Crazy Computer Stories

Red Falcon

Red Falcon

[H]ard DCOTM x3
2FA
Joined
May 7, 2007
Messages
13,444
I've heard many stories about computers breaking, talking back, and misbehaving since I've been on this forum. I thought this would be a good thread to start for those want to share their amazing computer stories. Video cards tend to have good stories attached to them. Here are a few of mine:

---------

I was doing a mini-mod (installing an external ZIP 100 drive in an internal 5 1/4'' slot). I left the machine on and though "oh what the hell, it's not even touching anything". :rolleyes:

Little did I know, *dun dun da* STATIC ELECTRICITY!!! :eek:

After I drilled the drive into place, I plugged the USB cord into it (it is usb powered). I let it dangle down a little until it touched the top of my 7800GT. It looked like Lord Raiden was in my case! Electricity, um, flew (is that the right word) around my gfx card. It was really cool looking, kind of whitish. Then my machine shut off and went boom. :(

Actually the machine and the card are ok as I am typing from it right now. But damn! I've never seen electricity fly like that before! I guess I'm lucky to be alive, heh, it didn't even hurt me. *sizzle* :eek:

The only time I've shocked myself on a case was when I went to take a modem out of my friend's machine. I unplugged it and it had BEEN unplugged for a while. The modem apparently had a faulty battery (I've never seen a modem with a freakin battery before) and when I touched it, it shocked me and left a really tiny burn mark. Ouch! ;)

---------

One day, I was talking to my friend on the phone. We were just BSing about stuff, when he freaks out on me and starts screaming.I thought somebody died!

Nope, it was his computer. :rolleyes:

He left it next to an open window with the back facing the window. Little did he know, a huge wind/rain storm started up and was blowing tons of rain into his room into his computer. This wasn't a light drizzle ether (I remember the storm), we're talking big, FAT rain drops in a large spray. Walking outside during that storm would soak you in 5-10 seconds.

Now, he drops the phone on the washing machine (as I found out later). I thought his house was caving in on itself, but little did I know it was only his pride! HA HA! :D

He did yell that he would "call me back". I could hear him in the background... "aaaAAHHH". :eek:

The water had also gone into his monitor, speakers, scanner, and just about everything else that was electronic.

I was LOLing at this point because I've done some crazy sh!t like this before as well, so I've been there (and I don't want to go back). ;)

When I finally got a hold of him, I told him to make sure to drain everything, wipe up his computer insides and put a big fan in front of all of his stuff.

In the end, all of it still worked, but when I saw his face, it was whiter than his washing machine. Classic!

-------

EDIT: I will add more of my experiences soon. There are sooo many. Through out the years, I've accumulated many experiences as I'm sure you all have. ;)
 
So one day back when I was a noob, I get a PC built for me at this local computer store. After 2 months, it stops working. It won't even post, no lights, no nothing. So I bring it to the store, they plug it in, press the power button, VOILA it works. I'm like WTF...!!1 Go back home with the machine (it was encased in one of those Antec 800 SOHO Server cases, heavy as hell), plug it in, boom, no post, no nothing.

In the end, I ended up taking it apart at home, replugging everything, and then it worked for awhile.
 
So one day I was in the Video Card forum, and I saw this post about "crazy computer stories" in there, like someone thought it belonged in the Video Card forum. Zany!
 
SuperSubZero said:
So one day I was in the Video Card forum, and I saw this post about "crazy computer stories" in there, like someone thought it belonged in the Video Card forum. Zany!
Click to expand...

Where should I have put it? I thought that since video cards tended to have the most stories associated with them, I could put it here. That and this is the most viewed section of the [H]ard forums. :p

Just thought it would be fun for anyone who wanted to share their experiences here.

Well, if this isn't the best spot, sorry. Mods, move it for me please? Thanx!

EDIT: ...and yes! This is zany!
 
