I had a customer bring in a computer and wanted a NIC installed. He said he had tried to install the NIC himself, but couldn't get the NIC drivers installed.
We physically installed the NIC and hooked up the cables and hit the power switch. Nothing. No sounds, no lights. We then took the NIC out and turned it back on. Again nothing.
We flipped it on it's side and started disconnecting everything to get a better look and check for loose connections. We noticed a little discoloration on one of the chips. Burnt.
We immediately called him up and asked him if he realized it wasn't booting. He said he was aware, but thought it was because he hadn't installed the NIC correctly. When we asked him what he did when he installed it, he told us that when he installed it Windows kept prompting him to install the NIC driver. He didn't know where to locate the driver on the CD so in order to boot without getting the message for driver installation, he decided to try to trick the operating system. With the NIC out of the machine and the case open, he booted into Windows. Once it was finished booting, he physically inserted the NIC into the PCI slot while the machine was running.
Quick, someone bring me my LART.