Damaging Components your experiences lol

[ade234uk]

MISTAKE NUMBER 1)
I had some spare CPU fans knocking around. I decided to sell them on. I thought I would test them, so I have an old Duron PC lying around. Basically I disconnected the main fan from the CPU and plugged each fan in briefly for a few seconds, to make sure they spun up, and then turned the PC off.

I put the side panel back on the case. I then decided to turn the PC on to see if I could stick a lightweight distro on the PC. After about 10 mins there was a burning smell, and then I heard a pop lol. I only went and ran the PC without putting the fan back. Oooopppss

Live and learn people lol.

Not the first time I have ruined components.

MISTAKE NUMBER 2)
Was in a rush at work. Decided to test some memory. So found an old PC, stuffed the memory in. Turned the PC on it started beeping and it started smoking. Had not seated the memory properly lol.

[Khakilang]

At one time I try to change a motherboard because of motherboard failure. Try to remove the CPU fan and than release the lever to remove the CPU. But instead the CPU stuck on the bottom of the heat sink of the CPU fan and its was completely useless. Had to buy another CPU replacement.

[aeiah]

At one time I try to change a motherboard because of motherboard failure. Try to remove the CPU fan and than release the lever to remove the CPU. But instead the CPU stuck on the bottom of the heat sink of the CPU fan and its was completely useless. Had to buy another CPU replacement.

having the cpu stuck to the heatsink has happened to me several times but ive not managed to damage anything yet. as a precaution its always a good idea to warm the heatsink up a little with a hair dryer or pull it shortly after power down.

[Grenage]

I thought that pretty much every board in the last 15 years would shut down when the core temp exceeded a threshold? You were rather unlucky. :)

[Zero2Nine]

Well those were probably the most quiet 10 minutes in your computers running history. I hate noisy fans but to completely remove them seems a bit too drastic ;)

[Zero2Nine]

At one time I try to change a motherboard because of motherboard failure. Try to remove the CPU fan and than release the lever to remove the CPU. But instead the CPU stuck on the bottom of the heat sink of the CPU fan and its was completely useless. Had to buy another CPU replacement.

My fail is a bit similar although I didn't remove the CPU. I discovered too late that the heat sink had such a handy lever to release it. I took out the screws of the plastic bracket holding the heat sink in place. Those screws where held in place by a plastic thing behind the mother board. So then that plate dropped behind the MB and I couldn't put the screws back to fix the bracket. Then I decided to take out the whole MB but I failed halfway because I couldn't disconnect some cables and my Graphics Card. An emberassing trip to a computer store was the only option. The guy in the shop fixed it in 10 minutes :P After all I did not damage anything but it felt like a major fail :(

[Sylos]

MISTAKE NUMBER 2)
Was in a rush at work. Decided to test some memory. So found an old PC, stuffed the memory in. Turned the PC on it started beeping and it started smoking. Had not seated the memory properly lol.

Did that myself recently. Weirdly, despite a black burn mark on the RAM it still works fine once properly seated. Did MEMTEST and all checked out ok - tested under load and still stable. Got lucky on that one.

[mcduck]

I thought that pretty much every board in the last 15 years would shut down when the core temp exceeded a threshold? You were rather unlucky. :)

Nope, most of them can handle fan failure, but for example a missing heatsink might cause the CPU to heat too fast for the safety features to kick in.

New ones should be quite fine with even a missing heatsink, but for example Athlon/Athlon XP CPU's (or pretty much anything older than those) don't even have any built-in protection and need to rely on the motherboard to shut down the CPU if it overheats. And that definitely isn't quick enough to protect against a missing cooler. (Athlons would just start burning, Durons actually exploded without a cooler :D)

edit: here's a Duron without a heatsink. Those were manufactured 2000-2006, so it's less than 15 years old... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG0sGugsv28

edit2: ..and a video with couple of older CPUs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf0VuRG7MN4

[LinuxFox]

Does using software count? I tried to dual-boot Ubuntu on my mother's computer (after using Wubi) recently and when the install failed and I removed the added partitions, it wouldn't boot Windows.

Her computer is fixed now, but we're sticking with a Wubi install since it works.

Hard lesson to learn, but since her computer works the way she wants, we're going to leave it.

[Grenage]

Nope, most of them can handle fan failure, but for example a missing heatsink might cause the CPU to heat too fast for the safety features to kick in.

New ones should be quite fine with even a missing heatsink, but for example Athlon/Athlon XP CPU's (or pretty much anything older than those) don't even have any built-in protection and need to rely on the motherboard to shut down the CPU if it overheats. And that definitely isn't quick enough to protect against a missing cooler. (Athlons would just start burning, Durons actually exploded without a cooler :D)

edit: here's a Duron without a heatsink. Those were manufactured 2000-2006, so it's less than 15 years old... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG0sGugsv28

edit2: ..and a video with couple of older CPUs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf0VuRG7MN4

I'm glad I never put it to the test. ;) I think the Duron explosion video was a fake, though.

Back in the day, we accidentally flashed a motherboard with the wrong BIOS. Naturally it didn't boot, but we had another of the same model, so we booted the good one up, then removed and swapped the chips - they were usually removable.

After all the effort of doing so, we plugged it back in the wrong way. It smoked and stank, but after discovering the problem and swapping it the right way, it actually worked.

I doubt many modern chips are so forgiving.

[SEisch]

I haven't damaged anything on my computer yet, other electronics are a different story. I had a all-in-one stereo unit. It seemed like a good buy at the time. Until it got old and the five CD player started skipping. I decided to take it apart and clean it. Since I had done this before to other CD drives in other things I figured it would be straight forward. As I was taking the carousel that holds all the CDs out, a small black piece of plastic fell out of the case. Never did figure out where it went. And the carousel never worked properly again. Expert repairman I am not.

[barbedsaber]

Was upset over personal issues. Decided to install a new HDD to cheer myself up. Didn't turn off the the PSU, put a screwdriver through the motherboard.

They say don't "drink and drive"
perhaps we should add "don't brood and upgrade"

[Lucradia]

I installed a sound card correctly back when PCI was the only available interface internally on most computers. Needless to say, after a few weeks, the card started warping music / sounds, then I found out it had literally fried itself with a big brown burn spot.

This also happened with an old ATI Rage 128, which ultimately caused it to support only 256-colors. Yes, I grounded myself each time, and whatnot; computer was off.

Boy, do I miss the days where they didn't weld the PCI doors in the back on OEM systems.