Back in teh days of the mobile barton... I had mine at 2.5Ghz, which apparently was too much for my poor 480 watt PSU to take. One day my computer died suddenly, ther was a flahs of light from the PSU, and then smoke. I opened the case, and the main 12V line to the motherboard had melted itself to the motherboard. The board, PSU, and video card were all dead. Then I got an Athlon 64. :)
 
When I tried upgrading my agp rig from a 9700pro to a hd2600 pro...I tried the hd2600 pro and it didn't work(just beeps, my psu sucked and didnt have the right cable to go into the card) so then I switched it back with the 9700pro and it still didn't work! I think I open and closed the case at least 10 times trying to figure out what I did. Then my brother gets back from work and he inspects my computer, haha...I didn't plug in the external power "right" into the 9700pro, wrong holes i guess, felt like an idiot lol.
 
Well One time I was using Speech to text software and I opened up microsoft word and wanted to test it out and said "Hello Goodbye" into the mic and it wrote "Why wont You Die" After that I just un installed it and gave it back to my friend!
 
Replaced the cpu in notebook and it wouldnt boot. i thought it was just a dead chip so i wasnt really worried. i put the old chip back in and still no boot :eek: I thought i had fryed my notebook. I kept trying to get it boot. I gave up and called support and while waiting I was like hold on let me try one more time. There is a screw you rotate to fasten the cpu and I gave it a hard twist just to make sure. the notebook booted right up. LOL the pins werent even making contact before the hard twist. I felt so dumb.
 
Well once I was playing FEAR on my current PC when suddenly my FPS degraded drastically. I alt-tabbed out to check what the problem was and it was my Video Card overheating! Oh man...

So the first thing I do is reach blindly into my case to see if the fan is still spinning. Unfortunately for me I reached a BIT too high and my fingers came into the area of my Venus 6 HSF on my CPU. I groped blindly a bit further and a shock of pain you wouldn't even believe made jerk my hand out of the case. Of course my first thought is: "Oh man I hope I didn't get any blood on my equipment!"

So yeah, moral of the story is, if you have a HSF that spins as fucking fast as a Venus 6 watch where you put your hands when the PC is in operation.
 
Would you guys consider me still having (and using) a floppy drive, crazy?
 
I was playing some Counterstrike back in the day, and out of the corner of my eye, I sense movement...I look over into the window of my case, and I see that the waterblock is dangling, it broke the clip and fell off, my Athlon 1ghz overclocked to 1.4ghz, died a smoky death about .0000001 milliseconds later :eek::) The mainboard survived.

A friend of mine, back when the Athlon 1ghz was like a $500 cpu, installed it onto his board, attached the heatsink, and fired it up. It smoked almost instantly. He had set the heatsink across the fan wire, and clamped it all down. Needless to say, with a gap like that, and the wire melting the insulation and shorting across the cpu....the magic smoke came out real quick. My friend wanted to die.

Coming home from a lan party at about 5am, I let my case fall out of the truck door when I opened it, and my rig fell straight down and landed on it's top on the curb. Several things broke, like the built in hsf retaining tabs....new mobo time.

We had a lan party one time in a hotel meeting room, back when BNC ethernet was a common thing. We had the rigs all around in a circle to facilitate termination and game server duties...one guy knocked his case off the table (he was plastered and fucking around with something in his case) and when it fell, it pulled 3 other rigs down with it, due to the BNC cables firmly attached to the backs. Ooops.
 
KollunZ said:
Would you guys consider me still having (and using) a floppy drive, crazy?
Click to expand...

Wow. I guess if you need one for some obscure reason, who knows, maybe you like to install Windows 3.1 from the floppies for fun ;)

I have not had a floppy drive in my rigs for at least 3-4 years...
 
Well heres my crazy story. Back in january 2006, I finally get all the computer parts for my first complete and new build, opteron 148, DFI NF4 SLi-D, gig o ram, 250gb hd, 6800GT, yeah it was hawt. I put it all together on my bed, no ESD strap, its the middle of winter, its in the 20s outside, ripe conditions for ESD.

I get the box together, the cables neatly organized, taped down, everything, I install XP, I get some games installed. At the same time I am doing this, I am putting together my old computer which was a temp upgrade previous to this new computer into a small HTPC style case (el cheapo), to make it into a media pc. I am trying to get it to work with my TV. For some unknown reason, the power cable that came with the case with the el cheapo PSU didn't want to work properly, something was voodoo about this cable, i would use it with my new build, it would work 'sometimes', and you had to of been there to see what I meant, and it wouldn't work at all with the media box.

