Worst Tech mistake you have ever made?

[JuztBe]

If you have to use force to remove the cooler there is something wrong don't use force on a motherboard... You will definitely break something.

I know... Now.

Had to learn this the hard way. I happen around 5 years ago. 

[79wjd]

If you have to use force to remove the cooler there is something wrong don't use force on a motherboard... You will definitely break something.

That's debatable. Some 24pin cables are pretty tight and require you to use enough force to flex the motherboard quite a bit; motherboards are actually pretty strong. 

[Principis]

That's debatable. Some 24pin cables are pretty tight and require you to use enough force to flex the motherboard quite a bit; motherboards are actually pretty strong.

I am really carefull when that happens to me

[Crowes]

I flicked flicked the "Slow Mode" switch on my old MSI board whilst swapping out a faulty CPU. I thought my new one was also faulty because it was running at 2GHz.

[DXMember]

I pluged the front panel USB 2.0 in reverse.... doesn't sound that bad on paper

welll that thing took out like two 512MB, three 1GB and I think one 2GB thumbdrive in a ten minute span before I started to figure out why the hell none of my USB sticks get recognized and why they would never ever get recognized again after that

[soup]

I pluged the front panel USB 2.0 in reverse....

 

How did you manage that?  Thought there was a missing pin and a blocked socket so you COULDN'T do that.

[DXMember]

How did you manage that?  Thought there was a missing pin and a blocked socket so you COULDN'T do that.

the case pins were not labeled and two different Gigabyte boards had the USB pins in a complete reverse

alse it wasn't a front panel connector for everything that would come as block, every pin was individual and since the pinse of the case were not labeled I just pluged them all out at once and plugged on the new mobo in the same way

 

only after I killed like 5 or 6 sticks I realised something fishy was going on and opened up the manual to both boards and see that the pin designation was indeed different

[79wjd]

the case pins were not labeled and two different Gigabyte boards had the USB pins in a complete reverse

alse it wasn't a front panel connector for everything that would come as block, every pin was individual and since the pinse of the case were not labeled I just pluged them all out at once and plugged on the new mobo in the same way

 

only after I killed like 5 or 6 sticks I realised something fishy was going on and opened up the manual to both boards and see that the pin designation was indeed different

The front panel pins often aren't labeled, but the USB header is key'ed so the internal cable can only physically go in one way. 

[Brennan Price]

Make sure to wash both thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol! I brought a GTX 760 back from the same fate as your keyboard using it!

I feel that isnt needed as the peripherals were just thirsty...

[Gibs960]

While I like my case, I didn't think about what upgrades I'd have to do in the future so I'm sort of limited what I can do in terms of CPU coolers and that sort of thing!

[DXMember]

The front panel pins often aren't labeled, but the USB header is key'ed so the internal cable can only physically go in one way. 

are you seriously arguing with me on the subject of my experience I've had over 5 years ago?

my memories might not be as fresh but I sure as hell would have remembered some dude from the internet standing behind my back looking at wether or not my connectors were keyed

[SufficientSwimmer]

Buying a GTX 960 instead of a r9 280/x. To be fair, I did have a crappy 450w psu at the time and I didn't know if a 280 would work (In retrospect I probably should've bought a new psu instead of a new gpu. At the time I had a GT 640.)

[SteinerW]

Mine was not debugging my system when it it started freezing. I thought it was my ssd failing... And it was... But I never tried a known good drive. Turns out, the motherboard was failing, and took out 2 of my ssds before I realized.

[DXMember]

Mine was not debugging my system when it it started freezing. I thought it was my ssd failing... And it was... But I never tried a known good drive. Turns out, the motherboard was failing, and took out 2 of my ssds before I realized.

that's almost like my story, only the flash sticks were probably a bit larger in capacity than 512 MB

[WkdPaul]

Worst mistake was when I bought a consumer grade HP laptop ... not saying all HP laptops are bad, just that their customer service for consumer grade products is abysmal!!!!

 

Laptop broke down 2-3 months before the warranty ended, somehow customer reps (called 3 times and talked to 3 different ones) kept telling me they couldn't find my laptop model # or serial # in the system. Told them the laptop model was still on the Canadian HP website, but somehow they stayed firm that my laptop was too old and that's why they couldn't find it (lol what?).

 

On the 3rd call the rep even told me I should just buy a new laptop!!!! SERIOUSLY??? I call them so they can fix a computer that is still under warranty and they tell me that I should by a new laptop???

 

After that 3rd call I found the RMA form on their website, filled and supplied receipt, pictures of the serial#, an explanation of my 3 calls and threats that if I didn't received an RMA confirmation I would place a complaint with my local customer protection agency (Quebec OPC). Funny enough, the next morning I had an RMA confirmation and excuses in my inbox.

