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Requiem For A Motherboard
JimLynch writes "In my last DIY column, I discussed what it was like to build my first system. As time went by, unfortunately, my DIY system wasn't all wine and roses. This column tells the story of how I destroyed my motherboard through a series of ill-planned and stupid actions. It should stand as a shining example of What Not to Do for DIYers everywhere."
found out one time that an iMac keyboard can hold exactly one pint of beer...
at least it had a use for something..
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
"I shouldn'ta broke off the white thingie."
"It's a wonderful idea. But it doesn't work." -- Tad Danielewski
He tot it was da ganja, mon.
"It's a wonderful idea. But it doesn't work." -- Tad Danielewski
I'm so happy that there are so many people out there like this, otherwise a lot of us would have to go out and get real jobs...
01:36AM up 426 days, 2:46, 1 user, load average: 0.14, 0.11, 0.05
The reason the motherboard started smoldering? The CPU maxed when he tried to load one of that site's webpages. It's impossible to pick out any actual content on that page amongst all the adverts, links, and folderol.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Area man who didn't know anything about cars filled up his radiator with motor oil and overheated his engine. News at 11...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
let me say this:
[Nelson voice]
Ha ha!
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Used to be, back in the old days, if you were feeling a little masochistic you'd do a little bit of self-flagellation. Nowadays, you see if you can get a quarter million people to laugh at you all at once.
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
After all that I was almost expecting for him to say he then loaded up Far Cry for a couple hours until the smoke started REALLY billowing from the computer. Of course that would become a nuisance so then he'd go in the other room to get some shut eye while Maya rendered a few scenes overnight...
Another one bites the dust
Best use for an AMD CPU. EVER.
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
***Like most of you, when I need a question answered, I usually hop right into the forum. The ET forum is blessed with the presence of many extremely experienced DIY people who almost always have helpful suggestions or at least a definite point of view on DIY issues.
***
welll, it might shock you but if the question is "what's burning??" I DON'T CHECK INTO THE FORUMS as the first thing, I'm kind of old fashioned in the sense that in a case like that I turn off the computer and see wtf is wrong with it..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Wow, he knocked a 'white doohickey' off his motherboard, walked around with it while his arm hairs were standing up straight from static electricity, and still expected the thing to work? What a chump. But not nearly as chumpy as someone who would do these things (i.e., me, with my first DIY system):
1. jammed a DIMM in backwards (this is hard -- the slot is asymmetric to avoid this very thing), turned the machine on, and quickly smelled the sweet smell of burning plastic as the DIMM holder melted, then tried to turn the machine off but forgot that you have to hold the power button down for several seconds, and stinking up the entire house before just pulling the damn plug...
2. vacuumed the dust out of the inside of the case while the machine was running, accidentally tapping the spinning CPU fan with the tip of the vacuum attachment, and snapping one of the fan blades off, making it spin out of control like a unbalanced centrifuge and making a horrible loud noise...
3. speculated that random machine crashes were being caused by a poorly-mounted heat sink, so removed the sink and turned the machine on, heard a loud "BEEEEEEP" and no start-up, then put his finger on the exposed die of the CPU to feel what was going on--OHDAMNIT'SHOTHOTHOTHOT, and enjoying the sweet smell of burning fingertip flesh...
Works for computers AND intercourse.
Submited by GeorgeW.
In my last radio address I discussed how it was like to rule USA for the first time. As time went by, unfortunately, my country wasn't all wine and roses...
Clearly you should have used a UPS, then set up a script that detects when the power is killed and starts looping a WAV file of sirens blaring and a robotic voice saying "MAIN POWER FAULT" at 90dB.
How is the 'Extreme' tech guy just nnow installing his first mobo? I mean, that shit should be a prerequisite to having a writing gig at a site called 'Extreme Tech'. I guess they are so extreme that their people have never built their own machine before.
Your screwdriver license has been revoked.
I wounder if anyone would be interested in seeing some of the really bad code I've written while *high*
Think thats a good story?
