Great PC mistakes that you have made <Nerd Mode>
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Long time ago – working in DOS. End of a project and in the wee small hours. Being a cautious chap I decided to back up all of the source code before going home.
It was in the days of 8 inch (yes 8 inch) floppy disks but they had limited space. Obvious thing to do is to delete all of the .BAK backup copies of the source files which are created automatically by the editor.
The command is straight forward :
> DEL *.BAK
I make one tiny mistake and typed :
> DEL *,BAK
Those of you that remember DOS will know what happed next. It asked me to confirm, which I immediately did. The disk whirred and the light flashed and the following message was displayed :
> UNKNOWN COMMAND “BAK”
In that instant I knew what I had done. Having typed a comma (,) instead of a full stop (.) I had deleted weeks of work in a few short seconds. Boy was I sick
It was in the days of 8 inch (yes 8 inch) floppy disks but they had limited space. Obvious thing to do is to delete all of the .BAK backup copies of the source files which are created automatically by the editor.
The command is straight forward :
> DEL *.BAK
I make one tiny mistake and typed :
> DEL *,BAK
Those of you that remember DOS will know what happed next. It asked me to confirm, which I immediately did. The disk whirred and the light flashed and the following message was displayed :
> UNKNOWN COMMAND “BAK”
In that instant I knew what I had done. Having typed a comma (,) instead of a full stop (.) I had deleted weeks of work in a few short seconds. Boy was I sick
More bang for your buck
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The mention of 8" floppies reminds me of a time when I:
Went into a "computer" shop in London with my technical director to buy some 8" floppies, the chap put a box on the counter and my boss said "are they hard or soft sectored?" the guy took one out, bent it double and said "soft sectored"..... we left.
Went into a "computer" shop in London with my technical director to buy some 8" floppies, the chap put a box on the counter and my boss said "are they hard or soft sectored?" the guy took one out, bent it double and said "soft sectored"..... we left.
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Good guesses. 
I thought the Mobo was fried, maybe had an intermittent fault (lots of problems with the BIOS not saving changes, changing the BIOS battery didn't help, which I didn't chronicle in an already long post) so went out and bought some new kit. Had to wait a day for a delivery of memory so put the 'fried' mobo in an old case I have and it worked fine right off the bat on a 230W rated PSU...
The PSU in the stack I received was rated at 350W, I doubt it was pushing out more than 180. It just so happened that the power consumption was right on the edge, it would work with a stripped system but seemingly even putting some strain on the graphics card or plugging a CD rom in would tip the balance, hence the crashes...
The system was built in 2003, at which time it was top notch. Naturally the geezer (not my mate) put top of the line components into the cheapest case he could find...
Sometimes the computing Gods just have your number.
I thought the Mobo was fried, maybe had an intermittent fault (lots of problems with the BIOS not saving changes, changing the BIOS battery didn't help, which I didn't chronicle in an already long post) so went out and bought some new kit. Had to wait a day for a delivery of memory so put the 'fried' mobo in an old case I have and it worked fine right off the bat on a 230W rated PSU...
The PSU in the stack I received was rated at 350W, I doubt it was pushing out more than 180. It just so happened that the power consumption was right on the edge, it would work with a stripped system but seemingly even putting some strain on the graphics card or plugging a CD rom in would tip the balance, hence the crashes...
The system was built in 2003, at which time it was top notch. Naturally the geezer (not my mate) put top of the line components into the cheapest case he could find...
Sometimes the computing Gods just have your number.
Oh Shazbat!
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Fried Mobo & a Side Order of Crispy CPU
SpinFlight,
Thank you, you have just reminded me of a similar set of incidents.
Eldest son was working p/t at Maplin a few years ago and bought (well Dad bought it for him) a Mobo/AMD CPU/Cooler combo. Found it needed an uprated PSU so bought a new case and it was left to me to put it all together.
Popped AMD CPU into mobo and applied thermal cream, then promptly ignored the step on the side of the heatsink which should have keyed against the CPU carrier and so ended up putting the heatsink on the wrong way around. I must add in mitigation here that in preparing for this I had read on a web site that the AMD heatsinks were hard to get on, so thought my struggles were the norm.
Of course we turned the PC on and after about 5 seconds everything went blank and the fan wouldn't spin.
