Worst Computer Construction Horror Stories
The excitement of working at the computer can be instantly replaced by devastation. We asked you for the craziest, most infuriating computer screams, and you shared some real nonsense. From brick to fire, from cooling water to bloodstains, these are your worst computer tuning stories.
The One Who Was New To PC Build , From Connor Cheko :
I was building a gaming PC for a friend of mine who never did as much as open the PC, and he insisted that I let him do some of the work … I said, “Okay, of course, take the processor and just put it on. in a white outlet ”, assuming he can’t screw up as it only fits in one direction … We finally got it done, everything plugged in and tried to plug it in. The fans spun, the lights turned on, but nothing else happened. I went into full troubleshooting mode and started working in reverse, but I couldn’t find anything. My last thought was to reinstall the processor, so I removed the cooler, and somehow this genius managed to put the processor BACK and fix the clip on it, bending almost all the pins. I spent the next hour bending the pins again because it was a second hand part with no guarantees. Needless to say, I will never let a newbie touch anything again.
The one with these little brass things , from pjhalifax :
I forgot to use spacers between the motherboard and the case when I assembled my first computer. I had no idea what these little brass gizmos were for – I spent a lot of time researching this system and somehow never saw anything about spacers – and you could screw it all in if you didn’t have them, that’s what I did. I installed everything neatly (well, everything else), powered it up and started!
And Gmitty :
That was about 20 years ago, fresh from my hardware tech class. At the time, I was so “knowledgeable” and full of pride. Now I could build my own computer and spent some time buying the parts and case I needed. Everything is put together, and now I’m ready for the first time. Almost immediately after pressing the power button, there was a quick pop, and then nothing. During the troubleshooting process, I found out that I screwed the motherboard directly to the case – no spacers or anything else. Good. In the end, I was able to get a free replacement, stating that the board did not work right after installation. Not necessarily a false statement as such, but not the whole truth. The lesson of humility on PC is learned.
The one that is everywhere in blood , from 6m9j28vsc :
This happened to a kid one level below me in a series of certification classes in high school. As part of the first level class, you can build your own computer at the end of the year; provided you bring your parts and all. Well, he did it, and everything went well until he cut his hand on the briefcase. There was blood everywhere, and he had to be rushed to the nurse’s office. Unfortunately, the “nurse” at the time was a secretary with a first aid certificate, and she was worried. There they managed to call an ambulance, they took him away and stitched him. Everything worked out, but the carpet in this place was always a darker color.
And Tek9 :
About 20 years ago, I replaced the modem in my PC. This is one of those times where you regret the good card slots that are in the machines right now. In the process of installing the new modem, my index finger slipped down the edge of the card, leaving itself a lovely 1/2 “cut.
The one with the too small case , from Wo0tus :
… I bought a brand new video card. I was upgrading from a GTX 430 to a GTX 960. I really didn’t expect any complications when ordering, but I didn’t consider how much I discounted when assembling the PC. When I received the part, I opened my computer and, to my horror, found that there was almost no space in the current configuration. After removing the entire case to drill out a couple of rivets, everything fell into place, but quite tightly, and to my chagrin, my system became much hotter than I was comfortable with. What made me buy a new case …
The one where work surfaces are important , from josephbloseph :
… In the end, I spent ~ $ 30 for a case, ~ $ 50 for a power supply, about ~ $ 120 for a motherboard with the extras I needed, and $ 100 for RAM. Not necessarily the best deals, but reasonably priced … Yeah, and $ 800 to repair the desk after the bottle of isopropyl alcohol I used to clean the thermal paste from the processor heatsink spilled all over the desk I was working on. This increases the construction cost significantly.
And Dustin :
… while working in a computer store, a couple walked in, pleased that they had just passed the A + certification test. First on their list was the desire to buy everything in order to build their first computer. As a matter of policy, we have always installed the CPU, RAM, and test graphics card to make sure it is published, which is what happened. This guy insisted that I put the processor back in the box and he installed it himself because he is A + certified! I put everything back in the boxes and sent the happy couple home to assemble their first computer.
The next morning, they were furious that I sold them bad parts and they demanded a replacement. I explained to him that I had sent the computer that he saw and signed that he saw how it happened, and that if there was a problem, it was his fault. He whined and whined until I agreed to test the components to find out which ones were bad. So, I took apart the computer, and the first warning signs were carpet fibers stuck in thermal paste on the fan and processor. Then, when I took out the board, I found more carpet fibers. These two A + certified GENIUS decided to install their new computer on the floor of their living room. By the time I checked everything, the power supply, processor fan, hard drive, and disk drive were the only working components.