So I am switching back and forth with the one good power cable I had that came with the PSU of my new build, I hit a brick wall with my HTPC getting it to work with my tv, I say fuck it, go to put it back on my new pc. For some reason I had gone back to where the media box was and sat down (on my carpeted floor) which I had been working on the whole while. For some reason I had forgotten to turn on my new pc before I had gone to sit down on the carpet. I press the power button I feel a shock of static electricity arking off my finger, it turns on, just as quickly turns off. I press it again, I get power to everything, but no mobo LED lights, no post beeps, no signs that anything on the mobo actually worked

The power button is in (which is metal) where the button itself is plastic. Somehow the shock was so great that it carried thru the bezel to the wires attaching the button to the mobo.

Whats sad about that is, that a month later, I get a new heatsink for my video card, I install it, I ESD on my video card, like directly, and I could hear the sound of static electricity arking from my finger to the board, and it didn't die.
 
I was installing my first 120GB hard drive, back when they first started falling in price. It was right after Christmas and I combound my holiday money with what I had saved. We had just gotten a touch lamp for Christmas so the girlfriend put it on the computer desk inbetween the phone and monitor.

The drive came in and I sat the computer on the desk to install it. I got it put in and was attaching the cords, then the phone rang. One the first ring, the lamp turned on, the monitor crackled, and I felt the static go through my arm. The drive was junked and I was pissed, lost a $100+ drive because of a crappy looking $10 lamp. Still not entirely certain how the phone ringing cuased the static but touch lamps have not been allowed in my home since.
 
I just did a stupid goof a few days ago. I've been using an Asus A8N-SLI board as a file server, tweaking it bit by bit as I go. I installed a fan onto the always-hot chipset heatsink, and I was deciding where to best plug in the fan, as I have several case fans vying for plugs. I was running it to see if the fan made a difference, and decided that it was a good decision.
But did I stop to shut down so I could change fan plug locations? Of course not...I went to plug it in the fan pins nearest to the SATA ports when my hand slipped (I was using metal tweezers in such a cramped area). I somehow managed to contact the chip next to the fan pins and blew it sky high. A blinding flash and some magic smoke later, I shakingly rebooted and surprisingly enough, all was well. The chip was annihilated, though. Looks like I took a magnifying glass to it, with a neat little crater blasted in the top. If anyone can identify it, I'd appreciate it.:D
 
One day back in mid-November I woke up in the morning and turned on my computer. Before Windows even started loading there was a loud "pop" sound and then the sound of electricity arcing from within my power supply. Every time it arced the lights came on -too bright- and the fans would spin up -too fast-. As quick as I could I jumped up and reached around my case and hit the master switch on the power supply.

TOO LATE

Body count stands at:
1 dead power supply (Antec 500w)
1 dead motherboard (Asus A8N-SLI)
2 dead video cards (7800GTX)
2 dead harddrives (need new pcb's)
1 damaged Audigy 2 ZS (center and subwoofer chanels gone)

I went back to sleep...

I only just built a new pc about two weeks ago.


 
D3v01D said:
One day back in mid-November I woke up in the morning and turned on my computer. Before Windows even started loading there was a loud "pop" sound and then the sound of electricity arcing from within my power supply. Every time it arced the lights came on -too bright- and the fans would spin up -too fast-. As quick as I could I jumped up and reached around my case and hit the master switch on the power supply.

TOO LATE

Body count stands at:
1 dead power supply (Antec 500w)
1 dead motherboard (Asus A8N-SLI)
2 dead video cards (7800GTX)
2 dead harddrives (need new pcb's)
1 damaged Audigy 2 ZS (center and subwoofer chanels gone)

I went back to sleep...

I only just built a new pc about two weeks ago.


Click to expand...

Hot damn dog. That's pretty bad.
 
I nominate this thread.. hard drives that get so hot they melt solder?
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1259724

Oh, and, erm, I've not said anything about video cards, so.. I bought a passively-cooled 9800 Pro, and it kept overheating. Which isn't a crazy story, but now my post has something to do with video cards in it!
 
