Avoid These Serious Mistakes When Building a New PC
If you’ve ever built a desktop PC – and if not, you should give it a try – then you’ve probably had at least one (or possibly several) setbacks. It happens. Computers are still a little tricky whether you’re building a basic rig or chilling your system with scary liquids that destroy parts.
With over twenty years of experience building PCs under my belt, I have many stories of my own failures. Most of the time, this is because I bit my finger on the sharp edges of the CPU cooler and didn’t notice the blood dripping onto the motherboard until it was too late. However, I once connected the IDE power cable to the hard drive upside down, causing the wire to catch fire and blowing smoke all over the case. And, of course, moments from my many water-cooled adventures: “Oh my God, it flows and flows.”
As tragic as some of these incidents are, they are always a great learning opportunity. With this in mind, I recently came across an excellent branch ” Let’s talk about all the cases where we have something screwed up ” by a powerful community / r / buildapc – one of my favorite subredditov.
I recommend reading the entire thread as mistakes by others can help you avoid a costly mistake the next time you mess around with the internals of your desktop. If you’re looking for some quick answers, here are a few of my favorite grief stories:
Always check your cables. Is always.
“I turned off my SSD to run the cable. Reconnected it and could no longer boot into Windows. Tried to unplug / reconnect it many times. Nada. I figured the SSD was just dead.
I ordered a new SSD. I plugged it in and then decided that I never plugged sata power into the old SSD, only data.
I never told my wife that I changed this SSD for nothing.
My mobo Z170 died a few weeks ago. She asked if he was dead or “dead.” She pounced on me … “
The history of Redditor jgodin03 is familiar. As I mentioned, I once accidentally inserted the hard drive power cable backwards, but at the time did not realize that the fried cable was causing a little smoke and stench from my case. However, I noticed that my main hard drive won’t turn on. And when I looked at the cables and assumed that everything was connected correctly, I began to worry about the possibility that my hard drive (not built at that time) burned out.
Again, this issue got out of hand due to my anxiety at the time (the day I moved to my first year of college) and my lack of general troubleshooting know-how. As a Reddit poster has no doubt learned, it’s much easier to test, test and re-test cables than buying a new drive, replacing it, and wiping tears from all the data you thought you lost. One of the first “basic” troubleshooting steps I usually try is to unplug and reconnect everything on my desktop – you never know when the cable you thought you plugged in didn’t actually plug in. If that doesn’t work, I try other cables, pull out a second PSU, etc. The less I have to remove and replace the actual hardware, the better.
Don’t forget this switch
“Classic: I do not turn on the power supply and I am surprised that my computer does not boot.”
I haven’t made the mrwillard95 mistake myself , but it’s a classic mistake that can trap any inexperienced PC builder. Remember, most power supplies have a switch on the back that you need to turn on before you can use the switch on your PC to turn everything on. Ignore the switch and your plugged in power adapter won’t do anything – and your computer won’t turn on.
(It’s also good to know if you ever jump into your suitcase to screw up your system. Not only does it have to be turned off – of course – but you’ll either want to turn off the power supply completely, or flip that switch to make sure it’s on. motherboard or other components of your system cannot be powered.)
Don’t forget the IO shield too
“Spent several hours carefully assembling my PC to make sure everything was done correctly. Install it all and know that the I / O plate is inside the case and does not snap on the outside. “
I am ashamed to admit that I have repeated Kantstandu’s question many, many times. So much so that I am now making an effort to put my motherboard’s I / O shield in an unmissable spot before I attach the motherboard to its tray. It’s so easy to skip this step in all the excitement of a new PC build, but it will cost you valuable time later as you may have to pull out your graphics card, disconnect a few cables, and unscrew the motherboard. to free up enough space to slide the I / O shield into place.
Sure, your system will work fine without it, but I / O protection helps keep dust out of your system (at least) and makes the back of the case look great.
I’m sorry, what
“I decided to sell my Ryzen 1600x for the 2700x when the 2xxx series came out. Removed 1600x to send after hitting eBay realized I needed it to update BIOS for my 2700x.
I figured I’d just put the 1600x back on, lay the case on its side, and use gravity to keep the CPU cooler (not plugged in) on top as a heatsink so I didn’t have to waste time / thermal grease.
