Post your first FAIL

Norton · Feb 5, 2012

Most of us have been building our own PC's for a long time and we all know with any success there is a near certain chance for FAIL

Post up your first big FAIL and the lesson learned from it....

Here's mine:

I was running a Socket A system with a 1Ghz Athlon at the time. In the middle of playing a game, Unreal I think it was, I heard a snap inside my PC followed by a rattling noise and a crash.

I was just at the wtf moment when the PC shut down and wouldn't restart??? Pulled the side panel off and realized that the CPU cooler had snapped off the socket and fell off into the bottom of the case.... burned the CPU out in like 10 seconds :wtf:

Lesson learned:
I always ensure my CPU runs as cool as possible and the cooler is mounted securely

entropy13 · Feb 5, 2012

Not that much of a fail though in my case. Forgot to reconnect the PCI-E connectors to the HD 4870. :laugh:

crazyeyesreaper · Feb 5, 2012

Was overclocking an Athlon X2 4400+ to 3.4ghz when my MSI Nforce 570 board caught on fire. I put the fire out reconnected everything and kept on trying. eventually succeeded so i backed it down to 2.8ghz and its run fine for 5+ years

JrRacinFan · Feb 5, 2012

Socket + wires = death. No need to say more. LOL

Yukikaze · Feb 5, 2012

Cheapo MSI P45 Motherboard + Q6600 (B3) + 1.45v = FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIREEEEEEEE.

Next board was a DFI P45 which could deal with the heat...heh.

ThE_MaD_ShOt · Feb 5, 2012

Norton said:
Most of us have been building our own PC's for a long time and we all know with any success there is a near certain chance for FAIL

Post up your first big FAIL and the lesson learned from it....

Here's mine:

I was running a Socket A system with a 1Ghz Athlon at the time. In the middle of playing a game, Unreal I think it was, I heard a snap inside my PC followed by a rattling noise and a crash.

I was just at the wtf moment when the PC shut down and wouldn't restart??? Pulled the side panel off and realized that the CPU cooler had snapped off the socket and fell off into the bottom of the case.... burned the CPU out in like 10 seconds

Lesson learned:
I always ensure my CPU runs as cool as possible and the cooler is mounted securely

Do I happen to have that mobo now lol :laugh:

Mine would be I was updating the bios on a Shuttle AI6 slot A board and forced the wrong bios file and that spelled the end to that bios chip. I actually still have the bios chip but not the board.

DonInKansas · Feb 5, 2012

My professor told me a story about a girl in his class who tried to remove RAM from a computer that was still turned on. :laugh:

slyfox2151 · Feb 5, 2012

Shitty PSU + motherboard screwed directly to the case (no spacers) = massive electrical sparks flying out.

JrRacinFan · Feb 5, 2012

DonInKansas said:
My professor told me a story about a girl in his class who tried to remove RAM from a computer that was still turned on.

What's wrong with that?! :ohwell:

phanbuey · Feb 5, 2012

DonInKansas said:
My professor told me a story about a girl in his class who tried to remove RAM from a computer that was still turned on.

ive done that - it just shuts off.

My first fail was when I was trying to overclock my voodoo banshee and forced too high of a refresh on the monitor... pop.

Then I tried to setup a raid system with old used drives on my emachines rig and a customg gfx (9550 pencil modded) with the stock PSU... also pop. Or that time I forgot to hook up my water pump after rebuilding wc loop on my q6600 almost melted the block's plastic fittings. Or the time one of the tubes popped off after leak testing and drenched both gtx 260's in the system. Or that time that the base of a CPU cooler touched a resistor and litterally burned my board on the back....

man... there was a lot of times. :roll:

arnoo1 · Feb 5, 2012

Alot of years back i rebuild a p3 rig and i connected it wrong, luckely the psu had alot of Security features so only the psu burned

Widjaja · Feb 5, 2012

Installing a faulty PSU into a customers PC while he stands there watching.
I plug in the PSU and noticed I was getting a sharp pain where my forearm was touching the case.
Suspect electric shock.

I walk away for a few seconds and the other tech turns on the PC to find the PSU starts smoking infront of the customer.

AlienIsGOD · Feb 5, 2012

My first AMD build, I forgot to properly push the arm down on the CPU socket. Bent about 10-12 pins on the X2 240 >_< My friend had to straighten them out and has never let me forget about it. lesson learned? Buy Intel and not have to worry about pins as much

jpierce55 · Feb 5, 2012

Mine lead to me finding this site. It was a high end system when I built it. I had a 2800+Barton a friend got for me before its official release, a 9700 pro, 512mb of ddr400, a Shuttle mobo I can't remember, and a Hercules cooler. All in a Black Dragon case.

Where did it go wrong? In 2006 the HEC PSU failed and took everything out but the g-card and ram. Those I sold since AGP was a forgotten thing by that point. That is when I found out all psu's are not what they claim or of good quality.

Outback Bronze · Feb 5, 2012

Some of my biggest fails, well shit.....hmmm Memory not in, cpu heatsink not on, gpu card not in, cpu power not in, atx power not in and hard drives not it. Never fried anything though. Lucky ey!!

mmmmmmmm beer!

