Worst Tech mistake you have ever made?

[Fordox]

I have a few and learned from it a lot:

1. i bought corsair vengeance and i'm an overclocker... whooptiedoo

2. in my realllllly first years (on a year of 12, im now 19), i tried to format the C:/ disk in the os by rightclicking the drive and press format :')

3. tried to fix a PSU that was still plugged in... 230V hurts and the boss of the computer store was standing next at me and he allmost litterally peed his pants from laughing

4. i tried to fix a waterloop leak with superglue. didn't work. enough said

you may laugh, im over the unsuccesfull years now :P

[gliliumho]

Couple of things... working in datacenters with 220V and bringing in PC's on occasion with no auto voltage regulator. They have the stupid red switch you have to flip. BAM! I have fried a few PSU's that way, and almost lost it in my pants in the process. :)

My other issue sometimes, being in a hurry during a build.... not making sure the CPU heatsink was properly placed, tighten it down and nothing... shutdown due to thermal overload... Doh... Oh ya, the block has to be ON the cpu... no just hovering above. :)

Same PSU problem here but just once and no explosion. =P

[ToxicPT]

It was to a friends computer.

I mounted the motherboard without the lil golden spacers to the case. At first, the computer wouldn't start.. I was like "weird" , and then I took off the power supply, and connected the other one OUTSIDE the case, and the computer started. Then, i connected the first power supply outside the case too, and it had started.

When i looked deeper into the screws, i saw that golden ones, and I got really scared. All I have done was taking the motherboard apart, mounting those spacers, mounting the motherboard again, and all went fine.

Well, I guess it was all luck.

[TBone01]

I was messing around with my usb headers on my motherboard while the computer was on and my knuckle hit the fan on my Cyclone GTX 460 and snapped off a fan blade after about only a week of owning it. Super-glued it back on and here we are, still working, 2 years later. Also regret only getting a 768mb 460 and not the 1gb.

[Xend54]

I tried to download more ram but all I got was a virus. :(

[BishopsToenail]

Drinking in front of my computer. Drinking way too much. I had my computer on the floor back then, right next to the table. I accidentally knocked a full 1 liter (33~34 ounces) glass of vodka mixed with cola off the table, and pretty much all of it ended up in the fans on top of the computer, blastering everything around it with vodka and cola for a few seconds before the computer died.

Everything in my old computer died except for my two hard drives. Too bad, that HD5850 was only a couple weeks old =/

something i never hope to experience with my RV03. its something that i never thought about when buying....

[amintha1992]

I tried to download more ram but all I got was a virus. :(

please tell me you are joking.,....

[ChaoticWolf]

Found a switch on the back of my power supply when I was young, got curious while the computer was on... :o

[ChaoticWolf]

I bought an hp desktop before I started building my own and hated it.

Did the same thing...

[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.

[Art Vandelay]

I bought a GTX 550 ti. I also may have broken it somehow.

[Brainiac777]

I bought a prebuild computer, biggest mistake EVAR.

[GrimmyG]

Cleaning my CPU Heatsink, removing the CPU and then placing it back in, not checking the pins were lined up and forcing my CPU into the housing, bending pins and breaking the housing. This was about 10 or so yrs ago, when P4's were very expensive, so i had to replace $1000+ worth of parts at the time, wasn't impressed.

[Bob]

Trying to add some bytehertz to my hdd, didn't work

LMFAO, best idea ever.

[Bob]

I tried to download more ram but all I got was a virus. :(

I doubt it

[Bob]

when I was doing my first build I put the RAM in backwards and broke the PCB on the RAM stick.

[TetraSky]

My biggest mistake, is busting the CPU socket of my Asus P7P55D-E Pro, while installing my CPU, I went in too quickly and the corner on the cpu completely smashed the pins of the socket. After contacting Asus, I found out that it would cost me over $150 to ship it and have it repaired by Asus (socket is not under warranty). So I basically lost my expensive board and had to go out and to buy a cheaper P7P55D-E LX instead. I hate these fragile sockets of Intel. I prefer the old socket style, like what AMD is still using, at least the pins are more robust.

[Helepolis]

I remember when I did my first dust cleaning on my first computer with a dedicated graphics card. I thought to myself "what's this weird residue underneath the heat sink? *wipes away* That should be much better". Took a few minutes to realize the errors of my decision.

[T-D0S]

I plugged in a hard drive while the computer was on. The hard drive didn't like me that much after that...

A different time I was petting my cat and she brushed up against my computer. I heard a ZAP and my computer shut off. Thankfully my computer was fine.

[rainbrodash666]

well I used a Hp computer for a long time before I built my own gaming rig, actually I am still using the 320gb drive from that hp for my os, but I bought a (don't laugh) vista computer. yeah vista didn't stay long, I ran ubuntu 9.10 I want to say and comp usa said that installing a different os voided my 3 year extended warranty

[Strange]

I bought three WD Caviar Blacks from a local computer store in town. Somehow two of the three drives were dead, and when i took it back to the store the same day they wouldn't give me a refund or replacement drives.

[gliliumho]

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.

Most of those people are just technicians with a little idea of how computer works, what part you need and that's all. Other than that, they're nothing but businessmen.

[A93nt47]

My first build I bought a case that came with a cheap PSU. Burned through 2 old nvidia 7 series cards before a friend shed some light on crap psu's. Got a new PSU and a sweet 8800gt then life was good.

[ToxicPT]

My biggest mistake, is busting the CPU socket of my Asus P7P55D-E Pro, while installing my CPU, I went in too quickly and the corner on the cpu completely smashed the pins of the socket. After contacting Asus, I found out that it would cost me over $150 to ship it and have it repaired by Asus (socket is not under warranty). So I basically lost my expensive board and had to go out and to buy a cheaper P7P55D-E LX instead. I hate these fragile sockets of Intel. I prefer the old socket style, like what AMD is still using, at least the pins are more robust.

You know, there cannot be any rush on building a computer. Unless you already know how the sockets will work, how memory is installed, and all that.

[remyseroos]

I was working on a pc for a friend of my and i kicked over a glass of Bacardi (yes, drunk to much...), and that killed the hole pc expect the HDD.

Had to pay a whole new € 800 pc :(