Gamblers Forum
And here it is.
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
A friend of mine bought an ASUS P4 mb here a few months back. I walked him through installing it in his new fancy case. I thought he understood.
Well, the next day at work, he's got the mb box under one arm, and an RMA in the other.
"What happened?"
"Well, I put the motherboard in the case like you said. I was a little hard getting it in, but I got it in and screwed it down. You were right, it was obvious where the screws went.... But they woudln't screw into anything so I just went ahead and plugged in all the cables like you said, and the power, etc.... But when I turned on the power it made a loud buzzing sound and there was a little smoke."
"Holy shit." I said.
He didn't use the little brass posts. The motherboard was flat-out grounded against the case.
I thought it was common sense.... I was wrong. Some people should stick to playing games.
.
Hours of my life, wasted.
/. for that now ;-)
Good thing you have
I've done about the same manhandleing. My first few machines I treated like a first date but once I started getting used equipment it was time to get freaky. Here is a little list...
i n-flames).
1. Wore wool socks and held a cat while inserting a PCI card. Worked fine
2. Hot swaped video cards until the damn game worked right. I don't recommend this one but nothing broke.
3. Beat the living shit out of a stuck hard drive. It spun up and worked for a few more months, even if it did look a little odd with all the dents.
4. Placed a hard drive in the freezer overnight to see if that could get the bastard to spin up again - and it did. Worked for years after.
5. Stored used components in a frik'n box under other used components. The only ones that havn't worked are the one's with missing resistors.
6. Once I had a particulary difficult processor intall. The heat sink clip was extremely tight and in a poor location with regard to the power supply (sorry, too lazy to take it out). The screwdriver I was using to push the clip down was just a tad too big. Using all my arm streangh I was un able to get the clip down. Now I was getting pissed off and sweaty and started using my full weight to push down on the screwdriver. I wieght 225 lbs. So, of course the srewdirver sliped and I sent green chips dancing about the inside of the case. I got a smaller screwdriver and had little problem manuvering the clip into place. It POST'd just fine and I still use it to this day as a Halo server.
That being said I have a brother who can break a component by thinking about it too often. One of those poor bastards that have had more then one power supply go "up in flames" (not I smell something kinda of funny "up in flames" but full on oh-sweet-jesus-do-we-have-a-fire-extinguisher-up-
"Capital punishment makes the state into a murderer. Imprisonment makes the state into a gay dungeon-master"
It bothers me to no end when people try to pretend that their stupidity is normal and that they're trying to help you out by telling you not to do the thing(s) that they obviously should not have.
Gee, did you guys know that you shouldn't stick a lit cigarette in your eye?
Don't use hot sauce for you 'roids!
NTITE
-You can cry, but you'll still die. There'll be no tears in the end.
But I prefer shopping at well known internet sites than compusa. The guy behind the counter earning min wage doesn't give a rats ass about your problem. It doesn't do any good to kill him for the corperate policy, and unless you have access to pig farm body disposal is a major headache.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
>
> "On the way back, I accidentally ran over the bag of limes with my car, but figured it probably wouldn't matter. A little gravel never hurt anything, after all.
>
> "I finally got back to my house, dumped all the limes in the blender, hit on -- nothing happened! I eventually figured out you have to plug it in, or something like that."
Turns out the power was out from the storms we've had lately. I'd forgotten about that in all the excitement over dumping the limes in the blender.
So I went to Home Depot and got a portable generator, plugged it into the mains without isolating anything, and *BAM*, nearly killed the lineman fixing the downed wire three houses down the street.
I offered him a gravelly margarita for his trouble. He seemed annoyed at me. Strange.
