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CoolKidSat Dec-01-01 08:39 PM
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"The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"


  

          

Ok now I don't think this is Way OT since computers are the main topic here. Well, computer screw-ups for that matter. I've been thinkin', well, it's just kinda funny what kinda mistakes newbies would do to their PCs.

I remember this one time when I was still younger than I am now (LOL!) and I had my first PC. I managed to screw up pretty much a lotta times, but once, I just screwed up too far. . .

To the point that I cried all over the house (literally!)

Man, I thought I was screwed!

Well here it goes. . .

Ya know how when a newbie always loves to tinker around with all the files in his/her computer? Well, I was like that before. I kept exploring and scrutinizing the contents of my PC's hard drive 'til I came to this one file:

SYSTEM.INI

I used Word/Wordpad to open it. When it did open, I saw tons of meaningless characters lying around the whole document. I also saw that the document was composed of hundreds of pages.

And so I thought to myself. . . "Why the hell is this worthless file in my computer?! Who in the world would save hundreds of pages of meaningless text into my computer?! Might as well delete this space-consuming file from my system."

After deleting the file, I restarted my PC. And what did I see? A BLACK SCREEN OF DEATH! I was so terrified, so scared, and so nervous up to the point that I cried over the silly problem.

I thought that I had damaged my OS, and I was thinking about how much it would cost to buy another OS. That's why I was scared to tell the problem to my dad. Luckily, I called my auntie and she assisted my in fixing my PC problem over the telephone.

Boy, what a relief!
_______________________________________________________________

Now that I've shared my part of the story, how about you? What the craziest mistake that ya ever did to yer PC? }>


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GeemanSat Dec-01-01 09:23 PM
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#1. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

lol, yeah, I've had many of those little mishaps.. Hers one of my favorites, though:

I was working on a monitor in my little playroom at home.. I had removed the anoid cap, but not discharged the capacitor (or maybe I discharged, but plugged back in). In either case, the monitor was sitting there on my one workbench, but I wanted it on the other bench. It was a hot day, as well, so I had my shirt off. Well, I picked the monitor up, and leaned back so it rested against my stomach, when *POOOOOF*! the anoid capacitor got me dead in the middle of my belly and about zapped the s**t outta me.. Somehow, I managed to hang onto the monitor while I put it on the other bench.. That was SO stupid - I had a bruise for like two weeks from that!

  

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CoolKidSat Dec-01-01 09:30 PM
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#2. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to Geeman (Reply # 1)


  

          

Ouchies!

Man, what'll give your a bigger headache? A software problem or hardware problem? hehe! What a silly question! Say, did ya still manage to get that monitor fixed?


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GroganSat Dec-01-01 09:42 PM
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#3. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


  

          

OK here's my stupidest mistake. The computer on the other desk has Slackware Linux and Windows 95 installed on it. Mostly it just sits there and runs Linux, I don't even usually log on locally. I access it remotely... it has various uses for me.

OK, I was cleaning up on the Windows partition, remotely from this computer. I had forgotten that while Linux doesn't have any problem with long filenames or spaces (it never did), my bash shell at the console treats them as separate arguments unless you escape it with a \. So I typed

rm -r Windows Update Setup Files (the equivalent of deltree /y)

To my horror, I realized I had just deleted the Windows directory when I saw "Update: no such file or directory. Setup: no such file or directory" etc. What I should have done was

rm -r Windows\ Update\ Setup\ Files

Anyway, it wasn't too bad. Since it was just the original Windows 95 it only took about half an hour in total to fix. Also, since it was only really there for reference and testing purposes, I didn't have much of any software installed in the win95 setup.

So it wasn't a painful lesson; it was actually kind of funny.

Grogan

  

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SloHandsSat Dec-01-01 10:05 PM
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#4. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

Asking my wife, 6 years ago, "How do you turn this thing on?". I hadn't a clue.

Sometimes, when I get a "BSOD", I ask myself, "What ever possessed me to ask that first question?".

The answer is, of course, "Masochism"! Being the brunt for humiliation and mental anguish from a "thing"! LOL

And the words from the movie "Forrest Gump", where he said, "Stupid is as stupid does" haunt me yet today, everytime I fire this thing up. LOL

Slo Hands

  

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GettarpickerSun Dec-02-01 12:53 AM
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#10. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to SloHands (Reply # 4)


          

SloHand Love the Flag, between you and Tuff you all gonna keep me saluting all the time. Old Guitar picking-Gettarpicker



Old Guitar picking-Gettarpicker


  

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doctormidnightSat Dec-01-01 10:50 PM
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#5. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


  

          

Took of my SK6 to clean it, spent an hour looking for the clip that was in front of me, then spent another half hour looking for the HSF i just cleaned, which of course was right in front of me. Then couldn't figure out why i had removed it in the first place. Put it back, and for the next week i had all kinds of problems with WPE's and BSOD's...blamed it on everything except for that one little problem...forgot to push the retaining clip (that funny little bar) all the way down...so the proc was just barely making contact...

