I built my first computer in college with a friend helping me. It didn’t turn on, and we spent 3 days troubleshooting, switching out components (including the power supply) until we realized that the outlet we were plugging into was on a switch. We felt like morons
Definitely how it went for me
Submitted 1 day ago by Stamets@lemmy.dbzer0.com to memes@sopuli.xyz
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/a6f05e5d-5aa5-465c-8272-f36e7c468824.webp
Comments
CuriousRefugee@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Not the best idea to plug it directly into the socket either, unless your home has surge protection built in. Dunno if that’s even a thing.
Ideally plug it in to a UPS with an isolated circuit so that it acts as a surge protector, filter, and battery backup.
pedz@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
I started tinkering with computers a bit before the 2000 and floppy drives were common at that time. Well, there is a right and a wrong way to plug the power cable, and the wrong way emits smoke.
I now have assembled enough PCs to know what I’m doing, but I had to learn.
addie@feddit.uk 1 day ago
The industrial design has improved enormously since then, as well. The days of using the same connector for different voltages, or connectors which can be rotated are gone. Everything has a keyed connector or similar pokayoke that means it only fits to the correct place, and only one way around. CPUs don’t suicide if you forget to attach their system cooler, they just throttle. Much better, and obvious in retrospect that it should always have been that way.
Apart from the front panel connectors on a motherboard, of course. Those fiddly little bastards can get straight to hell.
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
ButteryMonkey@piefed.social 1 day ago
Apart from the front panel connectors on a motherboard, of course. Those fiddly little bastards can get straight to hell.
I’m so excited to understand what this means! (Just did my first ever build… or rebuild I guess using a case from 2012)
I mean I’m not excited excited, because yeah fiddly little bastards.. single pin connectors on that scale should be illegal.
Damage@feddit.it 1 day ago
Some IDE (PATA) connectors had no keying…
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 1 day ago
Similar to the smoke-button at the back of power supplies. This might not work in the US, I don’t know.
dohpaz42@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Back in college I took a computing class where the final exam was to take a PC we had built in class and the prof deliberately sabotaged the computer. Our assignment was to figure out what was wrong with it by the end of class time to pass the exam.
~He switched the power supply to the wrong voltage. I almost failed. 😅~
SomGye@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
“Please pass the POST (Power On Self Test)” 😫🙏
mybuttnolie@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
I’ve built quite many computers and the first powerup always fails for some very minor thing, like the psu switch being off, forgetting ram… but last time i got everything right the first time. but it still didn’t go smooth. i powered it on. fans spinning, black screen…i waited and waited…shut it down, tried again. nope, shit. switched rams to different slots. nope. tried with one stick. nope. got frustrated, started filling out the rma form and boom suddenly it posted. turns out it just takes long to post…like ridiculously long. sometimes more than 5 minutes. since it works I’ve been too lazy to take it apart and rma the mobo. I’ll do it just before the warranty expires.
SomGye@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I’ve never seen a POST take that long, makes me wonder if power or voltage are weirdly low. Usually what messes me up is getting the RAM stick to click in all the way 😭
shadowedcross@sh.itjust.works 23 hours ago
Urgh. Or every time you change a part. I like the idea of building and upgrading PCs but Christ is it stressful. Maybe if I were rich I wouldn’t care so much, but worrying about mishandling PC components isn’t great for my hair colour.
SabinStargem@lemmy.today 11 hours ago
MBech@feddit.dk 18 hours ago
After having built a bunch of pcs through the years, I’ve learned that components really aren’t as fragile as they feel.
shadowedcross@sh.itjust.works 17 hours ago
Yeah, I know. Doesn’t stop my stupid brain from getting anxious though, especially when they’re being a bitch to get in/out.
Godort@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Is it like this for car guys too?
Like, if you finish a bunch of work replacing head gaskets or some other work that involves taking half the engine apart, when you start it for the first time is there a nagging feeling like “What if I forgot something and I’m about to ruin thousands of dollars?”
BootLoop@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
What car guys do is tap a wrench in the engine bay as soon as the vehicle owner starts up their motor for the first time.
otacon239@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It was a miracle on my 3rd or 4th build when I just put everything together AB’s out worked on first try. Didn’t even have to make a blood sacrifice.
foxblood@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Sacrilege, the machine spirit needs its blood!
HikingVet@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
He said thay he didn’t have to, not that he didn’t.
ulterno@programming.dev 1 day ago
You don’t always have to charge the machine spirit.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I actually haven’t ever built a computer that didn’t boot on the first try. The closest I came, somehow, was my cousin’s PC. I got it all built, I pushed the power button, and nothing happened. A quick glance around the case and a chuckle later, I pushed the Reset button and the power light came on and it booted to the BIOS.
Hubi@feddit.org 1 day ago
Is this really such a common occurrence? I’ve built 5 or 6 systems in my life and the only time it didn’t boot instantly was when I accidentally bought the wrong RAM.
otacon239@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I usually forget to plug in a cable or two or miss the PSU switch among other silly mistakes. Never killed a machine, though.
bleistift2@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
Quite the opposite. When you don’t hear the RAM beep, then you’re scared.
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I really miss case buzzers :(
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Digital codes are so much nicer. Well in theory, until they show random invalid codes.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 day ago
Next time buy quieter case fans. 🤷♂️
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
First boot: -turns on fine- Second boot after setting correct memory speeds and other options: -obscure error 86tlxV-nih!-
tomiant@piefed.social 1 day ago
That’s me connecting a wall socket.
ulterno@programming.dev 1 day ago
I am doing the exact opposite.
Keeping my ear right next to the case when turning it on, to make sure there is no out-of-the-ordinary noise I need to check for.Mostly it just ends up being a badly routed wire coming in the way of a fan blade.
Wren@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Oh, I do miss the thrill and danger of a lively overclocking party.
radiouser@crazypeople.online 1 day ago
Image
This is how it usually goes for me.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 day ago
This is why you don’t clean it with soap, water and a wire brush. Just use air.
Cypher@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Many people have killed their PC with those compressed air cans lol
imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 hours ago
Ahahaha. Last time I did clean my PC and re-paste for the first time since 4 years - my wife has touched PC case and hit it with static. She saw my face fall into despair the moment it happened. She didn’t knew. It didn’t start after reassembly. And that’s how I bought my current PC.
After many attempts and debugging I found out that one ram slot is dead and PC wont boot with any ram sticks in this port. But that was too late.
dorumon@lemmy.cafe 16 hours ago
I’ve never had this issue. Though to be honest I have an industrial motherboard that isn’t prone to failure and has to be configured manually for literally everything on the machine in the bios. Currently rocking 48 gigabytes of ddr4 ram running in fucked quad channel with a core i5 9th gen and an RX 6600. Running Linux as Windows 11 literally halves my performance in games.
I’ve quite literally shocked my motherboard and forced shut it down several times and it does not care. It also has PS2 keyboard and mouse ports and a single PCI slot alongside serial and VGA on the back. Yes I try to avoid shocking my electronics and genuinely try to be careful with them. Kinda hard when your power cuts though. Or you think that blanket you have on would be fine to wear in the cold while you are repasting.
The thing is also neat as in it has a backup bios which like me modding my BIOS I really appreciated. because it meant you could always just flash the motherboard without desocking and reprogramming the bios chip.
You also have to configure where the thing boots and how the ram works as well. Or else it will just refuse to boot past the bios. Oh yeah and enable settings specific to your CPU and what it can do.
Whenever you reset the CMOS it has a default password which is just password as well.
fu@libranet.de 1 day ago