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skatingrox
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- Aug 10, 2006
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Why does everyone hate VIA? I've run a K8T800 system for 2 years. Never had one problem with it.
My biggest screwup....that would be working on an old P2 system while it was on. One of the power cables caught in the CPU fan. Cut the cable and broke off all but 1 of the fan blades. Biggest shower of sparks i've ever seen >.<
My biggest screwup....that would be working on an old P2 system while it was on. One of the power cables caught in the CPU fan. Cut the cable and broke off all but 1 of the fan blades. Biggest shower of sparks i've ever seen >.<
Vokofpolisiekar
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- Feb 5, 2006
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Ja nee, jy sal my nie glo hoeveel kak gee hulle my op SA forums nie... Vir een of ander rede dink hulle my nick is ongepas - ek meen, dis 'n band!!
Oh yeah! My 386 (minus the math coprocessor) system had a turbo button.. I think it switched between 20 and 40 Mhz.
The only time I remember using it was when I was playing a flight simulator game... I would hit the turbo button when I wanted to get from one side of the map to the other - just like hitting the afterburners!
chunkymonster
Splendid
- Jan 12, 2006
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One of my first builds, I was in a rush and forgot to put thermal paste before mounting the heatsink...it posted, booted, and ran just fine for about 10 minutes, but then I heard the inevitable 'POP' and caught a whiff of cooked silicon...ahh yes, that smell always reminds me of frying capacitors in electronics class...
Another time, back in the day, I was WAY into Starcraft and used to get all smoked up, meet some buds, and play for hours on end...this one time after hours of playing and getting my ass handed to me (my bud finally learned how to use the Zerg special abilities against the Protoss) I got pissed off and punched the CRT...HAHAHAHA...cracked the screen and watched smoke fizzle out the back...it was brilliant...and being all baked all I could do was laugh and grab the bong...
Another time, back in the day, I was WAY into Starcraft and used to get all smoked up, meet some buds, and play for hours on end...this one time after hours of playing and getting my ass handed to me (my bud finally learned how to use the Zerg special abilities against the Protoss) I got pissed off and punched the CRT...HAHAHAHA...cracked the screen and watched smoke fizzle out the back...it was brilliant...and being all baked all I could do was laugh and grab the bong...
- May 16, 2006
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Yee apparently never got the say no to drugs message in school huh, Chunky?
How'd you punch thru the thick glass of a CRT and not cut your hand off?
How'd you punch thru the thick glass of a CRT and not cut your hand off?
Flying-Q
Distinguished
- Feb 20, 2006
- 643
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This is not really a PC screw up but its a biggie.
Years ago I was 'watching' whilst a techie was commissioning the cabinets for a large Air Traffic search radar and their associated computer controllers in a military air station in the UK. It was a tense day as 'things were not behaving as they should' so we started opening cabinets and testing contacts and a whole heap of voltage readings.
Bear in mind that these cabinets work at some fearsomely high voltages, we never the less took appropriate precautions.
Comes the point. Techie X was seen flying backwards in a graceful arc to land in a snotty heap on the other side of the concrete block room, all the while there were a few 'Large Blue Sparks' coming from his body and a distinct burnt ozone/flesh/component smell. He was alive and very dazed when he came round in hospital later that day and has a livid scar running in and out of his skin from his right hand down to his foot. The screwdriver he was holding ended up embedded in the wall on the other side of the room where he THREW it.
On testing afterwards we discovered that the voltage between the 3 phases of the supply was absolutely spot on and the voltage to neutral was also good but the cabinet chassis was for some reason hovering around 115,000 volts to ground. Not good.
We traced all the phase lines back and all connections were good, as were all the neutral lines and so was the earth strapping. Puzzling.
Eventually we traced all lines back to the substation and transformer that had been installed specifically for this new equipment. Curiouser and curiouser - all was correct but still neutral was floating at 115,000 volts.