Bad Teeth Bonus:
Girlfriend once had a Compaq laptop, but the contacts on the back were loose and the laptop wouldn’t charge. I re-soldered the pins and it worked …. then I accidentally put it on the baseboard heater and melted the screen.
The one with free viruses for everyone , from norgedane :
A client hired me to create take-home packages for his latest marketing project. Die-cut folders, inserts, related materials and CD-ROM created in Macromedia Director. It was the late 1990s and the concert was the highlight of my career at that time. He contacted me mid-week after the presentation. There was a not very dangerous virus on the disks, but nevertheless a virus that spread between definition updates. When I insert a disc into the drive, a warning window appears immediately. Taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)) oeuz ago, I asked if I could call it potential customers to call themselves his guy from MarComm, admit his mistake and offer FedEx «clean» the disc in their favor … It’s amazing, but he trusted me to do it. The longest. A week. From. My life … Half of the people did not know that I had infected them because their computers did not have antivirus software … The other half was divided between people who did not even play the disc and people whose updates warned about this virus … … (“Can I send you a new disc? I promise it will be blank!”). It turned one of my most lucrative jobs into one of my most expensive.
The one where Whitson was pulled from Stizuner :
Two cars ago, I built a huge water-cooled beast. Therefore, on the next machine, I wanted to do the opposite – Z97 in a mini-ITX case. I did this and it worked. Once I noticed a small leak from the reservoir … A few random drops here and there. I turned off and cleaned up. I ordered a new tank and thought, since I had it separately, now is the time to change some fittings to rotary ones and clean some of the connections to make them look nice. I ordered my new fittings and waited for everyone to arrive.
Here we are in a few days, and I have all my parts. Install everything and everything will be fine! Do a tightness test and you’re good to go! Turn it on and start pressing. After about an hour, I notice a slight drop at the fitting, so I start tightening. Please note that the machine is fully loaded! Tighten a little more … Suddenly, a hose pops out of the fitting (hose at the pump outlet) and water splashes directly onto the working motherboard and falls onto my new Titan X ! I yell at the hose and pull the plug out of the socket.
Everything is saturated. I know that I am broke. I disassemble everything and remove all the blocks. Dry everything and wipe with alcohol. Wait a day to make sure everything is dry. Assemble every part by performing a standard cooling test. EVERYTHING WORKED! I was about to send a nasty email to EKWB, but it turns out that I ordered the wrong size fitting! Aha! I have not had water cooling since …
The one where it doesn’t come from is from jbhelfrich :
My wife and I have a friend who at that time lived in the great white north. The nearest computer store was an hour’s drive from the parent’s home. And she wanted to build her own computer. Since my wife and I both did it, we discussed with her the pros and cons of the various brands … She created the design and was justly proud of her work. There was only one small problem. Her power supply had a floppy drive connector. Her computer had no floppy drive. However, the motherboard had a fan connector of exactly the same size.
Turns it on, and she almost immediately has a fire in the power supply, and both ends of the connector melt as they both provided power.
And RolanddArt :
Nearly twenty years ago, I had a tape backup for my computer with a power plug that looked just like a keyboard plug. I just built a new system, my first 486 system, and I was plugging everything in for the first boot. As you probably guessed by now, I connected the tape power supply to the keyboard connector. A loud bang followed immediately. On autopsy, I discovered that the silicone had been blown off one of the chips on the motherboard.
And Karl :
Got a new case for Christmas and decided now was the time to upgrade my PSU and switch to a fancy closed-loop fluid system for my 980 Ti. These are not updates that should cause your DRAM_LED to shut down and reject any memory combination of the 8 4GB sticks I’ve tried. 35 no sleep WTF hours, too much coffee, 3 DBAN cleanups and new 8.1 installs later and … I have an SSD as a boot drive with System on my 2TB SSHD.
Everything is working. Everything is quiet, the cooling is great. I don’t notice the difference in speed. But the OS is installed on the wrong drive and it really drives me crazy.
And techcore2 :
A former friend of mine made me fix his computers over the years. He always followed what I was doing. Then he made me fix a computer for a female photographer who was filming weddings and receptions where he was DJing … he called me one day from her house while I was at work. The PC emitted POST beeps indicating a faulty graphics card. I told him I was busy, but the PC has built-in VGA, so just pull the card out and go to VGA. He called me back and said that everything works, but she needs a high resolution to take her photos. I told him to go to the local computer store and buy a video card and I will put it in after work …
Well, he thought he was a computer repairman and was trying to impress a female photographer, so he goes and grabs an AGP card and somehow slips it into the PCI slot. Smoked the motherboard completely. She was furious.