I recently ripped a P4 Northwood 2.4ghz out of its zif socket along with the stock hsf. Thankfully the computer works fine after I resat everything.
 
Hmmm...

About 3 months ago, my Ultra XVS power supply destroyed its self in a way that popped all the breakers in my apartment ;).

Then, once my A8n-SLI motherboard blew a MOSFET, clear across the room, and left a mark in the adjacent wall (thank god the side of the case was off, and I wasn't infront of it!) It killed my RAM and my CPU. All were RMA'd fine!

Then, there was this time I dropped a glass of coke into my open Case :D. Really didn't enjoy cleaning that one up.

Then, the CRAZIEST story of all, there was this one time where I DIDN'T screw anything up :eek:
 
Luckily i haven't had many problems. (Knocks on wood)

Only probs ive had where when one time i forgot to put the standoffs in and fryed a motherboard.

And onetime at my friends i changed his heatsink and then we got a long beep so after looking around and seeing nothing i decided to call evga and they said is the video card in all the way and it wasnt and i felt like such a dumbass. Id didnt even look like it was out but i guess it was lol.
 
What about that guy on this forum who used his old rig, and set it up in canola oil, then proceeded to play Quake 4 while cooking fries and chicken in the same pan of oil, while running the game.

I want to find that thread again sooo bad.
 
LOL

What thread was this? If you find it again, plz post!

Video card a la mode. ;)
 
One time I was working in a server room. I was on the floor adding memory to a print server when a lightening bolt hit the building. The lights dimmed and a monitor exploded! The halon went off and I almost didn't make it out of the room. Talk about scary!!!
 
yeh, a couple years ago, i was putting a floppy drive in a mates computer, and hmmm, whats the best way to say it...

well, i connected the connector on 1 pin to the right...

so yeh, melted floppy connector etc, luckily he had a crappy PSU at the time, so it still worked for a while, but he got a new one pretty soon after...
 
I recently ripped a P4 Northwood 2.4ghz out of its zif socket along with the stock hsf. Thankfully the computer works fine after I resat everything.
Click to expand...

I did that one last summer with an AM2 chip. Lapped an XP-90c and used Shin Etsu(sp?) to try to get the lowest temps and best contact possible. I went to brake the system down a few months later and the heatsink was very snug. Jerked it up and the chip came out to, I was like wtf?!?!? Still worked fine and dandy afterwards. Guess you can make to much contact.
 
2 lil stories:

1. About 13 yrs ago I was on my first personally owned desktop with Windows 98SE and have always been a fanatic about errasing all the BS off my computer so I started deleting crap left and right that I didnt think I needed and got rid of this one win.ini file... my computer stopped working... wtf? LOL

2. A few months ago I got a new monitor and put my old (but fairly new) monitor on my kids computer. They didnt use it for 2 weeks and then came to me saying it wasnt working. So I go and start it up and no post, no nothing. I take it apart and start start messing with crap and still couldnt get it to post, but I could hear the drives all kicking in and fans were spinning. I called tech support and they said it sounded like a memory issue so I ordered some good modules and within 4 days I receive it and install it.... NO POST!! So I drag the POS up to BestBuys, I watch th etech there plug it all in, start it up and see a post screen... WTF? So he turns it off and back on and it posts again. So feeling stupid I take it back home and plug it in... NO POST. $$^!!$%^!#@#~$$#~$!!!

Then it dawned on me that the connections for the monitor wouldnt work with the computer because the video card had standard vga and monitor had the hdmi connection so I bought an adapter for the one end... so I wnet and got another adapter and still no post... so I said screw it and bought a standard vga monitor wire and plugged it in.... now it posts... LOL
 
-About 8 years ago, while trying to remove a very stubborn heatsink from my Geforce 2 MX card, I chipped of a surface mount resistor with my screwdriver....The card still worked, but text was very garbled. Nothing looked right. So, I tried to solder it back on, but we didn't have the right equipment and it was late on a Sunday night. No stores to go buy the equipment at. So, I try to use a propane torch and giant soldering iron to get the job done. I ALMOST got the thing resoldered, when my monsterous iron cooled too fast and stuck to the resister which was also soldered to the trace. When I lifted the iron, the whole trace ripped off hte bored....The card now completely fubar.

