Your personal tech fuck ups - This can't possiblly go wrong.

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Van Darkholme said:
On my first self built PC I didn't put a cooler on the CPU (AMD Duron) because I didn't think it was necessary and it would come equipped with one if it needed it. I got a refund though by lying about it.
My PC before that was a Pentium 2 Slot 1 with a built in cooling system, that is probably one of the reasons why I fucked up this badly.

That was twenty years ago, I've gotten a bit smarter since then.
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think the last cpu I remember not having any kind of heatsink was an 80286, I think even the one old 386DX had a heatsink or heat spreader
 
This talk of messing with the CPU reminded me of something I did during my first build. Not as embarrassing as not knowing the GPU had an HDMI port but a fuck up nonetheless.

I had just finished putting together the build, and I was prepared to turn the PC on. I was excited to finally have my own PC and one that could actually play the games I wanted. Only it wouldn't boot. The motherboard would turn on, so obviously it was getting power but nothing was showing on my monitor. The only thing that I could think of was something involving the CPU, so I opened it back up and carefully took it back out. This being my first build, I was both aggravated and cautious since I had struggled to put it together in the first place (especially the cooler fan).

Anyhow, I take it apart and I think what happened was the thermal paste was preventing the CPU from activating correctly. My confused attempts at installing the cooler fan must have fucked with the paste I put on it and in turn it prevented the CPU from correctly activating. I can only assume this is what happened because after cleaning the CPU, reapplying paste, and putting the fan back on, it finally booted. I really have no other explanation because, as far as I recall, the CPU was plugged in correctly and the fact I didn't have to mess with the pins indicated that I hadn't screwed up the CPU itself.
 
I only saw heatsinks on 386s in very specific OEM builds. Heatsinks regularly came around with the 486 and I saw them often without any thermal paste in between usally attached with very simple plastic clips that would usually put no mechanical pressure. Attaching them with normal glue was also popular. Heatsinks weren't really necessary for most 486s in most situations and the then usual PGA LIF-Sockets (Low Insertion Force) didn't really have ways to attach heatsinks easily and also weren't idiot proof. (it was really hard, as in needing a lot of force, to insert the CPU and impossible to remove the CPU without special tool or potentially damaging socket&CPU with the wrong one) So this was usually not a thing the end user did if the CPU wasn't soldered directly onto the board to begin with. The mandatory active cooling and user-switchable CPU came a generation later with the fitting ZIF sockets (Zero Insertion Force) we all know and love. Some other CPU makers (e.g. IBM and Cyrix, sometimes intel) would also sell their CPUs with heatsink already glued on and a lot of the CPUs around that time would very clearly have printing on them stating that either heatsink or even active cooling was required, because it really was not a straightforward thing for most people.
 
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cross posting from "pictures on the internet" because this is hall of fame levels of boomer

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My first ever gaming PC I had was a prebuilt I ordered from Ebay. When I got it I was pissed because it would not display from the GPU and was being really pissy with the builder saying he sold be a defective product.

One skype call later it appeared that he forgot to plug in the PCIE cord to the GPU, the cable was literally dangling right infront of me. Everything else was perfectly cable managed, it was literally the only cable out of place.

This wouldn't be that big of an issue, but at the time I was also a part of our school's robotics/technology program, specifically I built the PC's we used for 3D modelling...
 
I love my dad but he was super clumsy, We had a lot of times he'd be walking around then I'd hear a crunch and knew something tech'y must have been broken. Lots of broken cds and controllers. The older I get the more I realize I have inherited this, and now I need to replace controllers quite a bit. We were both big tech nerds and the house was full of computer gear as we'd build comps a lot for folk. Old console shit too. Even well into his 70s my dad was still modding and building away.

Back in the day of Bonzi Buddy and other weird desktop pets, my dad loved that shit and installed a few thinking it was cute. He didn't clock on first when a chat box popped up but I right away realized he installed a damn RAT from one of them and he was legit just sitting chatting away to some weird Russian dude for a while. He was very good at cleaning comps of that stuff, so I guess it didn't bother him at first.

It's funny as fuck, because I recall a time back in the days of MSN some dude was able to hack into peoples accounts, and he ended up getting on a friends account and chatting to me about our pet dogs for ages. Legit just like "you're nice, we're friends" shit lmao
 
I refuse to learn how to use the printers in my department work, which has lead to me fucking up more than a few documents over the years.
 
One time I put one of those old AMD FX series heat sink retaining clips about a half inch through my thumb. Don't even ask. I could literally have picked up the entire computer by my thumb it was so jammed in there I could see it under the nail. Luckily I was able to keep calm enough to slide my thumb out and after cleaning it and just hoping it didn't get infected I was all better in a couple weeks.

The POS computer ended up being a bad motherboard. Had to take the heat sink off to try a new CPU. In those fucking days usually the chip would come up with the heat sink and bend a bunch of pins unless you were super careful.
 
This one time I nearly called one of those sketchy phone numbers because a web page popped up on my computer going "HEY CALL THIS NUMBER IF XYZ" I got to the guy, realized what I was doing then clicked the fuck off before I fucked myself bad.

Also don't try setting up blender when your tired as shit and computer illiterate. I'm not even that old but you start throwing the word drivers at me and I need you to slow the hell down and explain what I have to do.
 
