Embarassing installation faults...that others should avoid!

[evasive]

I was transferring all of my goodies to my new Antec p180, which is absolutely beautiful if I might add, and I go to turn it on and after 3 seconds it shuts off. So I double check my Zalman heatsink/fan and see that the 3 pin connector wire is acting as a thermal pad .... weeeeeeee. I have to admit that was funny but only after i made sure the half melted wire was still able to provide current to the fan motor.

Back in the socket 7 days, heatsinks sometimes had a rim to make sure you put them on the right way. So, one day we had a system that BSODed all over the place and couldn't find what was wrong. Well, the heat transfer of just a rim isn't enough to cool your CPU

[Topdeckr]

Lemme just say this one thing. Never go to do anything with your case with the power on. I had just installed a new vid card and wanted to make sure everything was working OK before closing my case back up. Well, everything was fine, so I left the power on and went to put the side panel back on. The screwdriver slipped and went right into the back of my psu, right through the fan grill. Sparks everyewhere, lights in the room flickered, smoke out the back of the PSU. Mustve shorted it out BIG TIME. The worst part is I had just gotten done sleeving all the wires and routing the cables behind the mobo, took me about 3 days to get it perfect while my GF sat there wondering what the hell I was doing. Got a new antec PSU and will always make sure that the power is off from now on!

[warbenekar]

I don't know if anyone has posted this yet, but it can't hurt to post it again.

1)Make sure the drive you are formatting is the drive you want to format.
Just because drives are the same size doesn't mean they are the same drive.
2)If you buy a new heatsink/fan for your processor, it is usually a good idea to give the fan power.
I have gone just about a week before I realised my fan was not on.
3)My Favorite, when installing a DVD Burner, or I guess any CD/DVD type drive, put it in right side up. The DVDs definitely won't burn that way.

Sure this may seem overly stupid, but I know I am NOT a smart guy.
BTW, all of this was done by me in the period of a week.

[Pette Broad]

Here's some of the things I've managed to do.

1. Put the power plug into a floppy drive the wrong way round...ruined

2. Put Cache chips for 486 board in the wrong way round and I'd just driven 70 miles to pick them up.

3. Placed a Bios chip in the wrong way round and broken legs on several of them as well.

4. Destroyed at least 3 AMD Duron/Athlon CPU's by not being careful enough while putting the fan/hs on, plus another that I forgot to plug the fan in.

5. Snapped off the power plug and half the 40 pin slot on a 40gig HD that I bought about 30 minutes before. I was able to repair it though.

6. Left a small screw on a mobo in a desktop I once had, took ages to find out what the problem was.

7. Knocked off a small jumper on a Tape Drive and put it back in the wrong place, totally destroyed it.

8. Left some cables too close to the fan, they got sucked in and broke a blade.

9. Put a GeForce2 card into a Socket 7 board, lasted about 10 seconds.

10. Constructed an entire computer then found out there was no way I could get the floppy drive cable on without removing the motherboard again. I always fit the cables to the board beforehand now.

Pete

[kltsin]

heres an installation fault..
Relationships +

EDIT

oopsss... didnt mean to post it just wanted to write it and get it off my chest and rant to myself.

[tvthegreat]

Install a pci modem (with slight modifications) into an isa slot & wonder why it dosent work. LOL

[evasive]

Install a pci modem (with slight modifications) into an isa slot & wonder why it dosent work. LOL

is that yours or something you encountered in a machine?

[drogon]

Once I forgot to put the Thermal Gel / paste / pad in between my socket 754 AMD 3000+ and my heatsink... It lasted about 1.5 hours before it flatlined.

[Cloud950mhz]

How do i find out what kind of mother board i have and im having alot of problems building my pc

[colinJohn]

How do i find out what kind of mother board i have and im having alot of problems building my pc

Welcome to motherboards

You need to post this in the motherboard identification forum and read the stickies there so that you can give us the information we need to help you.

Also read the stickies in Tech Support on troubleshooting and post there with your specific problem.....give as much info as possible.

http://www.motherboards.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=2

(or may a kind mod will notice and move it for you)