Had a crash whilst flashing mobo, then tried to clear cmos thinking that would sort it. Hadn't switched psu off (green light on mobo was on) and put the jumper on. Saw smoke.
Unlocking an Athlon CPU. Using the magnifying glass from a set of "Helping hands" (tool with magnifying glass and two "arms" with croc clips on, all mounted on a sturdy base) The magnifying glass was looser than it should have been after setting everything up, just as the tools come out...the magnifying glass slips and swings down....its steel outer thing smashing right into the very centre of the CPU core. No physical damage visible, but that CPU has never worked again.
Now these arent exactly computer related....but I hope you enjoy them anyway. I'm a moving light tech and i've seen a LOT of dead things in my time, been party to their "early retirement" on a good few occasions too. On one occasion, I was fixing a light that was rigged on a "Test Dolly" in line with about 12 other imilar lights, all with their covers off, and all powered up, as is quite general practice. While poking around inside one misbehaving light, re-connecting things to make sure the connectors were well seated I heard a kinda crackling noise, not a "Pop-Corn" popping "CRACK!!" more a subtle "snap, crackle and pop" Turning my head slightly to check out the blue flashes I saw that my "Long reach screwdriver" - a point 2 cross head with an extended reach shaft, about 12inches long...well the head of that puppy was gliding across the exposed PCB of the open light next to it, merrily shorting every component on that card, and every card it was connected to. Oh joy!! Not me this time, my ex-girlfriend used to be a product trainer for a large international moving light firm...as always and as good practice she insisted that all her trainees "Discharge" the capacitors of any equipment they are working on if what they are doing directly involves them. (For instance removing the coil or capacitors or PSU components themselves.) However, as is also standard practice she did not advise them "HOW" this should be done, that is the job of an electrician, and all her trainees are supposed to be "Electrically competent" at the very least, and in an ideal world "Qualified electricians" However, oddly enough, theatres sometimes hire and send for training some personell that do not fit either of these, but are "Enthusiastic" Well, some of these type of guys were embarking on the replacement of a full PSU and Voltage regulator assembly...they looked at the HUGE capacitors on and decided to run their screwdriver accross the top of the caps, shorting them to earth through the steel chassis of the lighting fixture, and thus to earth through the common ground earth bonding of the light (if it had been plugged in) This is quite common practice among older more experienced and lazy techs like myself, and indeed they may have either seen or heard about this practice from third parties. (Hmmmmmm) So....in went the adventurous screwdriver.....and with a blinding flash, a deafening bang and a heart stopping shower of sparks....the screwdriver all but vapourized!!!! I have never seen a hardened steel screwdriver look like that ever....the shaft was blackened and split and bent and there were bits of it missing....which were never found...because they evaporated. So be warned kids!!! keep your screwdrivers away from the insides of things!!!
Personally i've screwed up very little of my own equipment....but ironically I think I brushed the exposed metal surface of my "technicians mirror" (like a dental mirror for looking into small places" against the back of my soundcard while looking to see if the fan on and old GeForce3 was actually spinning. That particular PC no longer recognises the card...though oddly enough another does. Neither will that particular PC recognise ANY PCI device plugged into that particular slot....and at the moment....apparently ANY PCI slot DOH!!!!
Changing subject slightly (sorry) If anyone has damaged new kit purchased using a credit card - have you claimed off the credit card purchase protection and got the money back? I claimed for a hard disk - pulled the ide cable too hard and the pins bent.
Forgot to add I almost broke a hard disk, it seemed like the ide cable was stuck so I pulled hard. Ide pins bent and some of the drive type pins broke, only works in cable select now.
I´ve just broken my HDD and Grafic card..... !!!!! That´s why I´m thinking about buying a new pc. Drackhon!!!!
