Biggest Screw Ups... Hardware Frying, Or just plain Stupid Mistakes we made

[Machine]

Since i like hearing about other ppls computer related misery, I figured I'd start a thread that can turn out to be a funny as hell read.

Off the top of my head, The only thing i really ever screwed up that i can remember is I had an old 200 meg SCSI harddrive, and the Adapter plug on the back of it for the power broke off when i was putting it back in my machine (I was always messing with the thing , was about 15). So I took out my trusty soldering iron and soldered the connector back on.

When i turned the computer on I had Unleashed the pent up smoke demons inside the Hard Drive. It was completely fried. All my hard work was gone! (mostly porn and a duke nukem 3d).

I did Make a few motherboards spark by dropping screws into them by accident when i'm tightening down a Card. But nothing to make it die for good usually just sparks, than resets the computer.

Tell me your screwups I need a good laugh.

Machine

[MAYHEM]

As far as hardwre frying goes, I've found that using a cast iron skillet is advisable. most non-stick pans just won't hold up to that kind of abuse. A pernoal favorite of mine is Breaded deepfried NICs. With a little cocktail sauce... MMMMM... Yummy.

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Who the hell is General Protection and why is he messing with my comuter?

[jhutto]

Hows this..

Replace a power supply with a new one, it only has the 4 colored wires going to the switch. The new one all the wires are grey. No colors. What do you do?

Check stock, whole shippment that way.

Customer pissed WANTS UNIT NOW!.

Trial and error ..

Used test (known bad) motherboard just to get it working. I knocked the breaker three times before I got it right.

[jhutto]

or here is something I tell people who are idiots to explain the world.

All computers are magical. The factorys they have magicians who put magic smoke in them. This is REALLY what makes computers work. If you release the magic smoke it will not work again. It takes a lot of magical ability to put the smoke back in. The smoke is from a pot of bat wings, pig hearts, and blood of chickens, that is why it smells so bad.



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Jon Hutto

[klenard]

I was putting in a video card and my hand slipped and i broke the video card, as well as the PCI slots that the sound card, modem, and NIC were using as my hand slid across them. I felt like such a retard. good thing it was my own Comp though. They just don't attach PCI slots like they should.

[Sowulo]

klenard, you've got to give up the 'roids man...

[Mr_Miner]

Ever Ghost a drive backwards? Doesn't take long before you have two blank hard drives. Just ask our dear moderator.

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Think good thoughts.

[shawnMt]

IBM Stinkpad with no floppy and no way to hook one up that I saw. Customer bought machine used.

Need to wipe the drive and install 95, cabs are on hdd.

So I move the cabs to c:\cabs and delete everything else - everything. The machine will not boot off cdrom. Figured I'd just do this then run Setup. Just as I'm about to type it, another tech walks by and trips on the power cord, and the Stinkpad powers down. No, the machine didn't hit the floor but I did.

Let's think about this for a moment: no command.com on the drive so it won't boot, also won't boot off cdrom, and no floppy. How the hell was I gonna get to the drive?? The customer wanted the machine yesterday.

I ended up getting it to work but it was funny for a few minutes.

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Computer Geek + Football Freak - man I have issues

Paint your old laptop!

[techs]

Beta, as in Betamax. Funny, I still think people are interest in quality.

[RLD]

Power Supply + Freshly squeezed orange juice. I was amazed but the amount of smoke that came out of it!

[AlienDyne]

http://www.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/fo...ML/000179.html


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"Matter is passive. In spite of its power, it can't be controlled without the human mind." Sokrates

Photos Of My Work

[3fingersalute]

I agree with AlienDyne, we just did this whole thread like a week ago, if you want to see what everybody has fried, look there!!!


Oh I must mention however, yesterday I was working on a PIII system and went to screw a modem in, dropped the screw, it his the mainboard and the computer turned on...whoops, no damage, but reminded me why you should always pull that power cord when working inside!

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[email protected]

[WinKrushR]

Originally posted by jhutto:
All computers are magical. The factorys they have magicians who put magic smoke in them.~~~~pig hearts, and blood of chickens, that is why it smells so bad.

LOL! That's what I'm telling everyone from now on. Law enforcement won't believe everything, but I think I can get this one past them.



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"What would anybody want with a blind dog?"

[WinKrushR]

Actually, it was my own machine. Late night studying for finals, I was on the university server looking at old exams. I retrieved my Healthy Choice BEEF STEW Cup 'O Soup from the microwave. Trying to sit at the desk, I tripped over an errant CAT3 cable and the soup flew directly onto the brand new M$ Ergonomic Natural keyboard. Just bought, brand new. Well, no more. That's when I discovered what a small sense of humor my professor had. After running the KB thru a dishwasher, I returned it to Circuit City for another.

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"What would anybody want with a blind dog?"

[klenard]

I did not do this one but a customer did.

Guy sends in his comp, says that his video card no longer works and that he want another one. We get the comp and open it up. Guess what the genius did to his video card???? He super glued it to the agp slot. we called him up and asked WTF. and he says that he glued it in because he was afraid that the card would come out..... He got a little pissed when we told him he also needed another board.