Worst Tech mistake you have ever made?

[Cool Dude 101]

4 hours ago, Elijah Kamski said:

So I needed to test my computer parts right, because my RX 580 wasn't working (ended up being dead only after 6 months, RIP).

And what I did was that I ended up switching the CPUs as maybe I thought the CPUs were the problem. Pulling off the cooler from the other desktop was easy as the paste was all dried up, now pulling the cooler off the broken system was also easy since it wasn't too sticky.

However, when I placed one of the CPU's into the socket (forgot which system and all), I placed the cooler on top, now the cooler actually slid a bit on the CPU as I had not screwed it in place or anything yet. So what happened was that I began to pull on the cooler thinking that it could just come off, but it would not. I pulled harder and then it ripped the poor Ryzen out of the AM4 socket.

First time this has ever happened to me and I kinda freaked out. So I tried to slide the CPU off the cooler but it was like it was vacuum sealed. I ended up doing something to it to get it off, either using a Phillips head or I think a hair dryer to loosen the grip. This worked and the CPU came off.

The CPU came off...........

And it fell, I looked and I saw a bent pin.......................................................

Luckily I remembered watching one of Linus' videos in where he fixed bent pins XD

And so the process began, I used a Phillips head screw driver (very small) to very carefully pull the bent pin back.

I put it into the system and it worked.

That was probably the closest I have ever been to having a heart attack.

What CPU was it?

[CptnReflex]

installed waterblock for my 3090 wrong because it has both 3080 and 3090 in the same guide and I did the part for the 3080, ruined the thermal pads and had to put the OG stock cooler back on.  still gotta order a new set of thermal pads and new mounting hardware for good measure lol at least the card is still working okay D:

[jetnoodles]

29 minutes ago, CptnReflex said:

 at least the card is still working okay D:

thank goodness for that

[CptnReflex]

Just now, NOV654 said:

thank goodness for that

 

indeed! I will definitely read the entire manual and all the fine print next time heh

[Elijah Kamski]

On 11/11/2021 at 2:26 PM, Cool Dude 101 said:

What CPU was it?

It was either my Ryzen 5 3600 or my bro's Ryzen 5 2400G. Most likely my one XD

[JaxPlayz]

a few days ago i left my laptop to closs to the heater and it burnt the screen and melted the keybord and its a bit bent the laptop i have is hp 14s it works fine when i have it connected to another monitor

[Bramimond]

Assuming that RAID was good enough and I wouldn't need a backup. Then both drives in the RAID failed on the same day. They were 200GB each, so that was a while ago. Since then I backed up everything, some stuff on multiple drives. Now my second worst mistake was accidentally deleting a folder and thinking, who cares, I got backups and then realizing that this particular folder wasn't backed up. So now I've got scripts doing my backups for me and the backup is located in a different city. Everything is about 40TB worth of stuff. Plus another local backup at about 4TB for just the critical stuff. 

 

 

[kaikaitv_]

So, when I was younger (about 7) I made the mistake of getting a wired xbox controller. You may ask, "What's the problem with that?". I had a 3 year old brother who could reach the 2m cable from above my wardrobe to me. He was always pulling it out mid game, and eventually I broke it accidentally since I was unable to figure out how the USB port has to fit in a specific way and you can't just force it in.

 

Long-ish story, but a funny one I guess. 

[SirWendall]

Overclocking my old EVGA 970 SC GPU. Great results but the card couldn't handle it and a chip popped on it.

[da na]

27 minutes ago, SirWendall said:

Overclocking my old EVGA 970 SC GPU. Great results but the card couldn't handle it and a chip popped on it.

My GTX 980 sc that I still use is a great OCer. Beats stock RX 480/580, gtx 1650/60 (super), gtx 1070 and is only 10% away from RTX 2060 with a good oc. Stock it’s around rx 480 perf.

[SirWendall]

56 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

My GTX 980 sc that I still use is a great OCer. Beats stock RX 480/580, gtx 1650/60 (super), gtx 1070 and is only 10% away from RTX 2060 with a good oc. Stock it’s around rx 480 perf.

Fortunately, I lucked up back then and traded my OG Xbox One for a EVGA 1070. Super lucky since they had just dropped then.

[staticdoestech]

On 1/16/2013 at 11:07 AM, fishymamba said:

Getting high profile ram....I have to bend it quite a bit so that my cooler's fan can fit.

And I have accidentally kicked my case a couple time.

Am I reading this correctly? You had to BEND your ram?

[Bitter]

9 minutes ago, staticdoestech said:

Am I reading this correctly? You had to BEND your ram?

It's probably similar to earth bending, silicon does come out of the ground.

[da na]

21 minutes ago, Bitter said:

It's probably similar to earth bending, silicon does come out of the ground.

