Worst thing I have had was when I was living in a very dodgy apartment in Town -- Had a Bug problem, which as you know love warmth. So one day my pc stops booting -- cant see anything wrong so I pick it up to take it to a desk to reseat things and almost drop it as roaches start clamoring out the Power Supply...... replaced the PS, laid some roach traps and didn't turn my PC off for a while after that....
*WINNER* Win Cooler Master Silent Pro Platinum 550W PSU with Sonic Informed
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Dohc-WP
Ron Burgundy
before the ATX standard, there was the AT power supplies that used to have 2 power connectors running to the motherboard, if you did not connect it black against black then you where guaranteed to have a fried mobo and i've seen quite a few idiots in those days, that went and connected the connectors the wrong way around back in the day !
VegOtter
New member
This happened to me around 2 years ago. We lived in the bottom floor of a 3 story block and my computer stood in the corner of the one bedroom. I left it on to download a new game via steam while i was at work. Later got home to find out someone had a water pipe burst in the apartment above and the water had leaked through the cement floor and into my apartment... right in the corner where my box was standing in the corner.
Needless to say there was my pc buzzing and fizzing. I instantly shut down the mains and proceeded to open up the case and clean everything out. Left all the individual components in the sun and also blow dried them with hairdryer. That following evening i put everything back together and in pure amazement, the PC worked fine.
Crysis 2 finished downloading and i decided to give it a whirl and test out the PC properly. I played for about 15 minutes, relieved that everything was fine, when i just suddenly heard this load buzzing sound getting louder and louder like a Tesla coil spinning up and then within the next minute before i could even react there was a bright flash from the Power supply and then just a loud POP!!!!
Needless to say, It was fun explaining what happened to the insurance company. It pretty much fried everything on the motherboard.
Needless to say there was my pc buzzing and fizzing. I instantly shut down the mains and proceeded to open up the case and clean everything out. Left all the individual components in the sun and also blow dried them with hairdryer. That following evening i put everything back together and in pure amazement, the PC worked fine.
Crysis 2 finished downloading and i decided to give it a whirl and test out the PC properly. I played for about 15 minutes, relieved that everything was fine, when i just suddenly heard this load buzzing sound getting louder and louder like a Tesla coil spinning up and then within the next minute before i could even react there was a bright flash from the Power supply and then just a loud POP!!!!
Needless to say, It was fun explaining what happened to the insurance company. It pretty much fried everything on the motherboard.
simon
New member
Well the disaster that happened to me was the family computer psu popping and it taking the motherboard with it.
We had been having problems with the pc before and knew it was on its way out soon.
I was wanting to play a game or 2 on the pc one morning, hoping the pc would turn on. haha I am nearly surprised it didn't turn the smoke detector on (if I had one).
Turned the on button, a second later there was a loud bang, I shot back, heart pounding and a puff of smoke rising from the back of the computer. I think I nearly had a real sh1tty day after that one.
We had been having problems with the pc before and knew it was on its way out soon.
I was wanting to play a game or 2 on the pc one morning, hoping the pc would turn on. haha I am nearly surprised it didn't turn the smoke detector on (if I had one).
Turned the on button, a second later there was a loud bang, I shot back, heart pounding and a puff of smoke rising from the back of the computer. I think I nearly had a real sh1tty day after that one.
I was sitting at my PC playing Assassins Creed late at night, and with a massive flash of flight and a spark sound the whole house was plunged into darkness... Got the fright of my life, and scrambled around in the dark to find a torch to switch the power back on. After some inspection it was obvious that my PSU had given out. The smoke came out 
Fortunately for me it was still under warranty and I was able to get a replacement without much hassle. You just have to wonder how long it will be before it pops again...
Fortunately for me it was still under warranty and I was able to get a replacement without much hassle. You just have to wonder how long it will be before it pops again...
Necuno
The Piper
Going to relay a few:
1)
While building servers, a ram module somehow fell into my friend's pant's folds (just above the shoe). Wow did we search and search for that ram
2)
While fixing a pc and turning around to help next customer... flames was coming out of the hdd and we thought WTF is everyone looking at.
3)
I finally got an interview job at one of the wholesalers, it didn't go well. I was so nervous that when I tried to take out the intel cpu of it box it flew across the room and pins was bent... badly.
4)
Another place building servers. This was in the days you had switch the psu to take our voltage and not US's. I forgot and blew the whole rack in one go
5)
sigh.... the bios virus. It started with few clients, but in end it was so much of them they started to stack the pcs from the counter up and out the doors down the ramp. I never flashed so many bioses in my life.
