Stupidest thing you've seen done to a computer

So in starting this thread I see that there was at least one in 2008. Still, I'm on a rampage after seeing the same STUPID answer to help requests in the forums that I wanted a place to vent and laugh.

(The stupid answer is to reply to a suggestion to try with -- no, it can't be that. Occasionally that's true but 90% of the time, they really need to try it. )

Let's see, I'm sure I've done at least several dozen really dumb things. Just the other day I had a user jam a usb mouse into the ethernet port on a 1 day old laptop. I'm supposed to let this user carry said very nice laptop on the road with a mobile broadband connection AND support him remotely. Wow.

 

Sitting around installing all security programs and updating after a very good cleanup, creating an Admin account and a limited user account all on a friends machine.
Take 1/2 hour explaining the difference in the 2 accounts and all the safety provided by the programs.
They tell me that They understand and will be careful.
Then go right ahead and log in with the Admin account and turn off the protection because they can't get to the site they want to see. (porn) Then tell me that I didn't do a good job when they get infected. Again.:confused
Last time, I password protected the Admin account, but plumb forgot to tell them what it was. By the time they tried to use it next, I had forgotten the word.:-D

 

As far as I know, my friend (former, maybe?) is still using just the limited account.I never have remembered the word that I "forgot".
Unless he found somebody else to reformat and reinstall.
I know he hasn't called me in about 8 months.
Such a loss. NOT.

 

I watched a guy force the power supply molex backwards on a hard drive. RIP hard drive, LOL, me.

 

A Double Big Gulp, next to a laptop. Sunny summer day. Ball hit table, laptop fry.

:cry:cry

 

I've done a few idiotic things, all were repairable with no lost data, except my first computer a386. My wife was going to college and brought home a copy of works so homework was easier. It came with the Jerusalem virus. It took a while to show itself so she had lots of essays saved. My buddy and I figured we could remove the virus and ended up with no access to any files. After a while we reformatted, and all the essays were lost. I was not popular.
One hour later my sister phoned to say a product called "Disk Doctor would've fixed the problem. Too late.

 

About four years ago I bought a new CD/DVD Combo drive to add as second drive.

After installing, the new drive did not appear in Explorer and the #1 drive was not accessible.
Got several blue screen STOP errors.

• Spent AT LEAST half-an-hour on the phone with Emachines technical support with No Resolution.
• No one ever said anything about jumper settings - never mentioned.
• Returned the drive to retail seller as defective with above explanation and it was accepted.
• Bought another Combo drive and installed with similar problems.
• Went to Circuit City where I bought the machine - first thing I was asked: "Did you set the jumper settings"
• Pulled out Both drives:
  • Master drive set to Cable Select
  • Slave drive set to Master
• Reset jumpers and installed the drives

Both drives recognized.
No more STOP errors.
Both drives work as expected.

I guess that's learning the hard way.
That's one I won't forget. :-D
Until the next time. LOL

 

Last spring, my boss at the website built me a new computer as a thank you and shipped it to me. Of course, I double-checked all connections after I took it out of the box. It refused to recognize either the DVD-RW or the card reader. I tried everything under the sun, but no go. Neither device had power, neither one was recognized by the computer.

My nephew came over a while later, so I made him look (he's the only other computer geek in the family). Apparently, the actual power connection to both devices had come completely loose in shipping. I didn't notice, because it never occurred to me that some of the extra cables might actually be necessary instead of extra. rolleyes

 

1.Taking a computer to a shop to be repaired and subsequently paying £130 for them to install a new harddrive,prolly 11 years ago now.

2.Feeling happy with the deal at the time.

 

Friends dad bought a new desktop off of the shop I work at. He couldn't get it to even start up. The screen didn't turn on and the desktop would do nothing. After hours on the phone with him (unable to get him to understand "bring it in and we will look at it no charge") he promptly hangs up and takes a hammer to the system!! :eek I talked to his son, he told me the power strip that everything was plugged into was turned off and his dad wouldn't listen. The best part was he tried to take it back and for a refund. :-DLOL

 

I've seen a guy go coastal like that:-D I was helping my friend lay some flags 'big concrete blocks' to cut the flags we were using a Stihl saw

http://www.stihl.co.uk/ts410/downloads/download_7.htm

Pretty expensive piece of kit anyway my friends dad tried starting it a few times then started screaming,well?Like crying and screaming at the same time like dying dog I thought he'd cut his finger off.