 

I had to RMA other products before and since, but I never had problems with RMAs like the one with HP, or was I ever told to buy a new product when on a call about a product under warranty. That's when I decided to never ever buy an HP product again.

[littlepigboy5]

I have a few.  My first pc upgrade was taking my then current dell and upgrading it was a 550 ti and a new psu, but because dell is a dick no atx psus didn't fit the form factor, so i spent a few hours with a file( i had no tools, i was like 12), and finally got it to fit.  Then later when i got a new case mobo and cpu i spent 3 days troubleshooting only to give up, send it to a pc repair place for them to give it back to me in a few seconds saying that the switch on the back of the psu wasn't on.  Accidentally wiped my windows drive when trying to dual boot with linux.  not plugging in cpu fan and wondering why my cpu kept overheating.  basic stuff, lol

[Corwin111]

Well I have bent pins on the CPU sockets of two previous mobos (although I fixed them on one of them, with which I was pretty proud), and I somehow managed to bend a pin on one of the RAM slots in my current mobo, rendering the slot useless and needing to switch to 2x8 from 4x4. But all this is just par for the course if you like to tinker, I guess.

 

Still, I think my worst "God, I'm such a noob" moment was when I connected the front-facing USB 2.0 of my case to the IEEE 1394 (firewire) connector on the 775 mobo I had at the time. For some reason the pin distribution of both connectors was exactly the same, so who cares if USB is blue and Firewire is red eh? Well the result was depressingly hilarious.

 

What followed was me trying time and time again to use a USB stick, and wondering how come ALL of my USB drives are dying right after I plug them into the friggin front facing port! I wasted about 5 USB thumb sticks before realizing what was going on - namely that they were just not taking too kindly to the 30 volts being pumped by firewire, where they were expecting to encounter a comfortable 5.

 

On the bright side, it is a good thing to know, I guess. If your mobo has a firewire connector, you can turn your front-facing USB into an extremely effective and easy to use thumb stick shredder. You no longer need to worry about safely disposing of your unwanted data. Just plug it in and it's gone.

[D4V3_G]

When I was 11 I tried to download RAM -.- and about 5 years ago I stuck an uninsulated screwdriver in the PSU(I think I wanted to check why the fan was making weird noise) and guess I hit the main power line(230v)... After that experience I went to school and studied for a electrician. -Would mess with the power supply again  :lol:

[PC POWER]

Interesting read.  Can't think of any memorable mistakes right now.

[kajar9]

Bought Cooler Master Thunder 700W PSU - Didn't consider the loudness of this sucker. And as it's in my bedroom, I did notice.
My old cheapo CodeGen 500W PSU was a lot more silent.

Also... 700W is just barely too little for another R9 290 videocard to crossfire.

When I bought my R9 290 from a game testing firm they had only r9 290's with reference coolers or r9 280x with DirectCU II.
I think I would have even chosen the more quiet and less powerful card from them....

Although I did get the 290 for 160€ for a card which was actively used for 4 months.

[Jenkinsrino]

I got blue screened when I attempted to blow up 300 tnts at once on minecraft.... *_* then on my laptop the same thing..... Minecraft is slowly killing my hdware absolute rip..... Was a school computer no worries but fuck me

[Darts401]

I regret buying a Coolpad Rogue.. Waste of $20

[DebatED Nothing]

Friend gave me his rig so I could figure out where is the problem in my rig.

When I was trying to take off a cooler it was like glued to the CPU. Some stupid thermal compound was used.

I've used a lot of force until cooler came off... with a God damn CPU stuck underneath it. Few pins got bent. I've straighten few of them, but one of them stayed bent or even break off(can't recall).

I've put everything right back. And it worked! Changed thermal paste and never told him about this accident. 

I know... Now.

Had to learn this the hard way. I happen around 5 years ago. 

This happened to me quite recently. Some thermal pastes act like fairly strong adhesives when they're cold and applied in too large a quantity. I was able to remove the cooler from my FX8350 without causing any damage by placing it fan down and using a hair dryer to warm up the cooler and soften the thermal paste. At that point it came off easily.

 

My advice: always run a system for a while before trying to remove the cooler, just to make sure that the thermal paste is nice and soft and will come off easily.

[SuperShires]

I love my computer, but I wish I didnt build such an overkill system and I wish it was in a mini ITX form factor. I dont even play games anymore, I must use like 2% of my system haha.

[kelvindeschutter]

I got blue screened when I attempted to blow up 300 tnts at once on minecraft.... *_* then on my laptop the same thing..... Minecraft is slowly killing my hdware absolute rip..... Was a school computer no worries but fuck me

that should blue screen a pc. minecraft is more like to crash of lagg than to bleuscreen a pc