6)
Decapitating cd's.... those where the days. The drives would spin and spin, faster and faster. mostly it would shatter, but some times it would like come out... FAST.
1)
While building servers, a ram module somehow fell into my friend's pant's folds (just above the shoe). Wow did we search and search for that ram
2)
While fixing a pc and turning around to help next customer... flames was coming out of the hdd and we thought WTF is everyone looking at.
3)
I finally got an interview job at one of the wholesalers, it didn't go well. I was so nervous that when I tried to take out the intel cpu of it box it flew across the room and pins was bent... badly.
4)
Another place building servers. This was in the days you had switch the psu to take our voltage and not US's. I forgot and blew the whole rack in one go
5)
sigh.... the bios virus. It started with few clients, but in end it was so much of them they started to stack the pcs from the counter up and out the doors down the ramp. I never flashed so many bioses in my life.
6)
Decapitating cd's.... those where the days. The drives would spin and spin, faster and faster. mostly it would shatter, but some times it would like come out... FAST.
DCWarhound
Dakka Dakka
Ants in my old Monitor,do you know how hard it is to get them out of there without water?
They even carried mud in and started to make a little nest (which was luckily not on one of the circuit boards)
I've also had a problem with a 'pereby' (big black and yellow bee things we have with the long forelegs that can sting multiple times) making a little mud nest in my case once.
They even carried mud in and started to make a little nest (which was luckily not on one of the circuit boards)
I've also had a problem with a 'pereby' (big black and yellow bee things we have with the long forelegs that can sting multiple times) making a little mud nest in my case once.
During an exceptionally wet winter in Cape Town we had an influx of field mice from the flooding, this meant that the little fury buggers needed a new place to stay seeing as their existing residences were water logged. So a family of two field mice thought it a brilliant and safe place to live was inside my media PC. Seeing as it is stored out of access area's one generally doesn't expect to find living animals inside your hardware. But I notice my case had moved slightly and my cats where paying ever so close attention to my Media PC.
After investigation I found a small 'nest' and had to find a way to clean circuit components after the mice had had their way with the innards of my media PC. Lets just say that I have mod-ed my cases to avoid said circumstances in the future.
NOTE: No field mice were harmed during this event and all were relocated in a civil manner.
After investigation I found a small 'nest' and had to find a way to clean circuit components after the mice had had their way with the innards of my media PC. Lets just say that I have mod-ed my cases to avoid said circumstances in the future.
NOTE: No field mice were harmed during this event and all were relocated in a civil manner.
orkoza
New member
A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away...
Ok not really but it really was a long time ago, had my old 486 dx4/100 and got some spending money.
So naturally I bought myself a brand new 52x CD-ROM and the new 7 disk copy of Phantasmagoria.
I inserted the the first disk after installing the ROM, and listened to the sheer power which sounded like a Harrier taking off,
and BOOM!!! You heard of it, only a few have witnessed it but this $#it has happened right in front of me, My CD exploded!!!
What a mess, I had to open my brand new CD-ROM to clean up the 7 Million pieces of now phantas ma gon ia.
Saddest part, I never got to play the game.
Ok not really but it really was a long time ago, had my old 486 dx4/100 and got some spending money.
So naturally I bought myself a brand new 52x CD-ROM
and the new 7 disk copy of Phantasmagoria.I inserted the the first disk after installing the ROM, and listened to the sheer power which sounded like a Harrier taking off,
and BOOM!!! You heard of it, only a few have witnessed it but this $#it has happened right in front of me, My CD exploded!!!
What a mess, I had to open my brand new CD-ROM to clean up the 7 Million pieces of now phantas ma gon ia.
Saddest part, I never got to play the game.
Deceptor
New member
Hmmm I can only think of one hardware horror that I had a couple of years ago.
I was just playing some Guild Wars on my PC and noticed a rather strong burning smell. So I turned off the PC and had a good look around to find the problem. Eventually I saw that a small area on the power cable connected to the PSU was melting! I had no idea what caused that but I quickly replaced the cable 
.
I was just playing some Guild Wars on my PC and noticed a rather strong burning smell
. So I turned off the PC and had a good look around to find the problem. Eventually I saw that a small area on the power cable connected to the PSU was melting! I had no idea what caused that but I quickly replaced the cable .
S1ght
New member
I have too many to recall >.< I seem to be a disaster when it comes to technology, so will share 1 of many PC related incidents and 1 more recent non-pc related.