He then ran to his bench picked up lump a hammer and proceeded to smash the Stihl saw to pieces,he then got in his van and drove off only returning a few hours later like nothing had happened:-D

It was his Stihl saw so I guess he was well within his rights:-D

 

BTW going coastal is the British version of going postal,it's when you get really angry like going postal but because we're a a small Island your always near the coast and?Err? Anyone buying this?rolleyes

:-D

 

During my first year of learning about computers, I was taking several computer courses at the community college.
I also took an economics course and was working on an open book exam which required short essay type answers
one afternoon about 3 hours before the class when it was due.

I didn't have a text editor, so I used edlin with MS-DOS 2.1 which was the latest version.

While working on the exam, the power blinked Off and then back On after just a few seconds. I had not saved the last 2 or 3 answers so I lost all of that.
I was so P****.! :mad
The computer did a reboot and I re-did those answers and continued on.
Then it happened Again. Lost another couple of answers.
Really angry now!! mad :***
Trying to contain my anger so I could finish the test, I plugged on.
Then the power blinked Off AGAIN boxing
Lost more work.
I was so angry I wanted to smash the computer, but it wasn't my computer and I needed it to finish the exam. :guns:hammer

I finally learned to SAVE my work every FEW minutes and finished the exam.
I was about 20 to 30 minutes late for the class but got the exam turned in on time.

I got an A on the exam.
I think the instructor said it was the best in the class.

 

I believed the sales rep when I bought an extended warranty.

When it failed 11/16/10 I believed they would actually replace what parts were causing the system to reboot. Imagine my suh-prise! to find that included the MBR and wiping the drive. Back home it lasted 3 whole hours before my wife complained again. The store then does not look at it ALL day, and at 530 gets it to recreate the error. The Einstein deduction is the power cord is bad..... so we now wait for a power cord.

It did not solve it and the day after Christmas it was shipped to another repair facility. I called after it was there 2 days and no one can tell me status or tell me when to expect it back. It arrives via UPS (who I love) although they could not tell me the tracking number 4 hours earlier. I am waiting for the "customer satisfaction survey to arrive." It has rebooted itself once already since being returned this time.

Dumb to think they would honor a warranty. They are "hinting" now that it is the battery and suggest I replace that to "fix" the error. I am waiting for it to lock up and making the Store General Manager help repair it.

</rant>

 

Appearently Format C: is not the delete command. Neither is Partition C:

 

I think mines about the same as Laura's, but in my case it was with my own kids, years ago, now i'm alot more comp savvy and they've grown up a lot more they seem to listen to me a little bit more now, maybe because they have their own PC's/LT's now and it comes out of therr pockets if they ruin them !
Mind you now it's " DADDY " "Will you have a look at my computer for me" ! rolleyes

 

That's horrible. I never buy extended warranties for that reason. They either get out of it or they mess up the repair and fart around. What do they care, you can't fire them and you have to say about who works on your stuff. After a while, I get attached to my stuff, i like to control who gets to try to fix it.

:cry The story there has to be painful but very lesson well taught. A user did that? Just enough knowledge to save you from having to try to fix it!

Great stories.

 

If only it were a user. It was actually me. Of course, this is back when I didn't know... knew less of what I was doing.

 

Most extended warranties are good, however it depends on the store too ... by the looks its the stores fault in your case

 

My mom:
She lives out in the boonies and has satellite tv and internet, she wouldn't go for the internet only tv for the longest time. I finally talked her into it and well the installer screwed that up nicely and put the modem in the living room and "well you got a laptop so just buy a router." I carried the laptop into the living room and plugged into the modem to test. It worked and said I would get her a Wifi router in the meantime just use it in the living room. Remember I just took the laptop, not the power supply... She called me the next day with "My laptop won't power on" I ask, "Did you take the power supply into the living room?" "YES, I'm not stupid. I am looking at it plugged in right now." I said that I'll be down tomorrow to look at it. In the meantime she calls HP and orders a new battery (for a 2 month old laptop.) What do I find the next day? It was 'plugged in' to the modem... the battery was dead.

 

All extended warranties are BAD! IMHO,in the UK anyway.I don't think I've seen an extended warranty that lasts longer than the warranty the equipment manufacturer has to supply by law which is three years not the assumed one year the manufacturer states and a lot of extended warranties can approach the price it would cost to replace the goods anyway.If your worried about accidental damage then your house insurance will cover everything in your house for a fraction of the cost of insuring every appliance separately.I also never shop in a store that has poor warranty policy no matter how cheap they are.