  

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EthanSat Dec-01-01 11:14 PM
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#6. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


  

          

Not expensive but silly. When I got my first computer with win 3.1, I decided to pretty it up. Unknowningly I changed my font color to my background color. None of my gurus had any idea what the problem was.
I simply couldn't see a thing. I don't remember how I finally figured it out.

Ethan

Eilat, Israel

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
"Why shouldn't the American people take half my money from me? I took it all from them." - Edward Filene

  

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DelarSat Dec-01-01 11:24 PM
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#7. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to Ethan (Reply # 6)


          

Where should I begin?

I was troubleshooting some of my usual piles of used junk, and also trying to recover some files on a 1.2gb hd that had crashed windows.

I had it sitting on the edge of the computer (unmounted) and running, when it moved, and shorted something on the exposed controller card to the case. DEAD. However, I later recovered this. If an unusual fit of brain power, I bought a used hd of the same model off ebay for 15.00US. Traded the good controller card, and hey, data!!So now I have a good spare hd if I ever wear he ORIGINAL out, and if the second controller card doesn't develop any problems.

Then, there was the bout with "the virus." I kept getting hd and fd errors, all sorts of stuff. Bought about 2 i/o contollers, and at least 2 fd's, not to mention corrupting some of my floppys. I fought this for months, finally bought a "clean" machine off a friend, used, and managed to screw IT up. (Back in the 386/early 486 days.)

A couple of years ago, I found a new/old stock version of Norton desktop with a virus program in there, and ran some of my old floppies through it. Guess what?? The virus showed up. At least now I know what caused this mess.

My saying? You cannot break it if it's broken, but you can fix it so it can't be fixed.

  

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StephanMon Dec-03-01 07:46 AM
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#46. "RE: Your saying"
In response to Delar (Reply # 7)


          

ROTFLMAO! Gotta remember that one!

  

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ryan auclairSat Dec-01-01 11:27 PM

  
#8. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

In the windows 3.11 days, when my sister got her brand new PC! It was the first computer that I ever got to use around the house (actually, I think it was the first computer period). As I played around with it, I was getting good with paintbrush (yes, 256 colors!) and solitaire and loved to go in the program manager looking for anything interesting. I was scarred to mess it up since I knew nothing at all about how software and hardware works and how the computer works at all. All I knew how is how to put it on (sometimes I would forget ho ). And I also learned a few msdos commands to get into a game but I had NO clue what I was doing. Now years go by, she takes that computer with here and then later on around 5 years I'd say we get this one, top of the line computer. I still didn’t know about computers and was scarred to do something I didn’t know what I was doing but as I got more comfortable, I started to experiment. I think what is the most funny is that I was terrified by ms-dos. To me, it was like being in a different world of using the computer and didn’t know what it could do to it. When I knew some basic commands such as a: and I think del and edit was one that freaked me out because of the blue but those came later one. The funniest thing was that I typed b: since I knew a: was the floppy, c: was the hdd and d: and e: where my cd-rom drives. So when I typed b:, it said: insert a disk for drive b:. and it stayed full screen. I was stuck with the terrifying msdos prompt on my screen. I did not know what to do. I was scarred that my parents walk in the room (it used to be in a room where my parents would always pass by and go in, there always walking around the house) so my only hope was to press the reset button to get out. I did, it ran scandisk and now I was freaking out even more since it says something about "errors on drive C". then, I got to windows, I did get caught by my dad since he walked in before it finished loading but I just told him it had freezed. Boy this is lon . It's hard to believe but because I've always been terrified by Ms-dos, I never did anything such as format c: or deltree/y c:\*.* (that could of been fun). But when I opened autoexec.bat, it din't take me long until I know how batch files work with dos and I seen people at school that knew more then me about dos type commands so I knew how to list files, delete, change directory etc. One thing that was not that long ago, I'd say about a year, is I selected all the files on my D drive which was a partition and I pressed DEL. for some reason windows had never prompted me and I lost all those files. I had about 300 megs of precious files! I find that recently, I did more destructive things then I did before I knew much about PC's.

oh, and I'll never forget the time I screwed up config.sys and it made windows freeze on the win98 logo. I went nuts over that one. I called our vendor, he thought me how to install windows and I did it. The next day, I felt so proud of myself! I had just installed Windows 98! I always laugh now and how I used to think of computers before. Just the fact of opening the case would make me freak out, until I learned that computer hardware is made so it can be fixed by anyone, it does now require special tools, then, it really didn’t take long for me to get used to it (that's whey I took back the crashed 486 that was originally my first computer). It was weird to restore that computer since I could find some files that I had done or changed long ago. Incredible for magnetic storage!


oh, and how about that time I connected the 486 motherboard wires on the wrong side, the motherboard was going ts ts ts ts ts ts ts and was acting like it was sizzling. Or that time not so long ago that I connected the 500mb hard drive to a 17v adapter to test it (since someone that has the habit of punching things, you now the rest.. ) and nothing happened. I think hooked it up the right way when I was done with the 486 and it smoked up. Thick, gray smoke came out. It was enough to get high off the fumes, of course, I only left if for about 5 seconds since it was starting to catch on fire., I really didn’t notice how long I made this post! Hope it was enjoyable if you read this far!