For simplicity you can think of neutral as just another earth but grounded at the transformer not at the building. All the neutral lines come back to a 'star point' and then connected via a metal webbing strap to a big stake in the ground. Someone had forgotten to link said 'star point' to said stake 10 inches away with said strap, so the whole system was floating at national grid voltages.
The computers controlling all this equipment never bliped even once and this particular search radar has been in use ever since.
Years ago I was 'watching' whilst a techie was commissioning the cabinets for a large Air Traffic search radar and their associated computer controllers in a military air station in the UK. It was a tense day as 'things were not behaving as they should' so we started opening cabinets and testing contacts and a whole heap of voltage readings.
Bear in mind that these cabinets work at some fearsomely high voltages, we never the less took appropriate precautions.
Comes the point. Techie X was seen flying backwards in a graceful arc to land in a snotty heap on the other side of the concrete block room, all the while there were a few 'Large Blue Sparks' coming from his body and a distinct burnt ozone/flesh/component smell. He was alive and very dazed when he came round in hospital later that day and has a livid scar running in and out of his skin from his right hand down to his foot. The screwdriver he was holding ended up embedded in the wall on the other side of the room where he THREW it.
On testing afterwards we discovered that the voltage between the 3 phases of the supply was absolutely spot on and the voltage to neutral was also good but the cabinet chassis was for some reason hovering around 115,000 volts to ground. Not good.
We traced all the phase lines back and all connections were good, as were all the neutral lines and so was the earth strapping. Puzzling.
Eventually we traced all lines back to the substation and transformer that had been installed specifically for this new equipment. Curiouser and curiouser - all was correct but still neutral was floating at 115,000 volts.
For simplicity you can think of neutral as just another earth but grounded at the transformer not at the building. All the neutral lines come back to a 'star point' and then connected via a metal webbing strap to a big stake in the ground. Someone had forgotten to link said 'star point' to said stake 10 inches away with said strap, so the whole system was floating at national grid voltages.
The computers controlling all this equipment never bliped even once and this particular search radar has been in use ever since.
Sleepy2
Distinguished
- Mar 3, 2006
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Good topic and reading, have to add my nightmare although so far it hasn't bitten me.
Salvaged most bits from a flaky S478 P4 2.0 where I replaced mobo, cpu, ram, psu and optical drive for my little sister. Had to remove the heatsink from the cpu to fit all into my luggage for the return flight. Planned it to be used as a router/ics/server box for my little workshop (stepping up from a P3 1.0).
Fitted the mobo w/- cpu into a spare case and decided I would remove the cpu to clean off the old heatsink paste rather than have solvents loose near the mobo and inside the confined space of the case.
Now we all know there are sounds you hear in life which are never forgotten, the classic is the sound of a car accident, screeching tyres and then the sound of seperate tons of metal bringing each other to a sudden halt, and then the silence.
I can add one to my list of instantly recognizable sounds - the sound of a dropped cpu. The agonised cry as it slips from fingers and the dull sound of small dense peice of silicon and metal hitting a rough concrete slab edge on, then the brief silence preceding the cursing.
One corner edge of the cpu looked like an old piece of cardboard - tatty looking - with no other "visible" damage. I finished cleaning of the old thermal material, placed it back into the motherboard, finished the build and turned it on.
IT POSTED!
I proceeded to load XP, drivers, etc.
Once loaded, I ran SiSandra burn in for several hours with no problems.
It has become a part of my network but is yet to be fully relied on in its intended role. I don't doubt that sort of treatment will end in tears, but I'll keep using it for now. I won't use it in a server role though, if it fails while performing routing/ics tasks there won't be too much loss, but if it takes out hdd's while in a server role that could be "interesting".
I was always carefull (anal) when handling cpu's, but familiarity breeds contempt! It won't happen again!
