Boneheaded Tech Moments

[Athlonite]

I replaced my mobo ram and cpu and psu only to figure out it was the gpu all along that had gone poo ohwell I was going to upgrade anyways just happened sooner than I'd like it to

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Great thread!

One of my dumb moments was a tech-support situation with my father-in-law. He was complaining about his slow-ass computer, back when spinning rust was our only option. Being a new son-in-law, I took a look and basically came to the conclusion that his PC could benefit from additional RAM, so I showed him exactly what RAM to buy and walked him through the online purchase. He was a woodworker by trade, so I assumed he would be handy enough to handle the simple task of installing the RAM when it arrived. Well, I was an idiot. I showed him where it went in advance, and I was certain I mentioned that it could only be inserted one way and that he'd know it was seated correctly when the locks popped into place.

Well, shortly after the RAM arrived, I got a phone call saying his computer wasn't working at all anymore, so I went to check it out. No power, no post, nothing. Open the case and I can see that the new RAM is installed. I figured maybe it just needed to be reseated, so I started to remove it. However, the RAM locks had a strange "free moving" feel to them, unlike any of my past experiences. Now, I think most all of us have mistakenly tried to install RAM upside down before, and we all know that the notch in the slot will tell you that you got it wrong. Well, rather than re-assess what he was doing, or simply waiting for me to help, my father-in-law pressed down so hard that he managed to jam the RAM in the slot until the clips engaged. He broke not one, but both RAM slots, effectively destroying his PC and the new RAM. I guess he took the "get a bigger hammer" approach, and I should have just made him wait!

 

[xBruce88x]

Mine would be back when i was working for a dealership.

They needed windows re-installed onto a system. I had my then new mp3 player plugged into the system. which, usually wouldn't be an issue. However, the install cd deteced the mp3 player as drive C: and therefor installed windows to "D:". so on boot the root drive was labeled D:. Which again, not that big a deal... however their software was hard coded to look for a networked optical drive server on D:... Now you see the issue lol. And so, i just unplugged the player and started the process over.

I also had a few utilities stored on the mp3 player, i used it as a flash drive as well. the next dell system there i plugged it into to copy said utilities promptly fried it lol. I just got a vague USB port error from XP, from that day the player was dead.

This was over 10 years ago back in the day when everything was on XP, 2007. Yes, there was that... other... version of windows... but we don't talk about such things

 

[Yukikaze]

A story of the unlikely screwing me over:

Many years ago I was debugging some prototype hardware at work, and I could not get the debugger to attach to the embedded controller on the prototype. I must've spent two days tweaking all sorts of JTAG scripts, timings, clocks, etc, and nothing worked. I was frustrated and quite frankly pissed off.

On the third day I noticed that the USB cable connecting my work laptop to the prototype hardware seemed a little off. I tried a different cable, and everything immediately worked.

The bloody USB cable was bad.

Still the first and only bad USB cable I've seen in my life. You can bet your ass that I've been diligent about testing the simple and silly things first when something is not functioning, before going all Matrix on things.

 

[lexluthermiester]

This was over 10 years ago back in the day when everything was on XP, 2007. Yes, there was that... other... version of windows... but we don't talk about such things

Rubbish! XP was wonderful after SP1! Easily Microsoft's greatest OS achievement(I feel like Win 7 was their finest version).

 

[trparky]

@lexluthermiester, I think @xBruce88x was referring to Vista with the statement "there was that... other... version of windows".

 

[lexluthermiester]

@lexluthermiester, I think @xBruce88x was referring to Vista with the statement "there was that... other... version of windows".

Oh... right...

Well at least I had a bonehead moment in the right thread!

 

[Grog6]

I took apart my main desktop a few weeks ago, and changed some stuff around; removed some failed drives that were disconnected, but still mounted in the case, blew out all the fans, etc.

Put it back together, and was watching the bubble in the cpu cooler, to make sure the pump started, and hit the power button, and Nothing.

After three hours of troubleshooting, I realized I long ago moved the power button to a different led lighted button, mounted outside the case.

 

[sam_86314]

One time I finished working on my computer and went to turn it on. Fans were spinning, lights were on, no video output. Opened it back up, reseated the memory and the GPU, did a bunch of troubleshooting steps, still nothing.

Turns out the display cable wasn't fully plugged in.

 

[lexluthermiester]

One time I finished working on my computer and went to turn it on. Fans were spinning, lights were on, no video output. Opened it back up, reseated the memory and the GPU, did a bunch of troubleshooting steps, still nothing.

Turns out the display cable wasn't fully plugged in.

We've all done that one.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Not mine, but a colleague of mine brought in his new build to the office and said he couldn't understand why it wasn't working. I had a look and wondered why one of the support struts for the expansion cards was snapped off (aluminium case). Apparently he had been building his new rig while watching footy on the telly and slipped with the screwdriver...
Well, that "slip" also took off quite a few SMD components on the motherboards, which was why his PC didn't work...
Luckily the board maker replaced his board for him, but only because he was a tech "journalist".

Pro tip, don't get distracted when building a PC, it'll end in tears.

 

[bug]

Ok, not my boneheaded moment, but remember when people bought Pentium 4s with RDRAM

 

[micropage7]

i was nearly bashing my internet provider after recheck everything is OK and i can't find where the lost connection started from, i began to think it must be from my internet provider until i realize the cable unplugged

 

[TheLostSwede]

Ok, not my boneheaded moment, but remember when people bought Pentium 4s with RDRAM

Had those at work, Intel even supplied the RAM, but as it was so expensive, each of the two systems only had 128MB of RAM...

 

[lexluthermiester]

Ok, not my boneheaded moment, but remember when people bought Pentium 4s with RDRAM

I do, loved mine. I had 2GB of the 1066mhz RDRam with a 2ghz P4 oc'd to 2.4ghz. That was a monster gaming system! Nothing boneheaded about it.