  

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yomama1953Sun Dec-02-01 08:47 AM
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#28. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to ryan auclair (Reply # 8)


          

Ryan,
The only thing I didn't enjoy about your post is the fact that I am where you used to be!(LOL)

I don't know what deltree/y is or what a batch file is for (boohoo), and, I really need to get the cover off of my computer and don't know how! I've tried everything I know, which is not much.





  

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ryan auclairMon Dec-03-01 03:43 AM

  
#41. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to yomama1953 (Reply # 28)


          

hehe. You will learn though. My next step after learning batch files inside out was c++. I can't believe I learned that much since we got a "real" computer! To learn what deltree/y is, just don't put the /y and you will be able to see exactly what it does (and you will have the choice to say no!)


  

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ChickenmanSun Dec-02-01 12:37 AM
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#9. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

I've never made any crazy mistakes..... all of my mistakes have been very carefully planned

  

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johnjoSun Dec-02-01 02:00 AM
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#11. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

When I first got hold of Norton Ghost I very carefully cloned my C: Drive to my rive and guess what - I wiped out 5 years of backup data ! Nice one Eh !

  

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BobMcGSun Dec-02-01 02:33 AM
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#12. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


  

          

I rarely use my scanner but one time I needed it for something and everytime I tried it I got a message something like "Scanner couldn't be found". Over the next few days I must have installed and un-installed the software at least 5 times before I decided to look under the desk just to make sure it was plugged in. You know the rest of the story.



  

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ilona53Sun Dec-02-01 03:25 AM
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#13. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to BobMcG (Reply # 12)


          



Lonnie

Lonnie
Vista Home Basic
Compaq Presario SR2163WM
160GB SATA 3G
1536 MB
RoadRunner HSI
MSE,CCleaner,SWB,Irfanview

  

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CoolKidSun Dec-02-01 05:59 AM
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#17. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to BobMcG (Reply # 12)


  

          

What can I say?


P o w e r e d -by- T e c h n o l o g y

Intel PIII 1Ghz Processor
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256mb Kingmax PC150 SDRAM
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GIRLINTERUPTINGSun Dec-02-01 03:34 AM
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#14. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


  

          

the craziest mistake i made was deleting all my dll files..

  

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CoolKidSun Dec-02-01 06:00 AM
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#18. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to GIRLINTERUPTING (Reply # 14)


  

          

Thought they were a waste of space too? Hehe!


P o w e r e d -by- T e c h n o l o g y

Intel PIII 1Ghz Processor
ASUS CUSL2-C i815EP Mobo
256mb Kingmax PC150 SDRAM
Le

  

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teloMon Dec-10-01 12:07 PM
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#57. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to GIRLINTERUPTING (Reply # 14)


  

          

hey I did that once 3 years ago. Was copying them from the 'find all (.dll) files' results to a back up folder and as I watched the little transfer action window after I clicked paste in the new folder, I noticed it said moving files-had pressed CUT instead of copy. So stupid me then cancels midstream, then that was lights out right there.

You are getting sleepy, very sleepy...

  

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TuffSun Dec-02-01 04:00 AM
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#15. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

The first computer I bought from a lady that was broke,I didn't even really want one at the time.She said it worked good,I guess it did ok,but it had 33mgh lol.So I
and not sure to this day if it was crazy for sure ,Tuff









  

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CoolKidSun Dec-02-01 03:03 PM
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#35. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to Tuff (Reply # 15)


  

          

Cute smiley Tuff. Just saw the blue screen of death and decided to wreck his monitor. Yeah right, like that's gonna solve his problem. Juz plug in another monitor, and he'll still see the blue screen of death!

I mean, whoever coined the line "blue screen of death" anyway? }>


P o w e r e d -by- T e c h n o l o g y

Intel PIII 1Ghz Processor
ASUS CUSL2-C i815EP Mobo
256mb Kingmax PC150 SDRAM
Le

  

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Rabbi BobSun Dec-02-01 04:55 AM
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#16. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


  

          

Craziest, ala stupidest thing I ever did:

One hot summer day, working on the parent's computer for the millionth time (you'd wonder how solitaire could cause so much havoc with an OS, but they swear that's all they were doing), I was all set to put the modem back in and seal it up. Fiona was talking to me from the other room and the conversation I forget, but it was really pulling my attention away from the job at hand.

Simply enough, in mid-sentence, I inserted 1 56K PCI modem into 1 PCI slot. Nice blue sparks. Pretty blue sparks, kind of like light saber sparks. ILM was not in the house though.

I had left the computer plugged in and RUNNING. What the heck was I thinking? I shut it down and moved everything away. Crossed my fingers and turned it on. Nothing. Scratched my head. It's hot. Sweat. Ohmygosh. It's not even mine. That sort of bewilderment. I took it into a friend and he looked it over, stuck his hand in, gave it back and said go home.

