What is your major PC blunder?

[Frindis]

Let me tell you a story.....of how I did not get my computer screen to work.

So, there I was trying to connect my computer screen to my new PC. I tried with HDMI, DP cable, but nothing worked. I called tech support and they off course asked if I had plugged in the power, which I obviously had. I'm not dumb....or am I? I mentioned I had an RTX 3070 OC and asked if perhaps I needed a newer HDMI or DP, and they told me that the card supported DP 1,4.

I rushed to the nearest shop and bought one. Rushed home, plugged in the DP cable and absolutely nothing happened. Black screen, but everything else was in order. What the hell is going on??!!. I got slightly angry and thought I'd call the tech support again and tell them what is what. I basically told them that I did what they said and NOTHING helped.

Well, the tech support guy thought this all was a bit strange and started thinking a little about what a not-so-computer-savvy guy would do. He asked if I had plugged the DP cable in the graphic cards. I went ice cold for some seconds......

Me: "Wait, there is more than one place to plug in the DP cable??!!.
Support Guy: "Yeah"
Me: "Then why the hell can I plug it in another place and not get a picture, what is the point of that?
Support guy: "Well, you see.... *probably trying not to crack up* Your motherboard does not have integrated graphics, but it is there in case.
Me: Ohhhhhhhhhhh. I see now...... *dying inside*

Yeah, sooooo.... how about you, done anything incredibly dumb computer-wise?

 

[Brian Boru]

cable would work on some PC's and not others

Huh, that's new to me too. Hmm—I wonder how many times has that caught me over the years?

I've had the classic 'forgot to switch the PSU on' more than once—had to call a pal in for the first time, but he was nice, he stopped ribbing me after maybe a decade or so, bless 'im.

I also got a bit annoyed with the trouble I had trying to defrag my first SSD—until someone on a forum said nicely "RTFM!"

 

[drunkpunk]

About 11 years ago, I was going through my biannual fresh installation of windows. I had an external hard drive plugged in backing up a ton of irreplaceable photos and other stuff that I had collected over the years. It was a lot of data, and it was taking a long time to copy over to the other hard drive, so I decided I'd have a few beers and listen to music (something else I was backing up, I had mp3 rips of some seriously impossible to find music) while it copied over and browse the web. It took probably about 2 or 3 hours to move it all over. So I had a few.

Finally, when it was done, I rebooted and tossed in the windows disc to format the drive. Format the drive, select the drive again and it's not formatted.... Quite confused, I immediately hit that format button again and start installing windows. I didn't realize until about 10 minutes into the install that I still had my external hard drive plugged in, and that second format was actually the external drive. Lost it all.

It was that day that I learned drinking and formatting do not mix.

 

[Pifanjr]

I don't remember exactly how this went, but I'll do my best to recall.

When I moved into my current apartment, we had a technician come over to install the internet, but it turned out the plug in the apartment was different than what he was used to, so he needed a different part and we'd have to make a new appointment. However, at the time of the next appointment no one showed up.

We'd been without internet for a few days by that point, so I called their customer service somewhat annoyed, only to be told that the first technician set everything up such that we could start using the internet straight away, we just needed to plug the router in.

Not sure why I never tried that, we spend I think about a week without internet for no reason at all.

 

[Frindis]

@drunkpunk Offf, I feel that! @Pifanjr I'm curious, how was it to be a week without internet? That actually makes me think of a new tread, cause I think most people nowadays would think it sucks being just one day without the net if they are not doing it deliberately.

 

[Pifanjr]

@drunkpunk Offf, I feel that! @Pifanjr I'm curious, how was it to be a week without internet? That actually makes me think of a new tread, cause I think most people nowadays would think it sucks being just one day without the net if they are not doing it deliberately.

I believe we still had data, though with like a 1GB data limit, but we weren't completely cut off from the world. We were also still very busy with the move, so we didn't miss it all that much.

Honestly, maybe we should try not using the internet for a week more often. It's not like scrolling through Reddit a dozen times a day is adding much to my life.

 

[DXCHASE]

Thought it was a good idea to put an ultrawide on a piece of ply wood that was resting between 2 cabinets until i got a new one. Things are all good for about a 2 or 3 weeks, being careful etc., finally found a table and was waiting for it to come in, like a day or two beforehand i sat down at my monitor with a drink somethin i didnt do but was like, hey im getting a table in tom. Within the first hour i went to put it down and missed, fell on floor i went to swivel and catch it, knee bumped the cabinet, everything fell, monitor busted, out of warranty, Probably my single most worst PC moment.

 

[Brian Boru]

I decided I'd have a few beers

Well of course, how else is a punk gonna get drunk?
But man, that's a bad loss, I feel the pain. Similar happened an acquaintance—that's where I got my practice of always doing doing backups and transfers on a different day to major upgrades. I don't need to be drunk to do something dumb, I just need to be me…

Thought it was a good idea to put an ultrawide on a piece of ply wood that was resting between 2 cabinets

Oh, ouch! I forgot, a set of wall-length and -height shelves I put up collapsed after maybe a decade due to far more paper being put on them than should have. Lost router and a couple of speakers, plus some other bits—ornaments etc.

I didn't feel too bad though, because if someone had been passing at that moment…