-Last month or so, I killed my 8800GTX. It was Artifacting too easily (weaker A2 core instead of A3). Well, I decide that I should try and reseat the HSF. I found out too late that AS5 isn't a good thing to use on memory. My card died within a half-hour after the re-seat. But, like I said, it was weak anyhow.....I will be purchasing some ceramiqe for such future endeavors.
 
I was working FS in for a Wood Mill (factory) for many years. One of the floor PCs, a compaq 486, died on the floor. I went out to investigate and the thing was filthy, no enviromental enclosure at all and it had been running there for 3 years!

I took it back to me shop, opened the case and WHAM, about 5lbs of Dust ad cob-webs came out! The ENITRE ENCLOSURE was FILLED to the maximum with thick balck & green Dust!! It was Unreal that enything even worked for so long! Everything, Totally, 100% filled to the brim!
 
Just recently, when I started my computer up it was at the POST screen and I tried alt+tabbing out of it to get to my desktop. Lol, force of habit when things are loading for me.
 
D3v01D said:
A power supply failure of this magnitude is a rare event. I feel privileged to have witnessed it. :)
Click to expand...

I've witnessed the aftermath of one such event. A coworker gave me her son's PC to fix. She described a loud pop and a bright flash when he last turned it on.

I went straight for the PSU and pulled it out, sounded like it had a marble rolling around in it (probably a capacitor). Threw in a spare PSU, still wouldn't power up. Since this guy's friend built his computer, I thought perhaps the mobo might be grounding itself agaist the back of the case due to shotty work. I set up everything outside of the case and I don't remember why I did it, but when I flexed the board the fans and everything would spin up! I could hold the board and literally bend it and for as long as I kept it bent, it would seem to turn on. Never posted though.

After replacing the motherboard, PSU, and harddrive, the PC still did not "work." I could get it post, but I could not get it to finish installing WindowsXP on the new HDD. I didn't want to dump anymore money into repairs (replacing the CPU/RAM) neither do I have diagnostic tools to weed out the bad part, so I gave it back to my coworker. Her son took it to Geek Squad afterwards.. thank the lord, their problem now. I was doing it for free. :)
 
MiG29TangentBoy said:
I just did a stupid goof a few days ago. I've been using an Asus A8N-SLI board as a file server, tweaking it bit by bit as I go. I installed a fan onto the always-hot chipset heatsink, and I was deciding where to best plug in the fan, as I have several case fans vying for plugs. I was running it to see if the fan made a difference, and decided that it was a good decision.
But did I stop to shut down so I could change fan plug locations? Of course not...I went to plug it in the fan pins nearest to the SATA ports when my hand slipped (I was using metal tweezers in such a cramped area). I somehow managed to contact the chip next to the fan pins and blew it sky high. A blinding flash and some magic smoke later, I shakingly rebooted and surprisingly enough, all was well. The chip was annihilated, though. Looks like I took a magnifying glass to it, with a neat little crater blasted in the top. If anyone can identify it, I'd appreciate it.:D
Click to expand...

if you mean the chip thats in the black socket, thats your bios :)

some of the chips on my a8n board have a small crater like dimple on them, so it may of just been that you saw ?


EDIT:

nevermind, i got your host to show me the pic properly and i see what chip you now mean, that is some sort of power regulation chip of some sort, it doesnt control a function of sorts but it regulates power to something or another, but atleast you never hit the bios chip which is next to it :)

It is either that or its todo with case alarm warning which the pins next to the fan header is for, if it is just that then it isnt anything to worry about, as chances are you dont eve use the case alarm on your mobo.
 
A few years ago, I was building a budget rig for my brother. I bought a X700Pro at my local BB. Got home, slapped it in the case, turned it on and *pop*. I hadn't put the side panel back on, so I looked in and lo and behold the video card was BURNING. I took it back to BB to exchange it and some Geek Squad dork tried to tell me I probably stuck it in the wrong slot. Oddly enough, the next card I stuck in the exact same slot worked just fine.

On a non related side note: I hate those geek squad idiots.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top