Ends up in my recoil from the sparks, I had unseated the video card and for some reason the PC speaker wasn't plugged to issue the beeps.

It's three years now and that computer is still running at my parents, alas, playing solitaire.

Now I always unplug the machine. Some people think I'm a little too cautious, but I've been there once


Rabbi Bob
------------------------
http://www.rabbibob.com/
http://www.betamountain.org/

Rabbi Bob
------------------------
http://www.rabbibob.com/

  

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CoolKidSun Dec-02-01 06:03 AM
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#19. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to Rabbi Bob (Reply # 16)


  

          

Same here, Rabbi Bob.

I always unplug my PC whenever I connect or disconnect the cables in the back and open up my PC Casing. There's only one thing that I'm scared about whenever I do those things: STATIC!


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framerw47Sun Dec-02-01 06:39 AM
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#21. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 19)


          

The stupidest thing I guess I ever did was about 3 days after I got this computer set up and running. I had never operated a PC with a color monitor and Windows before. I had done a ton of reading before we bought this computer so I knew some of the terms, and a few things like resolution and what it is. I decided I wanted to see what 1280 X 1024 resolution looked like as opposed to 800 X 600. Well, it turns out this monitor can't support 1280 X 1024. I got a screen that basically said "Monitor out of range-shutting down". After that, nothing but a blank screen. Of course, I had to call HP tech support and explain ( not toll-free either). After about an hour, I was back up and running. Now, I know 2 things for sure. First, don't try to run this monitor in 1280 X 1024, and second, if I do mess it up, start up in safe mode, uninstall the video drivers, and restart. You pay for your education one way or another. That phone call to HP costed me almost $30.


  

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ryan auclairMon Dec-03-01 03:50 AM

  
#42. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to Rabbi Bob (Reply # 16)


          

When I was called to install a network card I figured "no problem. Just shove it in there, configure their internet account and high speed access here we come. I get there, open the brand new network card out of that package (I was also talking with them while I was doing it), insert it in the computer slot, it whent in very easly too. Boot, install the drivers, "card not found". Whatever, I play around with the settings a bit, now I had no clue why it was not found. Finally, I decided to check if it was properly inserted into the pci slot. What pci slot? It was not even in one! I moved it, put it in, configured it and there, it worked. And they thought I knew what I was doin !


  

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MykSun Dec-02-01 06:33 AM
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#20. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


  

          

I bought a Compaq because I didn't want a piece of junk like my brother's Packard Bell.

--------------
History teaches us that history has taught us nothing.

  

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ZakBobSun Dec-02-01 06:45 AM
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#22. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to Myk (Reply # 20)


          

I once got so pissed at my machine ( i was 10 or so at the time) and i kicked the CPU }> and fried the chip.....I had to replace it, Luckily it was under warrenty still. Where do yall get the animated smilies.


  

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dubberSun Dec-02-01 07:44 AM
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#23. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to ZakBob (Reply # 22)


  

          


I remember the day that I bought and installed a CD/RW. It came with two rewritable disks.

I started to use one as a partition to hold all my exes and Install programs that didn't come with the computer. The plan was to transfer the files to a CDR when the CD/RW was full.

I went to many Freeware sites downloading anything that I thought I might be interested in.

Using my trusty dialup, it took about a month to fill up that CD/RW.

Then one fine day I had a floppy disk that I had been experimenting on with DriveSpace3.

The plan was to format the floppy. Somehow I formatted the CD/RW instead. It took an agonizing minute or so to finish formatting. I tried to stop it, but just didn't know how.
-------------------------------------------
Then there was the time I installed a new hard drive. Yep, I formatted the old one instead of the new one.
-------------------------------------------
And then there was the three months I surfed the Internet without defragging, cleaning out Temps and TIFs, or cleaning the registry. That computer was crawling, when it did anything at all.
-------------------------------------------








  

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ryan auclairMon Dec-03-01 03:55 AM

  
#43. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to dubber (Reply # 23)


          

"And then there was the three months I surfed the Internet without defragging, cleaning out Temps and TIFs, or cleaning the registry. That computer was crawling, when it did anything at all."

You just reminded me to do something. It's been a few months now!


  

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CoolKidSun Dec-02-01 02:46 PM
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#34. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to ZakBob (Reply # 22)


  

          

You kicked the CPU!?!? Or did ya kick the PC Casing?

I used to call the PC Tower as the CPU itself, but then I found out that the term CPU is synonymous to the word processor.

So what happened? Did ya kick the CPU off its socket while yer PC was running?

Must have damaged the CPU socket one yer mobo too, didn't it?


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CoolKidSun Dec-02-01 02:30 PM
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#32. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to Myk (Reply # 20)


  

          

Others say that Compaq aka Comcrap is also a piece of junk, but I personally believe that it still is tested to be one of the best PC makers in the world.


