VOGONS


First post, by Joakim

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The other day when I was attempting to take apart and clean an LCD screen I accidently dropped the LCD panel and it broke. Kind of irritating and a mistake that did not set me back too much other than a couple of hours of wasted work..

Anyway , I was starting to think of other clumsy computer related mistakes I've done in the passed..

Once when removing the cpu fan (I think it was a socket A?) of a brand new motherboard (around 2005) I slipped with the screwdriver and damaged the motherboard. I did not know how to fix it so I got a new board and have to live on noodles for a while.

An other thing I once did about 20 years ago was after a LAN party (no sleep). I remember having this 19 inch Packard bell monitor in my trunk. I went back to rearrange the monitor because it was slamming against the trunk, but when I opened it up the monitor fell out and crashed into the asphalt. It was kind of broken and I so was I.

Am I the only clumsy guy here or do you have any stories you'd like to share? 😀

Reply 1 of 12, by Hezus

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I was working on a small form factor PC and I forgot to take the power cable out before putting it back together. Then I accidently shorted the power supply by touching the metal housing. It was quite blackend and for a while I thought I had destroyed it but it came back to life after I restored the power. Pfew!

I posted some screenshots of that PC here btw: Unsual 90's Thin Client, customized AMD case!

Visit my YT Channel!

Reply 2 of 12, by Miphee

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I flipped the 115/230 switch on the adapter of my NES. I was 10 and I didn't know what I was doing, I was just curious and dumb.
My first victim. I hated those kill switches with a passion ever since.

Reply 3 of 12, by sf78

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I had this Toshiba T3100 with a plasma screen which had a few stripes across the screen. I thought of fixing it by checking the screen cable and applying some pressure on the screen bezel and that's when I cracked the screen. One time I hooked up a PC I got from recycling and made a visual inspection of the inside and everything seemed nice and clean, I turned on the power and BANG! Some asshole had switched the PSU from 230->110 and at that one time I didn't bother checking the switch. Never made that mistake again.

Reply 4 of 12, by sirotkaslo

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Huh, once destroyed my gf256 SDR. Tried replacing the thermal paste but accidentally took out the gpu processor with it. I was without my pc for quite a while after that.

Reply 5 of 12, by gerry

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I have occasionally bent the back plate, though usually they can be straightened out ok(ish)

dropping the screwdriver onto the motherboard is something we've probably all done and most of the time its fine, but its always a worry!

oh, damaged the heatsink pins/mounts on an LGA 775 and had to get new ones

no total destruction but quite a lot of needless adding to the wear and tear of some machines!

Reply 6 of 12, by Vynix

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I once not plugged in correctly a berg (floppy power) connector, this resulted in my PSU cable catching fire.

To this day I still don't even know how the hell this happened, that PSU still worked after I had snipped off the burned cable. Keyword here being "worked" because after a short while, it decided to blow a cap up in vengeance.

I really have bad luck with PSUs.

Proud owner of a Shuttle HOT-555A 430VX motherboard and two wonderful retro laptops, namely a Compaq Armada 1700 [nonfunctional] and a HP Omnibook XE3-GC [fully working :p]

Reply 7 of 12, by Joakim

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Oh and once I set an IDE cable on fire! I was trying to connect my audigy to one of those front panels with connectors but I couldn't find the original cable so I used an old IDE cable I had lying around because it was a good fit. But the cable caught fire and my entire dorm smelled like ozon for a while. I laughed it off but was not very popular after that.. 😀

Reply 8 of 12, by kolderman

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Allowed a midi daughterboard to make contact with the top of a cap on the sound card. There was a bang and smoke.

Reply 9 of 12, by chrismeyer6

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When I was a freshmen in high school (2001) I was carrying my dad's brand new Toshiba satellite laptop. He asked me to get it from my parents room and as I was walking across the house I sneezed and dropped it on my sister's foot and broke her middle toe. The laptop was fine and had now damage and I still have it. But even after all this time she still won't let me forget it.

Reply 10 of 12, by pan069

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Vynix wrote on 2021-05-20, 14:51:

I once not plugged in correctly a berg (floppy power) connector, this resulted in my PSU cable catching fire.

To this day I still don't even know how the hell this happened, that PSU still worked after I had snipped off the burned cable. Keyword here being "worked" because after a short while, it decided to blow a cap up in vengeance.

I really have bad luck with PSUs.

Made the same mistake a while back... And then there was white smoke...

Reply 11 of 12, by Vynix

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Yup I recall that thread, too, in my case (I wish I had taken pictures), the whole cable (unlike your PSU) started catching fire... It was, hectic to say the least.

Proud owner of a Shuttle HOT-555A 430VX motherboard and two wonderful retro laptops, namely a Compaq Armada 1700 [nonfunctional] and a HP Omnibook XE3-GC [fully working :p]

Reply 12 of 12, by Joakim

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pan069 wrote on 2021-05-20, 20:13:
Vynix wrote on 2021-05-20, 14:51:

I once not plugged in correctly a berg (floppy power) connector, this resulted in my PSU cable catching fire.

To this day I still don't even know how the hell this happened, that PSU still worked after I had snipped off the burned cable. Keyword here being "worked" because after a short while, it decided to blow a cap up in vengeance.

I really have bad luck with PSUs.

Made the same mistake a while back... And then there was white smoke...

Ok this reminds me that I do not have a fire alarm in the room I have my retro rigs in.. I do however perform some soldering there too so I guess it should not be too sensitive.