The episode of “The Incident with the Magic Bullet” from Mr. Snips :
During an epic 3-day Winter-Wonder-LAN, my friend’s neighbor accidentally shot a .45 pistol in our direction. The bullet went through 2 walls, hit right into my friend’s drive, then jumped and exploded into his power supply a few inches from his leg. There were 14 of us playing, plus 2 of his parents and 4 brothers and sisters. This is still called the “magic bullet incident.” Within 2 hours there was a screaming fight with a neighbor, “Best Buy”, carried out by said neighbor for a new floppy drive, case and power supply. A quick change of equipment and my buddy returned to Diablo II as if nothing had happened.
Someone who had a very helpful friend from The Knitigator :
I was very excited (and delightfully reckless) back in my law school days. “Fuck the research,” I said, pressing the “Submit Order” button on my new gaming PC order. Express delivery included for an additional $ 100. “I will learn when I get tired of playing WoW.”
So two days later I receive an order, I collected everything, pressed the power button, nothing. I can’t figure out why. Call my friend, who will, of course, say, “Looks like you haven’t sat down the processor. Are you sure you have inserted a processor? “
“OF COURSE I TRUNKED THE WORKING PROCESSOR, YOU PATTERN !!”
Thirty minutes later, after crying on the floor in a fetal position, I decided that I probably had a faulty processor. I slowly began to take things apart, deciding that I would have to send the processor for a new one. But that meant that I would have to a) wait and b) learn, since there was nothing else to do. I unclenched the processor and reached for it …
It moved a couple of millimeters and snapped into place.
I have not inserted the processor. And for some reason I avoided bending the pins. I quickly rebuilt everything and of course caught fire. I called my friend, apologized and treated him to fried chicken. As a great friend, he forgave me.
The one with the unlikely culprit , from HoshinoKaze :
First computer ever, I worked all summer to save $ 600 on parts. This was in 1995, so I was looking for Cyrix 133, 32MB RAM, 640MB hard drive, the best deals I could get for parts with my budget. Thoroughly conducted all the research, ordered all the parts from various sources and very carefully assembled the computer. It must have taken me about 4 hours to put it together as I was so afraid I would ruin the part … Finally the machine was assembled, the jumpers were installed, everything was ready to plug in and press the power button. The most intense moments of my life. No cubes. No lights, no beeps, nothing.
So I started troubleshooting, half wanting to find out what the problem was, but also half wanting to just scold the computers all together, just say “fuck it” and buy Dell. After another 4 hours, after checking everything with a fine-toothed comb, I realized that one of the smt parts on the motherboard had been knocked off the board, NOT by me, I’m sure. I found it floating in the anti-static package of the motherboard … Got a new board, installed it, ready to go. No cubes. Knowing it’s not a board this time, double-check everything with a fine scallop, almost ready to fill out another RMA. In another impulse, “fuck” decided to double check the switches on the front panel and the wiring, which I had not done before …
AHA! During assembly, the power button wire was clamped between the front panel and the case, and it was closed to the case. After fixing the wire, finally my car FINALLY booted up and worked fine.
Whoever has an infinite reboot loop , from heylonghair :
I researched and carefully selected all of my parts based on the Silverstone Raven 2 case. I ordered the case, assembled all the parts and put the item together. Well I run it and it just loops over reboot. As an IT professional, I find it not that hard to fix. Yes, that’s right … I spent a week returning parts, replacing one part after another, to no avail, until I finally decided to completely fix it. I only plugged in the motherboard and power switch, and lo and behold, it lit up. Ok, so I proceeded to plug in the reset switch, after which it started to reboot again.
After all this time, I finally discovered that the spring in the reset switch had shifted during transport and was clamped there, basically holding the reset button down . Once I reinstalled the spring everything worked.
The one with the metal clip falling in slow motion , from Luke_L :
After reapplying thermal paste to a slightly older PC, I was in the middle of turning it on to run a CPU test when my metal clip for the Wi-Fi adapter (it was a dell Zino with built-in Wi-Fi) fell into the case. …
There was a bright glow (like a mini angel appeared in my tower), the computer instantly shut down and then smoke. After removing the clip, I discovered that one of the circuits on the motherboard had burned out.
And since this one was too good not to include it, the one with the wrong ACL from MyIThurts :
In the middle of the day, I was working on a network device remotely (3000 miles away) and had the simple task of updating an ACL (Access Control List). Normal afternoon activity. Well, I applied the wrong ACL, denying all traffic. It turned off all traffic for and access to the site completely and we didn’t have an OOB (out-of-band) connection to it. So, I turn pale, look at my boss and just mumble the words “damn it.” I tell him what’s going on and he says, “When is the next flight?”