Your Stupidest Custom Computer Build Mistakes...

We all love to hear these, if you are considering building your own for the first time.... Don't read these, or maybe you should :)

Personally the biggest mistake I ever made was first buying a PSU with a 4pin CPU power plug when my MOBO took a 8. I then never plugged it in (last system I built before this didn't need dedicated CPU power). Spent 45 minutes freaking out and wondering what parts to RMA because my brand new computer wouldn't post. In desperation I plugged in the 4pin to the 8 and it booted, so I ordered a decent 8-pin PSU and have been fine ever sense.

A friend of mine tried to insert a stick of ram the wrong direction. Not knowing it was the wrong direction he literally jammed it in their until it fit (more or less). On boot he managed to essentially fuse it to his mobo, frying his entire board in the process :)

I once spent hours diagnosing a no-boot problem, until I realized my new 8800 GTS had a freaking power connector that should be plugged to the PSU. *sigh*none of my previous cards had those...

Easily fixed, and lesson learned.

Horrible spray-paint job.

How about a kid that I know wanted this "really cool" case that lit up but it was crap. I told him I if he bought that case and wasted his money i wasnt going over to transfer everything over. But he did it anyway and he didnt put the motherboard standoffs on the case and screwed right to the bare metal. And when he turned it on zap,crackle,& pop and poof of smoke came from the case and fried everything on the motherboard besides the psu,videocard,harddrive, and dvd drive. 04dcarraher

I spent like 4 hours trying to figure out why my new PC wouldn't boot up, only to realise i forgot to put the power supply in. ( Actually it was still sitting at the post office i hadn't picked it up)

I spent like 4 hours trying to figure out why my new PC wouldn't boot up, only to realise i forgot to put the power supply in. ( Actually it was still sitting at the post office i hadn't picked it up)

dared3vil0

I bought an AMD Athlon X2 5600 CPU instead of a Core 2 Duo.

Yep

More realisticly, when i was replacing my cooler, i damaged my CPU and bent the pins, I had to order a new one. Sucked big time :(

I was installing a northbridge heatsink, I was using arctic Silver 5... I didn't know it was conductive.

I got a good one. When building my current rig, I forgot to put the risers on the mobo, screwing it directly to the case. Tried to turn it on and smelled the eletrical burning smell. Thought OH **** Realized my error, and it booted up first time and started installing windows right away.

I was unscrewing a NB fan while the computer was on and then I bumped the video card. Both the motherboard and video card were toast.

My parts are supposed to arrive in a few days, with all these different things that can go wrong I'm feeling scared now :(

I was upgrading to a new case..got tired of the mini tower..and, in 2 seconds i learned why you need to use risers underneath the motherboard. Yes, the aluminum in a case is conductive..

My parts are supposed to arrive in a few days, with all these different things that can go wrong I'm feeling scared now :(

shert

My parts are supposed to arrive in a few days, with all these different things that can go wrong I'm feeling scared now :(

shert

My parts are supposed to arrive in a few days, with all these different things that can go wrong I'm feeling scared now :(

shert

My parts are supposed to arrive in a few days, with all these different things that can go wrong I'm feeling scared now :(

shert

[QUOTE="shert"]

My parts are supposed to arrive in a few days, with all these different things that can go wrong I'm feeling scared now :(

Luminouslight

Lol you scared me there :P

I know a group of engineers from a tech company that use a lot of high end computers, I went there with a friend who had to pick something up, and he told me to look into the wall, there were some pictures there

Among the pictures was a real server motherboard hanged in the wall with some rambus stick (expensive ram memory) stuck in the wrong direction, and was forced so much that it broke the ram socket, I was laughing and asked my friend who did that, he told me that some engineer was building the thing and the guy was so Stubborn and confident about himself O_o that he never bother to ask people around and forced the ram in there

his friends realized what he did and hanged the mobo in the wall, just to show how stubborn (and stupid) a human can be.

needless to say I don't trust this company

someday I will go back there just to take a picture of it so you can laugh too.

Uh oh

I don't know what risers are, they sound important

Uh oh

I don't know what risers are, they sound important

helbent_revenge

all and all even tho we all had are mistake with our PC building. at the end once you see the desk top showing up for the first time. you just get this awsome feeling of accomplishment

Lol on my first build it would turn on, but not display anything on the monitor. After tryying to ifx it for 10 horus and reseating everything multiple times, I realised I wasn't putting the ram in all the way, one of the msot simple things! Lol. Also I bent some pins on a CPU before.

I once spent hours diagnosing a no-boot problem, until I realized my new 8800 GTS had a freaking power connector that should be plugged to the PSU. *sigh*none of my previous cards had those...