Salvaged most bits from a flaky S478 P4 2.0 where I replaced mobo, cpu, ram, psu and optical drive for my little sister. Had to remove the heatsink from the cpu to fit all into my luggage for the return flight. Planned it to be used as a router/ics/server box for my little workshop (stepping up from a P3 1.0).
Fitted the mobo w/- cpu into a spare case and decided I would remove the cpu to clean off the old heatsink paste rather than have solvents loose near the mobo and inside the confined space of the case.
Now we all know there are sounds you hear in life which are never forgotten, the classic is the sound of a car accident, screeching tyres and then the sound of seperate tons of metal bringing each other to a sudden halt, and then the silence.
I can add one to my list of instantly recognizable sounds - the sound of a dropped cpu. The agonised cry as it slips from fingers and the dull sound of small dense peice of silicon and metal hitting a rough concrete slab edge on, then the brief silence preceding the cursing.
One corner edge of the cpu looked like an old piece of cardboard - tatty looking - with no other "visible" damage. I finished cleaning of the old thermal material, placed it back into the motherboard, finished the build and turned it on.
IT POSTED!
I proceeded to load XP, drivers, etc.
Once loaded, I ran SiSandra burn in for several hours with no problems.
It has become a part of my network but is yet to be fully relied on in its intended role. I don't doubt that sort of treatment will end in tears, but I'll keep using it for now. I won't use it in a server role though, if it fails while performing routing/ics tasks there won't be too much loss, but if it takes out hdd's while in a server role that could be "interesting".
I was always carefull (anal) when handling cpu's, but familiarity breeds contempt! It won't happen again!
- May 16, 2006
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940Socket2me
Distinguished
- Mar 3, 2006
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Back in the AT motherboard days I reversed the power supply connectors so the blacks wires were on opposite ends. Fried board.
First server build. USA. Switched the power supply on 240 and fried a really expensive RAM SIMM.
First IBM Clone 486. Tried deleteing a directory with del *.* and wiped out my windows 3.1 drive.
When I bought an overdrive chip for my 486 SX 33, I opened the case and tried to pry out the soldered onboard CPU with a flat head screw driver. Then I paid $50 in labor to have a tech drop it in in 3 minutes. Then my 486XS behaved like a 486 DX 50 ... what happened to the 33% faster? Owned.
Paid $275 for 4MB of ram to play a game which needed 8MB of ram. After many attempts to install the 1x9s. I failed.
Opened up a running CPU case to check a wire... an inquisitive cat crawled between my legs to help. It got a whiff of the dust and sneazed. PC short circuited and died. The bad news. It was a client's PC and I was the PT MIS.
First server build. USA. Switched the power supply on 240 and fried a really expensive RAM SIMM.
First IBM Clone 486. Tried deleteing a directory with del *.* and wiped out my windows 3.1 drive.
When I bought an overdrive chip for my 486 SX 33, I opened the case and tried to pry out the soldered onboard CPU with a flat head screw driver. Then I paid $50 in labor to have a tech drop it in in 3 minutes. Then my 486XS behaved like a 486 DX 50 ... what happened to the 33% faster? Owned.
Paid $275 for 4MB of ram to play a game which needed 8MB of ram. After many attempts to install the 1x9s. I failed.
Opened up a running CPU case to check a wire... an inquisitive cat crawled between my legs to help. It got a whiff of the dust and sneazed. PC short circuited and died. The bad news. It was a client's PC and I was the PT MIS.
Back when, I was trying to impress the boss by promising to upgrade his computer by installing a new motherboard, cpu, and memory. He always purchased 'big name' computers due to reliability concerns. I assured him there would be no problems and the machine would be much faster at half the cost of purchasing a new one.
All went smoothly during the upgrade process execpt for an occasional interruption from my little kids. I delivered the computer to him at work satisfied all his data was safe and Windows worked as it did before.
