Discussion The worst PC building mistakes you have ever seen ?

[Order 66]

what are some of the worst PC building mistakes you have ever seen?

 

[punkncat]

Talking specifically about myself, it generally involves the I/O backplate. I have forgotten to put them in. Worse than that is getting the system together, up and running, and then realizing one of those tension spring parts went inside a USB port.

I enjoy many of the better quality modern boards having the integrated backplate.

 

[Order 66]

Talking specifically about myself, it generally involves the I/O backplate. I have forgotten to put them in. Worse than that is getting the system together, up and running, and then realizing one of those tension spring parts went inside a USB port.

I enjoy many of the better quality modern boards having the integrated backplate.

I am assuming it ruined the USB port then? I am also assuming it would be very hard to get the tension spring out of the port.

 

[punkncat]

I am assuming it ruined the USB port then? I am also assuming it would be very hard to get the tension spring out of the port.

I lucked out both times this has happened to me. All it did was block the port. The bad aspect is having to take the build down, motherboard out, to fix it.

 

[Order 66]

I lucked out both times this has happened to me. All it did was block the port. The bad aspect is having to take the build down, motherboard out, to fix it.

I have to admit, I am not comfortable building a PC myself mainly because (I know it is silly) I would hate to spend $1000+ on a PC and then mess up building it (I know I could buy cheap parts and build with them but then I have a random, not great PC that will never be used.) but I know this forum exists for pretty much this reason.

 

[Zerk2012]

Buying a Asus motherboard for my own build.
1st one DOA simple RMA.
Board went out a few months later had to go through Asus warranty.
Sent the board in 2 times just to receive the same board back both times with nothing fixed.
Said fit and bought a MSI board.

 

[Crazyy8]

Tightened the screws on my CPU cooler a little too tight, now my PC has a 50-50 chance to either boot or ERROR CODE FF no boot. I'm to lazy to open it up and unscrew it a bit. Doesn't help that the cooler is only held on by 3 of the 4 screws, the 4th screw I lost the nut for.

 

[Corwin65]

Fixed 5 new PC's that were built without using standoffs. Company that built them did not get RMA approval when they all failed and fried the motherboards and tried to charge customer. That's when I got called in to fix.

 

[stonecarver]

I did this myself. Had fought with the wife almost 48hr strait. by than screw it she won't shut up so I had a couple of beers. My son came to me and said his Pc was acting up and could I help him. I shut down His Pc and go to pull his GPU and in that slow motion feeling realize his Pc was still running. Killed his GPU. Walked to my PC pulled at the time my new 7800GT fixed him up and I did without for a while. My kids come first.

 

[beyondlogic]

what are some of the worst PC building mistakes you have ever seen?

prebuilts with motherboard screws half hanging out. bent motherboards like pretzel because they brute forced amd retention bracket without tieing the motherboard to the case with screws first.
which would either cause the ram to no longer function. damaged pcb near the 24 pin due to bending the board when installing 24 pin.

 

[Order 66]

Not necessarily a building mistake, but I hate it when I see prebuilts with only one stick of RAM.

 

[Fantastical]

in very very past i had some mobo with ddr1 and ddr2 ram slots and i did fill all slots with 6gb or something i dont remember well, and when i start pc i had only 1gb ram and i was so so disappointed
after that i learn that ddr1 and ddr2 aren't meant to be used together if they are present in the mobo

 

[Fantastical]

one more "funny" thing (not an actually building mistake but still...) happened when i was working in pc store ( in around 2010y) and i had to assembly pc, i did all very well but for some reason pc didn't start... i replaced cpu and again nothing...i replaced mobo and again nothing i took new cpu and new mobo and they work fine...i took this cpu and put in first mobo and not start...i took that cpu and put in new mobo and again no start..i took another cpu then another mobo and in that routine i burnt around 10mobo and cpu...
even today noone knows what was the reason