Most Common Ways to Kill a Computer

[TheRyuu]

It was on Tech Report. Thought it was sad, but funny in a way.

Text

 

[SparkyJJO]

Or what if you did everything right, then forgot to plug in the fan?

I did that once... oops, my dad's poor duron 1.2 was scorched nicely. still worked for several months afterwards tho.

 

[pkme2]

Just lucky, I guess. When a cheapo PSU gave up the ghost, my old computer continued working with a better PSU.

Most of the computers that I examine today succumb to overheating, which is my contribution to today's mix.
Next is PSU, and the balance, multiple maladies. Too numerous to note.
It's too often when I check peoples computers, I find them overburdened with dust and other stuff. Why?
I guess nobody really knows. Well, I get to see them after they burn out. Sad......

 

[thecoolnessrune]

My generic PSU blew and screwed up my MOBOs BIOS. no overclocking. Its recognized as a completely different board. Still runs fine though

 

[arcenite]

i enjoyed that

 

[Looney]

15 years ago with the AT poweradapters... you could easily put them in backwards, which often happened... and unlike Star Trek Voyager, when you reversed the polarity, good things didn't happen.

And motherboards were MUCH more expensive back then (so were PSUs)

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Looney
15 years ago with the AT poweradapters... you could easily put them in backwards, which often happened... and unlike Star Trek Voyager, when you reversed the polarity, good things didn't happen.

And motherboards were MUCH more expensive back then (so were PSUs)

Even worse was wiring them wrong to the DPDT switch on the chassis front panel. Turning on connected the mains neutral to the hotwire = instant CB trip, sometimes worse. :Q

At least it wouldn't kill anything on the motherboard - usually.

 

[Howard]

AFAIK, the only parts I've damaged were due to works of God (i.e. random stuff after a few years).

 

[xtknight]

I haven't damaged anything as far as I can remember, but when I was little, I was damned close to doing this:

Another common source of amusingly pyrotechnic computer disasters is that little self-destruct switch that most power supplies possess; that's right, the red switch that changes between 115 and 230 volts. Changing this to the wrong setting can cause a power supply failure as in the first part of this article in a matter of seconds. You really should know better.

Yeah, switching that little red thing. Glad I resisted that curiosity...

 

[filibusterman]

Originally posted by: Looney
15 years ago with the AT poweradapters... you could easily put them in backwards, which often happened... and unlike Star Trek Voyager, when you reversed the polarity, good things didn't happen.

And motherboards were MUCH more expensive back then (so were PSUs)

love the voyager ref!!!

 

[Cabages]

Ive been running my system on a PSU that came with my case, a sunbeam trio. Think its time for a upgrade?

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn

Originally posted by: Looney
15 years ago with the AT poweradapters... you could easily put them in backwards, which often happened... and unlike Star Trek Voyager, when you reversed the polarity, good things didn't happen.

And motherboards were MUCH more expensive back then (so were PSUs)

Even worse was wiring them wrong to the DPDT switch on the chassis front panel. Turning on connected the mains neutral to the hotwire = instant CB trip, sometimes worse. :Q

At least it wouldn't kill anything on the motherboard - usually.

LOL i still work on 4U racks with DPDT switches at the front. Only 3 wires, black, white, and green... but because they didn't take the time to just color the damn connectors, i always triple check them before actually connecting the power cable.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: filibusterman

Originally posted by: Looney
15 years ago with the AT poweradapters... you could easily put them in backwards, which often happened... and unlike Star Trek Voyager, when you reversed the polarity, good things didn't happen.

And motherboards were MUCH more expensive back then (so were PSUs)

love the voyager ref!!!

Yeah, i figured i'll kick this thread up a notch of nerdiness.

 

[GrammatonJP]

Basically build your own computer..

 

[Jawo]

Worst thing I have done is acidentially spilled some water on my laptop keyboard...which dripped through and fried my HDD...toast!

 

[imported_Tick]

I've ALMOST done all of those. Luckly the only damaged hardware I've got was damaged in shipping.

 

[Koharski]

worst story ever:

I was helping out at the local computer shop. They just got a 30" apple cinema display for their display system and we wanted to test it out after hoours. The only pc still on was the webserver that hosts the website.

so we plugged it in and basked at its glory. anyway, its getting late and so kevin grabs the monitor to carry to carry out of the room.

well, it was still plugged into the server, wich was up on the shelf. The server falls down, and hits the LCD on its way. Luckily it just cracked the screen, so we returned it. (shipping problem, obviously) but teh server was toast

 

[Bluestealth]

My Dual P3 machine processor fans both failed in a week.... its no problem though because they run fine without fans lol

 

[jmdeathsquad]

they forgot to mention spilling beer on it...

 

[alilxmas]

Bout 5 years ago, on a trip to England an british news show broadcasted a person that was at a party and drinking too much. He had to go, thought he was running to the bathroom but it was a small closet where the PC was, needless to say so he wizzed on the pc. Well it knocked himself back against the other wall, and the thing burst into flames, burning down a 4 family house.

I felt bad for the 4 family's but laughed for hours. We still laugh about it once and awhile when I go there to visit friends. Its usually brought up as we are saying good-bye, like "OK have a nice trip and don't go wizzin on any computers, now."

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Good read thanks OP.


...Galvanized

 

[thescreensavers]

Were is the sluge hammer?

 

[webley]

"My friend was having booting problems. Figuring it had something to do with his hardware, he turned the system around. Seeing a switch, he figured it might fix his problem, so he decides to flick it... 120v to 240volts... a huge white light illuminated inside his case and then his computer gurgled to a halt."

I always wondered what can happen; it's like the destruct button in the Austin Powers movie whose purpose is to offer another choice to make our lives more exciting. :disgust:

 

[Mark R]

I killed my first PC by taking the CPU out and putting it back. Unfortunately, I put it back in the socket backwards (180 degrees rotated).

Turned it on - black screen, then there was this burning smell and I see smoke starting to emanate from the space between the CPU and socket.

The CPU melted itself into the socket - I eventually managed to prise it out with a screwdriver. There were several holes in the socket that had been, err, enlarged and blackened, and the corresponding pins on the CPU had been scorched and the gold plating stripped off.

By great fortune, the scorched pins were diagonally symmetrical. So I put the CPU back in the correct way round. Put the PC back together again and RMAd it. Got a new one back a few days later.

 

[Bobthelost]

I had a PSU blow on me, there was a loud BANG, blue flash and a smell of burning electronics that led to a minor cardiovascular infraction. I was in the lab once and got told to unplug a capacitor from a power supply i was building, first time i'd seen copper and plastic burn, good days