Later that evening I received a phone call from my boss. He turned on his computer and all he got was a blank screen. I went through the normal troubleshooting tips (power switch turned on??) but to no avail. 'Bring it back' I said and would look at it. When I got the computer home, I hooked everything up and the computer worked fine! I called my boss and he was shocked. He asked me to bring it to his house and set it up. I agreed and when I got there the computer would not work. I was so embarrased and promised to track down the problem. But it was no use. The damage to my reputation was done. The next day, he ordered a new 'big name' computer.
I asked to keep the computer for testing and would retrieve his data for the new machine (trying to save face). After two days of troubleshooting I decided to give up hope and disassemble the machine to return defective parts. When I removed the motherboard from the case, I heard a metal clink sound. I looked down at the bottom of the case and there was a penny! How in the world....
During the upgrade process I was discussing with my wife how important it was for this to go smoothly. 'With luck' I said, 'This will get me the senior lead tech position'. It was during one of those little interruptions from my kids that my daughter decided to give me a penny 'for luck'. Concentrating on the task at hand, I asked her to set it on the table and I would get it later.
To this day, I don't know how it managed to get into the case. During transport, the penny was sliding underneath the motheroboard and only manage to cause problems when at my boss's house. I'm thankful all it did was short out signals and not hit a power trace. With the penny removed, the computer worked fined.
Unfortunately, the reputation damage was done despite my presentation of the working computer. I didn't get the promotion I wanted and eventually left for another company.
Such is life..... 😉
All went smoothly during the upgrade process execpt for an occasional interruption from my little kids. I delivered the computer to him at work satisfied all his data was safe and Windows worked as it did before.
Later that evening I received a phone call from my boss. He turned on his computer and all he got was a blank screen. I went through the normal troubleshooting tips (power switch turned on??) but to no avail. 'Bring it back' I said and would look at it. When I got the computer home, I hooked everything up and the computer worked fine! I called my boss and he was shocked. He asked me to bring it to his house and set it up. I agreed and when I got there the computer would not work. I was so embarrased and promised to track down the problem. But it was no use. The damage to my reputation was done. The next day, he ordered a new 'big name' computer.
I asked to keep the computer for testing and would retrieve his data for the new machine (trying to save face). After two days of troubleshooting I decided to give up hope and disassemble the machine to return defective parts. When I removed the motherboard from the case, I heard a metal clink sound. I looked down at the bottom of the case and there was a penny! How in the world....
During the upgrade process I was discussing with my wife how important it was for this to go smoothly. 'With luck' I said, 'This will get me the senior lead tech position'. It was during one of those little interruptions from my kids that my daughter decided to give me a penny 'for luck'. Concentrating on the task at hand, I asked her to set it on the table and I would get it later.
To this day, I don't know how it managed to get into the case. During transport, the penny was sliding underneath the motheroboard and only manage to cause problems when at my boss's house. I'm thankful all it did was short out signals and not hit a power trace. With the penny removed, the computer worked fined.
Unfortunately, the reputation damage was done despite my presentation of the working computer. I didn't get the promotion I wanted and eventually left for another company.
Such is life..... 😉
GreenJelly
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- Aug 24, 2006
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That is one of the things you can do with a Tesla Coil. You can see the Coil in the back ground, its the silver looking thing at the top of the pic, behind the electric show. Tesla was the genius behind so many things electronic, much more so then Edison, but he was a bit eccentric and not a showman likes Edison. Because of this he is not recognized like Edison is today. Tesla did so many things with electric… He is one of my personal heroes.
several years ago i decided to upgrade from my old HP with a P2 to one of my brothers computers that was a year or two newer. well the sound card on his PC didn't have an amplified output like the HP did, so my nonpowered speakers were very quiet.