Sasqui · Feb 5, 2012

Pulling out an AGP video card with the system still running. D'OH!

newtekie1 · Feb 5, 2012

When mounting a Thermalright socket 478 cooler on my first custom build I built entirely myself I put the mounting bracket on the cooler upside down. So when I tightened the mounting screws they bottomed out but didn't actually put enough pressure on the cooler to have it hold down to the CPU.

The machine ran fine for a day when I had it sitting on its side while I was finishing up the cable management, gravity held the cooler down to the CPU. Then I turned the PC upright and the machine turned itself off almost instantly. It took me an hour to figure out why it was turning itself off when standing upright and working fine on its side. Then one time when I was turning it upright, I saw the CPU cooler "pop" off the CPU and instantly knew...

bbmarley · Feb 5, 2012

forgetting risers and wondering why pc wont say boot up

Norton · Feb 5, 2012

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:
Do I happen to have that mobo now lol

Mine would be I was updating the bios on a Shuttle AI6 slot A board and forced the wrong bios file and that spelled the end to that bios chip. I actually still have the bios chip but not the board.

The board you have is either that one or its replacement
- check the the CPU socket... if one of the cooler tabs is broken off then you have the one :laugh:

Luckily an aftermarket cooler's hold downs are different and I was able re-use the board with a different cooler. :cool:

The burnt CPU spent some time sitting on my desk with the blown connecting rod from the first and only engine I bought that I didn't rebuild myself before installing in my ride. Over the years both items seem to have disappeared.... only the memories remain.

Thanks to everyone for the responses and keep them coming :toast:

cadaveca · Feb 5, 2012

The only part I have ever broken was an ASUS X800XT that I had hardmods on. The mod was acting really weird, so I cut it off the card...wit hthe system running.(oops). Cutting the mod with metal cutters lead to the mod being bypassed, and the memory fried.

Blown a few fan headers on boards..but they all still worked. Hardware is actually pretty resilient as long as you are not pushing it too hard.

ThE_MaD_ShOt · Feb 5, 2012

Norton said:
The board you have is either that one or its replacement
- check the the CPU socket... if one of the cooler tabs is broken off then you have the one

Luckily an aftermarket cooler's hold downs are different and I was able re-use the board with a different cooler.

The burnt CPU spent some time sitting on my desk with the blown connecting rod from the first and only engine I bought that I didn't rebuild myself before installing in my ride. Over the years both items seem to have disappeared.... only the memories remain.

Thanks to everyone for the responses and keep them coming

And that will be it. (Norton I will take special care of it since you have memories attached to it and if you need it back let me know) That exact board Norton was referring to is now the foundation for my win 98 build. The board still runs great. :toast:

_JP_ · Feb 5, 2012

Can't remember my first fail...so long ago, but I sometimes have some FAIL moments.
Just three days ago, I was trying to revive my NF7-S (because of Abit's site going down) and the darn thing wasn't POSTing. Constant long beeping (usually RAM related).
Took me a while before I noticed the floppy cable wasn't properly connected (upside down). :banghead:

Btw, typing this in said machine, via remote desktop on my laptop.

Norton · Feb 5, 2012

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:
And that will be it. (Norton I will take special care of it since you have memories attached to it and if you need it back let me know) That exact board Norton was referring to is now the foundation for my win 98 build. The board still runs great.

That board found a good home- I get to see it when I check your progress on Project Old School

mlee49 · Feb 5, 2012

I touched my video card to see if it was warm, accidentally shorted something out because of my wedding ring.

Turned off instantly but rebooted just fine.

ThE_MaD_ShOt · Feb 5, 2012

mlee49 said:
I touched my video card to see if it was warm, accidentally shorted something out because of my wedding ring.

Turned off instantly but rebooted just fine.

Oh hell I done that without the shorting part but I hit the fan and took some skin off. :laugh:

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Post your first FAIL

Norton

Moderator - Returning from the Darkness

entropy13

crazyeyesreaper

Not a Moderator

JrRacinFan

Served 5k and counting ...

Yukikaze

ThE_MaD_ShOt

DonInKansas

slyfox2151

JrRacinFan

Served 5k and counting ...

phanbuey

arnoo1

Widjaja

AlienIsGOD

Vanguard Beta Tester

jpierce55

Outback Bronze

Super Moderator

Sasqui

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

bbmarley

Norton

Moderator - Returning from the Darkness

cadaveca

My name is Dave

ThE_MaD_ShOt

_JP_

Norton

Moderator - Returning from the Darkness

mlee49

ThE_MaD_ShOt

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Processor	I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
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Video Card(s)	Intel HD Graphics™ 4000 (GPU clk: 1100MHz, vRAM clk: 1066MHz)
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Software	MicrosoftⓇ WindowsⓇ 10 x86-64 (22H2)

Processor	Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard	AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling	Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory	32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super
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Case	Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s)	Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply	eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

Processor	2500k
Motherboard	Asrock Extreme3 Gen3
Cooling	CM Hyper 212 EVO
Memory	16G Corsair Vengence
Video Card(s)	XFX 390 DD BE
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Processor	9800x3D
Motherboard	Asus 870E STRIX
Cooling	Custom Water
Memory	32 GB 6400 MTs
Video Card(s)	Asus 3080 TUF
Storage	2TB Crucial T705
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Case	Lian Li O11 Dynamic
Audio Device(s)	ON BOARD FTW
Power Supply	Corsair 1000W
Mouse	Corsair something
Keyboard	Steelseries
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