Post your first FAIL

[redeye]

wrecked an ATi xt800 aiw, due to the zalman silent cooler clamping it too hard, causing ram issues and so received a new one from ATI, but because didn't want to get up for pliers, used a screwdriver, it slipped knocking off an smd resistor wrecking the card. dead card!, in the dead parts pile...

wrecked a Ati 9700 because a capacitor was to close to the agp release lever, so I pushed off the capacitor, didn't RMA It because i modified the cooler, voiding the warranty., in dead parts pile...

because i didn't know that there was fan control software for an Asus 4870 dark knight, i cut and modified the fan cable for the card(voiding the warranty), and the spring from the scythe Cpu HSF fell on the card shorting the power section of the 4870, so that the it wouldnt allow the pc to post because the 4870 said "hook up the power cables to the card" but they were. in dead parts pile...

killed a "pc power and cooling ultra silent psu" (ROFLMAO over the title.. so untrue) (way back in the day) when a screwdriver bit fell and shorted the power supply (sparks)... in dead parts pile...

killed the cpu fan header on a m3a32mvp, buy shorting it. not in dead parts pile...

lost a 3200amd cpu because of a bent pin. in dead parts pile...

almost lost an PNY 560ti card because of the arctic cooler extreme II clearance issues... i say almost because i had set it aside for months thinking it was toast, but then a got a 990fx sabertooth with SLI anddecided to see if the pny along with a gigabyte 560ti if it would work... it did (the PNY) no display, but it worked in SLI, so i went back put the arctic cooler back on, bolted the backplate to the card, and it's working now. not in the dead parts pile.

finally, in a stroke of back luck, my sabertooth 990fx has to be RMA'd (not due to my fault!) because the first pcie slot is stuck at 8x, the onboard audio does not work (it was working through my monitor but just stopped working.)
now the PCIE slot one will not recognize nvidia cards (9800gtx, 560ti) but will recognize my AMD 6950!... not in the dead parts pile. yet (but needs rma, is it will be in asus's dead parts pile...)

 

[Sir B. Fannybottom]

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

Back when I was waiting for my A770DE+ to be RMAed I had only my laptop, and I didn't want to spend money on a cooler so I took a bunch of fans and zip tied them together. One day I was picking my laptop up and my finger grazed a fan... That hurt like a mofo it cut my hand and broke a blade off the fan..

 

[Zen_]

Hmm...first piece of hardware I destroyed due to user incompetence was an 800 MHz Duron in my father's computer. It was overheating because the stock HSF's used when AMD switch from slot A to socket A had useless thermal tape, so I took it off to put thermal paste on, but forgot to put the paste on! Started up, smelled a tinge of electrical burning, and that was the end of that Duron.

Shortly after that I also ruined a Soltek KT266A board trying to do a v-mod, even after practicing on a junk board. Thankfully that was right about the time that Abit and EPoX started offering far more aggressive voltage stettings out of the box.

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

I seem to remember a couple stories when Thermalright first introduced the all copper heatsinks of people that had the whole CPU socket ripped off the board

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

I have a socket A hsf I bought because it looked cool at the time. A thermaltake Dragon orb 3. Needless to say it has never been removed from the package due to how much it weights. I though that exact thing was going to happen if I installed it. Here's a pic

Solid cooper base. things feels like it weights 5 pounds. lol Doesn't look it though.

 

[Black Panther]

Once I was checking temperatures inside my case using my fingers, got too distracted and hit the cpu fan with my knuckles, got startled and hit them again against the rear exhaust fan. Today I know that apparently innocent plastic fans are as sharp as rotating blades while running..

But the worse one was on one of my older pc's. The RAM was really hard to click in place, I had the pc on its side and was afraid of using to much force. So I kinda tried to massage the RAM very firmly up and down.
Suddenly I saw blood pouring over the ram and onto the mobo. I had cut my fingers quite deeply. I cleaned up the ram and mobo with alcohol and they worked.

 

[Norton]

Once I was checking temperatures inside my case using my fingers, got too distracted and hit the cpu fan with my knuckles, got startled and hit them again against the rear exhaust fan. Today I know that apparently innocent plastic fans are as sharp as rotating blades while running..