So i decided i would put the sound card from the hp into his computer. i quickly noticed that the hp soundcard had a power connector coming from the PSU on it and the PSU in his computer didn't have this connector(it was small with 3 or 4 wires, blue yellow and black i think). so i asked him to see if he could get it to work somehow, well he thought one of the other PSU conectors would work, i think he tried the floppy power conector. He turned it on and there was smoke but no sound. (oh we didn't transfer PSU's because his case was small and the other one wouldn't fit)
So i decided i would put the sound card from the hp into his computer. i quickly noticed that the hp soundcard had a power connector coming from the PSU on it and the PSU in his computer didn't have this connector(it was small with 3 or 4 wires, blue yellow and black i think). so i asked him to see if he could get it to work somehow, well he thought one of the other PSU conectors would work, i think he tried the floppy power conector. He turned it on and there was smoke but no sound. (oh we didn't transfer PSU's because his case was small and the other one wouldn't fit)
- May 16, 2006
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plankmeister
Distinguished
- Sep 7, 2006
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On my first build I was using a quite marvellous sound card (old-skool types might remember this one!) called an Orchid Nu-Sound (or... as I liked to call it, Awkward No-Sound) which was a full length ISA expansion card! It was HUGE... like... GIGANTIC! It ended up giving me a whole bunch of problems... I ended up getting the motherboard swapped twice at the shop because I couldn't get my hard drive to be detected. Then I noticed there were two IDE channels built-in to the sound card... On closer investigation I found a jumper to disable these... Which I did... and suddenly my computer booted up! I never went to the shop to explain 😳
Not a screw-up, maybe... but the worst I've managed!
Not a screw-up, maybe... but the worst I've managed!
chunkymonster
Splendid
- Jan 12, 2006
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Didn't punch thru the crt, only hit it hard enough to crack the glass...hours in front of a makiwara ensured no injuries to my hand...
Fire_Zealot
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- Sep 22, 2006
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Man, the stories here are great... I'm a serrious n00b at this stuff though, so my story is pretty much crap to some of the good ones here.
I tried my first upgrade a week ago ( a GF 5200 to GF 6600GT). I opened up my case, plugged in my new card and tried to get it to start. No signal to the screen. After 15 minutes I notice I hadnt given it a direct power supply connection.( GF 5200 doesnt need one so I didnt think of that...). I then spend more time thinking what to unplug( as I had no extra cables) and I finaly unplug 1 of my 2 disc drives. Still doesnt work. When I take out my card, I notice it was damaged, one of the chips had lost a support. So here I was, the idiot who spent over half a day trying to get a BROKEN card to work. I havent done anything since( its been 1 week now). I'm looking around for a new GPU( anything will work, LOL) so I can break open my case and fiddle around some more... its not like anything in this ol' bucket o bolts is worth anything anyways.
If any one thinks I'm crazy, well you're right. I'm only 13...
I tried my first upgrade a week ago ( a GF 5200 to GF 6600GT). I opened up my case, plugged in my new card and tried to get it to start. No signal to the screen. After 15 minutes I notice I hadnt given it a direct power supply connection.( GF 5200 doesnt need one so I didnt think of that...). I then spend more time thinking what to unplug( as I had no extra cables) and I finaly unplug 1 of my 2 disc drives. Still doesnt work. When I take out my card, I notice it was damaged, one of the chips had lost a support. So here I was, the idiot who spent over half a day trying to get a BROKEN card to work. I havent done anything since( its been 1 week now). I'm looking around for a new GPU( anything will work, LOL) so I can break open my case and fiddle around some more... its not like anything in this ol' bucket o bolts is worth anything anyways.
If any one thinks I'm crazy, well you're right. I'm only 13...
Well,the biggest mistake i made was on my first upgrade. I had a P200 and was installing a new MB and a P233.
Somehow i managed to screw up the connections to the tower,and was rewarded with lots of sparks and magic smoke and the interesting smell of burnt electronics.Quite a learning experience.
After that i always doublecheck everything before i connect power.
Somehow i managed to screw up the connections to the tower,and was rewarded with lots of sparks and magic smoke and the interesting smell of burnt electronics.Quite a learning experience.
After that i always doublecheck everything before i connect power.
