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When Users Attack
AdmiralKit writes "Ever wonder how much damage some users can inflict on their computers? This site documents the cream of the crop of parts that have been returned because they are "defective" or "broken." Pretty amazing what people can do to computers in the middle of the information age."
=[
They'll return their melted server tomorrow because it is 'broken'
Middle of the information age? You have got to be kidding me. The way I see it, we've barely progressed beyond the point of last night's erection.
this may be the Information Age, but we're all cavemen at heart. *sniffs keyboard*
The user who drilled holes in his laptop to improve cooling
The man who had a Pentium motherboard, and installed his new Pentium2 processor in the PCI port (with the help of a hacksaw)
My CD Rom drive, which started expelling smoke while installing Windows 95 (hardware with good taste)
The woman who brought in her computer wondering why it was crashing... she had had the thing for 3 years - without a CPU fan and heatsink attached
The incompetent computer shop who couldn't figure out how to fix my uncles computer (when its 9$ cooling fan had died)
If it wasnt for the customers!!!!
Chicago2600.net more than a lifestyle, its a survival trait.
Ever wonder how much damage some users can inflict on their computers?
:]
No, not really. After seeing some people submit their own sites to a Slashdot front page story, everything else pales in comparison.
ah yes but nothing beats the good ol' cup holder/platform
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
I know there are 2 Dell laptops in the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico that used to belong to an upper management mofo in a company I used to work for. Seems he liked to take his laptop fishing with him. Of course, he may have been stealing them.
...All I can say is that my life is pretty strange...
He'll need to add a snapshot of his smoldering webserver to his gallery.
I got to see the first page before it got /.ed
All I can say is WOW....I mean I've fried components before, but nothing with this kind of visible damage.....well, except for the time I burned out my zip drive, scsi card, motherboard and floppy by accidently pluging my speaker transformer into my zip drive (they look identical and have identical connections, except as I noticed afterwards one is 12VAC and the other 2.5VDC).....left pretty burn marks all over my scsi card and motherboard. And then there was the time I was serviceing my old laptop (loose connection somewhere inside) and I forgot that when I moved workspaces I had slipped the battery back into its slot....ZZZTZTZ....smoke, and a fried out chip on the motherboard.
Luckly everything I've destroyed since then has not had such spectacular effects associated.
So....I guess I can see how this stuff happens.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Only 17 comments so far and the server's melted. I happenned to get a few picts myself, but that's about it.
In about a week we will see a new photo labled, "And this is what slashdotting did to my server. Worse yet, here is a shot of my telecom bill....".
Table-ized A.I.
Ever wonder how much damage some users can inflict on their computers?
No, because I know how much damage some users can inflict on websites.
I stole this Sig
Something to try: Put a copy of all those photos on a bogus web page with the title, "Here is what Microsoft software does to your computer."
Then show the page to your "favorite" manager.
Table-ized A.I.
One time I fried myself on the power supply of my computer when I was like 16...oh wait...I'm 16 now, and that was 2 months ago. Worst thing about being fried while being teenage: That messed up feeling in your braces.
My parents are the typical lot when it comes to machines. When we first got one, they felt that it was "their toy" and wouldn't let me have at it. Not that I was taking computer classes in Elementary School or anything. Even at 10 years old, I was more way more qualified.
/. bunch goes through that as well. And it doesn't stop when you leave home, either.
Since that time, my parents have learned to scream for me whenever something goes wrong. I'm sure alot of the rest of the
I remember that first PC. No hard drive, DOS on a 5.25", and another floppy with something called "Microsoft Desktop 2.0" Call it the prelude to windows. On to the mishaps. Dad thought he could take it apart and tinker as if it were some sort of Ford model. Genious that he is, he has it on and is looking in complete awe at some of the parts. Inside was a 1200bps modem. He had no clue what it was, even though I told him several times. Guess 10 year olds don't know much, do they. Anyway, while this thing was still running hot, Dad rips the modem out. Two chips on the card, toasted. Several other resisters, capacitors, etc. fried. The 8 bit slot it came out of, useless. From then on, my father couldn't, for the life of him, figure out why the machine would screw up every so often. Later I learned that he'd semi-fried the motherboard, and continual (ab)use wore it out.