Well, you know, it was a really big lime. Much bigger than those keylimes they had. And I was only making like 10 margiretias. I put the limes behind the rear tires so they wouldn't roll away. Except I put everythign else away and forgot about them being there until I go home. Limes are supposed to be smashed to make mixed drinks right? So like if they were run over they were ready for the blender. The gravel would aid in the mixing down process like in the stomaches of birds that purposely swallow pebbles. Then the gravel would sink to the bottom and wouldn't actually end up in the drinks. I didn't need to worry about the germs, because alcohol is such a great antiseptic. I thought the blender was rechargable. Like on the package it didn't show the plug, so I thought it was battery operated. I think the trials of my labor simply made it a better margerita experince for my guests. I told them the story after they were about half way threw it. They were laughing for most of it. Then they had a funny look on their face. I'm not sure why. In any case they said that I wouldn't have to make them drinks next time. Less work for me.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Wow, I'm not the only one with that tradition. For ever computer I've ever built, I've always bought a 6-pack of red strip, and a bottle of maker's mark. I was teaching a freind how to build their own compy, and I think I gave them a lesson in what not to do, like hunting for a dropped screw with a huge magnet, turning on the computer while it was completely unassembled, sitting on a card board box, smearing on the heat goop with my finger while ashing on the mobo.
It worked though. And thats all that counts. Never managed to mess up an installation yet.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
One night, I was upgrading my PC, when all of a sudden it went berserk. The screen started flashing and it was like beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
And then, like half my motherboard was gone. And I was, like, Nnng?. It was a really good motherboard too. And then I had to do it again and I had to do it fast and so it wasn't as good. It was kind of a bummer..
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
How To Destroy Your Computer, a step by step guide.
...I once had "LM7805" branded backwards on my fingertip, by seeing 'What is hot in here?" ..But that wasn't nearly as bad as the other tech who ran his finger across the inkjet printer head while it was printing. (They design them so you can't do that anymore)( without major effort)
The ink almost made him have to have his finger amputated; It is very toxic, injected under the skin like that.
You could clearly read "The quick brow" backwards, fairly distorted, across the tip of his index finger, afew days later, after all the swelling went down.
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
If a sudden loss of power to the ps causes a mb to fry in any consumer PC then, IMHO, somthing is defective, possibly the ps. It shouldn't happen period. Power outages are to likely in typical home or small bussiness to guarantee it'll never go out suddenly.
Turning of a switched outlet is no worse, and often better, that a random outage.
I've been through lots of outages, and even had my comp connected to switched outlet someone (ok,ok, me somtimes) would turn off without making shure the comp was powered down. NEVER have I had that dammage anything more than data on the hd.
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
From the rest of the article it is apparent he is a beginner at case mods. So by the time we read about how much he likes the case window for viewing we understand why he doesn't have a webcam inside his case.
So, while I can't lay claim to the stupidity that caused my most interesting hardware failure I still laugh every time that I think about it, so here goes nothing interesting:
One day I am sitting at my computer, minding my own business trying desperately to finish a contract job that I have to deliver in about 12 hours. I haven't showered for two days, slept in about three or really had a meal that didn't involve junk food or cup o' noodles at the computer all week. I am almost done, I can feel it, so I stand up and go into the other room to call into the office and make sure nothing else has gone wrong while I have been dealing with this.
As I stand up, my cat assumes that I am going to pet him, and I have to gently remind him (read: shove him away) that there are other things that I have to do. So, I go into the other room and make a phone call. I am on the phone for about five minutes and everything is grand. I walk back into the room and go to sit down at my computer and notice several things wrong, listed in the order in which I noticed them:
1) My computer was off.
2) My computer was smoking
3) My computer smelled like cat urine
4) My cat was angry
Apparently when I refused to pet my cat, he decided to get back at my by marking the object that I was ignoring him in favor of: my computer. I, like the tower of intellect that I can be, had that side off of my case and a big house fan blowing in the side due to air flow problems at my, then, over-clocked system.
Well, enough to say that the computer didn't work, the job didn't get finished that day and the cat has never been the same. He won't go near computers anymore.
(I do have to say that this experience is the reason that I don't mind hearing the 'Jesus Saves' joke anymore because if it wasn't for that lame-ass joke I wouldn't have remembered to save my work and I would have been out a contract and not just 14 hours late with a great story to tell.)