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What is the stupidest computer related thing you have done ?

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Twice now I've shorted out my computer by putting the case door back on when a particularly stubborn unused molex had come loose and the connector was close enough to touch the door when I put it back on. There's plastic around it, but apparently not enough. Two loud pops and two near-heart-attacks, but no real damage done. I put a big twist-tie on the lil bastige, shouldn't be coming loose again anytime soon.
 
Back when we first got a computer when I was 6/7 years old we got a couple games, including a Star Wars X-Wing game. I didn't know how to install the game (manual anyone? lol) so I messed around and eventually wound up running MS Backup on the disk and backed something up onto the installation disks. I thought it was working because there was a progress bar that looked like it was installing... lol 😀.

We ended up taking back the software and exchanging it because we said it didn't work. The guy at the place said that it looked like someone tried to back something up onto the disks. We were like "Uh no, we don't know about that." 😕
 
I tried to measure the fan header voltage with a multimeter, accidently crossed the leads and it blew some stuff out. A small IC next to PCI#1 literally blew up, shedding its casing.. PCI#1 no longer worked, nor the fan headers. The board still seemed to work fine, though.

This was before hardware monitoring became commonplace.
Originally posted by: Acanthus
Originally posted by: Ime
Left one too many motherboard mounting posts in the case... resting against the back of the MB...

Never seen blue flame shoot out of a MB before then...
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How in the hell can 12v generate a spark? let alone a flame?
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12V can generate PLENTY of sparks.. trust me. 😉

As for the flame part, often when a jet of smoke is being pushed out of a component, it looks like a flame in the light.
 
the first computer that i built, i did not realize that you had to use the mounting screws for the motherboard. the computer did not work properly until i called over my friend to take a look at it to see what was wrong. we spent a couple hours trying to figure it out but did not know what the problem was until he looked in the motherboard box and said, "man, this motherboard sure comes with a lot of mounting screws..."
 
i tried pulling my radeon 9800 pro AiW out of the agp slot to clean the fan and forgot the monitor was still plugged into it. im such a newb.
 
Originally posted by: amdskip
Formatted the wrong drive, shocked myself on a motherboard somehow.
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LMAO so did I...Once I realized I was formatting the wrong drive it was to late to stop it 🙁 My Old man was pissed I blew away about 40 gig of his prime pr0n 😉

Sysadmin
 
I spilled lemonade onto my motherboard while it was still on. I knew they made case covers for a reason! The mobo actually worked a week or 2, then it died.
 
Long ago, while very tired and working on a server alone, late at night, I reached behind the cover and touched the exposed connection between the power supply and the on/off switch. I had a very shocking wake up call, followed by 10-20 minutes of lying on the floor alone to recover. That was when I decided, I better go home and try again when I was not so tired.
 
any time i agree to build a computer for somebody i know (and end up having to give lifetime support), i just feel stupider and stupider
 
up too late... plugged in a 2.5" hdd (with adapter) into my main system before turning the main system off. fried the hdd.
 
Originally posted by: Mday
up too late... plugged in a 2.5" hdd (with adapter) into my main system before turning the main system off. fried the hdd.
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nice!

<---panicking because computer wouldn't turn on, disassembling, testing. powerstrip was turned off.

😀oh!:
 
Originally posted by: loki8481
Originally posted by: xSauronx
bought a fvcking external zip drive
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haha.

me too. it happened during that period of time where floppies weren't big enough, CD-RW's weren't cheap enough, and the internet wasn't fast enough. a Zip drive was the only way to cart around large files.
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i still use my zip drive, external one, no point in burning 10 megs to a CD zip drive works fine

stupides thing ive done?
well i stuck my finger in a fan nce that sucked, broken fan + blood, not a good time

ive unplugged a HD while the com was running
 
Originally posted by: Mandos
Lost the drivers to my NIC and had to go out, buy a new NIC< to download drivers to use the old NIC to download software and other essentials.


Play pr0n with the sound blarin on my speakers as well as my headphones

I cant say I've ever done anything stupid hardware wise, as I'm extremely careful when it comes to that.
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Awesome! I had a friend who did that when his grandparents were visiting. Funny as hell
 
I didn't do this, but my friend did against my advice (last semester too) He was having problems with his computer not booting, wasn't sure if it was cpu or motherboardm so he asked someone at an electronics shop similar to radioshack how to tell and they told him to take the HSF off his 1.4 tbird and turn it on and put your finger on it, if it gets hot its the motherboard. Well suffice it to say he now DID have a dead processor lol
 
I was fixing my machine internally with a magnetic screwdriver...i dint know...and i touched a cpacitor and blew my mobo and electricuted myself at the same time.
 
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