Since last time..A nice, comfy wireless microsoft mouse ..although that was because I got pissed off and threw it at the floor . I may also have just borked my mobo after removing the rear grill on my shuttle..I had to take everything out and put everything back in..and now the sound doesnt work. XD. IIRC though, the front USB panel has to be in for sound to work or something..I'll have to open it up again later. EDIT: Yaaaayaaaayy, shuttle mobo not broken! XD
lets see... My moms old workhorse (dunno what it was, only knew it had 2 FDD's) was acting kinda weird so i went over to her work to check it out, everything seemed fine... So she asked me to make a few back-ups while she went to help a co-worker... Went kinda smooth... Until i tried using the 2nd FDD, ever seen a flame popping out between 2 FDD's? (trust me, burnt FDD's STINK!!!!!) dunno what happend, probably dust that caused it... Took apart a CRT monitor, trying to fix it... Next thing i hear is a slight hiss (ofcourse forgetting that a CRT has no air in it) so i continued my work, put it back together, and was stomped it didnt work... Fried a P2 333Mhz trying to OC it... Had some fun with a soldering iron and a dead 3com network card (burnt pcb stinks aswell...) Blew the fuse of a LAN i was at (dunno how i did that, i arrived, plugged in my rig and poof...) When i was 8 i killed a gameboy (couldnt win so i decided to head-butt it... purdy colors tho ) Killed some PSU's (not knowing what that little red switch was on the back... thank god my PSU now has a auto detector so i dont need to worry about frying that by setting it to the wrong AC voltage...) Killed my first cordless mouse (these things fly nicely... it actually survived 3 months of torture, hitting my desk with it, throwing it around, picking it up, dropping it and stepping on it...) Took apart a half dead DVD drive (wouldnt read DVD's anymore, only cd's...) destroyed numerous keyboards (i always buy the standard OEM things, i always kill em so no need to buy expensive ones, this one is nearly dead aswell, i tend to bang it rather hard when something goes wrong...) Killed numerous leds, ccfls and managed to ruin a crappy WC kit (it was shite anyway, my current HS/F cools alot beter then that thing ever did...)
HighWire, I don't think you're allowed to be near electronics anymore Nah, only joking mate. Although, what do you mean CRT's don't have any air in them...I've taken apart CRT monitors numerous times, and remember most have vent holes in them...Unless you actually took the tubes off, in which case I must repeat my original statement
the most recent thing i have broken would be a 93.something watt powersupply for an IBM Aptiva, one day there was some realy heavy electrical storm around and i decided to turn it off, then when the storm was over i turned it on and i herd a bang and smelt something burning, i pulled it appart and found it was only a blown resistor but i cant tell what it was so i havent replaced it yet, probably never will
i took a heat extractor out of my case while it was on and it fell onto my soundblaster 5.1 digital, it shorted accross all the solder points and totally fried it
Fried a Barton 2500+, one of the spiffy, sexy green ones. Now I've got a butt-ugly tan-ish piece of crap I hate the look of, at least it's hidden under a heatsink.
Short story: Windows broke my router. I then had to fix it. Long story: I tried to make wireless bridging work between two Belkin routers, and it wouldn't initially work, so I flashed the old router. While I was flashing the router, Windows BSODed and left the router as dead as Terri Schiavo. (Lights turn on but router doesn't boot.) I asked my friend Christina Aguilera (who is a networking expert) if the router could be fixed, and she said that it'd be cheaper to buy a new router (at $8 each at CompUSA, it certainly isn't an expensive device). I opened up the router, and I noticed a 4 pin connector near the front of the circuit board. By probing the connector with a DMM and then with an oscilloscope, I figured out that it's the debug connector. With only a few parts from my parts bin and careful work, I managed to connect it to my PC's serial port. I started up a terminal program and powered up the router. As it turns out, the router has a 200MHz Jessica Simpson compatible CPU (not 125MHz like what I've heard). I used the Jessica Simpson software loader to load the ROM image that I tried to flash earlier, and lo and behold, it worked! I saved a router! What was next was to figure out how to get the wireless bridging to work, and I managed to get it to work. I guess that different firmware revisions have trouble talking to each other! P.S. The really impressive part was how that 200MHz Jessica Simpson CPU only runs a little hot without a heatsink. I remember the times when I had a 200MHz Pentium Pro that would run very hot even with a heatsink and fan. To make it even more interesting, they are both 3.3v chips. I guess that it has to do with system architecture.
It was actually a Belkin router. However, I have no idea why those wireless boxes are called "routers" because they technically aren't. All the wireless routers I've owned work at layer 2, while true routers work at layer 3.