After I installed the new BIOS, I turned off my monitor, grabbed the CPU cooler from the top of my CPU, immediately forgot that my desktop was still running, and flicked a pin to free the processor while grabbing it to remove it.
It ended with both electric shocks and burns to my fingers, as well as hitting the processor against the wall when I jerked reflexively. By some miracle, nothing broke. “
This nefarious tale from Kasilim is a great reminder that cutting corners may seem like a great idea on paper, but sometimes it can be almost disastrous. Nevertheless, we were all there – installing the video card without screwing it to the case, “jumping” your system, poking the connectors on the front of the motherboard with a screwdriver, assuming that your liquid cooling system is perfect and not working. no leak test required prior to installation in the case, etc. I’m glad this error did not lead to a complete disaster, but it does not hurt to spend those extra few minutes of work so as not to accidentally damage expensive components.
Cooling is important and will always be
“Removed CPU cooling when trying to troubleshoot my first build where it would not load. Forgot to replace it and after several boot attempts I wondered why I saw a little smoke and a burning smell.
If it was not broken before, it means that already then! “
Remember, your computer is naturally prone to heat . Although the Neilshh system had to shut down before it reached a critical temperature, you don’t want to put your expensive electronics in such a predicament. Make sure your fans are always protected and running – both your case fans and the fans that keep your CPU and GPU cool. And don’t forget to clean all of those air intakes to ensure excellent air flow.
PC parts may be a little sharp
“During my A + test at school, we had to take the computer apart and put it back together, and it had to work to pass the test. Easy enough I’ve done this a lot. Well, the test computer cases were cheap and I cut my finger and I had a lot of blood. I wrapped my finger in a notebook and finished the assembly, praying that it will load after I have blood on MB and other parts. To my surprise, it booted up, I passed the test and immediately went to the emergency room to get the butterfly bandages. “
Been there, did it, Oshian . I usually hit the metal fins of bulky aftermarket coolers with my fingers. It doesn’t sting, so I don’t even notice that something has happened until I see a red spot on my motherboard. Then I quickly go to the bathroom for rubbing alcohol (for the mobo) and a patch (for me).
Always use stands
“Perhaps this time I screwed the motherboard directly into the case without adapters … ?”
It is not in vain that the racks end up in the bag of screws on the motherboard. Use them and avoid the big IM_the_Mark error. Yes, you should use the ones that came with your motherboard; don’t try to swap your own replacements .
Your processor is very fragile
“I once had an RMA to return a very expensive TR (thread breaker) board. I took the processor and dropped it directly into a power outlet. Each pin and pin on the bottom half of the chipset is bent at a 90 ° angle. Thanks to MSI for fixing it at a fair price of US $ 300. ”
These little pins on the bottom of the processor are very valuable. Treat them carefully . Do not allow thermal paste to come into contact with them. Don’t bend them. Do your best to ensure they don’t get bent when you do anything involving the processor, because one tiny drop in the wrong corner can lead to a world of expensive pain. Right, D3M0N2 ?
Oh, and don’t dump your processor . In fact, do your best to keep it from flying … anywhere .
Make sure you know what you are connecting
My worst mistake, which luckily was painless, was plugging the front panel connectors into a spare USB 2 connector.
The motherboard was pretty tight where the power connector was, so they silk-screened the panel header next to the USB 2 connector with a small light line on the power connector that I “didn’t notice.”
It got to the point where we took apart my son’s old computer to pick up the power supply (it was his assembly), because I was sure that I received a two-tier one, and realized my mistake when I reconnected the front panel.
It still tells me to connect the correct connections whenever I am currently building something. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it lol.
Fortunately, the wear did not get any worse as the header was never turned on.
Although some parts of your motherboard should be familiar to experienced collectors PC, Short_Bus_Driver shows why it never hurts to get the guide and three times to check the correctness of the cable connection. There might be some alternative use for the connection you don’t know about, or you might need to check your BIOS and enable the connection before it actually does anything – something like that. Take some time to fully understand your motherboard parameters when you first build your system, and you’ll probably be tuned (if you don’t forget) the next time you do an update or mess with your system’s wiring.