Any nightmare stories while building your PC ???

W

Webb

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 6, 2004
Messages
238
I'm about to build my PC this Tuesday ( 1st Time ):eek: Just wondering what are the DO'S & D'ONTS while building it.Or your own bad experience.

Just want to avoid killing myself after spending $1.600,00 with a fried Mobo or something like that.

Thank you
 
my heart skips sometimes when it won't finish posting but I just recheck all connections and it will usually be fine. I dropped a screw into a psu once. That was an extra 20 minutes retrieving it.

my do's - keep your shit organized and buy or use something to hold your screws. I thought they would be fine laying on the desk.
-clear your desk.
-prep is the most important thing with anyhting, painting, assembly etc.
-have another computer connected to the internet and a flash drive or external hdd to copy all your install files and drivers over if needed.

my don't - don't rush.

one other tip, install mobo and psu first with the drives and see where you need to route cables. Remove everything from case and then make all your cuts and holes. Then put everything in for real.

if you can also make an image of your hdd when everything is installed and up and running before you start installing other programs and so on.
 
Webb said:
I'm about to build my PC this Tuesday ( 1st Time ):eek: Just wondering what are the DO'S & D'ONTS while building it.Or your own bad experience.

Just want to avoid killing myself after spending $1.600,00 with a fried Mobo or something like that.

Thank you
Click to expand...

Don't let the magic smoke out, m'kay?
 
I've never really had a nightmare story BUILDING my PC... they all come later ;)

Just make sure to be careful, ground yourself constantly (just tap your case or a metal desk or something), go slow, and READ the manuals and books, etc. Make sure you know where each component should go before trying to force it in.

Other than that, once you get the hang of it, it's a fun experience. Just don't become addicted :p
 
Forgot mobo stand offs once. A few sparks, no smoke and board is still running strong, been like 5 years too. Shh...don't tell my mom, she has that computer now. :eek:
 
I've never had a nightmare, but most of the time the system doesn't work properly on the first try. Just make sure that everything is seated properly and all the cables/jumpers are set up properly as well.
 
generic computer brought over from a guy from a europian country (240VAC). Plugged it into canadian (110V) outlet. Heard a loud click, didnt turn on, thought it best to come to me. Power supply had shut off. I flipped the switch on the back into 110V mode.

That night I was treated to some fireworks: they were blue-magenta. Intrestingly enough the power supply hadn't taken anything out with it.

charged the guy $100 (cad, the unit cost me I believe $70) for installation/purchase of a seasonic HB380W.

things been running fine ever since, as far as I know.
 
here is a very handy tip

when you're plugging in fans or anything into a molex connector, hold it by the cables just behind the white plastic part. i didn't do that and 3 of the 4 pins were connected, the last wasn't and the current have to arch and it caused the cable to catch on fire. was the end of 1 of my hard drives and a case fan.
 
don't play with the voltage changer on the PSU

i did that and fried my transformer in it ;p
 
If you have an unlidded CPU or northbridge chip, don't crush the chip in the middle with the HSF. Even a little bit of crushing is bad. ;)

Found that out the hard way with the NB on my comp.
 
My first build was going to be an AMD 200 K6. I don't know what exactly the problem was but I went through 2 PSUs, 2 motherboards and still couldn't get it to work. I could never find which part was bad. I can't remember exactly what the problem was but it stressed me out like crazy. I gave up on it and bought a Celeron+mobo+ram combo that was already tested and it worked great but I was soured on building systems for a while because of the money on lost on the first one. I can't believe how easy it is building systems nowadays.
 
This is probably too obvious, but make sure you have the product key for Windows (if that's what you will be using) ready. In the past, I've had the frustrating experience of not having it ready and having to go find it. I've even heard stories of people throwing it away before installing, which really would be a nightmare. This may be less of an issue with Vista, as I believe that lets you not enter a key and do a temporary install. That would give you some time to find it (or let you access it if you have it stored away in a file somewhere).

Also, have your network card drivers (if needed) somewhere accessible. You can get other drivers ready as well, but those can then be downloaded if you don't have them when installing.

Make sure you're connected to a firewall/router or not connected to the network at all when installing (especially with XP). If you don't have a router, make sure Windows Firewall or other software firewall is enabled (Windows' should be on by default) before connecting the network cable. The reason for this is that your computer could be vulnerable before you have a chance to install the updates.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top