What was boneheaded was the way RamBus handled their IP. It had such potential and they ran it into the ground..

 

[GhostRyder]

Well my recent bone headed moment was my friend "Rebuilt" his PC and it would not work afterwards so after about an hour with me on the phone trying all the different things I said he decided to take it to me. I spent 1 hour testing why the machine would not boot up (For the record no output and no error codes because no speaker hooked up and this motherboard had no debug LED) and could not figure it out. Decided to take it apart and start looking at everything, then as I get the cooler off, GPU out, basically everything removable out of the way I look in the corner and notice the 8 pin has nothing plugged in (For the record I asked if he checked that on the phone). Plugged it in, put it back together and it booted just fine. Felt dumb because I wasted so much time for a simple fix haha.

 

[Grog6]

Ok, not my boneheaded moment, but remember when people bought Pentium 4s with RDRAM

Had those at work, Intel even supplied the RAM, but as it was so expensive, each of the two systems only had 128MB of RAM...

I was one of those boneheads, lol.

New P4 system in 2002; P4T533 mobo, and it took 32byte wide RIMMS, which were $122 each for 256MB.

I bought 2, thinking I could get by until the 512MB and bigger came down in price. :facepalm:

The 512MB ones Never fell below $300 each, and there were only 2 slots on the mobo.

I still have it sitting here; it was also my first system with Hyperthreading, with a 3.06GHz processor.

I later saw larger RIMMS, but they were the 16 byte wide version, and were completely incompatible, lol.

It also was the only system I ever had that would NOT overclock in any fashion whatsoever, lol.

 

[Vayra86]

Mine? Well its not punching a CPU or anything spectacular, but...

Quickly assembled an ITX HTPC for under the TV in about a half hour, booted into Windows, installed some essentials. All is fine in the world. I'm also amazed at how silent the box is. I feel like Superman being so quick about it.

Next, some testing on the CPU, a cute dualcore Haswell. System gets slooooow... I check temps. 88C. Clocks: below 1Ghz.

Turns out a wire was holding the CPU fan in place because hey, why leave the box open to check right?

 

[lexluthermiester]

New P4 system in 2002; P4T533 mobo, and it took 32byte wide RIMMS, which were $122 each for 256MB.

I bought 2, thinking I could get by until the 512MB and bigger came down in price. :facepalm:

The 512MB ones Never fell below $300 each, and there were only 2 slots on the mobo.

I still have it sitting here; it was also my first system with Hyperthreading, with a 3.06GHz processor.

I later saw larger RIMMS, but they were the 16 byte wide version, and were completely incompatible, lol.

It also was the only system I ever had that would NOT overclock in any fashion whatsoever, lol.

Ok, I have to call BS on this. The CPU you're describing was a Northwood based model and was never made compatible with RDRAM through any chipset. Trust me, I looked and tried.
Nevermind, you were right. The 850E chipset did make that happen for Socket 478 Northwood CPU's. I was thinking of the Prescott based CPU's. Sorry.

 

[dorsetknob]

Ok, I have to call BS on this.

P4 Willamette up to the max clock stock which was 1.6 ghz were the only one's to use RDram
so yeh Good Call on the Bovine excrement Detection (oh smell a rose ?)
P4 Northwood onwards was DDR

 

[erocker]

I remember having a P4 with rambus in some Dell computer. Can't say I remember the CPU being a Willamette though it probably was. Good stuff at the time... The P4's not so much.

 

[lexluthermiester]

P4 Willamette max clock stock was 1.6 ghz were the only one's to use RDam
so yeh Good Call on the Bovine excrement Detection
P4 Northwood onwards was DDR

See edit above... The 850E chipset did make RDRAM on Northwood CPU's happen, but only the 400/533FSB models... Also, the Willamette CPU's went all the way to 2ghz. It's the one I had.

 

[dorsetknob]

See edit

read and modified my post
I Skipped those P4 Willamette because of the expensive ram and went from a o/c P3 to northwood P4

 

[Grog6]

P4 Willamette up to the max clock stock which was 1.6 ghz were the only one's to use RDram
so yeh Good Call on the Bovine excrement Detection (oh smell a rose ?)
P4 Northwood onwards was DDR

The Northbridge had the memory interface in those days; RAMBUS was an option on all P4 processors.

Te P4 went faster than 1.6GHz; the processor on the newegg order history I was looking at earlier was a 2.4, and that launched with this mobo.

CPU List from here:

P4T533 - Support

www.asus.com

P4-3.06 GHz (533 FSB, L2 cache:512KB, HT, C1/D1)

1.03

1005GO

With IAA version 2.2.2 or later.

The i850E Northbridge was the Rambus/533MHz part; they made the board with both types of RIMM, I just chose the wrong one.

I originally bought it with a 2.4GHz processor, but I just HAD to upgrade for Hyperthreading, right?
The 3.06GHz was the only P4 with Hyperthreading, iirc.
Almost nothing supported it properly back then, most games ran faster with it off.

It also runs in DDR boards; I have a dell with DDR400 with the 2.4GHz processor I took out of this one in it.
DDR400 is not Quite as fast as the rambus, but both are laughable compared to DDR3.

I have the computer sitting here; If I can find an AGP video card, I'll see if I can get a CPU-Z snapshot of it.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

When you guys had those wonderful Pentiums I was on an Athlon 1600+ which I thought was 1.6ghz but it was only 1.4ghz...
I remember that and Having some 64mb VooDoo card...I paid $350 for the CPU-mobo-256mb memory and the VooDoo card.
It was a step up from the Pentium Pro and Cyrix 5x86 it replaced but still trash even for the day....late 2002...maybe early 2003