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veraSun Dec-02-01 07:44 AM
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#24. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

Mine was the system.ini, too.But it was clean sweep that coaxed me into it. Being new to pc's and curious about what was in the file system and wanting to save space on my 540 mb drive, I thought it was ok to delete what i thought was a duplicate system.ini. BSOD. I tried to get it going but new very little. It was weeks before my pc was up and running. It ended up at the shop. Who can afford those kind of mistakes. That's when I decided I'd better learn to do these things myself or I'd be without my pc the next time.I was using Win95 and thought it a good idea to learn something about ms-dos,which turned out to be pretty interesting. And the pc is the most interesting hobby I've ever had.

Vera

  

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ZakBobSun Dec-02-01 07:59 AM
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#25. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to vera (Reply # 24)


          

Did the same thing as dubber also. tried formating C in dos and ended up doing the wrong drive ( D with all my Media and Games) because the connector fell off.


  

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ladypcer2Sun Dec-02-01 08:16 AM
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#26. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


  

          

There was the time I installed a new video card and forgot to move the monitor plug from the on board port to new card port, and sat there staring at a blank screen.
Then there was the time (recently) that I decided to choose not to load X at start up in Mandrake, and being a Linux newbie, I had no clue as to the command line code to turn it on.
I'm sure there will be plenty more too.

  

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Crazy_BabySun Dec-02-01 08:31 AM
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#27. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


  

          

Being a newbie to the PC world, and excited too, I thought that I could control the way my favorite game played after I installed a new vid card. Well here it is in all it's glory.

I had a game called Carmaggedon TDR2000 which kicked butt and worked well on my Couger TNT card. I decided to upgrade to a Nvidia MX card and the game went bad. Looked like a bad LSD trip when I played it. Well, being the true Scottsman that I am I decided to root out the problem at the source and delete all files on my hard disk associated with it. OOOPS! Now I can't reload it and have thrown away the CD for it in a temper tantrum. This all before I visited PC911 and found out how to reinstall my registry and resume normal operations. I lost a dang good game but learned some valuable info. In my world it s*@#$d the big one, but we all learn somehow. I will buy it again for my new comp and never die again. Thank you all for being here as it will save my some major bank in the future.

The Crazy One
}>

Stranger than life

  

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old dudeSun Dec-02-01 08:48 AM
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#29. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

Early on, when I had a 386, Cyrix made a CPU upgrade to 486 that would set on top of the existing 386 and share some of the legs that would turn it into a 486.
Along with their chip can a socket device that would hold both the 386 and the Cyrix. When I begin to install it there was a sickening crunching sound as I pressed the chips together and down into their socket on the motherboard.
If you've ever stepped on a huge cockroach you know the sound. I sat there for about three minutes, staring stupidly at it, knowing what I had done, and how was I going to explain to my wife what was sure to follow.......

  

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t_bareSun Dec-02-01 12:36 PM
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#30. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to old dude (Reply # 29)


          

Dumbest thing i ever did was buy an HP cd writer.

Smartest thing was takin it back and gettin a Sony.

Beyond that, its been all peaches and cream.


I wish
t_bare


  

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dmx11523Sun Dec-02-01 01:34 PM
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#31. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

did the same thing. deleted a bunch of windows sh*T. cause i thought it was nothing........and then one time i carried a customers computer in from being outside in the cold and snow got on it. (dumb ass didn't put the case all the way together so it was his fault.
then i plugged it in. and we'll just say that most of the wires running off the motherboard just turned all black and melted.....
whatever happend jolted it and starting melting wires...haha.............and another time i watched a dumb ass turn his computer on with no cpu fan 8 seconds later....there was an expensive 229.99 dollar mistake....haha the jerk off turned around and got another one. AMD chips don't take long to blow up haah.

  

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CoolKidSun Dec-02-01 02:41 PM
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#33. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to dmx11523 (Reply # 31)


  

          

And that's just one of the many reasons why I stick with Intel!


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jr!Sun Dec-02-01 10:07 PM
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#36. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

Just last week I saw a great deal on memory, 256K for $39.99, so I bought it, tried to install it w/out 1st looking to see if my motherboard can support that much.
Installed it, turned on the computer, and it started smoking.
Reversed (!) the chip thinking I had it in incorrectly, started it up again, it was still smoking. Stupid me, pulled the chip out, restarted, only minimal problems, it works fine now.
JR!

  

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JPSun Dec-02-01 11:44 PM
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#37. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

Not exactly a mistake that was made, but this guy wanted the drive dead! }>



That's a 12 gauge deer slug in that drive.

To see what other appliances he and his friends shot up, go to http://www.singsingsing.com//has.html Computers aren't the only things that drive us nuts! }>

JP

  

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JackieMon Dec-03-01 12:36 AM
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#38. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

ok, I've really done it now. I think I screwed up in fdisk and now all I have is a black screen. It won't boot up from a boot disk. Am I completely hosed? I am not computer illiterate but I sure do feel stupid...

:'( :'( :'( :'(

  

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lindagarrMon Dec-03-01 02:17 AM
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#39. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

While trying to delete a file in DOS, I added an extra space to
Del c: /file*.*



This was in 1983.



