Your stupidest computer moment...

[Steve]

OK, we've all done something totally stupid over the course of working with computers.

I remember a time before I had the knowledge I have now - before I'd ever been inside a PC myself. It was time for me to check out what RAM could go into my rig (at the time a K6 200.)

I happily started unscrewing the screws on the back of the desktop case. Little did I know, of the 5 that were there, only one needed unscrewing. I got the fifth, and *clunk* the PSU fell off.



To be fair, it was pretty funny, thinking back to it, but I'm sure you can imagine how I felt at the time!

Come on guys... your stories!

[Moby-Dick]

Troubleshooting some bizzare Lotus notes problems for abotu 3 hours , only to find I'd speld Domino wrong

[BlackSheep]

Trying to get scanner drivers to work on an old SCSI scanner for about 2 hours when I realised I hadn't turned it on

[steve threlfall]

Thinking a dvi connector was a molex

[nichomach]

"Shtop! This support engineer is not ready yet...why is he not earthed? And why is he plugging the AT connectors into that expensive SMP motherboard the wrong way round?" *PFFFZZZZZZZZZZZZT*

I should point out that this was a VERY long time ago...

[Clstrphbc_donut]

Building my sisters PC, never plugged the power switch into the motherboard, press power, nothing happened, got VERY scared and worried, then realised what i'd forgot to do.

[0iD]

Not making sure the heatsink was clipped on correctly, only to watch it pop off & my 850 T-bird fry. Most upsetting at the time

[Kezzer]

Had a setup once where there was a motherboard with onboard graphics.

I installed a new graphics card and wondered why it wasn't working. Hadn't plugged the monitor into the graphics card

That's actually the worst i've done which isn't too bad. Got to start somewhere though

[Steve]

KeZZeR - I did that about a month ago building a rig

[Richie]

Accidentally sliding the PSU selector from 230AC to 150AC and watching a purdy puf of smoke appear from my PSU

[Skii]

Set up my Freeserve Anytime dial-up account incorrectly - putting the pay-as you go number in by mistake.

Got a phone bill 3 weeks later for £138.00

Fiancee had a sense of humour failure..

[[GSV]Trig]

Ermm, prolly the daftest thing I did was regrease my CPU and clean my heatsink just before a LAN started, only me and Clingy there, sat playing IL2 for about 5 minutes suddenly my PC starts bleeping like a mawfaw (yes u can guess already cant u ) and then resets itself, as it hits the POST screen the CPU temp is 90oC!!!!

Look in the case, no fanny spinney

Needless to say the power cable was removed quite quickly, then in all my finite wisdom I decided to touch the heatsink as I plugged the fan in, 90oC CPU makes the heatsink pretty fappin hot I tell thee

[Skii]

Didn't kill it ? lucky boy

[da_ging]

many eons ago i switched an AT psu from 230 to 115 and caboom ,thought it might be why my computer wasnt working right

[Proplus]

Installed a new XP2600+ into a machine, and forgot to take the protective film on the bottom of a new HSF off, and instantly fried the CPU.....

[malfunction]

Has to be this (already posted in another thread):

killed an Asus A7N8X deluxe BIOS last year... Fixed it by flashing it on my Asus A7N266-VM (mATX nForce 1 mobo)... Put the original bios back in to the A7N266-VM the wrong way around... Had another Asus board lying around (TUSL2-C) and tried the BIOS on that - flashed OK but wouldn't work in the A7N266-VM so that left me with two dead boards... The A7N266-VM was in my firewall so no net access (without messing around)... Next day I killed the A7N8X deluxe BIOS AGAIN - both times 'my fault' - the board was new and I was trying to overclock the b'jesus out of it - so ended up ordering a new A7N8X deluxe and a new A7N266-VM... Fixed the 'old' A7N8X deluxe via hot flashing AGAIN... Sold it and kept the other one which has never given me any problem (but then again Asus released a new BIOS release about that time so that may have fixed the problem)...