
May have caused a slight temp issue

dang hows it doing now

Surprisingly, my gpu didn't melt into a pile of plastic and silicon but my PC did crash. This was in my first build when I first tried over clocking

 

[stuartturner34]

I had an Acer Aspire AX1470d that wasn't running as well as I wanted to in games, so I decided to pick up a new low-profile GTX 750 from Galaxy to throw in there. I figured "It's a low-profile case, so a low-profile video card should work just fine!" When I actually tried to put the thing in, I realized I'd have to pull everything out of the case, put the 750 in, and then put everything back in the case at once- only to find out that the clearance on top of the case wouldn't fit the card. So, I called up my cousin and took a jig-saw to the top of the case so I could fit it.

TL;DR I sawed the top of my case out to fit a GTX 750.

 

[Alexk492]

When I tried to install my first GPU, I actually got it in correctly without breaking it, but i forgot to screw it in. I had to tug on the DVI input a little, to get it in, and it got very loosely seated. The GPU performed horribly, and I kept getting the display driver crashed and recovered a million times, until i RMA'd. Surprisingly, they gave me a refund. It took a good 3 weeks to get the refund, though.

I also bought the PC from superbiiz, and chose to get assembly service, since it's only $35, and I have no clue how to assemble a PC. The PC arrived, and I plugged the DVI into the MOTHERBOARD, and the graphics card. It took a good 2 hours to figure out that I plugged it in the wrong place -_-

 

[Derp88]

a friend of mine when i was dusting my pc i left to get more compressed air and i came back to see he had put a bunch of MAGNETS for "decoration" INSIDE my case

Did it damage your PC?

 

[alth0triplemadang]

My own biggest mistake of GPUs:

Flashing crappy BIOS update from TechPowerup website for my GAINWARD 9600GT.
After flashing the BIOS, now i get a beautiful pattern, lines, and dots with lots of colours! (maybe, i call this as art)
Well... I enjoyed for watching that "art" for 5+ hours while thinking how to fix this!

Thanks TechPowerup! you gave me an amazingly destructible "art" for my poor 9600GT!
cheers all i love you tech power UP

image coming soon!!!

 

[jeffler383]

Couple of foibles through the years...

I had a Gateway FX6800 tower that I replaced the HD4850 that came with it with a GTX 460, but because of the 56k modem card in the middle lane (????) it wouldn't fit in the top PCIE slot, so I installed it in the bottom one. It was literally sitting on the floor of the case, and without even thinking about it I fired it up and started borderlands to much improved performance. I was on the phone with one of my buddies telling him how much better this card was when my entire computer shut down. Upon opening the case I was treated to a furnace of hot air and deduced the card had overheated because it had literally no way to draw in air. Once I regained my sanity I quickly discarded the modem card, mounted the 460 in the top lane and fired it back up again. Luckily nothing was damaged and my brother still games on that computer to this day.

Same computer - I was attempting to install one of my all time favorite games, Baldur's Gate 2, off the original game CD's I had from back in 2000. I failed to notice that after 8 or 9 years there were several spider cracks on the clear plastic on the inner portion of one of the disks...well that thing spun up and I was greeted to the sound of a CD shattering inside the drive at several thousand rpm. the drive bay wouldn't open - when I took it out of the computer it sounded like a maraca, there must have been hundreds of CD shards inside it. I took it apart and somehow managed to remove enough of the debris to where it would work again, though I wasn't able to get all the pieces out. My roomate at the time got a good laugh out of that one.

 

[SmitiaS]

When I tried to cool passively gtx970. Used Arctic Accelero S3, then made "duck tape" quality connection between spare Titan TTC-NK95/HS heatsink and Arctic's cooper pipes to increase efficiency. And... no, that isn't a point, it worked!! But that frankenstein wouldn't fit in any case, moreover, it had temps around 80-85 Celsius while gaming even as open stand so after test I had to disassemble it. And when I was installing stock cooler I forgot to remove that tiny sticky stand-off rings... So much high-grade thermal compound was wasted before I realized what was a case...

 

[myitinos]

Ok, here is mine.