Then came the 486. This was the first one with anything that resembled Windows on it, that being 3.1. Well, mom wanted to see what she could do with Windows (and again, new machine, I wasn't allowed to play). What she did was got into the settings area, played with numbers, changed addresses, and basically sent Windows to hell. Then she discovered that F1 gave her setup options. Thinking that would solve the problem, she proceeded to lock herself out of the BIOS (by forgetting her password in a matter of moments). This was at the advent of Prodigy and AOL, so I found my way around after learning that BIOS passwords could be cracked hardway, and fixed the problem.
Since then, I'm the PC fixit guy. But with all the advances we have, I'm still trying to get them to move forward. I can't wait to see what they do to Cable lines and modems, network hubs, and next-gen stuff. No matter how inept our fellow peons in the workforce get, the people we know at home always seem ever the slightest bit worse...
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
That's probably because AMD processors are preferred by 12 of 10 idiot overclocker kids.
Where are the pics of some creamed keyboards?
Yik! Don't bring up porn accidents, please. I just finished dinner. May make for some interesting 911 (emergancy) calls, however.
"You put your what in the what? Don't reboot! Help is on the way, young man."
Table-ized A.I.
That was 22 years ago. He bought a Commodore PET (the big one, with 32 megs), floppy disk drives and printer.
Two weeks later, he comes back with a box, and asked us if we would buy back the printer from him. In the box was the printer.
Totally disassembled.
Down to actual TTL chips, resistors, diodes and transistors. Heck, he even took apart the printhead and separated the tiny coils and the actual needles!!!
We laughed for days about this, and since he was a classmate of mine, I got teased pretty well with that afterwards...
Reminds me of my friends computer, the case has a nice dent in it (on the top) from when he hit it a few times with a bat. I also hit my computer alot (back in the IBM PS/2 days, and if you had one of these computers you'd understand why I would beat the crap out of it) I dented the case with my fist, very painfull but it relieved alot of stress.
I also have a keyboard missing alot of keys from when I smaked my computer with it. After I started learning alot more about computers I stopped attacking mine. Well it crashes alot less and when it does crash I can actually read the error message and understand it (and fix it). Whenever people call me for help with computers, I always say "Well did you kick it? Good! Now doesn't that feel good?" or "Ok now go to your window, open it. Now stand near the computer, bend your knees slightly and keep your back straight, now lift the computer and carry it to the window. Drop."
Saying you've never gotten angry at a comptuer would just be a flat out lie, I bet there's millions of people who have typed up a term paper in 6 hours right before it's due, go to print, computer freezes and you realized you haven't saved the file since you opened it. Or you could be momemnts away from capturing the flag in your favorite CTF style game when suddenly the game closes for some stupid reason (IM received, accidentally hit windows 95 key, game crashes.) Most of the problems are user related but the computer makes a good outlet for your anger.
Then there's the stupidity errors,
"I was banging my mouse against the desk because the button got stuck and now it doesn't work anymore, why not?"
"My cd-rom drive doesn't work!" (open it up to find an upside down CD)
"My computer turns on for 5 minutes and then it crashes and won't turn on", spent 2 hours looking for a problem with the PSU or something like that then hear "Oh yeah the fan doesn't spin." looked at the fan, was covered in dust and wouldn't even spin if I pushed it with my finger
"I think my motherboard's bad" "why?" "Well the computer keeps freezing, oh here it goes again, don't try the power button just yank the cord from the wall and plug it back in"
"Our printer doesn't work!", opened it up, the ink cartrige was leaking everywhere since someone tried to clear up the nozzle with a pen
Those are all problems I had to fix for people I know.
Probably the worst thing I ever did was fry three athlons. One was a XP 2100+, the next was a t-bird 1.4 ghz, and the last was one of two MP 2000+'s. Two motherboards fried too all because I installed a heatsink with no thermal compound.) Although I turned the XP 2100+ into a nifty 1.73 GHz keychain. The MP 2000+ was replaced free, but the other two I have to pay for myself (although I still haven't gotten a new motherboard so I've been stuck with my 600MHz PIII for a while)
This job would be great if it wasnt for the customers!!!!
