Slashdot Mirror
Most Common Ways to Kill a PC
Sparky the Service Center Dude writes "PCstats covers the most common ways to kill a PC in this "what not to do" guide. Everything from exploding capacitors, to cat hair, to dodgy components and overclocking account for users killing their own PC's. The most common PC killer? The Power Supply."
Like used! Slightly Shotgunned.
easiest way ive ever seen
26% PSU and power issues
23% Bad gear and user negligence
13% Heatsink related
15% Assembly and moving
10% Lightning strike and static
3% Computer cruelty
6% USB related
2% Overclocking
The package said "Windows XP or better. Pentium Class Processor or better"... So I got a Mac with OS X
Slashdot the crap out of it. 9 comments and I get a "Connection Refused" error trying to load the link.
Let me guess, they tested out the "Most Common Ways to Kill a PC" on the web servers, eh?
I would have figured dust would be #1. I've cracked open my parents' Windows PC every six months or so only to discover the horror of a totally alien world caked in a layer of gray-brown fuzz. Like the Cowboy Bebop episode, I half-expect a new species of organism to form from the unique atmosphere. If I start seeing a human Martian face forming on the soundcard, I may just end up throwing the whole thing away.
...or my girlfriend who plugged a Maxtor powercord into an S-video out port on the back of the shuttle that I gave her. Apparently they fit in and run 6V into the motherboard effectively toasting your average Shuttle. I am suprised girlfriend, siblings, or parents didn't make the list.
heres the Mirrordot copy incase the thing totally dies: http://mirrordot.org/stories/4ec4acbeb790ac0270a10 94afdd09d56/index.html
While in itally or (any other country that uses 230 volt power) switch the "voltage" switch on your power supply from 230 to 115 while the computer is running, a bright blue spark will fly out and you will have successfully screwed your computer.
(I actually proved this while in CAD class in high school)
No freaking kidding. I've been at my current job since I got out of college a little over 2 years ago. After working for a couple of months, I had to go to the first session of some bogus training for young engineers, set up so the new blood from all over the company could mingle and network. I was *shocked* when one of the multiple-session veterans talked about how they'd just about destroyed a rental car on another trip. He condescendingly explained that another time he'd told that story, someone had freaked out a little, because they were too inexperienced to understand that the cars were insured and it couldn't come back on you.
When kids are 12 years old, I can see it a little, but 22-25? Cripes. I wanted to punch him in the head and it wasn't even my car.
Last week's issues:
#1 - Call from remote office. Server isn't working.
Office manager was cold, so she bought a 1500W electric space heater. She needed a place to plug it in and there just happened to be an empty outlet on the UPS that fed the server, which was conveniently located right across the hall from her office.
Plug in heater, heater kicks on, high current starts, battery backup melts down, and server goes into SSF mode (Sparks, Smoke, and Flames). RAID card burned out and the machine is pretty much toasted. Defintely a power issue.
That office needed a new server anyway.
#2 - Call from dentist's office. Computers won't connect to the network and they are getting weird errors. Drop by office to inspect. Reboot computers and everything seems to work fine.
Network swtich and router are located in a cabinet in the darkroom. There is a single cable that comes out of that cabinet from the UPS that feeds the network equipment. They are short on outlets in the darkroom.
When some of the employees need to use the film duplicator, their solution is to unplug this plug that doesn't seem to connect to anything important. (Never mind that beeping sound in the background!)
Network doesn't instantly fail, since the equipment stays on UPS for ten minutes. Since they don't have instant feedback to realize that what they're doing is bad, they never associate the bad action (pulling the plug) with the bad event (all computers quit working).
Power issues. Yep. Sheesh!
A guy I once worked with had a customer of his computer store get so frustrated with the "flaky" PC he bought, that he sent it back to him as a 6x6" cube. He used a hydualic press of some kind.
To quote my friend "I didn't know if I should call the cops or laugh, but it made a great paper weight"
At first I thought maybe you were in the same dorm I was. One of the guys down the hall wanted a new computer, but wasn't experienced enough to build it from scratch, so he paid my roommate to build him one. So my roommate buys all the components online, and a couple weeks later we assemble it to make sure everything works before we put it in the case. Everything works fine, so we stick it in the case. Turn it on. Nothing. We pulled out all the extra cards. Nothing. Swapped video cards. Nothing. Processor. Nothing. My roommate goes out and buys a new motherboard, assuming this is the problem. 3 returns later, the system still doesn't work. Worst part is, all the components work when they're not together (after further testing, none of the "broken" motherboards were in fact broken).
Eventually he just called it a loss and sold all the parts to other people in the dorm (I still use that sound card too!). Later I discovered that the case itself was cursed. Not even kidding! Nothing would run out of it, ever. It has the amazing ability to render any setup inoperable, even with a new PSU. Discovering this, I of course did the logical thing and gave it to a guy I didn't like very much who was building a computer himself.