GreenJelly
Distinguished
- Aug 24, 2006
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Your VC is covered under warrenty...
Even if something fell off...
As long as it wasnt clearly caused by abuse... which from your story it doesnt sound like it was..
Even if something fell off...
As long as it wasnt clearly caused by abuse... which from your story it doesnt sound like it was..
GreenJelly
Distinguished
- Aug 24, 2006
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Well this was another screw up on my new build...
Ive been running a machine on this UPS for years... so I decide to run my new computer on it... and it works great...
Well all of a sudden I go into ATI-Tool and test for artifacts... I hear a beeping sound... I thought, ohh no whats wrong with my computers... I jump online and find a forum saying that others have experianced this, and that it was fixed by replacing their videocards, or Power Supply, etc...
The machine was running, and I wasnt positive the video card was bad... since the only time the warning came on was when 3-D apps where running...
Drove me NUTS!
Then I noticed that UPS was blinking a orange color... and that the sound was coming from that...
Well turns out that the ATI power would push the UPS over its limit... and it would warn you of impending doom!
BTW: Belkin UPS's are great... It was just too small (400-450w Powersupply, not 500+) But dont buy a UPS online... too expensive too RMA and ship... Also I did end up RMAing my ATI-Card.
Ive been running a machine on this UPS for years... so I decide to run my new computer on it... and it works great...
Well all of a sudden I go into ATI-Tool and test for artifacts... I hear a beeping sound... I thought, ohh no whats wrong with my computers... I jump online and find a forum saying that others have experianced this, and that it was fixed by replacing their videocards, or Power Supply, etc...
The machine was running, and I wasnt positive the video card was bad... since the only time the warning came on was when 3-D apps where running...
Drove me NUTS!
Then I noticed that UPS was blinking a orange color... and that the sound was coming from that...
Well turns out that the ATI power would push the UPS over its limit... and it would warn you of impending doom!
BTW: Belkin UPS's are great... It was just too small (400-450w Powersupply, not 500+) But dont buy a UPS online... too expensive too RMA and ship... Also I did end up RMAing my ATI-Card.
Wusy < I haven't let the smoke out of anything yet but I had a friend go through three MOBO's from Fry's (he got that wonderful replacement guaranty) before he figured out that the ten dollar sound card he also got from Fry's was killing the MOBO's.
And speaking of cats, I had someone ask me to make one running computer out of two old systems they had sitting around holding up their printer, he failed to tell me that he had left the side covers off for over a year. His cats had pissed all over the computer inards, the smell was horrendous.
I refused to take the stinkiest parts and told him I would do what I could, turns out that the caps on the MOBO had already bulged and the cat pee had shorted out the vid card. I was only able to recover the data from his 200meg HD.
I refused to take the stinkiest parts and told him I would do what I could, turns out that the caps on the MOBO had already bulged and the cat pee had shorted out the vid card. I was only able to recover the data from his 200meg HD.
itneal2277
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- Jun 18, 2006
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testbenchdude
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- Mar 28, 2006
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Not a build story but I had a friend who singed off one of his eyebrows after he used nearly a whole can of air to blow out his dust bunnies, then went poking around in the case with a lighter to see if he'd missed anything... THAT was funny.
Mine's not nearly as funny but it took me about a week of troubleshooting to figure out why my brand-new PC would boot up only if I had the Win98 CD in the drive--turns out I had my first boot device set to HDD0 in the BIOS but I was running a raid card at the time--D'OH SCSI FIRST BOOT YOU NUB.
I remember being so frustrated at that, and it was such a little and simple thing to overlook.
Mine's not nearly as funny but it took me about a week of troubleshooting to figure out why my brand-new PC would boot up only if I had the Win98 CD in the drive--turns out I had my first boot device set to HDD0 in the BIOS but I was running a raid card at the time--D'OH SCSI FIRST BOOT YOU NUB.
I remember being so frustrated at that, and it was such a little and simple thing to overlook.
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