There's a way to get them to stop bugging you...
A legparnasom tele van angolnaval.
I was running some normal telephone cable for a friend of mine behind a desk. Modem, answering machine, and two telephones, all from one jack. I was running the cable and trying to get all of the power cords set up, as well. I was running out of hands, so I held one or two cables with my mouth. I was under the desk, so it was hard to work with.
I was getting things set-up when I plugged in one telephone cable to another piece of equipment. Sure enough, the telephone cable that was in my mouth just became live.
I cannot describe to people that have not felt their tongue being fried what it feels like. Not a good sensation at all.
It also caused me to hit my head on the bottom of the desk.
All in all, not a great install at all.
This may or may not be related to what the site says, but it is not responding (even at 1am EST), so I thought I would add my own little story.
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
In my high school Latin class, we have a kid named Chris. He's intelligent, but a complete idiot. He never shuts up, he rambles on and on, and he has behavior problems.
So my teacher, who likes jokes, asks him to go down to the office because he is out of ID-10T forms. He tells Chris to ask them and bring back some forms. Well Chris leaves, and then the joke is explained and we are all laughing and can't wait for him to come back.
In about 10 minutes he comes back with some attendance forms in his hands. "Is this what you wanted?" Chris asks. He says he asked the administration staff and they looked, but couldn't find them, so they said they must be out of ID10-T forms, and they gave him some others. So now we are all ready to burst, because the entire school office staff was fooled as well. The teacher asks Chris to write "ID10T" on the board, and he does, and he still doesn't get it!!! After about 20 seconds he realized it, and it was hilarious. The worst part had to be the office staff being so integrated into their form numbers that they don't even think for themselves anymore.
I had been doing general troubleshooting on-site in people's homes when I went to one genius' home to fix his modem problems. I did the usual check to make sure that the software has set to the right com port (this was Win3.1), right IRQ, etc.. based on what the default setting was. Nothing seemed to work. So, I determined that it was a hardware issue.
So, I start to open the computer (which is the FIRST thing I should have done, but, oh well..) to make sure that the modem was jumpered correctly, etc.. and the (l)user tells me that, "I can't believe how amazing computers are. You just place a modem board in the computer and it's supposed to work!" Needless to say, when I looked in the computer, the modem was just laying on the motherboard, not plugged in anywhere (but nicely screwed into the case) and shorting out god-knows-how-many traces.
With the door-knob standing over me, and me trying not to call him a moron to his face, I plug the modem into the mb and again attempt the software fix. Not surprisingly, the modem was fried: the computer was working (amazingly!). I told him to bring the modem back and get it replaced--and this time, don't try to install it yourself. I never heard back from him, but, I can only assume that the next-time round his computer blew up and killed him...
With attitudes like that I hope you realize that your place is no where near the end-user. You should lock yourself in a bunker, surrounded by machines and other programmers of your same superior intellect.
If you can't deal with the fallibilities and foibles of average people when it comes to technology -- then don't get yourself into a position where you need to deal with average people.
grip
Failure is not an option. It comes automatically enabled in every Microsoft product.
When I was on the tail end of my college years I kept up my habit for comps by buying and reselling them fairly quickly.
I had just picked up a p-90 for a very good price and had a buyer for my dx266. Check these specs.
16 megs of ram
2 meg video
windows 3.1
CD-rom
15 inch monitor
Colorado 250 Tape Backup(still hearing it whining on these late lonely nights)
and a 540 meg Connor drive(worst comp in history).
Well I had a buyer for 1600 bucks, I had paid 2400 for the thing, buyer was getting a fair deal. 2 years warranty...
I had opened the box for whatever reason and it was running on the kitchen table at my place.
I go out the night, get a little ripped with some friends. Come home, crash, and up bright and early cause I had to deliver the box.
So I do not notice that the case is back on. Probably in some hangover funk it swept by me.
