The NEXT contest...

[jdbnsn]

Keep in mind that your story doesn't necessarily need to detail complicated mechanical/software issues, just bad times. Here is a horror story of mine for example of no technical quality.(I cannot participate in the contest, this is just for entertainment)

After having lived here just outside Philadelphia for no more than a month, I was beyond dead broke. Financial aid had run out months ago and all expenses were credit card coverage only (2.5 cards maxed, 1 new one). As a student, it is vital for me to connect to the internet and many extremely important files concerning school curriculum and hosptial site were on my PC (and of course, my back-up system involves a spare internal hard-drive on the computer). One day while I was trying to watch the History Channel on Win XP Media Center 2005, the system hung, then powered down. Despite my common sense that the machine powered down for a good reason, I foolishly decided to push the power button and turn it back on. What followed was what I like to call the "flash-bang" effect. Through the clear plexi side window I saw a very bright, white flash of light accompanied by a loud "KABOOM" (actually sounded more like a gunshot, very loud and quick bang) Then the -bang effect, this is the internal "thud" of my stomach hitting the floor upon the realization of my moronic actions. Alas, after that moment I could not obtain any vital signs from my computer. I hung my head in a solemn moment of silence, and then cried like a 12 year old girl. What I had in my system that could have been dead to my knowledge [Athlon XP 4400+, DFI-LanParty Crossfire MB, ATI 1900XTX, 2 200GB HDD's, Soundblaster X-fi Fatality, 550watt PSU (antec I think), 2 GB Corsair VS RAM]. I was sunk, and I was also desperate for a new computer because I needed the data on those HDD's that week and had no time for part-by-part trouble shooting. Out of desperation and panic, I bought a PC off of Craig's List.com (overpriced average home build) and at the same time ordered new components (PSU, MB, CPU) hoping the others were alive. When all the new stuff arrived I decided to throw together a test setup and see if anything was still alive. Component by component every item checked out until I got to the PSU. I spent over a thousand dollars on credit buying duplicates of many of my components that were in perfect working order, all because it never occured to me to take out my $15 Volt-meter and test my $60 PSU to see if it would turn on. Now I have a spare motherboard, CPU, and whole other out-of-date computer laying on my living room floor collecting dust, and still haven't paid off the credit balance. Moral of the story, don't panic I guess.

[DaveW]

Now we know where that 4400+ for the community PC came from. Hard luck Jon, that's a kick in the ass, eh?

-Dave

[isunktheship]

Submit your favorite recipe for peanut butter pancakes.
Write a story about what you'd do to mod a PC if money were no object.
Write about how you'd mod it if money WAS an object and you only had 10 bucks and a roll of duct tape.
How many jellybeans are in the jar?

HAHA you are hilarious, I'm going to have to post mine now..

[isunktheship]

Hello, this topic is perfect for my story, since it all JUST happened about a week ago.

My girlfriend Kim has a rabbit named 'Cheerios'. I think the rabbit is named because of the food that it eats. You may think that this story ends up with the rabbit eating into my wires or something, but no animals were harmed during this ordeal. I don't mind rabbits, and Kim loves them.

My roommate Chris, on the other hand, hates rabbits. Of all the things he fears, rabbits are the worst. Chris is like 5'11'' and plays soccer.

This whole story takes place in my room, where I was putting together my computer again. I just rewired it after having ordered two cold cathode kits, and was trying to figure out a better way to manage all of the cables. I unplugged my computer and put it in the center of my room. I then took off the sides, I have a Raidmax Smilodon, and I LOVE IT.

I hadn't started organizing my case at all, I just hooked up the lights, made sure they worked, and then unplugged it again. It was about that time when Chris walked into the room. I promised him that I would build him a computer whenever he decided to spend money on the parts. He walks in, and sees me sitting there with my tower, so I stood up to show him the boxes that the cold cathodes came in. As I turned around to get the boxes, Kim's rabbit, Cheerios, runs over to Chris.

/Sigh

Chris then freaks out, and steps backwards, tripping over my case with his left foot, and slams his left foot into the corner of my metal desk.

My computer topples over and slams on the floor, Chris is sprawled held over my desk and computer.

Kim and I immediately burst out laughing, and Cheerios was scared stupid, to which he ran under the bed in panic. After the laughter died down, Chris took up, and realized his leg was really hurting. He kept complaining about it, he said he couldn't walk on it.

After about 45 minutes we took him to the emergency room, and he got an X-ray. Turns out he broke his ankle, or cracked it somehow... the X-rays are below. Chris gets a cast this week.

I went back to my computer, pushed it back over, and started it up. Unfortunately it didn't start up. I was really concerned about this, but just figured I didn't connect something crucial (I'm smart like that!).

After about an hour of checking everything, the computer didn't boot up. I used my laptop to check out forums, and saw that if your computer doesn't boot up properly that the hard drive may be borked (dead). I ran a few more tests, making sure it wasn't my PSU, by switching PSU's.

Fortunately I hadn't slotted in a new 250Gb hard drive that my friend just sold me. He had a server of 250Gb drives, the same drives that I use, because I built his computer. I slotted in the "new" hard drive, and up she started.

I reformatted my computer, and everything is basically back to normal... except for Chris's foot.

This is the second hard drive I have killed, one of them was killed in an overclocking disaster, and then this one was killed through the fatal drop/landing.