Son's pals at Maplin kindly explained that the heatsink being wrong way around had left enought of a gap that the CPU fried, so I had to buy another at full price.
Funnily enough, never had that problem on PCs built since
Spinflight - you reminded me that a couple of years later the PC itself fell over while running & everything went off. I suspected the mobo so bought a new one, then swapped the CPU, and only then bought a new PSU. It was the PSU that was at fault & everything else still worked a treat.
Thank you, you have just reminded me of a similar set of incidents.
Eldest son was working p/t at Maplin a few years ago and bought (well Dad bought it for him) a Mobo/AMD CPU/Cooler combo. Found it needed an uprated PSU so bought a new case and it was left to me to put it all together.
Popped AMD CPU into mobo and applied thermal cream, then promptly ignored the step on the side of the heatsink which should have keyed against the CPU carrier and so ended up putting the heatsink on the wrong way around. I must add in mitigation here that in preparing for this I had read on a web site that the AMD heatsinks were hard to get on, so thought my struggles were the norm.
Of course we turned the PC on and after about 5 seconds everything went blank and the fan wouldn't spin.
Son's pals at Maplin kindly explained that the heatsink being wrong way around had left enought of a gap that the CPU fried, so I had to buy another at full price.
Funnily enough, never had that problem on PCs built since
Spinflight - you reminded me that a couple of years later the PC itself fell over while running & everything went off. I suspected the mobo so bought a new one, then swapped the CPU, and only then bought a new PSU. It was the PSU that was at fault & everything else still worked a treat.
I once built a new system for a friend. Bought all the pieces, put them together, installed XP, only to end up with a system that seemed to reboot every few minutes. It took me a while to figure out that the new case had a reset switch which wasn't fully seated in its mounting. Because of this it was constantly half depressed and any light movement of the case (shifting it, opening the CD tray etc.) would trigger a reset.
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Son's pals at Maplin kindly explained that the heatsink being wrong way around had left enought of a gap that the CPU fried, so I had to buy another at full price.
The processor didn't fry but ran at between 55 and 75C, shutting down due to overheating on intensive tasks. It took quite a bit of metalwork to seat it the right way around (modifying the clasp).
The case had clearly only been tested with Intel architecture Mobos...
Avoid imitations
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Was on night shift and got a phone call from my 9 yr old son who told me he had a big problem with the home PC, (not uncommon in those days with Windows 3.1).
I was busy (briefing for a flight), and wasn't really listening to the details and asked him to press Clear-Alt-Delete and ring back if it didn't cure the problem.
He said he would. One minute later he called back "No, it's not fixed!" said he.
I said to switch it off at the wall and back on again and ring back if that didn't cure it.
Another minute, he rang again. "No", says he - "It's worse, there's still smoke coming out of the back, now I can see flames!"
"Fetch your mother!" said I........
I was busy (briefing for a flight), and wasn't really listening to the details and asked him to press Clear-Alt-Delete and ring back if it didn't cure the problem.
He said he would. One minute later he called back "No, it's not fixed!" said he.
I said to switch it off at the wall and back on again and ring back if that didn't cure it.
Another minute, he rang again. "No", says he - "It's worse, there's still smoke coming out of the back, now I can see flames!"
"Fetch your mother!" said I........
Mobo died. Got new one with fancy new dual core processor and latest swanky DDR2 RAM to go in it. Came home and found that my older power supply unit didnt support the motherboard, the connection to the motherboard had four pins less than required.
Went back to the shop (15 minute drive), bought new power supply. Came home and casually looked at old power supply to find a separate four pin connector that could be tagged along to the rest...
Quietly went back and returned the shiny new unit. Nice folks that they are, they took it back. It helps to have had bought stuff worth > 100,000 Rupees from them till then, and since then I have matched that amount and then some.
-----
On a softer note, While trying to limit the range of variable x to ±10, I coded:
If x < -10, x = -10
If x > 10, x = 103.
This led to almost disastrous results and if it hadn't been for the quick thinking of a colleague (in reverting to manual mode) I'd have set my project back by months... and I was only trying to change limits from ±13!
Went back to the shop (15 minute drive), bought new power supply. Came home and casually looked at old power supply to find a separate four pin connector that could be tagged along to the rest...
