Broken Hardwares

[Komshija]

Let's see...
More than 10 years ago I was trying to fix my old DVD ROM which refused to open. I disassembled it, repaired the mechanism and in the process somehow damaged the laser so it couldn't read CD's/DVD's at all.

Then I bricked HP printer. Inks dried out because I forgot to print at least something for more than a month. I tried to wash the head with distilled water and clean it with rubbing alcohol - didn't help. Printer head and inks were more expensive than a new printer, so naturally I had to buy new a one. Almost exactly the same thing happened with this one, although I had it for 6 years which isn't that bad, so I had to buy a third printer (brand new, of course) which was faulty and couldn't print any other color than blue. Cleaning the inks (via printer's software) didn't do anything. I got a full refund and bought another one which I currently own for slightly more than 2 years.

Long time ago I fried an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard because of the faulty Kung-fu PSU which couldn't handle a slight CPU OC. CPU was OK. Oh, and Kung-fu PSU also went kaputt.

I also destroyed a tiny subwoofer on my laptop while still under warranty. While cleaning a laptop, a small screw fell right into the tiny subwoofer making a small tear in extremely delicate membrane. That membrane is unbelievably delicate. I tried to pick it up with magnetic screwdriver and didn't expect subwoofer's magnet to be so powerful. Small rupture resulted in a hole with half of the membrane being ruptured. I had to stick a medical band over the subwoofer membrane because it was producing very annoying noise. Eventually I replaced it with a new one.

I don't know if these qualify, but still... I destroyed three perfectly working CPU's in very good condition (two Xeons and one C2D) just to turn them into keychains. Also I overtightened a few screws destroying the threads so I had to use bigger screws, both on my and other people's PC's/laptops while upgrading or repairing them. Now I'm much more careful with that.

Lastly I bricked Corsair Voyager GTR 2.0 USB flash drive. It was blinking and trying to read almost an empty memory; well, it contained a few files but nothing important. It happened a few times before but eventually managed to read a content after a few seconds. Formatting and checking with AV didn't solve the problem. This time it was trying to read the files for about 2 minutes or so. I pulled it out, inserted it into another USB slot and nothing. So I pulled it out again put it in my hand and slapped it hard with another hand. Just once. After that the system couldn't even recognize it. Shows empty space instead. That's a real witchcraft.

 

[matthewmatics]

My EVGA GTX760 just croaked. I have zero idea why?? It has been a loyal BF4 gaming card for 6 or 7 years and now can not display resolution past mobo stuff and safe mode maybe (I didn't bother trying).

In goes the MSI RX580 OC!

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

every single one of them over the years but i tend to use things until they die, somewhere not always my main rig, plus with the amount of pc's passed to me to fix i have multiples of each fault to my name.

Biggest personal brain fart was trying to run quadfire polaris(x4) cards with dual gtx 460s for hybrid physx, batman was great for the short time it worked but the ground loads and total power draw burned (literally) out the additional molex power connector(soley for gpu power) on the crosshairV , then took out the grounds on the 24pin cable which also burned out, and in that time something took out my samsung evo ssd and another smaller ssd.

it was still booting when i came back to it later , but had some issues lets say lol, it was time for an upgrade anyway.

at one point i took a picture or two of the proud beast with massive amounts of gpus stuck in running and in that pick (i didnt notice at the time) you can actually see a cable going supernova red hot inside the case.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I checked them all. I have also had PCIe cards (not the same as PCI expansion cards), AGP cards, speakers, keyboards, mice, monitors, tape drives, floppy drives and disks, various USB devices, printers, scanners, AiOs, modems, routers, WAPs, switches, hubs, [fill in the blank].

 

[Ruru]

CPU: the first time I tried to install a Socket A cooler...
GPU: several victims, usually they've already been half dead. The most recent dead GPU was a XFX R9 290 DD
Storage: one Seagate failed while using it, dunno if it could still be revived.. could be the SATA cable, wouldn't be surprised.. one dead SSD from back in 2015
Motherboard: few dead ones, the last one was Asrock P67 Performance (though it was already half-dead since ~20 of the pins were either bent or broken, managed to get it work in single channel)
Other: Countless fans, cables and other stuff during 15 years as a PC hobbyist

 

[sn2x]

One of the buttons on a monitor broke for me ~10 years ago and a power supply I bought ~6 years ago broke (not able to produce it's full wattage).
The PSU was bought used and I suspect it was broken when I bought it but didn't find out till I used more power hungry components.