I was checking my Radeon Setting and I am curious what will happen if I turned my GPU Card Fan to 0% speed, and I did. It feels awesome and feels like my rig is those silent-type costly gaming rig even it isn't. After that I clicked the 'auto fan' button so that the software will manage the speed automatically and restarted the rig.

Next time I'm back, I'm trying to play skyrim, then I notice a lot of lag spike, and max frame is at 30. Stupid me I was wondering what's wrong, I turned up all my diagnostic software, and see my GPU is at whooping 100C, I screamed. Man, that was my entire month saving at 100C...

I checked the radeon setting and, you know what, maybe I didn't really tick that 'Auto Fan' button as it's fan IS turned off at 0% speed...

 

[jakebg19]

I built my first pc last month after years of wanting too.I went with a i5 6400,cheap msi mobo,8gb ddr4,and windfforce r9 380 4gb.I was so nervous putting everything together(even though I knew what I was doing) that I spent probably 5+hours building it and double and triple checking everything.It finally came time to boot it up annnnd no picture."wtf,omg I mustve forgot to ground myself and killed it oh god" ran through my head for HOURS until finally at 4am I gave my head a shake,got depressed and went to bed.After barely sleeping from thinking and stressing all night,I woke up at 7:30 with fresh eyes,had a coffee,breakfast,fed the kids and prepared to attempt to rma my busted mobo hoping they'll believe it arrived broken.Unhooked everything,and with a sigh of depression/anger opened the case to begin disassembling the pc..and guess what...I forgot to plug the gpu in

 

[Colonel Kernel]

I have like, absolutely no money, and I don't have a job. So one day a few moths back I got a Dell Optiplex 760 Mini-Tower and a GTX 750 TI from MSI. Turns out that the 750 TI is too big for that case. I resolved this by connecting it to the board via extension riser, and stuffed it in on it's side.

 

[DustinV]

Tried to run my old 750 ti ftw in my old Hp computer. Finally realized the psu didn't have a gpu connector so I obviously didn't have the gpu plugged in.

Also took me like 4 hours to install my Gtx 970 because I was scared of breaking $350 when I was 16 years old

 

[jeffler383]

On my new computer I was playing around with the fan settings in EVGA Precision X for my 980 with the ACX 2.0 fans, put it up to 100% to see what it sounded like and then set it back to 0%. Fired up Fallout 4, played for about 10 minutes then I hear a "WHOOSH" like a jet engine turning on. Freaking out I immediately close the game and looked at Precision X - and auto fan speed was de-selected. So what basically happened was it allowed the GPU to heat up to the preset limit of 85c and then whooshed the fans on to keep it from overheating. Luckily it did no damage - always remember to check your boxes mates!

 

[roberthop1980]

First fail. Just barely out of HS. Buddy wants to run new game on his laptop (Homeworld 2 I think.) When he goes to install keeps telling him his graphics aren't good enough. Still a newbie enough that I just tell him to upgrade his graphics card even though he can't because it's a laptop.

Comes back from Best Buy about an hour later with a box almost as big as his laptop. Quickly realize that you can't install new video card and return. Friend gave me hell for this for a while.

Second fail. Decide to play intensive games because my garage sale is boring.... inside the garage which is probably at 110 degrees or so. Fried the GPU.

Last one. Buy two shiny new overclocked GTX 760's to run in SLI. Run great for a while. Wanted to add another HDD but SATA ports are buried by the card. Take card out of PCIx slot and sit aside on chassis WITHOUT disconnecting power (I've since learned to not attempt any repairs when going on 30 hours without sleep.) After a few sparks I finally remember to unhook power. Fortunately no lasting damage to card or other components.

 

[Darksider13]

Dad got me a GeForce 8800 a little under a decade ago. He's installed cards numerous times, being 14 at the time I was trying to learn from him. Couldn't figure out how to get the bios to change display to the PCI slot. We got side-tracked about 2 hours into trying to install it and it gathered dust for about 5 years. I got my GTS 450 in 2010 or 2011 and just for giggles I decided to see if the same way I installed my 450 worked for my old 8800 GS.

At that moment I realized my dad dropped around $125 on a graphics card that never once was used in a little over 9 years. To this day it's sitting in my closet gathering even more dust. I'm sure one day it will be needed to save the day.