1) Reinstalling Windows and setting up everything afterward
2) Juggling of available hard drives to do a reinstall without having to wipe the previous install at the outset
3) Replacing power supplies
4) Dell clamshell cases
5) Beaten up second hand Dell clamshell cases
6) DVI-VGA adapters
7) Sloppy physical tolerances causing things not to fit properly
8) "Tool-less" cases
Honorable Mention) Forum software that by default replaces 8) with a smilie
A few days ago I wanted to rearrange video cables to work better with dual monitors. A simple task.
Found that one of them was using a DVI-VGA adapter. Couldn't get the adapter off the card, because the screws were nearly impossible to get a grip on. Found that one of the adapter's screws wouldn't turn even with pliers. Noticed that the entire video card was loose in the slot. Had to open the case. The case latch was jammed (Dell clamshell) in spite of a previous effort to keep it from latching. After getting it open, I broke off the metal hook on the offending side so I can be sure it won't find a way to latch ever again. I hope.
The loose video card wouldn't seat properly into it's slot because of bad physical tolerances somewhere. After getting it into an acceptable position, tried to latch the card down with the plastic retaining latch that Dell uses in lieu of actual screws. Found that it wasn't doing the job of actual screws, instead it was actually popping loose. Found that the plastic retainer was damaged and useless. Noticed that there were screw threads available, so I went through my bag of PC screws trying to find one that fit. Nothing fit, because Dell doesn't use the same thread as everybody else. The motherboard tray fell out.
I shoved the pile of trash into a corner, took a PC from another room and hooked that up in it's place.
It's having power issues. Not all the time, just enough to be annoying.
It's Windows install (XP64) is incompatible with a couple pieces of obscure software that are required to support the devices I need it to run in this position. One is for a legacy device that works with XP32 at maximum. The other is for a modern device that works with XP32 at minimum, but has migrated to new middleware that doesn't work with XP64. I would guess I'm the only user to have noticed. I need to install XP32 on it. Logistical complications with drive allocation between machines. All I wanted was to rearrange video cables.
This probably would have been fun when I was a teenager. Now it's annoying me.