Worst PC Build Screw Ups

[uber_g]

im all for JDM

 

[Mugz]

To get back onto the original topic... again...

We have a client who should himself be posted on this thread. He reformats and reinstalls XP to - I still can't get over this - change his home page from MSN to google!

Not only that, goes through the whole process about three or four times before finally bringing the PC to the shop.

 

[Dade_0182]

The scary thing is I know people who can top or at least equal that.

This one guy steven (has reaction time of a snail), tried to show me pictures but he double clicks so slow (like a sec and a half between clicks) that it wouldn't open the pic. He thought his son broke his mouse and bought a new one the next day, just to find that it works the same. I laughed my ass off looking at his disappointed face.

 

[Mugz]

Up until this point I've been trying to convince myself jeff's a special case. Looks like he isn't. (sigh). Oh, well, let's start up a genetics program.

 

[Dade_0182]

Back in the days before maxtor upped the quality and reliability of their drives (about 6 years ago) my dad got a pc with 2 of them in. 40GB was huge back then so he was all proud coz he got them for cheap (you get what you pay for is what I always say).

He used it to convert some of his LP's to CD's so he connected the stereo to the pc quite often. When he was gone I threw a house party and we connected the stereo to the pc and had a blast the whole weekend.

I forgot to unplug the stereo before he got back and when he turned on the pc, his one drive's boot sector was missing (don't know how coz I was still playing games about 30 minutes before he got there.

He still blames me connecting the stereo to the pc for his date being lost. He had about 6 maxtor's in total (he RMA'd the thing coz he didn't believe that I could fix it, only create a new partition but ok) before listening to me and buying a WD. It's my external now and still works fine.

Maxtor does make fine drives now, my mom has a couple.

 

[Mugz]

One occasion I had to go out to a client in tygervallei - their new server's HDDs had crashed.

I get there. This ain't no server, this is a dead normal P3 tualatin running 4x20GB maxtors, and another 4 on a card.

After having to explain a few facts of life to their netadmin (this is after finding out which college he studied at - CTI, go figure) they developed a nice little poweredge (with six SCSI barracudas) to replace of that beige hunk of crap.

Seriously - the ONLY decent component in that server wannabe was the CPU.

 

[Dade_0182]

I have to agree with the whole CTI thing. I studied at The Belgium Campus. Loved it there. Made my prior knowledge of pc's seem primitive as hell.

 

[dasickninja]

server screw ups. Human and part error with massively expensive hardware.

 

[cozwin]

well i had a "accident" not quite pcs but meh still works i had my ps2 in peices and was trying to fix something i then decided to touch something while still plugged in wow i flew accross room and then went walked for about 10 mins with my arms shaking 😛 didnt stop me having a second attempt later on and actually fixing it this time lol, you live and learn.

 

[dasickninja]

I wondering if any of the various electrical shocks that I've received in my time working on computers won't manifest themselves later in life as serious health problems... :?

 

[n0odle]

nah dont worry im a journeyman electrican...electric shocks either kills you or burns you......or just give u a really bad hair day

 

[CrAy-Z]

A good jolt from time to time keeps life interesting. Im a sparky too and have copped my fair share... never from a PC though... must try harder!

 

[Dade_0182]

Just wait untill your uncle uses you for testing his new electric fence. Pushed us right into it. We got $100 for it though. Lotsa volts, little amps.

 

[dasickninja]

Simply... whoa.

 

[Dade_0182]

Pretty good sting. You should see him and the dogs (at least he set it low but still not cool) he stands on the other side and calls them. After the first time they walk like 2 meters away from it minimum when following you on the other side walking against the fence.

 

[Mugz]

electricity is fun. dangerous, but fun.

My favourite is HT voltages...

 

[n0odle]

Just wait untill your uncle uses you for testing his new electric fence. Pushed us right into it. We got $100 for it though. Lotsa volts, little amps.

i'd sue your uncle and if ur under 18 i consider that child abuse LOL

 

[Dade_0182]

We actually volunteered to do it for cash before hand but he caught us off guard. Don't be so stiff, we like the whole prank thing on the farm. (from rubber snakes to switching vitamins with sleeping tablets, you should see him hold on to the horse, and all kindsa stuff)

 

[n0odle]

well now that i think of it i dont mind testing a electric fence for 100 bucks i need a new CPU cooler =o

 

[Orac]

To get back onto the original topic... again...
He reformats and reinstalls XP to - I still can't get over this - change his home page from MSN to google!
Not only that, goes through the whole process about three or four times before finally bringing the PC to the shop.

My friends Dell pc got a browser hijack this weekend. (5 family members use it). Now say's he has to get a new one. "Huh?" I say. :? He said that's what he did last time (2001) when his win98 90mhz got one. He never told me back then. I thought he was replacing the p.o.s. 90mhz machine.

I think I'll tell him Dell PC's get way more viruses than other brands and he should by a new HP, Compaq or Acer. :twisted:

 

[Dade_0182]

Thats just freaking evil :twisted:

 

[Sworkhard]

The scariest thing i've ever done with a comp was the second computer i ever built from new parts. (Athlon 800 tbird, 512 pc 133, etc) I had assembled the computer, set it up, tweaked it, and generally had it running fine. The only thing was it seemed to be running hot. I looked through some forums and figured that maybe i had too much thermal paste on it. without thinking, I took the heatsink off while the computer was still running. In about 3 seconds the onboard speaker started screaming at me and i realized the computer was still running. It probably ran for about 10 seconds without a heatsink before i could get the thing unplugged. I am still amazed that the system worked with no problems after I remounted the HSF.

I did fry my Radeon 8500LE when I was mounting a large aluminum cpu heatsink onto it. I was figuring out how it would fit best, when i accidentally scraped the pcb with the corner of the heatsink. That was the end of that card. I ran an old TNT Vanta LT for several months before i could afford another card.

I also fried a complete system (not my own 🙁 ) via static electricity (everything was fried, cpu, vidcard, etc) when i was assembling the comp on carpet. That was within a 2 weeks of when i almost fried the Athlon 800 above.

I've also seen smoke come out of several cheap power supplies.

 

[Mugz]

Today's meditation is now in session. Your mantra is "ESD is bad."

 

[mkaibear]

>Athlon 800 tbird
>removed heatsink
>ran for 10s
>system worked

You lucky, lucky man!!!

 

[Ponk]

Kinda done something stupid yesterday...Honest didn't mean to and was an accident. Was looking at a projector (a very heavy, expensive projector) and for some reason it had a metal connector attached to the mainboard (it went - screw thing, connector then screw) unfortunately I kinda put the metal connector on the mainboard...Oops! One very large bang and fire later and I kinda thought I broke it...And I did. Need to order new mainboard