That's it for me over the past 11 years. Both of these were covered under warranty.

 

[oobymach]

I checked them all. I have also had PCIe cards (not the same as PCI expansion cards), AGP cards, speakers, keyboards, mice, monitors, tape drives, floppy drives and disks, various USB devices, printers, scanners, AiOs, modems, routers, WAPs, switches, hubs, [fill in the blank].

That's some bad luck you have lol.

 

[sam_86314]

I've killed two power supplies; one was some no-name one with two fans that just died without warning (fortunately it didn't take anything with it), and the other was a 400W Dynex unit which stopped working after trying to use a 24-pin to mini 24-pin adapter to power a drive backplane for a server.

I've killed one hard drive; a 1TB WD Black. I have a tendency to pound on my desk when I'm frustrated, and as it turns out, having a hard drive running on my desk when I do that isn't good for it. It stopped working, and at autopsy, I found that it suffered a head crash. $50 later, I replaced it with a 1TB Seagate Barracuda, and I've been much more careful ever since.

 

[eidairaman1]

I've killed two power supplies; one was some no-name one with two fans that just died without warning (fortunately it didn't take anything with it), and the other was a 400W Dynex unit which stopped working after trying to use a 24-pin to mini 24-pin adapter to power a drive backplane for a server.

I've killed one hard drive; a 1TB WD Black. I have a tendency to pound on my desk when I'm frustrated, and as it turns out, having a hard drive running on my desk when I do that isn't good for it. It stopped working, and at autopsy, I found that it suffered a head crash. $50 later, I replaced it with a 1TB Seagate Barracuda, and I've been much more careful ever since.

Gotta have patience

 

[KainXS]

Pretty much everything on the list,

I have alot of hardware on my wall of shame, My old E2140 which I killed overclocking because the VRM on the board I was using it had a phase blow which killed the CPU and Motherboard. Killing a 4Coredual from screwing the back retention clamp for the heatsink in and having the screwdriver slip and cutting the traces. Handling memory wrong many years ago and killing it and much much more that I cannot even remember due to overclocking(mainly GPU's over the years) The most recent victim was a Xonar Essence I left on a table while my nephew was over(very young) and he promptly played with it . . . . to its end.

My Favorite was my old Thermaltake Purepower from radioshack which I thought at the time(bought right before I joined TPU) was a good PSU but was told it was a trash PSU here which I did not believe. I had it in my system for about a year with a fair bit of OCing and then one day a pop and a flash and my entire celeron d 352 system was pretty much dead.

 

[R-T-B]

Ive been in this game for a long time... all that you have listed has died on me at some point or some reason over the last 20+ years.

EDIT: Not sure what you are trying to get out of this 'poll', but surely most everyone has had most everything die if you been using PC's long enough.........(I didn't vote).

Same here but I did vote. If you've been in this game long enough, everything dies.

Sometimes, I help things die... but that's less common.

 

[sepheronx]

I had a PC power and cooling PSU kill: Mobo, CPU and Ram

And a HD 1900 GTO (name is close to it) as DOA.

 

[8BitZ80]

I don't recall ever having a component die that was unable to be resurrected.
My Asus Z87-C motherboard stopped working one day and forced me to buy a replacement, however I somehow got it working again one year later. Still not sure what was wrong with it since I'd tried literally every trick in the book to no avail.
If including peripheral failures, then yeah I've had a number of those. E.g. long time ago I bought a random-branded overpriced gaming mouse that failed after only a few days of use.

 

[AsRock]

Ive been in this game for a long time... all that you have listed has died on me at some point or some reason over the last 20+ years.

EDIT: Not sure what you are trying to get out of this 'poll', but surely most everyone has had most everything die if you been using PC's long enough.........(I didn't vote).

