Retarded Mistakes we have all made

peteamer · **Posted:** Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:25 am

b3nbranch wrote:

Wondered why the video wasn't working, finally discovered that
I'd plugged the monitor into the (disabled) on-board video, not
the add-on card.

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:oops:

seemingly.random · **Posted:** Sun Dec 24, 2006 1:13 am

My two favorites are from tech support of a PC to mainframe communications company (back before SLIP) I used to work at.

1) Customer had installed our comm card and was complaining of intermittent problems. Turns out they had installed the card on the slot instead of in the slot.

2) Customer had no communications. Turned out they had connected the two RS232 cables by wrapping a rubber band around them instead of plugging them into each other.

These were diagnosed over the phone. These and other stories gave me tremendous respect for the patience of the techs (and made me glad it wasn't my job).

Just a month ago (thought I was past this...), I almost replaced an MSI MB with IGP and GPU card with monitor plugged into the IGP. After reinstalling CPU/HSF/RAM to no avail, placed the order online. Having given up, I installed the GPU in another machine and for some reason I tried the broken machine one more time before gutting it and it worked. Thanks to the delay in online processing, was able to cancel the new MB.

Devonavar · **Posted:** Sun Dec 24, 2006 12:11 pm

kstich wrote:

OK, this one may take the cake...

One time when I was installing extra RAM in my case I realized how dusty the computer actually was on the inside, especially the heatsink which was nearly clogged. I figured this was the reason for the high temps I was having previously so became determined to fix the problem. To fix the dust problem I vacuumed the heatsink and case without even thinking twice.

Needless to say, the CPU and motherboard were both fried. When I tried to turn it on the next time it smoked from multiple locations, including the CPU. Darn static electricity!

I've vacuumed my systems several times without problems. I'll think twice now...

b3nbranch wrote:

Let's see ... quite a few years ago I plugged in a floppy connector with the correct orientation, but one pin too far to the right (open connector w/out plastic box), motherboard never booted again.

Done that before (plugged it in upside down. Kill the drive, and rendered the ATA drive controller unstable. I tried reinstalling about once a week for about a month before I realized that it's not possible to run a stable system with a drive controller that corrupts the page file...

JaRoD · **Joined:** Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:18 am **Posts:** 48

ooh, remembered some more. I've plugged in the floppy connector the wrong way more times than I can count :roll:

And just yesterday after I had rearranged some stuff in my computer if wouldn't post after I had plugged in everything. Luckily it just took a few minutes to figure out that I had plugged the keyboard into the mouse ps/2 and that's why it didn't boot. I have a usb mouse nowadays. But shouldn't the computer boot even if the keyboard is plugged in the mouse port? and just get some bios error?

PopCorn · **Posted:** Mon Dec 25, 2006 5:54 am

yea normalyy but sumtimes in bios theres a halt on keyboard option and differnt MoBos "halt" in differnt ways

L3thal · **Posted:** Mon Dec 25, 2006 7:12 pm

I was helping a friend install his new system, and he put the HSF on the CPU without taking the plastic protective film off the bottom of it...needless to say his computer would overheat and shutdown...we were scratching our heads for several days over that one. lol

Retarded Mistakes we have all made

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