I've learned alot since then

  

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CoolKidMon Dec-03-01 03:08 AM
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#40. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


  

          

Believe it or not, when I was just new to computers, I thought that the heatsink was the CPU and the CPU below the heatsink was the chipset! Hehe!


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ryan auclairMon Dec-03-01 07:15 AM

  
#44. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 40)


          

I have no clue why I tought of it like that, but I tought that the hard drive was a big cylinder of some sort turning, with a head readin/writting the data, to me, if I opened the compuer, I could see it moving. I also thought that Pentium 3 ment that you had 3 pentiums (I had no clue what those were!) in my computer! But I had seen Pentium2 somewhere I think in the sys manager so I thought that I had 2 of them in my computer! I pictured it as some kind of gadet turning! Me and my imagination those day . Later on, I used to think that the "registry", had to do with programs that are registered and that it holded names, phone numbers etc. These days, I know that is called "spyware"! LOL. It's always fun to look back!

  

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StephanMon Dec-03-01 07:40 AM
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#45. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

I was presented with a 386 SX 16 at a new job I had back in the early 90s. I was the first one in my department with a computer.

I was greeted by a C: prompt and blinking rectangle, but was given absolutely no instructions.

A computer-savvy friend of mine happened to be visiting for the weekend and taught me some elementary line commands and, woohoo! I was on my way.

I was tinkering around with the DEL and DELTREE commands and suddenly found my system totally non-functional.

Sheepishly, I called the network administrator over. His diagnosis:

"How did you manage to delete the DOS directory???"

Doh

  

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mauriceMon Dec-03-01 08:41 AM
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#47. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

My stupid mistakes with the puter are countless, but this one I sort of remember with a certain fondness, because it actually happened as a result of too much experience....

One day suddenly my mouse doesn't move the cursor anymore, or very staggeringly. The real stupidity lies in the number of useless remedies I cooked up. First: new mouse driver. Then all of the left over mice I could find in the house and unplug from my GF's machine. Then the video-drivers. Then a different video-card. Then a whole new mouse alltogether.... Nothing helped.

Untill a few days later when I suddenly needed that money I had carefully stashed under the mouse-mat...

I just wonder if anyone else has done the same thing... it would just feel better if I'm not the only one...


Maurice.

  

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veraMon Dec-03-01 09:06 AM
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#48. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to maurice (Reply # 47)


          

yup! not to that extent. but too similar to be able to deny

Vera


There feel better now

  

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ZakBobMon Dec-03-01 09:13 AM
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#49. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to vera (Reply # 48)


          


Sorry for the late response i didnt look here for a while. The case was open and my foot hit the mobo i think. Im not sure wat happenned to the chip (cpu) but it didnt work. Where did you guys get the animated SMILIES!



  

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BobMcGMon Dec-03-01 10:24 AM
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#50. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to ZakBob (Reply # 49)


  

          

Ryan--Couple of links from Google search:
http://www.hystersisters.com/lisagraphics/animatedsmiles.htm
http://www.usa.venus.co.uk/weed/agifs/vagasm1.htm
http://mazeguy.tripod.com/smilies/all.html




  

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mauriceMon Dec-03-01 09:18 PM
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#52. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to vera (Reply # 48)


          

Sure do !
Thanks Vera, you saved my ego


Maurice

  

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CoolKidMon Dec-03-01 08:35 PM
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#51. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


  

          

Thanks to all who replied to my post on "The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC" and to those who still plan to post! I'm sure that we all really had a fun and educational time, sharing anecdotes and other stuff about our computer screw-ups. Hehe!

That's what makes learning by trial-and-error fun!


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plinioSat Dec-08-01 07:07 PM
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#53. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

You know, so far worse than making a crazy mistake to your own PC is doing it to your best friend's!!

Some years ago, (ashamedly it seems not too many), I was playing around with my friend's brand new monitor, (he was even less experienced than me so I felt like I was a PC guru compared to him), it was a Samsung Syncmaster 500b and by that time a 15 inches screen was a total revolution, (including the price...). Well, I started trying different screen resolutions and colour depth configurations out of his ATI "All in Wonder" 4 Mb video card, and suddenly... ZAP!! "All in black"!! I didn't know what was happening, my friend was staring at me hoping I would tell him that everything was under my control, but it wasn't indeed! I remember resetting the PC many times and everything coming back again in a total blackness, (I didn't know about safe mode yet...). When I realized that behind that black screen there was win95 still alive and running, I started desperately to try locating, (using only keyboard shortcuts), the screen properties window!! Oh boy it was a nightmare... and in that precise moment, my friend's father enters the room to see how his new monitor, (of course, he had paid for it!), was working!! Imagine all that pressure over my shoulders!! Finally, I did it, and recovered a poor 640x480, 16 colours configuration that looked soooooo fine to me... After setting things up as they were originally, I returned home promising myself never to experiment again with someone else's PC.

By the way, when the father saw the 16 colours, 640x480 configuration he said:
"Well, they nowadays do not make things as they used to..."

Plinio.

