Ghost’s Computer Stories #1

[Ghost]

I have quite a lot of spare time so I thought I would talk about my weird and wonderful computer stories and experiences in a sort of thread based thingy. Bear in mind these will most probably bad experiences of computer disasters happening, as they tend to be the most interesting. These will be typed in a slow tempo story teller like voice, so imagine I’m reading these to you slowly. I wonder if people will enjoy these or just tell me to go away. It’s an experiment after all.

Well my first story thingy begins with my first attempt at overclocking with watercooling.

I had just installed my new custom watercooling kit and was thinking of all the possibilities. It was all bought second hand so it ended up costing me only £120. That’s about $190 for all of you Americans. I had been bargain hunting on ebay for a long long time to get theses deal mind you. I had a laing DDC + pump with a dual bay reservoir it fit into, which I got for £50 together. Yes I know, it’s an amazing deal. I got a nice dual 120 slim radiator for £20 and a XSPC CPU block for £40. All the other bits and bobs like fittings and tubing ended up rounding the cost up to £120.

So anyway, I had this brand new watercooling system installed (I say new but it was of course second hand,) on my computer (specs at the time listed at the bottom). Of course, the first thing I wanted to do was to overclock my CPU, (Who wouldn’t?), so I went ahead and did the most stupid and worst thing ever. Being lazy as I am I simply googled up what others had got with their 1100T and punched the numbers right into my BIOS. What could go wrong? If I’m wrong won’t it just bluescreen or not POST. Well it did blue screen, so I increased the voltage up a little bit and I got into windows.

Amazing. It works I thought! So I did the thing anyone who is overclocking should do. I went to Prime95. It ran for about 30 seconds and then I just heard 3 loud explosions from my PC and a burning smell filled the room. (Not smoke, just that smell of hot burnt plastic that everyone with a watercooling loop constantly fears.)

Now what could have gone wrong? I jumped straight to my knees and pulled the plug out of the back of my PC. At first I thought I sprung a leak with my watercooling because of the sudden heat from the CPU. Maybe it could have loosened a fitting? But no. I opened my case swearing the whole time at why the hell I had tried to overclock when my system had been running perfectly without it. (Yes that thing we all do when things go to shit. I was panicking and everything!)

I peaked in with a torch, (or flashlight as you Americans call them,) and was desperately looking around for the source of the smell. I did a check of the motherboard but there were no burn marks on it. I couldn’t find any on any of the other components either.

(Now imagine me swearing on my knees under my desk with my shaking head in a cramped computer case for 5 minutes dreading the worst)

So I started to sniff around (before I was only looking inside) my computer and eventually found the culprit. It was my god damn power supply. So I took it out of my case and I unscrewed it (which is easier said than done) and inside I just found 3 capacitors had burst. Which explained the 3 explosions or rather “very loud bangs†from when they popped. Either way, if you hear something go pop in your PC then however small it is it will always sound like an explosion.

In the end using my awesome powers of deduction I worked out that the power supply which was 550W was just enough to support my system while idling however when I overclocked and I ran Prime95 which meant the PC was drawing all the power it could from the wall it simply overloaded.

Luckily enough it did not send a surge into any of my other parts and they were all fine. So the next day I went to the shop and got a Coolermaster Bronze 750W PSU.

Moral of the story for me was to never cheap out on a power supply and think it will be okay with going with a low power PSU. That’s why I always tell people to get at least 750W PSUs.

If you enjoyed it hit the like button in the bottom right I guess. These do take quite long to write so I hope you enjoyed it and if enough people want me I will write sequels to this. I do actually enjoy recounting these events myself. I say enjoy, more like shudder at the thought but it’s enjoyable all the same.

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

Build at the time (main components only):

Asus Crosshair IV Formula

AMD Phenom x6 1100T

CIT Gold (just the colour not the rating) 550W PSU

CM690II Advanced Case

Fun fact: You just read 900 words of text.

[Kevin Beam]

Good storie. It goes show that you can't cheap out on a power supply because if you draw too much power a cheap PSU will create a surge and fry your CPU.

What brand power supply were you using?

Keep the stories coming!