Rant over drizzles:-D I'd be interested to know,if you know what kind of consumer protection the law provides in Australia?I know we have it pretty good in the UK compared to places like the US.

 

Every single time I do hardware work on the main desktop, I forget to flip the PSU switch back to "on"... Every. Single. Time.

It's embarrassing. :-o

 

At least you didn't forget to switch it OFF! :eek

First time I tried to use a computer - it was my Dad's.
Never touched a computer before.
It was a Kaypro, I think it was this one

OK.
I'll just see what I can do with this.
There must be a menu, or something

How do you turn it ON?
Hmm. I don't see a switch.
Where is it???
Not on the sides.
Not on the front.
I felt all around the edges of the keyboard.
Nope. Not there. Nothing??
Well, where the bleep is it?
Where's the power switch.
How do ya turn this damn thing ON???

I was intimidated when I first walked in the room.
Now I'm angry and humiliated.
I actually have to look for a book - a manual - to find out how to turn On the computer

Finally - AHH - THAT'S where it is.
Well, why did they put the damn thing ON THE BACK.
Geees!!!

Turned it on and all this technical gibberish is on the little green monochrome screen which meant nothing to me.
Then IT STOPPED.
The last line said something was wrong.
So, what did I do.
OMG, hope I didn't BREAK IT.

I'll just try it again and maybe it will work this time.
Same Thing Happened.

The last line said something about "System Disk"
What does that mean???????
Had no clue of what to do, so I turned the thing OFF and walked out of the room completely defeated and humiliated.

The computer didn't have a hard drive.
It needed a bootable system disk in drive A:, locked closed before power up.

That was my first day on a computer ----- NOT!

 

Well working in a Retail Electronics store over here, being in charge of the IT section AND being in charge of the warranty/returns department I can generally get a pretty good idea of the work things work

There is a Statutory warranty period, however it's set up incorrectly and very hard to claim. Basically unless you can intimidate the person at the retail store enough, you've gotta take em to court. Stupid thing is, Statutory warranty is on the retailers back by law over here, which is completely ridiculous, I mean, does the retailer make the crap? No. Does the retailer repair the crap? In most cases, no. So it's not the retailers fault its faulty, and if it's outside of the warranty period the responsibility should be on the manufacturers back, not the retailers.

Over here the law says the more you pay for an item, the longer it should last (you can see the logic in that :-D) but that's pretty much what the law says. So if you buy a $400 notebook should last only a year, but if you buy a $2000 notebook it should last three years. There are no set periods, it's all up to the judge when you go to court.

Earlier today I sold a 32" Panasonic LED TV and a Panasonic, Twin Tuner, 250GB HDD, DVD Player/Recorder setup (DMRXW380). The customer opted to buy Full extended warranties on both (after some light prodding on my part :cool) she now has 5 years (in comparison to her original 1) warranty on her TV and her PVR/DVD. It's not an almost non existent warranty, it's something that neither the retailer nor the manufacturer can argue is there.

I mean, put it this way, if you wanna wait months while you go through the entire "Statutory" warranty process for your new fridge, while your Milk bottle has gone solid and your beautiful Leg Hams have gone to waste, so be it, however if you wanna pay the little bit extra for the proper extended warranty, you'll get an electrician out to your place usually that same day.

The customer above paid an extra $99 for an extra 4 years warranty an an extra $129 for an extra 4 years warranty on her TV.

As you can see my rants can be very ... extensive, but yeah. Any questions?? :-D

 

Thanks a lotIts very similar to what we have over here then,we have something called the sale of goods act which states that an appliance should last for a and I quoye "Resonable" amount of time,resonable on all electronic goods is 3 years that number is solid but if an item is expensive such as you said there is a proviso that it should last up to 6 years.

I don't think I'd buy an expensive TV without a 5 year warranty,I haven't got an extended warranty on say my sony TV,if it breaks within 3 years it goes back to the retailer,if it breaks before 5 years it goes back to SONY through the retailer or by post to be repaired.

An electrician to your place?Really?They actually repair things like TV's in the field these days?I've never heard of that,I thought it would be nigh on impossible for a TV repairman to repair something like an LCD TV in your house they are far too complex.I didn't even think there were TV repairmen anymore,only for TV's at least 15 years old.