  

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MaurasaurusMon Dec-10-01 09:19 AM
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#54. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to plinio (Reply # 53)


          

Hi
I have been enjoying all the posts on this topic. I got my first computer in early 1997. It was a Compac and I forget the model number, but it only had 24 megs of RAM. I did all kinds of silly typical "newbie" things like scheduling scan disk and defragmenter in the task scheduler to run late at night but I would either have the computer turned off or in "sleep mode" so they never ran at all. Needless to say, things were running pretty sluggish till I discovered what was happening (or NOT happening). I also installed programs without closing all RUNNING programs which, I am sure,DID cause problems over time. In addition, instead of rebooting after installing EACH program, at least once, I installed one program, installed another and THEN rebooted. I would NEVER do now some of the things I did with that first computer.


Maurasaurus



Maurasaurus

  

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JPMon Dec-10-01 10:10 AM
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#55. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to Maurasaurus (Reply # 54)


          

I had a little boo-boo happen last night. After a couple of years of burning CDs, I finally made a coaster.

No, can't blame the HP burner, it's all my fault....

Put the dang label on the business side of the disk!

Cost me a whole $.59 cent for that. Maybe I'll try soaking it off in mild soapy water sometime.

JP

  

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PCExpertMon Dec-10-01 11:53 AM
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#56. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to JP (Reply # 55)


  

          

Shit! i installed more than 2 programs at once & then reboot!!still doing that since last few days!!!!



PCExpert

PC Specs in my profile

  

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phgreerMon Dec-10-01 07:19 PM
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#58. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to PCExpert (Reply # 56)


          

The worst thing I did involved color depth. I was trying to show off once at a place I used to work for how I could improve their website. ( these were the 3.1/95 days on their PC's) one of the computer was a 3.1 machine and I figured they need to see some of the photographs in better color so I tried uping the color depth only to have the whole display go all wiggly like an old timely scrolling T.V. set except worse! I tried and tried and couldn't fix it and boy did I take the heat. I've learned a lot since those days! You would think if the machine couldn't take it it shouldn't have the option!

  

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mikepsupTue Dec-11-01 04:19 AM
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#59. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to plinio (Reply # 53)


          

Back in 1986 the U.S. Army wanted all their officers to be computer literate, so they gave Toshiba laptops to anyone attending an advanced school. They took about a week to show everyone how to use the different programs they came with. When they were teaching us how to use the spreadsheet program they made the mistake of telling us how to program a cell or a range with the value of "infinity."

Being the curious type, I thought I would try it out, so I set up a spreadsheet with the first row going from cell A1 to "infinity." I set the columns to do the same. Then I assigned a value of "infinity" to all the cells in the first row and all the cells in the first column. I then put a formula in all the remaining cells that multiplied the value of the first cell of the row they were in by the value of the first cell in the column they were in. Basically all the cells in the spreadsheet had a value of either "infinity" or "infinity*infinity" and the X and Y axis went out to infinity. Then I hit the "Enter" button.

The computer processed for a few seconds then made a sound that to this day I have never heard made by another computer. The closest I can describe it would be to say that it sounded like the noise some pinball machines make when you win a free game, kind of a "CLACK." Then the machine froze up completely. After a few minutes I called an instructor over. He couldn't do anything so he called over a few more. It had completely locked up. They couldn't even turn it off. They took it away and gave me another computer, with which I was a little more careful.

  

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snowmanTue Dec-11-01 08:19 AM
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#60. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

Where does one begin? Bought a used 286 computer that had some
programs loaded on it. Brought it home but couldn't figure out
how to get past the c: prompt. No books or disks came with it.
Tried different commands that I new about. Finally tried Format C:
Needless to say that didn't help!! Couple years later I bought a new
system. I was in the Mcafee online site. Had it look for un-needed
files. It found 128 files which I let it delete thinking it knew
what it was doing. All my fonts but 5 disappeared. Called the
computer tech support, they said that I had to reload windows.
Called Mcafee they said too bad you'll have to reload windows.
Finally went into the Microsoft help site and found how to restore
fonts. Had them all back in about 5 minutes. Whew!!! Few months
back my printer quit printing yellow. Tried refilling the cartridge
but no go. Put in a new cartridge that I had. Still no yellow. Bought
a new printer. Sent the cartridges from my old one home with my son-
in-law for his, he had the same printer as I. Guess what his wouldn't
print yellow either, it was the cartridges. Oh well I got a nice printer out of it.

  

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DaveATue Dec-11-01 08:25 AM
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#61. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

I bought a 386 and it has been hell since. Just keep pumpin the $$$ for the new machines and software.
David C Abernathy

David C Abernathy

  

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RoperaTue Dec-11-01 08:52 AM
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#62. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to DaveA (Reply # 61)


          

Once I've opened the monitor to clean it...zap!!!

  

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vitaltTue Dec-11-01 08:58 AM
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#63. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to Ropera (Reply # 62)


  

          

ROTFLMAO.....


Vitalt

Useful Team Info

  

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GrumpyTue Dec-11-01 11:18 AM
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#64. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to Ropera (Reply # 62)


          

Did it kill ya??