[Ghost]

Good storie. It goes show that you can't cheap out on a power supply because if you draw too much power a cheap PSU will create a surge and fry your CPU.

What brand power supply were you using?

Keep the stories coming!

Its a brand called CIT. It was one of those cheap brands.

[GrayFoxbr]

Nice story.

In my first overclocking attempt i actually melted the 24 pin power connector into the motherboard. i had to literally step on top of the motherboard and pull the thingie with pliers. To my surprise that system still works.

[Ghost]

If a moderator sees this could they move it to "Guides and Tutorials" ? I think it fits in more because it does require a bit of reading and the General Section is better for quick fast topics.

Thanks!

[IdeaStormer]

Wouldn't having the right power level power supply for your system or having enough extra watts to support your overclocking be the moral of the story?

[Ghost]

Nice story.

In my first overclocking attempt i actually melted the 24 pin power connector into the motherboard. i had to literally step on top of the motherboard and pull the thingie with pliers. To my surprise that system still works.

Wow you could have snapped your motherboard.

[GrayFoxbr]

Nice story.

In my first overclocking attempt i actually melted the 24 pin power connector into the motherboard. i had to literally step on top of the motherboard and pull the thingie with pliers. To my surprise that system still works.

I was really young at the time it was like 10 or 12 years ago and hardware in general was i dont know kind of tougher. It's funny i feel like i am not the only one but everything i know about computers was basically fixing stuff that wasn't broken breaking it and then actually having to fix the stuff. it was a crappy but nice way to learn.

[Ghost]

Nice story.

In my first overclocking attempt i actually melted the 24 pin power connector into the motherboard. i had to literally step on top of the motherboard and pull the thingie with pliers. To my surprise that system still works.

Yup that's how I learnt. I'm still learning through massive costly mistakes.

[Ghost]

Wouldn't having the right power level power supply for your system or having enough extra watts to support your overclocking be the moral of the story?

Nope. Never cheap out on a PSU. Always buy too much power. Never buy just enough.

[Money]

Nice story! I have a story of my own where I was just unbelievably idiotic.

I was looking into getting a NH-D14 and as we all know, that thing is a monster. So, I pulled out a ruler and opened up the side of my case, without turning it off. I measured lengthwise and width wise and all seemed well! Then I went to measure the height, (By the way, the ruler was metal) trying to be careful not to touch the motherboard. I got a little to low and a spark shot from the motherboard, to the ruler, then consequentially, to my hand. I was too worried about my computer to have time to feel any pain. I frantically pressed the power button (As it had turned off), and to my joy it switched right back on!

[Paperchase]

Good story, It's always nice with a late night story to end the day.

I've experienced my fair share of capacitor-explosions myself. (Thankfully not PC-related though). :)

Well written by the way.

[Ghost]

Nice story! I have a story of my own where I was just unbelievably idiotic.

I was looking into getting a NH-D14 and as we all know, that thing is a monster. So, I pulled out a ruler and opened up the side of my case, without turning it off. I measured lengthwise and width wise and all seemed well! Then I went to measure the height, (By the way, the ruler was metal) trying to be careful not to touch the motherboard. I got a little to low and a spark shot from the motherboard, to the ruler, then consequentially, to my hand. I was too worried about my computer to have time to feel any pain. I frantically pressed the power button (As it had turned off), and to my joy it switched right back on!

Haha lucky.

[Emkryan]

Nice story. In my first overclocking attempt i actually melted the 24 pin power connector into the motherboard. i had to literally step on top of the motherboard and pull the thingie with pliers. To my surprise that system still works.

That seriously made me laugh out loud

[TechBlitZ]

Good story, I'd like to see more :)

[Ghost]

Okay I've made my mind up. If I get 1 like for every 100 words on a story I will make the next one.