But the worse one was on one of my older pc's. The RAM was really hard to click in place, I had the pc on its side and was afraid of using to much force. So I kinda tried to massage the RAM very firmly up and down.
Suddenly I saw blood pouring over the ram and onto the mobo. I had cut my fingers quite deeply. I cleaned up the ram and mobo with alcohol and they worked.

Now that's bleeding edge hardware

I found out that the fan on my 4870 Dark Knight Top can take off part of a fingernail and not stop- ouch

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I just got a 1055t about 2 months after they came out and I was in a hurry to try it out....
I didn't feel like taking the time to remove the mobo to change out the HSF bracket to a bolt on enzo type something that I modded and instead used the provided AM2/+/3 kit...Turns out the bracket to hold the HDF was razor sharp...The TIM I used was this and formed a perfect vacuum seal...

But that's not all....

After I realized that the bracket cut the nub off and destroyed my cpu I destroyed my HSF with a hammer out of anger...


Here is my original post afterwards...

I just bought a brand spanking new AMD processor which I will not name and when I put my Xiggy on it I used the AM2 bracket that came with it....

after getting it seated and whatnot I checked out the New cpu in the BIOS and made sure everything was fine..

I then set off to load windows when I heard Snap bam dat dat dat.... and My screen instantly went black..

I opened up my case to find my Xiggy had snapped my retention Bracket and ripping my new cpu out of the socket leaving 7 pins behind and bending half of the Remaining pins...

I blacked out for a bit after that waking up with the hammer in my hands and completely sick to my Stomach...
I will never buy a heavy CPU cooler ever again..even though that Xiggy was a good cooler I don't regret smashing it up...
Instead of just losing a CPU I flipped out.


Not my first FAIL but the most expensive and epic.

 

[PaulieG]

The first time I attempted a complete build, I destroyed a MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard by installing the motherboard without using standoffs. I was just being impatient. Complete FAIL. However, it was my only fail. I learned to be OCD like when building.

 

[jpierce55]

Once I was checking temperatures inside my case using my fingers, got too distracted and hit the cpu fan with my knuckles, got startled and hit them again against the rear exhaust fan. Today I know that apparently innocent plastic fans are as sharp as rotating blades while running..

But the worse one was on one of my older pc's. The RAM was really hard to click in place, I had the pc on its side and was afraid of using to much force. So I kinda tried to massage the RAM very firmly up and down.
Suddenly I saw blood pouring over the ram and onto the mobo. I had cut my fingers quite deeply. I cleaned up the ram and mobo with alcohol and they worked.

I nailed one of my current Scythe fans and found it surprisingly powerful as well. I would have never suspected those plastic cpu fans could take skin that easily.

I was cut a few years back on some VERY sharp OCZ Platinum DDR2. I pushed and it sliced me like a razer. I ended up pushing it in with an eraser that it also sliced.

 

[Strangerz]

Yep, the fans hurt

I remember when i was much younger and i was watching my father work on his desktop PC. He stepped away and i curiously stuck my finger into the fan thinking that its just a weak plastic fan... ouch

Quickly pulled my sliced finger out and covered so he wouldnt know hah

 

[Velvet Wafer]

I installed a Socket A processor for the second time, and this time, placed the thermal diode of the cooler on top of the die...fried proc.
After that i was much more careful, for sure

 

[El_Mayo]

I just bought a brand spanking new AMD processor which I will not name

Blatantly Bulldozer!

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

My first fail was an on going one. All my cases at first had bumps so there was no need for stand offs. Didn't really get why all the following builds needed to be screwed in very lightly to boot.

 

[qubit]

Not my first FAIL but the most expensive and epic.

Damn, that was epic! Especially the pictures of the smashed up cooler with the hammer beside it.

 

[El_Mayo]

I dropped a CPU cooler on my CPU before
Bent all the pins badtimes
ever since I've been sure to wrap up a cpu or put it in a tin instead of lying around (upside down)

 

[trickson]

My first FAIL was when I took my AMD 4000+'s IHS off. Took the the CPU off with it! What an epic fail!