  

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RoperaTue Dec-11-01 12:06 PM
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#65. "well, lets say that"
In response to Grumpy (Reply # 64)


          

now I give the finger with the left hand only

  

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CoolKidTue Dec-11-01 03:54 PM
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#66. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to Ropera (Reply # 62)


  

          

What do ya mean "zap"? What really happened? Hehe!

Was electricity flowing to the monitor when you opened it? }>


P o w e r e d -by- T e c h n o l o g y

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tpikdaveSun Dec-16-01 12:36 PM
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#67. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 66)


          

The first dumb computer trick I did was to operate a computer while under the influence of Scotch. I was in total denial the next morning when I took it back to the guy that built it for me. He turned it on (I can't remember what it did) and then just stared at me like I had grown another head or something. No no no no I don't do that no more ...dry 3yrs now

  

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CoolKidSun Dec-16-01 01:25 PM
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#68. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to tpikdave (Reply # 67)


  

          

Hehe! Man, when is this thread gonna end?!? This must be the longest-lasting thread in the history of PC911. Well, it's ok. Please keep on posting here if you wish. As for your problem tpikdave, I think we can all learn a vauable lesson from it: "Don't drink and tweak" or something like that.


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rpeyton80Sun Dec-16-01 03:54 PM
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#69. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

I just pulled off My smoothest mistake yet today! I thought I'd try putting a blow hole on the top of my computer case to release some of the heat out there. So I headed on over to the local hardware shop and picked up a 120mm hole saw.

Well I brought it home, did all my measuring, got my screw holes made and ready to roll and now it was time for the hole!

I leaned down into the case and started drilling.

2 minutes later my hole saw is burnt down to a nub, my case is cracked and the part that isn't cracked is black from the hole saw sparking and starting a little fire!

Wondering just what the hell went wrong I took a peek back at the hole saw packaging. *Wood* hole saw, not meant for metal surfaces!!

So my blow hole I was so excited to make (which I also didn't even need because I don't overclock and had 5 fans already) ended up costing me $200!!


  

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CoolKidSun Dec-16-01 04:44 PM
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#70. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to rpeyton80 (Reply # 69)


  

          

Tsk, tsk, tsk. . . $200?!? Man, that's a lotta dough. Should've just bought a casing with a large chassis fan. Hehe! How did ya even manage to pierce a hole into your casing? You must have use more than a hole saw. Did you remove the casing before you drilled? Of course ya did!


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rpeyton80Mon Dec-17-01 01:55 AM
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#74. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 70)


          

Yeah I had to run out and buy a new case last night just so I could put my computer back together! That really sucked! I used drill bits make for metal, which is how I managed to get any holes through the casing at all, but then when I went to use the hole saw, all it would do was scratch the surface paint off. Being the genius that I am, I decided I probably just wasn't pressing hard enough. CRACK!! What a mess!

  

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WallySun Dec-16-01 04:52 PM
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#71. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC - deltree"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 0)


          

I haven't read all these, but I see alot of deltrees.
I killed the C:\Windows directory just about a year
and a half ago by executing deltree /y c:\windows.
Why??? cause my finger hit the Enter key instead of
the \ key while I was typing the \temp. By the time
I got my finger over to the power off button I knew
it was too late, so I just got myself a beer and
collected up my CDs, diskettes and paperwork to get
ready for the 48 hour reinstall of my software and
configurations. Don't run that from DOS anymore.

  

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CoolKidSun Dec-16-01 09:31 PM
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#72. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC - deltree"
In response to Wally (Reply # 71)


  

          

48 hours?!? Why so? Seems a little exaggerated, don't ya think? Hehe!


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ryan auclairSun Dec-16-01 10:50 PM

  
#73. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC - deltree"
In response to Wally (Reply # 71)


          

Something I did recently is with a batch file (those can be dangerau ). I have this one bactch file in the folder where all my software programming folders are (one folder for each "in process" software) and when I compile, there all this junk that goes in that folder so I just run the batch file whenever I open it and it deletes .cpp .obj and other file types that the compiler puts. I never knew that I hade put .cpp in it so I moved the batch file in a folder that I was working on allot to get rid of all these files each time I compile. I did it, I seen the .cpp file (main source code of software) and zap! it was gone! Oups. I would like to work at Microsoft.}>


Ryan

  

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John M.Mon Dec-17-01 04:30 AM
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#75. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC - deltree"
In response to ryan auclair (Reply # 73)


          

I accidentally restored a Ghost image to the wrong hard drive once & wiped out over 18gigs of my sons highly customized & saved games.

  

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CoolKidMon Dec-17-01 05:13 AM
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#76. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC - deltree"
In response to John M. (Reply # 75)


  

          

And let me guess. . . Yer son didn't talk to ya for a month. Joke!

Say, I kep on hearing the words "ghost image". What is it anyway?


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CrunkMon Dec-17-01 05:21 AM
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#77. "RE: The Craziest Mistake ya ever did to yer PC - deltree"
In response to CoolKid (Reply # 76)


  

          

It's a hard drive image made by Norton Ghost



  

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