Will probably do one once a week anyway but if I get the likes I'll just do it there and then. :)

[Kilmer02]

My computer loves to scare the living crap out of me all the time. When i first assembled the parts outside of the PC for the first time i hadn't pushed my 660 all the way down into the slot so when the mobo started i got the board working but no picture so I paniced! I hurriedly moved it to the 2.0 slot on my board and got it in and working so i was like phew at least i didnt somehow fry my card. Then i proceeded to put all the parts in the case, thinking i had a broken 3.0 slot, i tried it one more time hoping it was a glitch of some sorts, and i realized as i heard a click when i pushed it down, I hadn't heard that the first time i tried it.... -.-. then it turned on but kept resetting itself. It would start up, no picture would show for a while, then it would power down only momentarily and repeat that process 3 more times before i finally got a picture, and breathed a sigh of relief. i hurriedly went into my bios to check everything out, and it was all working so i saved and reset. It proceeded to do the same funky start up again. turns out i had crapped my pants over an outdated bios that i had to update.

I got scared the most today though when i tried running p95 on a totally unstable 4.9 oc. the second i clicked start the test, i looked at realtemp GT and it instantly skyrocketed to 85 and froze. I literally like dolphin dived http://youtu.be/E2qioyXzlNc at my power cord and pulled that thing right the hell out.

No processors were killed in the making of this true story!

[REDNINJA2012]

when i was doing my Certificate there was a red switch on the Power supply which switches the voltage. And i flicked it because i didn't know what it did. And then the computer blew up when it was switched on. and then the time my hands were bleeding from cable management

[Ghost]

My computer loves to scare the living crap out of me all the time. When i first assembled the parts outside of the PC for the first time i hadn't pushed my 660 all the way down into the slot so when the mobo started i got the board working but no picture so I paniced! I hurriedly moved it to the 2.0 slot on my board and got it in and working so i was like phew at least i didnt somehow fry my card. Then i proceeded to put all the parts in the case, thinking i had a broken 3.0 slot, i tried it one more time hoping it was a glitch of some sorts, and i realized as i heard a click when i pushed it down, I hadn't heard that the first time i tried it.... -.-. then it turned on but kept resetting itself. It would start up, no picture would show for a while, then it would power down only momentarily and repeat that process 3 more times before i finally got a picture, and breathed a sigh of relief. i hurriedly went into my bios to check everything out, and it was all working so i saved and reset. It proceeded to do the same funky start up again. turns out i had crapped my pants over an outdated bios that i had to update.

I got scared the most today though when i tried running p95 on a totally unstable 4.9 oc. the second i clicked start the test, i looked at realtemp GT and it instantly skyrocketed to 85 and froze. I literally like dolphin dived http://youtu.be/E2qioyXzlNc at my power cord and pulled that thing right the hell out.

No processors were killed in the making of this true story!

Haha you pushed too much voltage into that cpu eh?

[gasho]

When I was starting to be interested in computers my father had a Pentium I and I was very curious. So I found in control panel the mouse settings and tried to change the color of the pointer and set it on none and pressed apply. I didn't know what it would do exactly because my English wasn't very good at the time (mind you I was about 9 years old).

the mouse pointer disappeared. I didn't know what to do so I left it like that.

When my father sat down to do something on the PC he almost lost his mind. He was rebooting, checking the monitor, the mouse...

when he found out he almost scratched off the writing on the TAB button to navigate and change it back :)

but afterwards we had a laugh about it. still telling the story

PS. father was happy that I'm interested in computers.

[Kilmer02]

That's hilarious gasho.

[Huskie]

Haha...

Great post, keep 'em coming.

[rickylamperouge]

Haha I enjoyed this, I'm glad that I have enough power in my psu.

[jukki]

My horror story.

I had just bought new z77 board and 3570k processor. Spend good 3 hours carefully installing everything. Next day i remembered that i had not checked the temperatures at all. So i launched prime95 and opened core temp. You should have seen me jumping of my chair when i see all cores reporting 105 c temperatures each. I quickly turned prime of and seemed like the temperatures did not drop at all. So i turned of the computer.

I checked the computer, and apparently my cooler (http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/detail?sArticle=4.%3F) broked. The plastic piece holding the cpu on the socket had cut half posibly when i moved the comuter, and was barely still on the cpu. Even a slight bumb could have made that thing fall apart, slaming on my gpu, basicaly possible breaking not only cpu but motherboard and gpu as well. I installed the stock cooler and later bought better cooler.

[rickylamperouge]

Damn, that would've gave me a heart attack, you're lucky that it didn't fell off.