RyanRacer48

Well .. I've seen enough posts about people who have funny stories on how they managed to accidentally FRY their or someone else computer.

We all know its split like 50 / 50 on whether you should use a static strap because honestly w/ todays hardware the odds of frying something w/ static electricity is fairly remote. However if you have a story where you went all Raiden from MK on your pc w/ your finger, please share.

Heres mine!

In my 20 odd years of using computers, I've only fried two..

Lucky for me they weren't my computers, they were a customers. It was about 3 years ago. I was building a friend of mine a water cooled pc w/ entry level core 2, w/ a decent Asus mobo.

I got the machine built bled all the air out of the loop and started connecting ot the motherboard. Well apparently I smoked too much that day because I forgot to tighten down the north bridge to the chip. The w/c kit I selected before tightening down made the chipset block hover about 2 mm from the chip. I started up the machine loaded everything on it and was beginning the Overclocking per his request.

Well as most of you know an overclocked North bridge gets HOT. Well I heard a loud POP sound come out of the speakers and probably the PC too just couldn't hear it but it had actually left a crack down the NB chip. I was amazed tho w/ just thermal paste on it and no HS touching it it lasted that long. LOL Asus actually RMA'd that board.

The 2nd PC was a basic work station type PC. I was firing it up for the first time laying horizontally still from the build. Well there was a screw or something sitting on the board and ended up causing a short. I heard some snap crackle pops and kapoof that board was fried.

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" A lot of things wouldn't get done if it weren't for the last minute. "

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MY BUILD THREAD - BONEYARD

Krusher33

On most of my birthdays I'd get pretty excited when I would get gift cards and cash because I'd use it to upgrade whatever computer I have. Many years ago on what I believe was my 2nd computer I built, I seriously needed a video card upgrade. Took my birthday gifts and found a pretty sweet deal on a video card. Come back home to install it but couldn't find my strap... I wasn't going to go back out and drive another 30 minutes to a store that'd have one and drive 30 minutes back. So I did the old fashioned touch the metal case before touching anything... each and every time...

Excited, I got everything installed, fired it up and heard that sound where a cable is on a fan. Look inside and yes, there was a cable on a case fan. (keep in mind, no Led light in case, room somewhat dark) Reached inside to move the cable, touched the mobo in the process... crack/flash, saw a spark. "Oh... no..." Attempted to turn it back on and had the wonderful feeling of knowing the board is dead... Later, the wife comes home and sees some damages done in the study (hole in door, dent in a wall, etc.). Lesson learned... touch the case, each and every single time...

identitycrisis

I had a socket 462 gigabyte board I was going to make as a backup gamer with a 2800+ and some other parts for when my buddies came over.

I was putting it together, and I didnt realize the PSU was plugged in to the wall when i plugged it into the mobo, I don't know what the hell hapepend but the fans all turned on and everything lit up, but I never got a post or video out of it again pretty sad too, that was a decent board and fairly new... It has definitely made me much more careful when working on my pc...

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Laptop: Toshiba Qosmio F55-Q502

My old Opty 165 @ 3006mhz

d0gZpAw

Heh, haven't fried much personally, but being a computer consultant I've come across many weird things..

Most recently was a client that built his own computer, only to somehow eventually kill his own PSU.. He asked me to get him a good deal on a PSU since his computer was out of action, and I got him a really nice Silverstone 700W 100% modular PSU for the price of a 600W PSU he was looking at.. About a week after he got his PSU, he called me up saying he could never get his computer working, and asked if I could have a look at it. Once I picked up the computer, I didn't even test it before opening it up.. I found the motherboard mounted in a very odd fashion, there were no standoffs on the top 6 holes, but there were two standoffs at the bottom.. The board was screwed down directly to the tray, with the standoffs at the bottom causing the board to physically bend under the stress.. Apparently this computer ran for months, perhaps a year like this! Once I pulled it out, it was still bent!

So I swapped his board out with a used one that a friend was selling, mounted it properly this time, and the rest of his components still worked perfectly once I swapped them in. Since he got a nicer PSU he also upgraded his graphics card quite considerably, but I reckon the PSU will be good for full upgrade or two, since it has a 5-year warranty.

Oh yes, and one time I did Zap a running hard-drive Raiden-style with my index finger and a nice arc.. the hard-drive was like *CLICK* -- *spin down* and I knew it was the end of that!

gablain

wow i do all kinds of stuff in my case while it's running, and i don't even bother touching some metal....I guess I'll have to reconsider things...

RyanRacer48

LOL Dog .. WOW >. I'm amazed it lasted that long. On the side I run a in home computer service business and I had a kid during his interview putting a machine together as a test. Well he didn't use the standoffs and i didn't tell him ( out of curiousity ) sure enough it fried seconds after pushing the power button .. It was only a cheap 754 setup so it was worth the fun making fun of the kid afterward and making him think he had to pay for it. ( he didn't get the job fyi ) LOL

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" A lot of things wouldn't get done if it weren't for the last minute. "

http://www.overclock.net/sale/588228-worldwide-new-hdmi-xbox-360-iz3d.html

MY BUILD THREAD - BONEYARD

Krusher33

Yeah... for me it's always "The one time I don't..."

Lord Xeb

Umm.... Does destroying your goodie parts in your system count?

I got my new PC shortly after xmax earlier this year. I got everything so that I could OC for the most apart and have a decent PC at the time. I had already OC the proc to about 3.33 or so (or something in that line) and had a crappy 500W rosewill PSU (which was maybe 70 USD). I decided to go and try to OC my graphics card (which it already was but it wasn't stable enough to play for long periods of time). So I went and looked up a pencil mod, but couldn't find a guide on how to do my card (since it was a non-reference card and it wasn't a TOXIC either). I looked and looked and thought I would try and figure it out. After studying everything for about and hour or so, I made my move. I went and penciled a resister which I though was right and put it into my case. I powered everything on and stressed it with furmark for about an hour. The thing was clocked at around 715 (the stock is 625) and it seemed to run fine without any errors. Then everything sudden shut down and the screen was blank. I took everything apart and put it back together, trying to find the source. I then smelled my graphics card, which had "that" smell. I also took out the mobo and smelled it. It too had the same thing and the same goes for the proc. I also smelled the PSU and that too had it... After having it for not even 3 weeks I had destroyed my baby. I was upset but calm. I called my mom and asked for help (she is a computer tech and works for NetApp installing VTLs and her BF also works that and is a manager, but he too loves computers). I told her everything, she told me to go and take it someplace to get it checked. I did so and they told me my fear. The mobo was cake along with every other goodie...

After spending 808 to build my PC I asked my mom for some more help (because she has already paid for 400). She paid the 485 to get the new parts and I have had them since. The parts are better than the old ones but that is a good thing



Lesson:

Do not use crappy PSU's and do not OC your GPU if you do not know what you are doing and have a low end, underpowered, crappy PSU.

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sgdude

well this is the best I got:
One day i went in to my room to see my pc unplugged. I plug it in, turn it on, boom, i see a fire and smoke. i immediatley shut it down but my mobo was killed (the voltage regulator was burned), I later figured out it was my brother who unplugged it when it happened to him with my PC. What a jerk for not telling me. So I RMA'ed the board and now my rig works fine. This was with my sig, btw.

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savagebunny

So far, none

But I did use the wrongs screws when putting the mobo in, used the case screws and forced it in and can't get it out xD

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