Worst Tech mistake you have ever made?

[NvidiaIntelAMDLoveTriangle]

Buying an Antec case that had faulty front panel connectors which I didn't see because the problem was right at the top where the switches were, so hidden, that fried my motherboard, lucky that's the only thing that fucking case took with it.

Naturally I contacted Antec and their response was and I quote "Not our problem."

 

Lesson learned never to buy an Antec product ever again, not because it had a faulty problem, it could happen to any manufacturer, but because of their response.

And no I did not install the motherboard incorrectly or the front panel wires.

[TetraSky]

On my first PC? Didn't make any real mistake. Everything just worked out fine without issues.

My mistakes started with my second PC, first one being choosing an AMD CPU, that caused nothing but issues(Hypertransport Sync Flood Error), buying multiple motherboards, ram and another cpu with a different stepping hoping it would fix the issue... nope. So much money was wasted on that computer trying to make it work... It never did.

Second one being destroying the CPU socket after I switched to Intel, by inserting the CPU sideway like a distracted dumbass. From there everything worked for 7 years so far.

 

Oh and like anyone else, I also did forget plugging the power cable and wondering why it wouldn't boot.

[1080]

Connected power LED backwards. Took case back to Microcenter and they tested it and it worked fine. Took me a few more weeks to realize the problem

[NvidiaIntelAMDLoveTriangle]

To be honest, I once forgot to install the standoffs, so I screwed the motherboard directly to the case while I was thinking I already installed that standoffs.

The entire time I was sure I did install the standoffs, then when I wanted to install the video card and tv tuners (this was a build for someone else) the metal on the back of the case didn't quite line up so I forced the metal to bend in order to install everything. I thought it was really just a garbage case.

Finished, started the system wouldn't boot, then I check if everything was plugged in and for some reason I unplugged the usb 2.0 front panel connects from the motherboard and the system booted perfectly with no standoffs and it worked for some months in that way.

 

It was only after the guy bought a new case and wanted me to put everything in the new case, did I notice that I didn't install the standoffs.

Do anyone know why it worked perfectly fine as long as the front panel usb 2.0 connects weren't connected?

 

 

[Guest]

Plugged a AGP card into a PCI-E port

[PSUGuru]

My first build? Nothing. Everything was flawless. Probably because I meticulously built the thing.

[thorhammerz]

On 10/6/2017 at 3:41 PM, Max Caulfield said:

Forgot to put the I/O shield

Me as well .

 

I also had a case-fan cable stuck between the IO shield and the motherboard... and then realizing the cable wasn't long enough AFTER I screwed everything else in .

[thorhammerz]

Buying a $35 CAD air cooler while trying to overclock a non-delidded i7-7700k.

 

Admittedly, it was a great toaster.

[sai vivek]

ram slots wrong 

forgot to plug in ps

 

[leodaniel]

Bought a mobo which was compatible with my CPU, but needed a bios update... unfortunately to upgrade the bios you needed a supported CPU, which I did not have... took days to figure that out, replaced the mobo, tried everything until I got it... needed to buy a new BIOS Chip with the newest BIOS... then all worked fine   

[Cruorzy]

13 hours ago, valdyrgramr said:

That's really weird.  I told them I thought I had an issue with my R9 Fury and they jumped right on that.

People have different experiences, what they do to one person isn't always the same they do to another.

 

My card died later with the same issue, so that is why I won't buy sapphire anymore.

 

But you won't see me hating and telling nobody should buy their products due my experience with them.

[AnonDontAsk]

First time I installed a GPU I didn't realise I had to plug in the 6 pin connector and spent the day thinking I'd killed it when I got a black screen. The first time I then built a PC I forgot to put in the motherboard standoffs

[JMSOG]

Oh, building it went fine. It took forever, since I was teaching myself how to do it as I went, but after a week of working on it after school, it ran phenomenally. I was so happy.

 

The Mistake arose when I upgraded my system three years later when I did my second build, and realized that I never updated the BIOS. Ever.

[ıllıllı ĐÖŖÄŅ VŮ ȚŸË ıllıllı]

3 years ago I almost bought DDR4 ram for a DDR3 build...

 

Thank god I asked a friend to look over the build before I ordered.

[Cruorzy]

28 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

True, but their staff could have changed.  I have had a similar experience, but it was with a known bad one, MSI.

Well in such a sort time I do not thinkso. And to be honest they aren't really dominant in the market anymore. Or am I out to date on their stuff?

[Drak3]

Never made a mistake when actually building.

[minervx]

• Not locating where all the pins go before installing the motherboard.
• Not disassembling the case a bit before installing the motherboard.
• Not installing the IO Shield before installing the motherboard.
• Not buying a fan splitter for my 4 case fans
• Not downloading an anti-virus as soon as I booted up Windows 10
• Installing the graphics card before connecting all of the pins beneath it.
• Going for Micro ATX (it's just as big as ATX but not nearly as roomy)

[Hybris5112]

Bought a FX 9590 processor and didn't check motherboard compatibility. After that I've never complained about Intel chips needing new motherboards every generation as AMD has shown me that keeping the same socket until its stale only invites unusual compatibility issues with newer chips.

[TheNuclearBrony]

I bought a 600 dollar bre built. Several months later it suddenly started to shut off on its own. Not knowing wat was wrong with it at the time, i took it apart and checked the wires. All seemed fine. I put it pack together and tyrned it on. The heatsink fan wouldnt spin. So i took the fan off and tried cleaning it. The blades snapped off. I was out a heatsink so i scrapped it. Now that i look back at it it mightve just been the PSU or my outlet. And no i didnt get a warranty wen i bought it. Thats my tech mistake story. 

[DustinMville]

i wasn't going to post on this thread as it was made in 2013 but seeing that people are still posting (newest being a few minutes ago) so i might as well post anyways.

 

i am still pretty young so i haven't had very many bad things happen but the worst mistake i have ever made is not backing up my android tablet sounds like a minor thing because most people don't think about backing up their mobile devices as you just expect them to work but in my case not backing it up was a huge mistake as recently (oct 1 2017) it froze then turned off and it have not turned back on since and being that it was my main media device i had a lot of stuff on it which unless i can get it too boot again is lost (Yes i have tried a hard reset it did not work.) worst part is that i had the password for one of my secondary email accounts stored on it (which is just as stupid if not stupider than not backing up your stuff)

seriously backup your mobile devices especially if it is an older android device as they can crash and die

[MikeCgamez]

When I was younger I forget to plug in the cooling fan on my Intel Pentium 4 took me a few minutes of wondering why it was running so slow didn’t even turn it off. Just plugged it in while it was running and waited for it to speed back up it got so hot it warped the fan shroud a bit could even smell roasting plastic.

[PureCrispyBacon]

My first build was an office PC for my dad. I literally didn't screw up at all, which was surprising considering I had only a vague idea of what I was doing. It booted on my first try, and everything was detected and running at the right speeds.

[PlayStation 2]

Cable management. Rather, lack thereof.

[Salacious B Crum]

Forgot to flip the PSU switch on, spent 10 frantic minutes trying to figure out what wire was not connected But in my defense there were no other issues!

[JoostinOnline]

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