I deliver the box. And a week later my customer calls and tells me there is this horrible funk coming out her new computer.
I go over and crack the box, and there is some rotten scum in the bottom of the case. Slightly boozie smelling. I clean it out, tell her I do not know what it easse, but looks like a rodent got in... she buys it.
I go home and my roomate says that he had come home drunk and was about to finish doom and he got motion sickness from the game but instead of running to the bathroom, he yacked in the case. He freaked, mopped mostof it out, and put the cover back on.
Heheheh.
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
My relatives asked if we had any spare CDROM drives as they had just bought some new software
that required 4X CDROM and they had only one.
Let me tear down any hope you might have left: it doesn't stop even when you marry and give them grandchildren. It only stops 10 or so years after that when, if you raised your children correctly, you can pass the gramma/grampa computer support contract to your son/daughter. Believe me, I speak from experience.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
My fiancee calls me for help getting a new HD to work. Go through everything- even oddball BIOS settings that in no way should help, just on the off chance they will. Everything that should have helped was tried and failed.
Turns out, she had plugged the hard drive into the floppy connector because the hard drive cables wouldn't fit. Whenever I run across that, I go get a new hard drive cable that has a keying method that works with my mobo and drive. But thats me. Surprisingly, no damage to the hard drive. Not even bent pins. And she showed me later the cable she used, it was indeed a floppy cable, and wasn't just poor phone skills leading me to believe it was.
Then there were all the calls and visits to get the system stable. Finally I go to the temperature monitor in the BIOS. It reads 110 degrees CELSIUS. Yes, you could have boiled water according to that monitor. MY foolish self didn't believe it, so I powered it down and touched the heat sink. Pain was immense. I recommend that you trust the hardware monitor in the BIOS, if you have reason not to trust it, get a handheld thermometer to place against the heat sink, DON'T use your finger. Looking more closely, I discover that at some point she has disconnected the CPU fan.
The system is now running quite well. But was annoying getting it to that point.
Back in the stone age, a friend of mine was a supplier of BBC computers. Now, these came either complete or in component form. Both were mail order. He received a letter from a customer who had bought the kit and was having problems getting the computer to work. Nothing happened, not a sausage, no lights, no beeps, so my friend paid the postage to have the computer sent back to him. Upon opening the case he could easily see what the problem was. All of the components had been fitted with precision, with care, with glue.
You call me a pedant? I prefer the term "correct"
"Thanks to Melmac over at TheTechBoard.com, the Mishaps section of jonnyGURU.com are(sic) being hosted on a faster server with moer(sic) space!"
karma capped
220v -- 'nuff said
Tonight, 20 years later, I finally figured it out.
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
Just check,
:))
http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/
You won't believe what you read, those will show up like some sort of fake to you but not, I have computer shop owner friends and it happens, they verified.
Oh, btw, isn't it worth talking when a site deletes their own pages when linked by slashdot too?
What I would think would be funny is to see the logs from the Accidental Damage Protection programs at major companies today. I wonder if Dell could provide us with a list of their more humorous ones...like they get a call saying "oops I dropped it", and they pick it up, it's in nine pieces, all a different color of the rainbow, plastic and all.
My friends and I have done some crazy stuff to exploit the warranty, but accidents generally are much more interesting.
-Jordan
I'm at a local computer store and the kid before me is there with his mom seeing if he can get his processor "fixed". The owner of the store opens the case to see the 486dx266 chip laying mangled on top of the socket. All of the pins are bent, the chip is cracked and blackened, and there's still a nice little burnt smell even from a couple of feet away.
The shop owner asks the kid what happened. The boy confesses that he and a friend were monkeying about on the computer and the friend decided they should overclock the processor. Surely overclocking must be achieved by putting the processor on in a different direction. The friend puts the processor on backwards. Doesn't work. They try and try to "overclock" the machine and eventually *POP* the processor dies. The kid states that he got mad took the processor out of the machine threw it on the floor and gave it a gentle coaxing by jumping up and down on it. After that they attempted to fix the pins and put it back it the right way. No luck though just more ZZZZT ZZZZT ZZZZT from the processor.