Been messing witht hem over the mid 90's but never had a CPU or a optical drive for a PC to fail yet.

 

[R-T-B]

Been messing witht hem over the mid 90's but never had a CPU or a optical drive for a PC to fail yet.

I have. Usually my own doing (delidding) but yeah.

I have also seen several opticals fail, usually the weird labelflash kind for whatever reason.

 

[moproblems99]

well its to see which parts would break, just gives me an idea parts and brands to look out for and how to install/handle parts properly. (generally)
its a learning poll for me , like a do and don't around computers

Common sense. Works every time.

 

[R-T-B]

Common sense. Works every time.

What if that breaks?

 

[potato580+]

i almost broke my new cpu 2600 yesterday, i turn on the system without cooler pin plug ten times or so, even do a becnhmark few times

 

[candle_86]

I've seen the blue smoke from every component, heck I had a cases led catch fire from a voltage spoke.

i almost broke my new cpu 2600 yesterday, i turn on the system without cooler pin plug ten times or so, even do a becnhmark few times

That won't kill a modern cpu, it's designed to react in nano seconds to tempature problems. AMD had it fixed with athlon 64 and Intel with Pentium III. It will first throttle and if still to hot will shut down.

 

[Bill_Bright]

That's some bad luck you have lol.

I don't agree. This is just what happens when you've been working with computers since the mid 70s. Actually, IMO, computer components, most consumer electronics actually, are very reliable.

For sure, I have retired more perfectly good hardware due to it being upgraded or going obsolete than I have had hardware fail.

 

[Voluman]

3 motherboards after some harder tuning session.
1 Abit SA6R (btw i was in top 10 with Celeron 1000 Tualatin with aircooler, just not lived long after this...)
2 Asus P4P800 or P4C800 in search of superpi 32m record, well i got 2nd best time with a moderately capable p4 prescott, my ram was (is) excellent, but the northbridge didnt love those timings...so those boards end up dead.

Aand 1-2 hdds 1 ide maxtor (my first drive ever) and a samsung getting bad way after its warranty time, like 7 years or so.

 

[Frick]

The only thingsthat have died in my actual hands are basically hard drives and ODDs. Because I dissasembly them for parts. But malfunctioning without my involvement is well everything on the list. If you're after dead parts because I screwed up ... I can't think of anything. Possibly some laptop motherboards, that had other major problems anyway.

I don't agree. This is just what happens when you've been working with computers since the mid 70s. Actually, IMO, computer components, most consumer electronics actually, are very reliable.

That'sjust a fact. I probably disagree about "most consumer electronics" though, when you account for all consumer electronics. But computer hardware is pretty resilient (with some outliers of course).

 

[Bill_Bright]

I probably disagree about "most consumer electronics" though, when you account for all consumer electronics.

Even still, how often have you had your TV fail prematurely? Home stereo/surround sound electronics? Car electronics? I want a new refrigerator but my 15 year old Kenmore refuses to die.

All electronics will die - eventually. But I contend most of us will replace them with something newer, flashier, faster, more powerful first.

 

[eidairaman1]

I've seen the blue smoke from every component, heck I had a cases led catch fire from a voltage spoke.



That won't kill a modern cpu, it's designed to react in nano seconds to tempature problems. AMD had it fixed with athlon 64 and Intel with Pentium III. It will first throttle and if still to hot will shut down.

AMD had it fixed during AXP era with motherboards. The reason i know this is because I left my fan disconnected from the big typhoon cooler and 30 minutes later the system shut off, MSI K7N2 Delta-L.

I was doing some ram testing. It prompted me to hook up the fan. No damage happened.

Even still, how often have you had your TV fail prematurely? Home stereo/surround sound electronics? Car electronics? I want a new refrigerator but my 15 year old Kenmore refuses to die.

All electronics will die - eventually. But I contend most of us will replace them with something newer, flashier, faster, more powerful first.

Check your model number Bill, if it says 100 or something like that the OEM is Whirlpool

 

[candle_86]

Not really the time delay was still such if the heatsink fell off you'd kill the chip and board, a64 we finally got to the point where the CPU didn't need to talk to the chipset to shut itself off