Easily fixed, and lesson learned.

belboz

some wacky stuff ive seen done to pc's either out of abuse or quasi sense.

cereal box pieces used to make a cpu fansink sound dampner (pretty sure this was a fire hazard)

using a paperclip to substitue as a wireless nic antenna for a pc (suprisingly works)

1. Buying a Sunbeam PSU back when I was on AGP

2. Buying a FX5500 as an "upgrade" from a Radeon 9200

3. Apevia X-Cruiser

4. IDE dvd drives

5. Using a cheap screwdriver to insert screws into fans that were not threaded... Need top-grade drivers to get it done right without stripping screws.

spending a half an hour trying to figure out why my newly built PC wouldn't turn on only to realize I hadn't flipped the switch on the back of the PSU >_>

I tried to screw in the motherboard, without standoffs. I lol'd when I realized what I was doing. Worst part is... I was there for 30 minutes wondering why the motherboard wouldn't level out...

1. Buying a Sunbeam PSU back when I was on AGP

2. Buying a FX5500 as an "upgrade" from a Radeon 9200

3. Apevia X-Cruiser

4. IDE dvd drives

5. Using a cheap screwdriver to insert screws into fans that were not threaded... Need top-grade drivers to get it done right without stripping screws.

Staryoshi87

IDE dvd drives dont suck.. there not a mistake just a preference choice.

my first build was with a P4 socket 748.......After taking the motherboard out of the box I was wondering what should I do first ram or CPU so I went for the cpu first, so I nstalled it and I had this massive cooler (dont remember the name) the point is that when I was done I couldnt fit the ram becasue the cooler was on the way so I decided to take it out and on the process of doing this I somehow droped the cooler and the worst thing is that I forgot to disconnect the fan cable the rest is histroy....It was a mobo massacre(the mobo landed with the corner which literally cracked it from the croner to the center) the impact also damaged the cpu and the cpu cooler fan =( Big Big! dissapointment.

[QUOTE="Staryoshi87"]

1. Buying a Sunbeam PSU back when I was on AGP

2. Buying a FX5500 as an "upgrade" from a Radeon 9200

3. Apevia X-Cruiser

4. IDE dvd drives

5. Using a cheap screwdriver to insert screws into fans that were not threaded... Need top-grade drivers to get it done right without stripping screws.

aura_enchanted

IDE dvd drives dont suck.. there not a mistake just a preference choice.

I tried to screw in the motherboard, without standoffs. I lol'd when I realized what I was doing. Worst part is... I was there for 30 minutes wondering why the motherboard wouldn't level out...

JigglyWiggly_

My worst would have to be when I picked out the motherboard for my first PCIe rig (good times). PCIe was rather new, and I thought I new enough. Well, I found a board I liked, and in the specs it said PCIe x1. Well I thought, it has one PCIe slot, that will be enough for me. Wasn't I surprised (and pissed :evil: ) to find out the x1 was talking about the type of PCIe slot, not how many slots there were.

Other than that, the worst for me has been forgetting to switch the power switch on the back of the PSU. That's gotta be one of the worst feeling in the world, hit the power button and.........nothing. But it's one of the easiest to remedy so it's ok :P.

Was checking the type of RAM I had to make an upgrade purchase and accidently unplugged my other stick and sat there for about an hour freaking out why the comp wouldn't boot.... I felt like a newb.

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"]How about a kid that I know wanted this "really cool" case that lit up but it was crap. I told him I if he bought that case and wasted his money i wasnt going over to transfer everything over. But he did it anyway and he didnt put the motherboard standoffs on the case and screwed right to the bare metal. And when he turned it on zap,crackle,& pop and poof of smoke came from the case and fried everything on the motherboard besides the psu,videocard,harddrive, and dvd drive. jtschmitz

I made a few and they all involved one thing......




don't go cheap on computer componets it will cost u more in the long run
my case was a nightmare to set up and I bought a cheap ecs motherboard and it died in liek 6 hours they did'nt even
have a help number I had 2 email them and they call me which happened liek 2 months later but by then I already bought a board

[QUOTE="aura_enchanted"]

[QUOTE="Staryoshi87"]

1. Buying a Sunbeam PSU back when I was on AGP

2. Buying a FX5500 as an "upgrade" from a Radeon 9200

3. Apevia X-Cruiser

4. IDE dvd drives

5. Using a cheap screwdriver to insert screws into fans that were not threaded... Need top-grade drivers to get it done right without stripping screws.

Staryoshi87

IDE dvd drives dont suck.. there not a mistake just a preference choice.

I couldn't figure out how the molex plugs plugged into the case fan power plugs, until I flipped them over. Spent a good 20 minutes figuring that out.

These are great :)