This kid must have been 13 or 14 years old standing there with his mom. His mom just had this little smile like "You poor stupid kid, you'll be living with me until your 36" kinda smile both frustrated and amused.
It took everything I had to keep from falling down on the floor with laughter.
"Do not be swept up in the momentum of mediocrity." - anon
Tons of mind-boggling cases of hardware, software, OS and tech support abuse can be found at the Computer Stupidities Page.
As for the squeaky clean computer, this is one from there:
* Customer: "My computer doesn't work."
* Tech Support: "Ok, what happens?"
* Customer: "When I turn it on, nothing happens."
* Tech Support: "Hmmm. Can you think of anything you might have done to cause it to stop functioning?"
* Customer: "Well, I just cleaned it. There was dirt on the fan, and I wiped it off."
* Tech Support: "Oh, that shouldn't have hurt anything."
* Customer: "Then I opened up the computer and wiped the insides as well. I took it apart and washed everything with Windex."
You mean like this guy?
bytesmythe
Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.
-- Scott Meyer
some of the things I've seen users do to laptops.
One user took her laptop home before a long trip out of town and, out of fear of having her house broken into and her laptop stolen, hid her machine. But in an odd place; the oven! The day she was to return her mother came to her house and decided to make her daughter her favorite cake. So what do you do when you want to bake a cake? Preheat the oven! Interestingly enough, the machine still SORTA worked. The CDROM was fused to the case but the LCD still luminesced in certain areas!
While we've had the typical fried computers resulting from spilled drinks, we've also had a few that have been run over (how they ended up behind the tires I will *never* understand) as well as several that were actually urinated on. That's right, someone apparently had a few drinks and thought it would be funny to evacuate their liquid wastes on a laptop. I hope they got a nice shock!!
Satanists get good grades too...suspiciously good grades
Rather, mean and cruel, and inexcusable on the part of a teacher, whose job description probably does not include "attempt to damage children's psyches through public humiliation". The person who asked about the parents suing the school was right on, in my opinion. Ordinarily I loathe over-zealous litigiousness, but in such a case it would be well warranted.
Mine likes to make the blinkenlights go on and off - by pressing the power and/or reset buttons. He's a stealthy little critter, so I don't know why my computer crashed until I hear the giggle.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
The magnets on this guys braclet would have to be so strong that his keys, pocket change, watch, pens, paper clips, kids braces, belt buckle, and any stray gardening tools would be permanently stuck to his wrist. Most likely in a comic cartoon fashion. Just like thoses Acme magnets that Wyle 'E' Coyote uses.
any who, "holistic healing mumbo jumbo" wont destroy hard disks, only Vodoo "mumbo jumbo" does that.
> You are correct. However, the original poster spoke as if it was a recent occurance, not 10 years ago. my bad.
I agree. He did. I defend myself here with this equation:which I find to be true in the overwhelming majority of cases.
> Just the thought of it brings me horrid memories of my 1x cdr (and taking over an hour to burn a cd).
You had a burner? Well, you were lucky. I just had a box. No, just a box. My little brother would sit in it, and hold up a chalkboard with the sums, and...
Virg
I have also removed an unknown number of 5.25" floppy disks and CDs from between the drives, as users mistake gap for drive. And I can't even remember the number of "which one is the ANY KEY?" calls I used to get in the DOS days.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Somewhat offtopic, since this wasn't anything to do with a computer, but the worst shock I ever got was from a flourescent light socket. I was trying to install a new light in the front of a display case (full of open pocket knives, natch), and I was feeling with my fingertips for the socket edges. I was crouched down, with my chin resting on the metal edge of the case, when my fingers simultaneously poked into the socket itself. The jolt caused me to clench my hands, and I shattered the bulb between my fingers. The bulb fell down into the bottom of the case, where it covered the case (blue velvet coverings and all) with that whitish powder that is inside those things. Of course, since my chin was on the edge of a METAL strip, I got a nice little reminder there as well. I felt nice and tingly for some time afterwards...;-)