Back in my noob days when we used to go to Mayhem, computer got very hot around mid morning so shut it down and was fiddling and ended up blowing the PSU. Since I had no car I just had to sit at the LAN all day doing nothing :/
Got my Galaxy S2 near end of last year, about 3 months after that at a New Years eve party I got pushed in the pool by a drunk guy. We put it in rice to try save the lil' guy, then when we weren't looking another guy decided salt would work better than rice. GG Galaxy S2 >.<
Got my Galaxy S3 in June. In August it got knocked out my hand onto the bricks and broke some parts on the mainboard. GG Galaxy S3 >.< That 1 took over a week and a bunch of replacement parts (2k later) to fix. The guy described it as the most complicated job he's ever done on a Galaxy S3.
Back in my noob days when we used to go to Mayhem, computer got very hot around mid morning so shut it down and was fiddling and ended up blowing the PSU. Since I had no car I just had to sit at the LAN all day doing nothing :/
Got my Galaxy S2 near end of last year, about 3 months after that at a New Years eve party I got pushed in the pool by a drunk guy. We put it in rice to try save the lil' guy, then when we weren't looking another guy decided salt would work better than rice. GG Galaxy S2 >.<
Got my Galaxy S3 in June. In August it got knocked out my hand onto the bricks and broke some parts on the mainboard. GG Galaxy S3 >.< That 1 took over a week and a bunch of replacement parts (2k later) to fix. The guy described it as the most complicated job he's ever done on a Galaxy S3.
BlaZing
New member
I friend asked me to have a look at his pc said it was mot turning on fr some reason, I went over and tried turning it on and nothing psu would not swing, so i decided to open the case to see what is going on. opened the left side panle nothing wrong opened the right pannle there was a dead fried gecko across his the back of his main board, needless to say the board was fired.
My horror story, got home after work on a thursday turned on my pc, starts for 5 seconds and stops. spent 3 hours stripping my pc trying in vain the borad had blown
. I had to wait 3 week to get some cash to gether to get my new pc. 3weeks no
PC
My horror story, got home after work on a thursday turned on my pc, starts for 5 seconds and stops. spent 3 hours stripping my pc trying in vain the borad had blown
. I had to wait 3 week to get some cash to gether to get my new pc. 3weeks no PC
zero-g
New member
I've got three awesome stories from my days as a techie in a computer store.
1. Do you own a cat?
A customer brought in a PC to be looked at, she's wasn't sure what had happened but when she powered it up it made a crackling noise so she switched it off immediately and brought it in. So me and the senior tech took it to the workshop and popped the bonnet. First thing we noticed was a pungent odour, like a popped cap.
We'd pulled out IDE cables, removed the CD-ROM and 8GB hard drive, yeah this was a while ago. There was quite a bit of liquid in this case, which had us puzzled. Then our boss walked in, took one sniff at what was going on inside the case and said "cat piss".
Neither of us had any gloves on and we'd both handled a lot of parts. Needless to say I was the first to the bathroom to wash my hands.
So we headed back to reception and my boss asked her if there were any animals kept near the PC. She said a little cat!
Good news was that after a strong blast from a hair dryer we managed to get the case dry and the PC still worked!
But! that wasn't the end of this story, a few days later the lady came back with her PC. Same story, crackling noise and she noticed liquid spilt over the front of the case. But this time she had a request... To please fill a syringe with some of the liquid. She had arranged for a policeman to collect it from us later on.
Looking puzzled we ask her why, turned out her company had recently fired an employee who was still living on the premises. And she suspected he had something to do with the PC. We fixed the PC again although this time the CD-ROM had to be replaced. Later she let us know, the cat was innocent. The liquid was human urine!
Gross, but wouldn't it have been damn funny if this guy had pee'd into the PSU instead of the front of the case!
2. Why it's really important to unplug the power cord
Fortunately this didn't happen to me. Instead it was my colleague, Dalton. So Dally, as we liked to call him, was swopping out an AT PSU and he was in a hurry. He'd shutdown the PC and pried open the case. I was walking into the workshop when I saw him hunched over the PC, using a pair of long nose pliers to pull the contacts off of the power switch.
For those of you who never had the pleasure of using an AT PSU it was a pain in the ass.
So while I was looking at all of this I noticed the power cord still plugged into the back of the PC. Before I got a chance to say anything there is a blinding light and a thundering bang! All the lights went out except this big bright one burnt into my retina! When my vision cleared I saw a bewildered Dally sitting on the floor, his eyes were as big as saucers and he was trying to make out if his fingers were still intact.
He still had the pliers in his hand and where they had made contact with the two power switch connectors was a mushy glob of molten metal. In the case we found shards of metal embedded into the motherboard and metal housing.