Back in 2011 I was cleaning out my PC with one of those cheap compressed air cans.
When I was cleaning out the GPU, a small bit of moisture came out and completely bricked it. Cost over 300 USD to get a new one.

I've been using a leaf blower ever since.
 
Disco Inferno said:
Back in 2011 I was cleaning out my PC with one of those cheap compressed air cans.
When I was cleaning out the GPU, a small bit of moisture came out and completely bricked it. Cost over 300 USD to get a new one.

I've been using a leaf blower ever since.
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I know this is off-topic to the thread, but I see stories like this and it just makes me question all the more how my old supervisor at my college IT job got away with half the shit she did.

No bullshitting, I watched this bitch pry open the casing to one of those prebuilt, commercial use Dell desktops, take a can of air duster, point it DIRECTLY downwards, and then just straight up, full bore BLASTED the exposed motherboard and components with completely liquidized refrigerant for at least 10+ seconds while the motherfucking system was still plugged in, turned on, and running. And I mean, that motherfucker was absolutely SOAKED, and it, miraculously enough, still ran just fine in spite of what happened.

I asked my supervisor what in the ever living fuck she thought she was doing. She irritably argued that she HAD to dust out the case somehow and it was "too much trouble" to power down the system and unplug it beforehand. She also claimed that she dusts out computers like this all the time, while they're still running, and she's never once had a problem.

I still revisit that memory quite often because it makes me question everything I know.
 
Mal.0 said:
My first ever gaming PC I had was a prebuilt I ordered from Ebay. When I got it I was pissed because it would not display from the GPU and was being really pissy with the builder saying he sold be a defective product.

One skype call later it appeared that he forgot to plug in the PCIE cord to the GPU, the cable was literally dangling right infront of me. Everything else was perfectly cable managed, it was literally the only cable out of place.

This wouldn't be that big of an issue, but at the time I was also a part of our school's robotics/technology program, specifically I built the PC's we used for 3D modelling...
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In my experience the screen should display the text "insuffient power, this card requires a 6/8 pin connector" or something like that.
Vault said:
I love my dad but he was super clumsy, We had a lot of times he'd be walking around then I'd hear a crunch and knew something tech'y must have been broken. Lots of broken cds and controllers. The older I get the more I realize I have inherited this, and now I need to replace controllers quite a bit. We were both big tech nerds and the house was full of computer gear as we'd build comps a lot for folk. Old console shit too. Even well into his 70s my dad was still modding and building away.

Back in the day of Bonzi Buddy and other weird desktop pets, my dad loved that shit and installed a few thinking it was cute. He didn't clock on first when a chat box popped up but I right away realized he installed a damn RAT from one of them and he was legit just sitting chatting away to some weird Russian dude for a while. He was very good at cleaning comps of that stuff, so I guess it didn't bother him at first.

It's funny as fuck, because I recall a time back in the days of MSN some dude was able to hack into peoples accounts, and he ended up getting on a friends account and chatting to me about our pet dogs for ages. Legit just like "you're nice, we're friends" shit lmao
Click to expand...
My father broke my Win95 PC trying to play a cd-rom with video. Not physically. He didn't know anything about computers so he just figured out how a mouse and GUI works, rummaged around in the windows folder and moved files to see if he could get it work. All of this happened while I took a shower. He often read computer magazines before that because he believed computers would be the future and newspapers didn't publish much about what was happening, then very early(compared to the general public) he figured out that internet would be the future, it wouldn't go away. He also knew that you can't break a computer by fucking up the software or OS - from reading computer magazines. So he completely broke Windows as a learning experience, just to see what happens.
 
Disco Inferno said:
@Gravemind How long ago was this? Asking because back in the day a literal chimp could land a very comfy IT job if they knew how to navigate cmd and had a single cert.
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Mid-to-late 2014 as I recall. She had her job at that local campus well before then and didn't even have a single cert to her name. She also had absolutely no method or system for work orders other than "someone on campus calls her for tech help and she makes up an excuse for why she can't get to the issue" and did fuckall unless she absolutely had to (read: The dean was breathing down her neck to actually get something done).

She also hated having any sort of interns or help. Mostly because we actually did her job better than she did and made her deathly afraid that she would lose her job, but she once explained to a friend of hers in front of me that it was really because "we had to get told what to do all the time" and she "didn't like having to teach new people" about job-related regulations and protocol, nor where to find any of the resources needed to maintain software used on campus, like, say, the login credentials for the IT Administration account.
 
Gravemind said:
Mid-to-late 2014 as I recall. She had her job at that local campus well before then and didn't even have a single cert to her name. She also had absolutely no method or system for work orders other than "someone on campus calls her for tech help and she makes up an excuse for why she can't get to the issue" and did fuckall unless she absolutely had to (read: The dean was breathing down her neck to actually get something done).

She also hated having any sort of interns or help. Mostly because we actually did her job better than she did and made her deathly afraid that she would lose her job, but she once explained to a friend of hers in front of me that it was really because "we had to get told what to do all the time" and she "didn't like having to teach new people" about job-related regulations and protocol, nor where to find any of the resources needed to maintain software used on campus, like, say, the login credentials for the IT Administration account.
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Yup, sounds like someone who got grandfathered in. If you landed a IT job back in the late 00's or early 10's you're considered "untouchable" due to seniority.

But with the recent IT boom and thousands of more qualified youngsters entering the job market they're starting to panic. They'd rather go full scorched earth than help younger employees.
 
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