My computer wouldn't boot. I feel like such a n00b...

[Bucko]

I just transferred my main PC over to a different case (no, it's not modded) and after I put it all back together and turned it on, it wouldn't boot.

It came up with a disc error and I thought the worst until I pulled the side cover off the case again.

Seems I forgot to put in the HDD SATA cables.... :redface::D

What stupid n00b stuff have you done that you really should know better?

[Eclecticos]

I always end up putting the IO Shield on upside down or bass-akward.
I look at it couple of times smack it in there. . go to sit the mobo down in there . .Errk It doesn't line up. .
I end up looking for a different shield, when the right one is already on the case upside down :)

I think everyone has hooked up the floppy wrong atleast a couple of times.

And I'm not sure what it is about the fans that confuses me, but no matter how many times I try to remember which is Intake and Exhaust. .
it usually ends up backward.

Ive tried putting cards in the box panel side in. . more than a couple of times.
It doesn't fit the slot. . Oop. LoL

[Wasabisam]

N00best thing i've done is put a Fan power cable into the CD rom then sat there wondering why it wouldnt find it :D Also when i got my Sonata 2 case i couldnt open it, turned out it was locked i felt stupid.

Cheers

Sam

[calumc]

id say the dumbest thing i ever did was try to put an ide cable into my hdd the wrong way round. i was trying to force it in for about 5mins before i realised that i had just bent half the pins on the hdd.
luckily they all straightened out without breaking and it's still working now.

[b4i7]

i once spent an hour+ trouble shooting why my comp wouldnt turn on...turns out i forgot to flip the switch on the back of the PSU

[AJ@PR]

HA!

Beat THIS!

About 2 years ago, I wanted to build a dual proc, server motherboarded computer.
So I bought my motherboard, and one Intel Xeon... thinking that I'll add the other one later.
I also bought 2GB of RAM.

I had a new laptop, so I didn't get to build the server anytime soon.
About half a year passed, and when I finally decided to build it, I had to
(1) get an Extended ATX case, cause the mobo wouldn't fit in an ATX case.

After I got that ($200!!!), I set off to build it.
Now, here's my n00bTastic part:::
(2) I bought the wrong processor (903pin vs 904pin)
and, adding insult to geek-ego-injury,
(3) I bought the wrong RAM.

On the plus side, the speakers worked flawlessly. =\

[slytherock]

Abaout 4 years ago, my computer start to beep. it was endless short beeps. Nothing in the beep code to help me. i notice that everytime I type, the letter f keep write. It end up I had 2 keyboard at that time; one for day to day work and one for the Avid Shortcuts. The last one was turn upside down, with something hitting he letter f.
Took me 2 hours to figur it out

[nil8]

Back in the days of slot processors, I went to a lan party and my machine wouldn't boot. I couldn't figure it out.
People around me were fragging each other in quake 2 and I had a broken box.
I spent 3 hours rebuilding, testing, trying to figure it out.

The processor had slipped a quarter of an inch out of it's guides on one side. Too small to see with a glance, too much to make the machine run. Argh.

[Airbozo]

Noob-iest thing on a piece of computer equipment (sorry not a PC);

I just got a wonderful paying job (at the time) at Amoco Oil Production in Denver. I was hired to fix the Storage Tek tape drives and controllers and the geophysical plotters. I celebrated my big pay check by buying myself a new $300+ watch. The first time I wore it I was working on a tape drive and forgot to turn the power switch off. The watch hit one leg of a large resistor and was already touching the case. There was a loud pop and a bright flash and half of my watch was gone. The other half was welded to the chassis of the tape drive... I have never bought a watch costing more than $50 since (and rarely wear one). Luckily for me I only suffered minor burns. And a pain in the wallet...

[Helix666]

N00biest thing I've done on a PC?
Where do I begin?

* Not plugging power cables in :rolleyes:
* Badly and incorrectly crimping 8P8C connectors
* Not plugging power cables to drives. :redface:
* not plugging signal cables to drives :redface:
* Plugging PS/2 connectors into the wrong socket. (Mouse into keyboard)
* Dropping keyboard and then having to close the 150+ and rapidly increasing Screenshot dialogues. (Fixed, by power cycle :( )
* Blowing up a motherboard by installing a TVtuner card (This one has never been worked out. But when it was fixed (at a cost of £110) it was discovered that the RAM DIMM was WELDED to the connectors in the DIMM slot. WTF?!? :? :? )

The list would be longer, but I've repressed most of them now. :D

hang on, one more. Put the computer in suspend without setting any `Wake On' triggers. This put the computer in a coma. I had to switch the PSU off and back on again to get it to restart.

[FrooP]

i gues no one ever can beat THIS:
i bought a harddrive.. serial ata but i had ata.. so i was trying to look out for the connector and recognized that it wont fit.. then i gave it back and tokk an ata drive, took the blug and it still wont fit.. tha h*ll? then i recognized that i held the BACKSIDE of the plug all the time :D

[lominono]

noobiest thing I have done is completely taking apart a cd drive and still couldn't figure out how to just take the tray out.

about 2 hours later I finally figured out(after reassembling it 2-3 times) that all that I needed to do to get the tray out was lift a tab.

[slytherock]

Another one, just today:
Had a problem with a monitor: too much brightness, so I open it.
Was looking for the resistor to adjust the brightness, tried the first one; didn't work. So I tried them all. After 3 hours, I gave it up. Returned to it 1 hour later, retry the first one; it was the good one, Didn't insert the screwdriver properly the first time...

[.Maleficus.]

I spent hours, maybe even a few days on this one (and a forum post here :D). I put everything together, and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work. Turned on good, but video didn't work, didn't do much of anything. After a while of messing with stuff, I saw the ATX12v cable sitting there. NOT plugged in. So I tried to plug it in, but my damn Blue Orb was in the way. So I took it all apart, plugged it in, and all was fine.

[Drum Thumper]

While in a hurry once, I unplugged an PATA hard drive WITH THE SYSTEM STILL ON. Destroyed a perfectly good 20 gig hard drive.

[Indybird]

On my second PC build I put the floppy power connector one pin off. I smelled some smoke, turned off the PC and saw a burn spot on the back of the floppy drive. Ruined my Mobo, PSU and (of course) floppy drive.

The second time was when I was building my friends computer. We had everthing hooked up, went to turn it on and nothing. Turns out we didn't have the PSU switch on.

The last was on my current build. I removed my X1900XTX to put on the aftermarket cooler. When I put it back in I forgot to reconnect the PCI-E Power to it. The computer started up and immediately went to a black screen with red text saying "Graphics Card has no power". I thought I destroyed my gfx card while installing the cooler. A few secs later I saw that the power connector wasnt connected.

All of those times I felt like such a n00b.

-Indybird