How he didn't end up with any in his eyes I don't know because his face must have been about 5 inches away from the switch.
Always treat electricity with respect, kids!
3. The day I nearly killed my boss
So I'm saving the best for last. Part of my job was to fix printers, mind you I didn't know too much about printers so my boss would help me out and I was learning the ropes from him.
We had an HP LaserJet 5L (showing my age here) on the workbench. We'd given her a good service and had just put the toner back in, I'd held down the power button to initiate a self-test print... Nothing, power light was flashing but no page was being printed. So my boss had a go and he got the same result.
We popped the toner out and had a look inside, jeez everything looked right but it still wouldn't print. So while it's open I noticed two metal spikes and gave one a push, it popped down (spring loaded) and I tried the second one. Same story, so I showed my boss and he had a go.
You'd think after Dally's flying sparks we'd have known better. He touched both spikes and depressed them, completing the circuit!
Next thing I knew he's was crying out in pain and his face went white as a sheet! This was when I crapped my pants. He dropped like a stone and lay motionless on the floor. I hauled ass to call his daughter who worked as the receptionist, when we got back he was slowly coming around.
I helped him up and he was still white as a ghost, he managed to utter a few words... About his pacemaker!!! Jeez this poor dude nearly bombed his heart out with the current from the printer.
I never knew he had a pacemaker until that day, I always thought he just had a really loud watch!
Thanks for the compo guys! And pick me pls!!!
1. Do you own a cat?
A customer brought in a PC to be looked at, she's wasn't sure what had happened but when she powered it up it made a crackling noise so she switched it off immediately and brought it in. So me and the senior tech took it to the workshop and popped the bonnet. First thing we noticed was a pungent odour, like a popped cap.
We'd pulled out IDE cables, removed the CD-ROM and 8GB hard drive, yeah this was a while ago. There was quite a bit of liquid in this case, which had us puzzled. Then our boss walked in, took one sniff at what was going on inside the case and said "cat piss".
Neither of us had any gloves on and we'd both handled a lot of parts. Needless to say I was the first to the bathroom to wash my hands.
So we headed back to reception and my boss asked her if there were any animals kept near the PC. She said a little cat!
Good news was that after a strong blast from a hair dryer we managed to get the case dry and the PC still worked!
But! that wasn't the end of this story, a few days later the lady came back with her PC. Same story, crackling noise and she noticed liquid spilt over the front of the case. But this time she had a request... To please fill a syringe with some of the liquid. She had arranged for a policeman to collect it from us later on.
Looking puzzled we ask her why, turned out her company had recently fired an employee who was still living on the premises. And she suspected he had something to do with the PC. We fixed the PC again although this time the CD-ROM had to be replaced. Later she let us know, the cat was innocent. The liquid was human urine!
Gross, but wouldn't it have been damn funny if this guy had pee'd into the PSU instead of the front of the case!
2. Why it's really important to unplug the power cord
Fortunately this didn't happen to me. Instead it was my colleague, Dalton. So Dally, as we liked to call him, was swopping out an AT PSU and he was in a hurry. He'd shutdown the PC and pried open the case. I was walking into the workshop when I saw him hunched over the PC, using a pair of long nose pliers to pull the contacts off of the power switch.
For those of you who never had the pleasure of using an AT PSU it was a pain in the ass.
So while I was looking at all of this I noticed the power cord still plugged into the back of the PC. Before I got a chance to say anything there is a blinding light and a thundering bang! All the lights went out except this big bright one burnt into my retina! When my vision cleared I saw a bewildered Dally sitting on the floor, his eyes were as big as saucers and he was trying to make out if his fingers were still intact.
He still had the pliers in his hand and where they had made contact with the two power switch connectors was a mushy glob of molten metal. In the case we found shards of metal embedded into the motherboard and metal housing.
How he didn't end up with any in his eyes I don't know because his face must have been about 5 inches away from the switch.
Always treat electricity with respect, kids!
3. The day I nearly killed my boss
So I'm saving the best for last. Part of my job was to fix printers, mind you I didn't know too much about printers so my boss would help me out and I was learning the ropes from him.
We had an HP LaserJet 5L (showing my age here) on the workbench. We'd given her a good service and had just put the toner back in, I'd held down the power button to initiate a self-test print... Nothing, power light was flashing but no page was being printed. So my boss had a go and he got the same result.
We popped the toner out and had a look inside, jeez everything looked right but it still wouldn't print. So while it's open I noticed two metal spikes and gave one a push, it popped down (spring loaded) and I tried the second one. Same story, so I showed my boss and he had a go.