I've always heard that dropping a HD could kill it, but it had never happened to me. I'm not exactly a ninja when it comes to handling my laptop either...oh well.

I hope you enjoyed my tale! I'll try to get a pic of Chris up here when he gets back from a late night study group.

[jdbnsn]

That was awesome! Cheerio the ankle breaking HDD killing wabbit! And even an X-ray to boot! haha

[DaveW]

Yeah, that's pretty damn good!

Anyone else? Can you better this?

-Dave

[Airbozo]

Ok I have one. This is only for your amusement since I am NOT entering this contest;

I used to work for a company that provided hardware and software for the on demand package industry. One day I got a call from a particularly upset customer that is usually one of our high maintenance custy's. It was the owner of a company based in New York and they were trying to print out month end statements that had to be at the bank the next morning. They were unable to get the printer to print anything, so I asked him to check the power cord and interface cable.


That set him off and he started screaming at me (louder than when he first called); "How dumb do you think I am you piece of s***, fix this f-ing thing now or I will sue you all to hell and back!" I was having a bad day too and decided I did not want to have anyone making my day worse by cussing at me and threatening me, so I told him to call me back when he was a little more calm and ready to work through his issue.

That was my first experience with a New Yorker and asking him to calm down had the exact opposite effect. I thought the guy was going to go into coronary right there on the phone, when he started screaming cuss words at me I have never heard (and I was in the navy). I asked him again to stop with the abuse then hung up when he started the next tirade, and headed right to the owners office to wait for the ensuing phone call.

The phone was ringing as I walked into the office and I briefed the owner on what had happened. He told me not to worry about it, he is _always_ like that. The owner picked up the phone and the screaming started before he ever said hello. Once he took a breath the owner asked if he had indeed checked the cables and the screaming started again. I left the office to work on other things and 15 minutes later the owner transfered the call to me again. I explained to him that I had a set trouble shooting checklist and needed to have him check certain things in a particular order to ensure _I_ did not miss anything. He said fine, but if you ask me to check the power cable again I will lose it. OK good enough, check the data cable. Is the power on? Are any lights lit? Cable fine, power switch is on, no lights. OK, get ready for the screaming, could you please check the power cord and/or the location it is plugged in to make sure it is getting power. Screaming ensued. I tried between his breaths to explain that it was either bad power or a bad printer. He hung up on me.

He called back an hour later sheepishly admitting that the power cord was unplugged. Everything was fine. Thanks.

A couple of months later we were having a customer conference and he came up to me and insisted on taking the wife and I out to dinner. He took us to a place that required a coat and tie and proceeded to treat us to one of the most expensive meals I have ever had ($1200 for 4 people, not including tip). He turned out to be one of our best customers and never screamed at me again (although the profanities still flowed heavily).


I have many more....

[moon111]

Airbozo I completely understand having dealt with businesses in New York too. As soon as I picked up the phone, this IT guy from NY is screaming. I finally get his information up on the database and briefly see, and comment he has a tech coming out to replace a CD-Rom drive on a mini-tower. Note: These units can be put upright or on their side. Now he's furious that it doesn't have enough USB ports. It dawns on me maybe he's not even aware there is a front cover panel. I ask him if he was aware of the front USB ports, under the cover to the left of the power button. Well if he doesn't explode calling me and the company I work for ever name under the sun. He rants about how stupid we all are, that we don't know what side the power button is on and that we even put our logo on upside down...

..."Sir, the logo isn't upside-down, but the computer is. I'm going to cancel the work order for the CD-rom replacement, you have a good day."

[Airbozo]

Ok, here's another one that got me lots of kudo's.

I was hired by McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach CA, back in '85 to work in the destructive test department (they destroy airplane panels and measure the force required to do so), among other things. One of the systems I was hired to work on was a Concurrent Computer 3220 (wish I could show some pics), a semi mainframe system they used to run the tests and measure the forces in the destructive test center. Turns out this system was _extremely_ sensitive and worked when it wanted to. For the first month I worked there, I would get a call twice a week that this system was not functioning. I would go down to the test building and sure enough across the room I could see the trouble lights on. As soon as I got within 5 feet of it, the trouble lights would go off and the system would boot up normally. This went on for a month until I just finally got tired of it.

I had the system taken out of the test rotation and tore it completely apart down to a bare frame and a pile of boards. Cleaned EVERYTHING including the power and ground connectors on the edge of all the boards. Stress tested every board in our testbed to make sure did not have any intermittent problems (even used a space heater to keep the system hot, in case it was heat related). No board failures. Put everything back together leveled the rack, wired it up and it fired right up. No issues. I thought I had figured it out until a couple of days later I was called to fix the same machine. Same issue. Across the room I could see the trouble lights. As soon as I got close to it, the trouble lights went off and it started booting up normally.

It hit me what the issue was. It was like the proverbial light bulb going off except it was as bright as the stadium lights. I moved the system over about 5 feet and started pulling the floor tiles up. I found that when the contractor installed the computer floor they forgot to put in spacers on some of the tiles that were causing the system chassis to flex. When the system flexed, the power connectors on some of the boards (usually different board every time) came loose and the trouble light came on. When someone got close to the system the floor moved _slightly_ and the chassis flexed back to where it was supposed to be and the power connectors made contact.

I installed the spacers on the floor tiles, moved the system back to where it was and it was still running 3 years later when I left the company.

[DaveW]

These are gold. C'mon, who has more?

-Dave