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"Most embarrassing PC moments"

Everyone on this forum seems to know what they're talking about, but let's face it, none of us are all-knowing. So what are your all-time greatest PC stuff-ups?

In my time I've built around a dozen PCs from scratch, and upgraded and repaired many more - so I like to think I know quite a lot about hardware (and the delightful world of IRQs), but I've dropped the ball in embarrassing style several times along the way.

Private humiliation no. 1: build a PC; turn it on; get 'bizaare' POST messages re keyboard error...spend two hours pushing power switch and ranting about a fried motherboard (ahem)...realise that 'keyboard error' may have some significance...swap keyboard with a better keyboard...get the same error message...do further ranting...have brain wave...swap mouse and keyboard around...PC works...assume foetal position and sob with happiness.

Private humiliation no. 2: install a Geforce 3 card; push power button; nothing happens...shout and swear about stupid, supposedly AMD-approved PSU...look accusingly at various fuses...hit front fascia in despair - and hear a delightful click...push power button; power goes on; everything works...assume foetal position and sob with happiness.

So that's my story. Nothing wrong with getting stuff wrong that you know nothing about, of course. But when you take a certain pride in your knowledge...well, it's soul-destroying. Fess up, people.

My worst SNAFU was fairly recently, when converting my re-partitioning my HD and changing from FAT32 to NTFS.

I'd carefully backed up everything I wanted to save, only to format the partition I'd put it all onto with the click of a mouse button.

My biggest humiliation was on my brother's pc. The power supply wasn't working at all, so I had the lid off, and had partially dismantled the power supply to see if anything was wrong. After a bit of poking around in the depths, not having a clue what I was doing, I turned the pc on again to see if it was working yet. Nothing. Frustrated, I stupidly jabbed my finger at the power supply and gave myself the biggest electric shock I have ever had. You could hear my finger frying as it came in contact with it. Now that was the most emabarrasing moment of utter stupidity that I have ever experienced. Doh!!

lol, used that one before, especially at my Mum. The great thing is though, virtually anyone you speak to in life will happily accept technobabble while nodding their heads and send you a replacement - even tech support guys!

That's the beauty of buying anything vaguely techy off of someone who has no idea what they're talking about:

'What happened to it?'
'Nothing: it just sort of broke'
'What are these burn marks?'
'I think it was the ping.'
'The ping?'
'Yeah it has totally fragmented.'
'Oh.'
'Yeah, so since it was faulty can I have a new one?'
'Sure, I guess.'

I really don't want to know how you were "abusing" it.

It's true about Argos though.

Whooo! wrote:
> Er, think that's it, most of my other mistakes have been made up so I can pursuade my dad I need to upgrade!! :)

Sounds familiar! ;~)

I used to genuinely break joysticks all the time when I had an Atari ST. While playing Kick Off 2 or Sensible Soccer I used to get a wee bit overexcited and yank the entire system onto the floor. Never damaged the system itself, though.

Luckily Argos had a stupid returns policy where you could horribly abuse a joystick for a few months, then take it back and get a new one.

Well I was, er, modding and shorted my Pc totally, fubared the Power Supply, luckily no other damage. Er, think that's it, most of my other mistakes have been made up so I can pursuade my dad I need to upgrade!! :)

Hm. PC feckups.

Well.. I've managed three fairly spectacular mistakes, only one of which was really my fault..

Blowing up my dad's motherboard by plugging the AT power cables from the PSU in the wrong way round.

Watching mum blow up abyss' power supply with a pair of scissors on the motherboard. I hate watching arcs between jumpers..

Finally, Rob's DDR RAM. Somehow taking it out and plugging it back in again broke it. I maintain that I'm entirely innocent. Honest.

Not bad, really.. You learn from your mistakes. Pity that with hardware they're expensive. Guess that's why I'm a software guy. On the other hand, I was the first between Phil, Ruari and I to both build his own box and overclock it.. :D

I've had a few problems in my time. I once fitted a modem into a PC and it managed to take out the motherboard, sound card and the hard drive needed to be re-formatted because it refused to load the OS. I've also managed to delete all my mates files. He had 2 HDD's and I wanted to forat one. Used a DOS program called Part Beta and forgot to change drives and so instead of formating his system drive I formated his files drive (full of MP3's, collage work, etc).

When I formatted the wrong Hard Drive on my grandads 'poter, lol