Quietly went back and returned the shiny new unit. Nice folks that they are, they took it back. It helps to have had bought stuff worth > 100,000 Rupees from them till then, and since then I have matched that amount and then some.
-----
On a softer note, While trying to limit the range of variable x to ±10, I coded:
If x < -10, x = -10
If x > 10, x = 103.
This led to almost disastrous results and if it hadn't been for the quick thinking of a colleague (in reverting to manual mode) I'd have set my project back by months... and I was only trying to change limits from ±13!
Recidivist
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Having been on dialup for decades and broadband for just a week, I have already been caught out twice (in a nice way) downloading small 4-5mB programs.
I have been so used to such taking around 20 minutes to download that I have clicked on the download button and got irritated waiting for it to start, only to discover that it has already completed.
I have been so used to such taking around 20 minutes to download that I have clicked on the download button and got irritated waiting for it to start, only to discover that it has already completed.
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Maybe thread should be renamed "computers making grown men cry!"
Bought a new Western Digital HDD a month ago as the old 80Gig was running out of space.
This morning after an OS update/restart I heard the HDD clicks of death.
Bought a new Western Digital HDD a month ago as the old 80Gig was running out of space.
This morning after an OS update/restart I heard the HDD clicks of death.
PersonalTitle to help support PPRuNe against legal bullying.
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Getting a new nice new quantum fireball in '98, pulling a brand new disk power cable out of its plastic wrapper (from RS Components) and powering up system only to find that the connector on one end of the power lead had been incorrectly wired, and nice puff of smoke from said disk.
I suppose I could have got my money back from RS for the 23p power lead....
I suppose I could have got my money back from RS for the 23p power lead....
cheerful pessimist
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Time: Mid-late 80's.
Location: Large Conference / Lecture Room
Subject: World Launch of a multi-national's first e-commerce venture etc. (Not that it was known as such at the time.)
Me: Sitting behind screen pushing buttons to put onto the screen the output of different video / slide projector sources at the appropriate moment.
Rehearsal: Very Very Boss says "and now it's the moment we have all been waiting for", (lighting do their stuff and dramatic music etc. plays), and he pulls off a fancy cloth to reveal a computer on a table beside him. I push a button and up on screen comes the computer's VGA/SVGA output and a Junior Boss carries on with the demonstration. Simple.
Later the same day: Very Very Boss says "and now it's the moment we have all been waiting for", (lighting do their stuff and dramatic music etc. plays), and he pulls off the fancy cloth to reveal the computer on the table beside him. I push the button and up on screen comes absolutely nothing! Zippo, Nadda, Black!
Me: Pushing the button again whilst muttering **** **** ****. Give up pushing and start checking the connections whilst thinking about the inevitable no tea no biscuits meeting to follow.
Audience: Laughing and tittering. Not a good sign.
Very Very Boss Man: Leaves the stage, (running the last bit), and starts saying some not very complimentary things to and about me. I was still muttering ****, ****, **** whilst head down in the cables.
Junior Boss: approaches the computer on stage and simultaneously 500 or so people have their first introduction to the PC power-saver function.
Yup after an hour and a half of sitting under it's cloth unused the computer had decided to go to sleep.
Location: Large Conference / Lecture Room
Subject: World Launch of a multi-national's first e-commerce venture etc. (Not that it was known as such at the time.)
Me: Sitting behind screen pushing buttons to put onto the screen the output of different video / slide projector sources at the appropriate moment.
Rehearsal: Very Very Boss says "and now it's the moment we have all been waiting for", (lighting do their stuff and dramatic music etc. plays), and he pulls off a fancy cloth to reveal a computer on a table beside him. I push a button and up on screen comes the computer's VGA/SVGA output and a Junior Boss carries on with the demonstration. Simple.
Later the same day: Very Very Boss says "and now it's the moment we have all been waiting for", (lighting do their stuff and dramatic music etc. plays), and he pulls off the fancy cloth to reveal the computer on the table beside him. I push the button and up on screen comes absolutely nothing! Zippo, Nadda, Black!
Me: Pushing the button again whilst muttering **** **** ****. Give up pushing and start checking the connections whilst thinking about the inevitable no tea no biscuits meeting to follow.
Audience: Laughing and tittering. Not a good sign.
Very Very Boss Man: Leaves the stage, (running the last bit), and starts saying some not very complimentary things to and about me. I was still muttering ****, ****, **** whilst head down in the cables.
