I didn't know that RAM had to be matched. When I upgraded my Pentium to a massive 2GB of memory ($50), I just stuck it in the first empty slot I found. And promptly blew up the motherboard.
Back to CompUSA to spend another $200. I rebuilt my system and it would not work. I was stumped and frustrated so I brought the PC back to CompUSA to be sorted. They took 2 days and charged me $450 to tell me the power switch was off by one pin on the front panel connector. $700 for 1 gig of RAM!
Machine of a fried. The inside can best be described as "Was just unpackaged and put together". Closed it up again and fired it up to fix the real problem. Problems were as it would turn out later just Java asking for permission to update. Real problems were more of the BANG and a little bit of smelly smoke. Ordered a new PSU. I expected the machine to be dead but my friend insisted it would work again... Dead! Orderd a new mainboard and a fx4300 which was a huge jump from his Sempron. The HDD survived and is the oldest part in his current build as far as I know. (he blew up the FX a year later when "overclocking"). The GPU died aswell. Replaced it with something I had collecting dust. So yeah! Spent 370€ on a doomed machine.
Umm, I cut my knuckles building my first-time build, because I was stupid and didn't install the CPU and heatsink onto the motherboard before installing the motherboard itself. Does that count?
Addendum It took hours because of this. I also dropped a screw into this ridiculously small space between the heatsink and chassis cause of my brilliance. Then I dropped a screwdriver onto the board. I thought I was done, but she worked! Thank goodness! ^_^'
i was working on live system... i was looking for best mounting spot for new fan (you know checking temps by spot etc ~) while i was screwing it in, one of the screws fell right into psu ventilation, and the thing exploded.
derp. good thing only psu died that day, and i survived.
I was at a LAN party. When I reached around back to plug in my PSU. I couldn't see at first so I got a close look at the socket. It exploded in my face with sparks, flame and smoke! Luckily someone knew a shop that might be open (it was 5:59 PM). I called the guy and he agreed to stay open until I got there.
I just finished build a six-core I was going to float on for a while with two 280x. I finished the rig with no issues, used it for a day and everything was great. The next day, storm rolled in. Had cheap surge protectors, but they didn't save me. The surge hit while it was on and I was in the process of shutting it down. Seriously would've saved it if I had like 10 more seconds, cause I was about to unplug it.
Fried Mobo. On the upside, everything else, including the graphics cards (I still use now) and CPU survived.
A few months ago I was traveling and I brought my pc with me. During the trip the nuts and bolts to one of my car fans got loose. Didn't know at the time.
When I was plugging in my pc I heard a pop and saw a flash. Psu died along with my fx 8350. Didn't even power it on.
Had to downgrade to a 6300 I had laying around and I'm still using it. Im such an idiot
Imagine you build a 850€ laser cutted scratch acrylic mod case (25 acrylic parts). You have tolerance of less that 1mm in some zones, mainly on the watercooling parts. You have just at motherboard 5 watercooling blocks. You spend 2 weeks making tries on how to assembly the beast, planning zip ties and duct tape places to hold power cables (so they dont get on fan blades). You spend 4 hours and half to fill the loop because it is overkill in blocks, curves and tubes for the low case height (no gravity force helping). You press power on, no video signal...
GPU power extension had disconnect on the "have to take it all appart again zone"...