Water bending would be pretty sick for a custom loop

[linkboy]

I haven't had anything major mistakes (like hardware killing mistakes), so my vote would go to a product I've bought, and this turd gets my vote

 

The Blackberry Storm

 

My first smartphone was the Verizon XV6800, a Windows Mobile (oldschool Windows Mobile, not the Nokia era Windows Mobile) and it was starting to reach it's age, so I was looking to get a new phone (this was around 2008). I didn't have AT&T in my area, so the iPhone wasn't an option for me (at it was still exclusive to AT&T). Android wasn't the dominant OS like it is today and Blackberry pretty much ran the smartphone market.

 

The Storm was supposed to be RIM's answer to the iPhone and their move into the consumer smartphone space. 

 

It failed spectacularly. 

 

The software was great with all of the features you'd expect from a Blackberry of that era, however there was some performance issues. The issue was the hardware. They did this stupid thing where the screen pressed in like a button and it was so damn dumb on a device with a touchscreen. The phone just wasn't fun to use.

 

I ended up getting one and ended up hating it not long after I got it. Unlike today, this was the age of the two year contract. I can't fully remember if I paid the ETF to get out of that contract, but I do know that I replaced it as soon as I could by upgrading it to the original Motorola Droid.

 

If there was a silver lining about owning the Storm, it was that it let to me getting into Android, and the rooting community (I rooted every Android phone I owned up until I switched to the Note line with the Note 8).

 

I really do think that if the Storm (and Storm 2) had been more successful, RIM and Blackberry would still have a place in this industry. That phone damaged their reputation right as the iPhone was picking up steam, and Android phones were starting to release, with HTC having released the G1 on T-Mobile and it would explode in 2009 when the Motorola Droid was released.

 

 

 

[Raging hornet 446]

Just yesterday I was spinning in my office chair because i have ADHD i accidentally hit my desk and knocked over my $300 monitor and broke the screen now i have to use a 30hz tv that i found in my basement to game

[Snowarch]

Bricking windows 10 with a keyboard... not even a command prompt

[sap]

I haven't had any major mistakes, so my biggest would be buying a Windows Mixed Reality VR headset (Lenovo Explorer). It:

* runs only on Windows, is a useless paperweight if you're on Linux

* is built of weak plastic (strap and hinge broke)

* has an irreplaceable cable (most common failure in any wired VR headset)

* can't be repaired in general

* controllers have a design flaw where the battery level is misread after several months of use (fresh battery is considered already nearly dead)

 

I'm glad Linus is focusing more on repairability lately

[macminitosh]

Worst buy:

BitFenix Prodigy M mATX case: by far the worst experience in terms of usage. It's wobbly feet drove me crazy, so i took them off.

 

Worst mistake:

Plugged a floppy power connector into a fan header on the mobo. It fried instantly upon boot, i've since then learned my lesson and double-check every cable before the first boot.

 

[da na]

1 hour ago, macminitosh said:

Worst mistake:

Plugged a floppy power connector into a fan header on the mobo. It fried instantly upon boot, i've since then learned my lesson and double-check every cable before the first boot.

 

I've always wondered what would happen...

Thanks for answering that long time question of mine

[staticdoestech]

On 11/18/2021 at 9:04 PM, Mel0nMan said:

Water bending would be pretty sick for a custom loop

Absolutely

[zogthegreat]

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.... I had an IBM PC 286AT. I was installing a  HUGE 20 meg hard drive drive and I dropped a case screw onto the motherboard. The screw managed to hit just the right way to short some of the gold power traces and fry the motherboard. The reason that this was possible was I didn't unplug the machine before starting to go to work. 

 

Now, anytime I'm reaching into a case, I pull the power cord... lesson learned!

[martin_metal_88]

Worst buy : Microsoft Flight simulator game of the year edition of course, if only I knew it wasn't a game, just an 24/7 updater 

 

Worst mistake : Probably accidently unplugging the company main router while searching for a server power cable. This router had only one PSU and the back up router was too hold to work for more than a minute before getting 100% CPU usage. At least it only took me few second to realize so the downtime wasn't so bad.

[Fast_N_Curious]

Giving one of my z820s to my brother. It also had very rare processors in it, the E5 2673 v2, which was only OEM. I've never seen a dual processor z820 with these processors installed, ever.

 

Also:

 

But it gave me an excuse to get this GPU:

[da na]

19 minutes ago, Storm-Chaser said:

Giving one of my z820s to my brother. It also had very rare processors in it, the E5 2673 v2, which was only OEM. I've never seen a dual processor z820 with these processors installed, ever.

 

Also:

 

But it gave me an excuse to get this GPU:

Hey! See you have a non blower in a z820... 

I've noticed terrible temps into the 80s and 90s on max fan speed on my z620 with non blower GPUs, what are yours like? Just curious