 

[ensabrenoir]

hp wal mart special P4.......something made my first raid....impressed by the speed ....back then. Took one hdd out wiped it to use in another rig. Could never figure out why first machine wouldnt work anymore got so ticked ...did a running overhead, gorillia slam into a dumpster with it. Then weeks later....dooooohhhhh!!!!!

 

[Wile E]

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38153

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41746

Take your pick.

 

[AsRock]

My first fail would of been when my parents brought a PC for my bro back early 1992.

Well i have always been one of those people who has to look in side some thing same with my younger brother which we thought we would fuck around and check out how a Intel DX computer worked.

Some were along the lines we managed to screw up the OS ( Win3.1 ) b trying other hardware and shit like that. Anyways when good ol dad found out he went crazy on us but mainly me due being the elder and should know better blah blah..

Well he said you better get it back working or a buying a new one which i did get to fix which today i am still messing with in shit that i don't need too even had my HDTV apart lol.

 

[v12dock]

My 4850x2 caught fire while trying to fix it

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Some great stories here. Lets keep it up.

 

[Jetster]

My biggest fail is a bad habit I have with reaching in a case when its running and feeling the cpu temps. Ive caught my finger a couple of times on fan blades. It ether puts a gash in my finger and blood everywhere or a blade breaks off running a Heat sink and fan combo

 

[Velvet Wafer]

My biggest fail is a bad habit I have with reaching in a case when its running and feeling the cpu temps. Ive caught my finger a couple of times on fan blades. It ether puts a gash in my finger and blood everywhere or a blade breaks off running a Heat sink and fan combo

same habit, just with diverse locations of fans... im just not careful enough around them!
(one time, a fan blade of one of my EBM papst entered my finger thru the top of the tip, and came out right beneath the nail, on the top... man that did fucking hurt! )

 

[Norton]

http://img.techpowerup.org/100618/ouch.jpg

I just got a 1055t about 2 months after they came out and I was in a hurry to try it out....
I didn't feel like taking the time to remove the mobo to change out the HSF bracket to a bolt on enzo type something that I modded and instead used the provided AM2/+/3 kit...Turns out the bracket to hold the HDF was razor sharp...The TIM I used was this and formed a perfect vacuum seal...

But that's not all....

After I realized that the bracket cut the nub off and destroyed my cpu I destroyed my HSF with a hammer out of anger...


Here is my original post afterwards...

http://img.techpowerup.org/100602/fuck.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/100602/fuck1.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/100602/fuck2.jpg

I just bought a brand spanking new AMD processor which I will not name and when I put my Xiggy on it I used the AM2 bracket that came with it....

after getting it seated and whatnot I checked out the New cpu in the BIOS and made sure everything was fine..

I then set off to load windows when I heard Snap bam dat dat dat.... and My screen instantly went black..

I opened up my case to find my Xiggy had snapped my retention Bracket and ripping my new cpu out of the socket leaving 7 pins behind and bending half of the Remaining pins...

I blacked out for a bit after that waking up with the hammer in my hands and completely sick to my Stomach...
I will never buy a heavy CPU cooler ever again..even though that Xiggy was a good cooler I don't regret smashing it up...
Instead of just losing a CPU I flipped out.


Not my first FAIL but the most expensive and epic.

My Xig doesn't look anything like that.... just

I know exactly what you mean about that AMD clip for that cooler... it was always a pain to center it on the CPU and when I installed it with the mobo in the case I always checked it 4-5 times to make sure it was in the right place.

I now use that little adapter Xig puts out to convert from AMD mounting to Intel style. I drop the cooler over the studs using the Intel brackets and the spring nuts then hand tighten... perfect every time and turned in the right direction

The only thing that sucks is that you pay like $12 for two pieces of plastic :shadedshu

If I didn't start using that little device your Xig may have had a twin by now except I would have used my 3lb mini sledge

 

[Nocht]

I remember my first attempt at overclocking was an Intel Pentium 233 MMX. Smoked it playing Quake with my Riva 128 (still not sure of the root cause, would boot, but very slow). Made a nice key-chain/conversation piece, but turned me off of overclocking for a good while. Upside was my replacement was a K6.