Junior Boss: approaches the computer on stage and simultaneously 500 or so people have their first introduction to the PC power-saver function.
Yup after an hour and a half of sitting under it's cloth unused the computer had decided to go to sleep.
Hippopotomonstrosesquipidelian title
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Had a drive fail in a RAID array. For those that may not know, it's lots of drives pretending, typically, to be one drive. If one drive fails, there's enough error correction data spread across the other drives to rebuild the data onto a new drive. This unit was 10 drives, of which 2 were "hot spares": 8 drives for the data, 2 ready to take over automagically if one of the 8 failed.
Anyway, this was when RAID arrays were still quite a novel idea. It's a big animal. So a drive failed. No problem, one of the hot spares took over and the array started rebuilding itself. When I had a moment after the array was rebuilt, I pulled the dead drive and inserted what would now be the new hot spare. Took the old drive away and subjected it to the company's destruction policy, which involved a hammer.
Checked the RAID array sometime later, and it's reporting a dead drive, but no worries, a hot spare's taken over. Hmmm. Pulled the dead drive, inserted the new drive, took the old drive away and destroyed it, ordered a new drive by overnight courier.
Checked the RAID array sometime later, and it's reporting a dead drive, but no worries, a hot spare's taken over... A longer Hmmmmmmmmm this time. After the rebuild, pulled the dead drive, inserted the new drive, and watched this time. After about a minute, RAID reports failure, but no worries, a hot spare's taken over.
So, I checked the pulled drive: it's fine (this actually took a day or so since noone knew how to test a drive from a RAID array without risking the data on it). Then we shut down the RAID array, and over the next two days checked for dust, cleaned the filters, looked for signs of overheating, unseated chips (some were still socketed at this time), loose connectors, strained wires, pulled the power supplies (two of everything: this thing was supposed to work no matter what) and did a load check, tested earth paths, power cords, had the powerco check the wall outlets for power quality, scoped the network cabling for floating wires and everything else we could think of.
The RAID failure lights were wired up wrong.
Anyway, this was when RAID arrays were still quite a novel idea. It's a big animal. So a drive failed. No problem, one of the hot spares took over and the array started rebuilding itself. When I had a moment after the array was rebuilt, I pulled the dead drive and inserted what would now be the new hot spare. Took the old drive away and subjected it to the company's destruction policy, which involved a hammer.
Checked the RAID array sometime later, and it's reporting a dead drive, but no worries, a hot spare's taken over. Hmmm. Pulled the dead drive, inserted the new drive, took the old drive away and destroyed it, ordered a new drive by overnight courier.
Checked the RAID array sometime later, and it's reporting a dead drive, but no worries, a hot spare's taken over... A longer Hmmmmmmmmm this time. After the rebuild, pulled the dead drive, inserted the new drive, and watched this time. After about a minute, RAID reports failure, but no worries, a hot spare's taken over.
So, I checked the pulled drive: it's fine (this actually took a day or so since noone knew how to test a drive from a RAID array without risking the data on it). Then we shut down the RAID array, and over the next two days checked for dust, cleaned the filters, looked for signs of overheating, unseated chips (some were still socketed at this time), loose connectors, strained wires, pulled the power supplies (two of everything: this thing was supposed to work no matter what) and did a load check, tested earth paths, power cords, had the powerco check the wall outlets for power quality, scoped the network cabling for floating wires and everything else we could think of.
The RAID failure lights were wired up wrong.
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Rebuilding windows for a new media centre. HD one has o/s & a few apps on it. HD 2 has about 1000 albums, all my photos, movies, vids, the whole nine yards. Both HD's identical models. Can you guess??
Exactly, went & formatted the wrong one. Three years squirelling of media carked in about forty minutes flat. That was a good one. One now worships at the temple of backup.
Exactly, went & formatted the wrong one.
Three years squirelling of media carked in about forty minutes flat. That was a good one. One now worships at the temple of backup.
Spoon PPRuNerist & Mad Inistrator
Both HD's identical models - went & formatted the wrong one
I learnt this, not from computers, but when going to reinstall the h/t leads to a 5-litre V8 engine after removing them all at once to replace the spark plugs. Believe me, you don't want the cylinders in a £7,000 engine firing in the wrong order!
SD