You'd think after Dally's flying sparks we'd have known better. He touched both spikes and depressed them, completing the circuit!
Next thing I knew he's was crying out in pain and his face went white as a sheet! This was when I crapped my pants. He dropped like a stone and lay motionless on the floor. I hauled ass to call his daughter who worked as the receptionist, when we got back he was slowly coming around.
I helped him up and he was still white as a ghost, he managed to utter a few words... About his pacemaker!!! Jeez this poor dude nearly bombed his heart out with the current from the printer.
I never knew he had a pacemaker until that day, I always thought he just had a really loud watch!
Thanks for the compo guys! And pick me pls!!!
java
New member
Win Cooler Master Silent Pro Platinum 550W PSU with Sonic Informed
With Guildwars 2 coming out, I bought and installed myself a nVidia GTX 550Ti. Gave my 9800 GT, to my Son. When installing the graphics card, noticed there where no 6 pin power connectors on my 550w power supply for the graphics card. No problem, in the box with the card there is a pass-thru adapter cable. Plug in the adapter into the spare power rail, and switch on, surf , download, all is working great. Play a little CS:S - power supply is getting hot. BWE3 comes along, start up GW2. Screen goes black, but the in game sounds still coming from the speakers.
Switch off, try again, same result ... , so to make a long story short. The monitor stopped working, open the box, and the yellow power cable is fubar, touch it and it disintegrates.
Solder on a new wire, check the adapter carefully, and it becomes apparent, that it is not a pass-thru adapter as previously thought. Re-arrange the power cables to the components so that each arm of the adapter is plugged into a separate power rail. There now not being enough power connecters, the DVD drive is still connected to one of these rails.
Switch on, and every thing works ( I am very blessed ) start-up GW2. It runs, without crashing, or the power supply getting hot. Blessing upon Blessing. Just one problem, cash reserves are low, so a new more suitable power supply is for the immediate future out of the question ...
Moral of this report: Just because a power supply has sufficient wattage, does not mean it has all the right and correct connectors, in sufficient number, even for a brand spanking new power supply. So check, before you buy. The consequences could very easily be catastrophic ...
Oh, and don't make assumptions about "pass-thru cables"
With Guildwars 2 coming out, I bought and installed myself a nVidia GTX 550Ti. Gave my 9800 GT, to my Son. When installing the graphics card, noticed there where no 6 pin power connectors on my 550w power supply for the graphics card. No problem, in the box with the card there is a pass-thru adapter cable. Plug in the adapter into the spare power rail, and switch on, surf , download, all is working great. Play a little CS:S - power supply is getting hot. BWE3 comes along, start up GW2. Screen goes black, but the in game sounds still coming from the speakers.
Switch off, try again, same result ... , so to make a long story short. The monitor stopped working, open the box, and the yellow power cable is fubar, touch it and it disintegrates.
Solder on a new wire, check the adapter carefully, and it becomes apparent, that it is not a pass-thru adapter as previously thought. Re-arrange the power cables to the components so that each arm of the adapter is plugged into a separate power rail. There now not being enough power connecters, the DVD drive is still connected to one of these rails.
Switch on, and every thing works ( I am very blessed ) start-up GW2. It runs, without crashing, or the power supply getting hot. Blessing upon Blessing. Just one problem, cash reserves are low, so a new more suitable power supply is for the immediate future out of the question ...
Moral of this report: Just because a power supply has sufficient wattage, does not mean it has all the right and correct connectors, in sufficient number, even for a brand spanking new power supply. So check, before you buy. The consequences could very easily be catastrophic ...
Oh, and don't make assumptions about "pass-thru cables"
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drdiebrein
New member
I was at a 13 person LAN party when some guy pitched up with a really old tower(it was beige! so old!), they hadn't turned it on in a while. When it was started you could hear the fan try turn in what sounded like a century of dust, when all of a sudden flames started coming out of the back panel and the whole room was filled with dust and smoke... Everything seemed quiet and people started calming down when one monumental bang rendered everyone temporarily deaf. Apparently someone thought it would be funny to put some gun-powder and a fire cracker inside the case as a prank...
PunkOnWheels
New member
Many years ago, my band decided we were gonna record 1 Saturday so after setting up the sound perfectly we setup the PC we were gonna record to and as we plugged the power cable we heard POP followed by smoke! Blown PSU! But, as luck would have it, he had the PSU before ATX so we drove everywhere to try and find an open shop that had this type of PSU but to no avail....a perfectly good waste of a Saturday.