What was your biggest Technician Oopsie?

**jaimicook** · February 16th, 2008, 01:35 AM

Mine isn't as spectacular as some of these, but I learned the hard way to buy power supplies in the $100 or more range. These don't die early and often! I also hold my breath when I build up a new computer and power it up. When I see the boot screen for the first time I let out a great sigh of relief!
Jim Cook

**Gabriel** · February 17th, 2008, 09:00 AM

My biggest one was to take an SQL Server machine (on Windows NT 4) and put Sp6 (not Sp6a) - doing it without a good backup... SP installed... BSOD... night of wonder... restored OS with my tongue out, restore SQL DATA (not permissions and not MASTER - had to 'rebuild" the MASTER database...

This one took a year or two from my life...

Gabriel

P.s. I sometime miss the days of NT 4.0 -it was all very "clear" and "simple". I really mastered this OS.

***DonJ*** · February 18th, 2008, 11:58 AM

I was working on an HP equipment rack that was hooked up to 220 volts. But the voltage wasn't making it past the power relay. Since I could see the relay, I figure that I would use my screwdriver to push down the contacts on that relay and...KA-FRICKIN-BOOM!!!

I ended up arc welding the contacts together and destroying that power relay as well as knocking me back on my @ss.

I still have that relay sitting on my desk as a reminder.

**Stalemate** · February 29th, 2008, 11:46 AM

As soon as I had walked in that morning I was greeted with mentions of people not finding their files. This was a few weeks after being hired as network admin in a hospital, and the first day of my boss' vacation.

On a Netware file server we had ARCServe as a backup system and one of the options was "delete files after backup"... and it was checked on.

The files for all users and departments in a hospital disappeared overnight.

After putting on fresh underwear we proceeded with a backup restoration while also manually retrieving files for the more urgent needs. Spent the entire shift doing this.

As soon as I realized what had happened I called my boss' superior (hospital's assistant director) and explained to her the situation, taking full responsibility for the error and letting her know that recovery was already in progress. She thanked me and simply asked to be informed of the status during the recovery.

I ended up working there longer than she and my boss did, oddly enough.

**arch0nmyc0n** · March 4th, 2008, 04:01 PM

Brand new machine a number of years back, it was lying down on it's side. Had a AMD Thunderbird 1.4. Turned it on, 2 seconds later came a pop. Forgot to secure the heatsink.

Plugged in a power supply into a floppy disk drive one pin off. Result was this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12753036@N04/1346585627/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1275303...n/photostream/

Ghosted the wrong drive before, once. Didn't ghost a drive at all, once. Ghosted a drive to the wrong, defective drive and then reused the working drive for another ghost.

Dropped a guys business hard drive from shoulder height, tried to stop it with my hand which missed. The next reaction wasn't the smartest one... I tried to stop it with my foot which resulted in the drive being catapulted across the room into the concrete wall and hiting the ground tumbling all the way back to me. We called the customer's computer Skippy from that day on.

I'm sure there is more that I can't recall atm.

**slgrieb** · March 4th, 2008, 04:09 PM

OK, I think you should get an official Noprize for the floppy drive and the hard drive dropkick. I think these are way more creative than the routine stuff most of us goof up.

**arch0nmyc0n** · March 4th, 2008, 04:25 PM

Both of those were years ago. They occured during my first official technical job. There were three techs including myself. The senior tech was in my college classes and was actually two months younger than I was, he'd been hired 2 weeks prior to me. So we all thought we knew everything. We got up to all sorts of crazy stuff at that job. But most of the other stuff we did was intentional.

Every once in a while there'd be a computer that would just take us so long to try to fix and we could never get it to work right so we'd offer to buy it form the customer. If they said "sure" for a reasonable amount, all three of us would immediately go outside off to the side of the parking lot and have at it with a sledge hammer and a fireman's axe. Was possibly the best stress relieve ever and well worth the money we'd drop to purchase the systems (never more than $100). Only happened a few times though.

Laser tag wars while customers are in the store.

I remember we had a drive once that stored all our drivers, software and everything we used since we started there and the senior technician fdiskd the drive in windows instead of the drive he should have and just as he did it he realized what he'd done. So we had to cram 60 gig work of junk onto a 20 gig hard drive just so we won't lose it all.

We had a dive bar right next door too... some of the lunches and dinners expierenced there were legendary. Nothing like getting completely destroyed at lunch and trying to work on computers. Surprisingly enough, we'd often come up with unique ways to fix issues on days like that....

**NooNoo** · March 4th, 2008, 04:57 PM

Ah but did you remember the fixes?

**slgrieb** · March 4th, 2008, 05:44 PM

Arch, I've reviewed this thread and I really think DonJ should share the Noprize. I mean, sticking a screwdriver in a 220 volt circuit; that's bold, to say the least.

**CCT** · March 4th, 2008, 06:53 PM

What was MY biggest Technician Oopsie?

Saying to the guy at the shop, 'Fix it and call me!'

It is why I have learned to look after my own.

**CeeBee** · March 5th, 2008, 09:07 AM

Originally Posted by slgrieb

Arch, I've reviewed this thread and I really think DonJ should share the Noprize. I mean, sticking a screwdriver in a 220 volt circuit; that's bold, to say the least.

When I was a kid I saw my father testing a low-power transformer by shorting the output. Later on I tested the 220V outlet the same way

Boy that was a nice spark, melted the wires...

**Niclo Iste** · March 5th, 2008, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by CeeBee

When I was a kid I saw my father testing a low-power transformer by shorting the output. Later on I tested the 220V outlet the same way

Boy that was a nice spark, melted the wires...

Reminds me of a few things. One of a social/voltage experiment (ask me later I'm short on time) and the other was my electrician of a room mate who wasn't bright. The electrician room mate was splicing a phone wire and never unhooked it. He didn't have a fine enough wire stripper so he figured he'd use his teeth..... Interestingly enough someone must have called right when he chose to do that because he yelled and started spitting. Seems the voltage low as it was blew a hole in his teeth. When he would put the teeth together and grinned you'd see a perfect small circlular hole formed. It always made me giggle knowing an electrician like him never kept his common sense. I have many a tale of him and electricity. Well that and other things he did that were funny. But I have to run I just stopped to say hi everyone.

**CeeBee** · March 5th, 2008, 02:45 PM

Originally Posted by Niclo Iste

Seems the voltage low as it was blew a hole in his teeth. When he would put the teeth together and grinned you'd see a perfect small circlular hole formed.

That "low voltage" is around 50-150V... With line open it is typical 48V...

**Niclo Iste** · March 5th, 2008, 07:20 PM

Interesting, my circuitry design class taught me that a phone line was around 1.2 volts and when active due to calls/ringing up to 15v

**MobilePCPhysician** · March 6th, 2008, 01:02 AM

When the telephone is NOT in use (on hook) the voltage across the two wires (tip and ring) is about 48 volts D.C.

When the telephone IS in use (off hook) the voltage across the tip and ring wires drops to about 6 volts D.C.

When a ringing signal is being sent there is an A.C. voltage "superimposed" on top of the normal D.C. voltage. This "ringing voltage" is nominally about 90 volts at 20 Hertz (cycles) but could be as high as 130 volts and at different frequencies.