Worst Tech mistake you have ever made?

[Pookieraaj]

When I was a little kid my oldest brother bought me and my two brothers a computer for school and stuff. The harddrive died after two years and we took it to a local computer shop to have it fixed, only to find out it would've been under warranty because my brother spent cash on an extended one. Needless to say my older brother wasn't very impressed

[zeros]

By reading here I just realized that i also did the 210V to 110v switch thing on my pentium 3, needless to say my mom wasn't impressed as i was 10. So she had to pay, luckily the shop from where we bought it, changed the psu really cheap :).

I think you can become a really good pc "technician" by making these mistakes :) lol.

[Computer Steroids]

My local electronics store sold me my first gaming computer, I chose the parts and they built it. I spent 1000 euros, the value was more around 600. Ouch.

[7Shinoda]

Buying a Non modular PSU , i could've bought a Corsair HX620 but NO i had to take a powerfull psu so i went and bought a TX750 ( never used its potential lol) , now my case looks messy and i always rant when trying to improve the cable management ( CM690) hopefully that will be easier on a new NZXT Switch :D

[7heArchitect]

i bought an OEM machine.

$700.

2006.

:(

[Exclamati0n]

I coaxed my parents to buy a pre-built Packard Bell Legend 720(8 MB SDRAM, 75 MHz Pentium, Socket 7, 540 MB HDD) in 1995.

Sorry mom, dad.

[stairs2195]

on my first pc i built i forgot to put spacers between the case and the mobo... lets just say im a very lucky guy and realised my mistake after the pc sparked and wouldnt turn back on so took the whole system out of the case then realised my insanly stupid mistake thank god the mobo and psu survived

[Salmiakbal]

My biggest mistake was letting the store where I bought the components of my previous computer rebuild it because they could not agree that the mobo was dead.

What I got back was a warped case, a poorly installed H70 with one of the fans with a corner sawed off with a blunt saw, the sidefan of the case in a box without the screws, the mobo was not screwed in at all (just hanging from the screws), both graphicscards were dead(probably rough transport) and most important of all the problem I had was still not solved(no POST). Before this the mobo has been sent in for rma 3 times already of which the 3rd time they sent it back to ASUS and they got it back with the instruction to replace it which they didn't yet claimed they did ignoring my arguement it was the same serialnumber and even the remains of the padding of the H70 backplate still on it. After 7 months of having no working gaming rig and dealing with incredible incompetent 'experts' I threatend to sue them in a letter to the CEO I got a new mobo sent the next day. Installed it, problem fixed.... ...exactly what I said to them on day 1 of the problem!

This has thought me to never let any computer store 'expert' or anyone else who I can't verify as being more skilled than me even touch my computer.

Linus, please migrate to The Netherlands :P or even better, clone yourself for every country.

Where do you live/what computer store was it? Then I'll know for sure not to buy there :p

[Laksen]

Spilling vodka out over my pc while gaming counter strike drunk with mates. Story short - my wireless switch is now stuck on "on" so every time I turn my wireless off within windows it has to be torn apart for it to be physically turned to "off" and then to "on" again for it to work. Worst mistake ever

[LucasD]

I clean the gpu cooler and dont plug to the three pin... when i start to play 5 minutes later the lcd go black... that 2 times later i forget plug...

[SMuz]

Buying Palit GTX 460s. They're literally just as loud as a jet engine.

[Ging]

I purchased a 60 GB SSD... enough said

[Apach3]

I plugged a 4 pin floppy connector into a CD aux connector on a sound card when I was quite young. The blue smoke that made the sound card work escaped.

that reminds me of the time i accidentally plugged in an IDE connector the wrong way. broke a 250GB hard drive that way, which at the time was one of the biggest and most expensive.

[boggle4321]

got some thermal paste in cpu socket :( killed mobo and cpu

[Dariru]

Bought a 550ti. Should have just spent an extra $20-30.

[DrGio]

biggest mistake i made was buying a bitfenix Spectre Pro Led 230mm for a friends NZXT Phantom

I didnt read the specs closely enough and found out it was a 230x200 fan not a 230x230 fan.

Conclusion it didnt fit the case, i had nothing for her birthday

I ghetto mounted it in my old case for extra cooling. Drilled holes and everything like a noob.

just because well... i can. :rolleyes:

[m0n5t3r]

I bought an Blu-ray player. It never gets used, I had it in my C70 for about 10 minutes. Now it sit in it's box

[Jamdude]

Bought another 7870 -.- There is hardly a difference in FPS and I could have sold my single and got a 7970 for quite a bit cheaper :(

[maximilian4o]

Nothing special. I bought a fan controller that I don't even use. And I bought a Wi-Fi card which was hardly running at half speed of my Ethernet connection.

[amas]

Don't remember what I did but I tried plugging in an IDE hdd into my first computer build and smoke/sparks came out when I turned it on. 7 years later, still smells burnt. oooo baby.

Worst purchase I made was probably my Sythe Kamikaze 120mm fan. I figured I needed it during the summer but it ended up being way too loud and it just sits in a box now.

[ProJulz]

Bought a Corsair 650D. Absolutely worthless heap of junk. Aluminium scratches and scuffs with ease, 4-port fan controller literally caught fire and then melted after connecting just one fan to it. Waited 6 weeks for a replacement from Corsair, which did the exact same thing again. By that time the aluminium had scratched to the point where I didn't like looking at it anymore, so I bought a Fractal Design Arc Midi. Much better, and cheaper too.

[Crt]

I bought a Fractal Design XL after watching Linus's video showcases with the prototypes in the Russian Labs. Ended up becoming my HTPC and then I bought the NZXT Phantom in Black because it was cheaper than White at the time. Now after watching all his personal rig updates and the Phantom 820 unboxing, I'm perfectly content with the 820. It's like the best thing ever and I really don't want to upgrade from it. :D

[Eatmyshorts]

My biggest mistake was letting the store where I bought the components of my previous computer rebuild it because they could not agree that the mobo was dead.

What I got back was a warped case, a poorly installed H70 with one of the fans with a corner sawed off with a blunt saw, the sidefan of the case in a box without the screws, the mobo was not screwed in at all (just hanging from the screws), both graphicscards were dead(probably rough transport) and most important of all the problem I had was still not solved(no POST). Before this the mobo has been sent in for rma 3 times already of which the 3rd time they sent it back to ASUS and they got it back with the instruction to replace it which they didn't yet claimed they did ignoring my arguement it was the same serialnumber and even the remains of the padding of the H70 backplate still on it. After 7 months of having no working gaming rig and dealing with incredible incompetent 'experts' I threatend to sue them in a letter to the CEO I got a new mobo sent the next day. Installed it, problem fixed.... ...exactly what I said to them on day 1 of the problem!

This has thought me to never let any computer store 'expert' or anyone else who I can't verify as being more skilled than me even touch my computer.

Linus, please migrate to The Netherlands :P or even better, clone yourself for every country.

I live in The Netherlands, but I don't think it's appropriate to name and shame the store here.

[Jaehny]

I bought an iMac for 1400€

(i sold it for 1000€ a year later and bought a windows machine with decent hardware)

[Reuben01]

Totally reasonable for this to happen but I had front panel connectors which weren't labeled and motherboard pins which weren't labeled and I basically just closed my eyes and hoped for the best which didn't turn out so well.

And when I was younger I though I knew too much and flipped the voltage switch on the back of the power supply, which gave me a huge fright when it blew up in front of me.