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How Not To Install Computer Hardware
ssassen writes "Most computer hardware websites tell you how to get your computer hardware up and running properly and not RMA it after the first boot. Hardware Analysis takes a different approach and tells us exactly how NOT to install computer hardware. They document many of the pitfalls that'll sound familiar to many enthusiasts and have some great pictures of what could go horribly wrong during an upgrade. Very funny, and guaranteed to put a smile on your face!"
See this article Much improved, though, with pictures to boot!
Homestarrunner.net -- It's Dot Com!
...as long as nobody's looking!
See, you didn't need to read that article at all. Let's keep up the slashdot tradition!
I used to work in a retail computer store specializing in Amiga computers. The A1200 was notorious for being difficult to install expansion boards into the trapdoor slot.
I had one accelerator try to be returned after the customer tried to install it themselves.
I looked at the unit and the pins connecting the card connector to the board were bent and there were chips out of the motherboard.
I told the customer that it looked like they took a screwdriver to the edge and used a hammer to try and pound the card into the slot.
I kid you not, the reply was "I did. So what? The manual didn't say *NOT* to hit it with a hammer and screwdriver".
We didn't accept the return. I explained that my supplier would laugh me out of business if I tried to return it with chisel marks.
$200 down the drain because the cheap bastard didn't want to spend the extra $10 to have us install it.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
The scariest part of upgrading I've found is the daunting process of mounting the heatsink on the processor. Most newer heatsinks have a little latch that helps with ease of installation, but there're always those renegade heatsinks without latches that just give me the jibblies to install.
It wouldn't be so much of a problem if the heatsinks didn't require so much force to fit over the nubs on the processor housing that you have to press on them with a screwdriver, risking the integrity of the printed circuitry around the processor and your sanity as you press down on them in hope that they'll fit. But no... they still make you press like there's no tomorrow.
You wouldn't believe how many people don't realize you can fry a motherboard that way...
I have to pleed ignorance here, never knew you COULD fry a motherboard this way. In fact... I can't think of a hell of alot you can do to the ps/2 ports that would fry a motherboard. I'll tell ya why, cause the 5volt line has a fuse on it. I can't remember the rating, something like 2amp @ 120v or some such, a pretty damn massive fuse considering the typical load on those ports.
I can believe that you can do harm with a straight short, but i've seen motherboards survive coffee in the keyboard and my self i've shorted out a keyboard or two being foolish, and the motherboards in question only needed a replacement fuse.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Dan's Data: Step by Step 3: How to destroy your computer
:)
It's a much funnier article - and still relevant, despite the fact that it's been there for ~5 years now.
#!/bin/csh cat $0
The one that really kills me is when someone plugs in a PS2 mouse while the system is running
The one that really kills me is that there are people who design a system that can be destroyed by reattaching a mouse.
Yes, and they reproduced it from Australian Personal Computer Magazine, January 1998... of which I have copy.
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*This is the cute bunny virus, please copy this into your sig so it can spread
Not on a boatse, not with a goatse.
I won't mod the box, and I won't overclox.
I will not hot swap it here or there.
I will not hot swap it anywhere!
I do not hot plug CPUs, Sam. I will not do it, Sam-I-Am.
John