That wasn't a rant Drizzle it was very informative

 

Yeah, ours states reasonable as well but the system has proved it's all up to the judge. Oh and about the electrician, I meant in my example of the fridge extended warranty. TVs no definitely not. They've gotta be sent away.

 

Of course I misread,does it cost a lot to file a case?Free?If you lose are you liable for the costs?

Just interested,no biggie if not sure

 

I've watched so much UK top gear that everything like that comes naturally to me now. :-D

 

TBH I'm not completely sure, although I believe it works the same way as small claims court, if you lose you wear the cost. And of course, in which case you've taken a few steps back. Which is why the extended warranty is a much better option. And sorry I'd have no idea about the actual cost.

 

There was a mobo on display at this computer store I use to visit. During the install they swapped Firewire for USB and it burned the mobo.
The burn marks were located on the pin outs.
At least that's what they said, never wanted to try that out to see if it actually would happen, but I always pay more attention when installing a mobo.

 

Well, yeah! It is FIREwire. :-D

 

:roflmao

Are these the "experts" who want to fix my computer every time I walk in?
zip - zap - ka-pow! Uh. It's done? That's not the kind of "done" i'm looking for

 

@mjnc: That's an awesome story. I always hated those, because I was the only one who ever remembered to change disks back to the boot disc when I was done using it. Everyone else would leave it and I'd turn it on and do something else (Not unlike Windows Vista), and come back when it's ready, only to find: Missing System Disc (Again, not unlike Vista.)

 

Ooohhh! rolleyes, well, you must prefer medium-rare instead of well-done.

You're so considerate, your parents would be proud - they trained you well.

 

They did indeed.

 

My g/f's cousin (one of those who thinks she knows everything) got me to build her a new pc, nothing too special but at the time it was cheaper than buying off the shelf.
Less than 5 hours after she took it I get a phone call.
"My PC wont boot, it just sits on the monitor screen" (monitor logo)
So she brings it back, I check stuff out and am a bit puzzled, asked a few questions and fiddled a bit more.
Eventually comming to the conclusion that she had attempted to plug in her USB mouse upside down.... she tried so hard she actually managed to insert the USB plug in upside down and when she yanked it out again she pulled the metal seperator with it, then attempted to plug it back in and at some point fried the mobo.
This was the only conclusion I could reach. Still to this day not 100% sure if this was the cause but the mobo was most definitely dead. And given I built it and tested everything and it worked perfectly.
5 hour old PC.....dead.

 

Sorry, but that was just mad a cheese.

 

Heh, I've got a collection of these, I'll start with my stupid mistakes;

1/ Built up a shuttle style PC for my parents. I didn't have the manual for the motherboard and had to guess at the USB pinouts for the front panel. Forgot to test them and fond out I had them wired backwards when my sister plugged in her brand new MP3 player and it started to smoke!

2/ Forgot to properly secure a new graphics card. Computer ran fine until I plugged in the second monitor and pushed the card out of the PCIe slot while the computer was still running. The video card (surprisingly) survived, the PCIe slot didn't. Fortunately it was an SLI motherboard so I just used the other PCIe slot! That computer is still running fine minus the one slot that can't be used.

3/ I got a call to look at a computer where I work. The lady in question told me it had eaten her CD. I eject the drive and it's empty. I'm now thinking someone is playing a joke on her but she insists she hasn't moved from the computer. I open it up and find a pair of country and western CD's sitting in the bottom of the machine!

 

lmao thats a good one

 

Oh one that I did...

On one computer build I used a cheaper no-name case. Only slot I had to open up was for the video card. This case didn't have plates you remove but have to break them out and didn't have a row of screws to secure the cards. I made sure I broke out the right one, went to snap the card in and it wouldn't seat 100% and the DVI connector was at a angle. It worked fine so I chalked it up to being a cheap case and tolerances were a bit off. A few months later they wanted a 2tb data drive installed. I open it up and plugged in a SATA cable and the power. I notice how the video card is setting and see a flip up lever that will give the card the room to seat and when flipped back down will secure the card. I asked who was the idiot who put in the video card, forgetting I built the PC.

So that day I successfully called myself a idiot. At least I didn't fry anything...YET

Kinda sorta like in this pic, you flip up the black handle and it unlocks all the cards. Neat I thought and the first time I'd seen it, live and learn.