Drop the mouse and step away from the PC

thought of placing this in the Hardware.. but didnt seem to belong.. certainly could belong in GCC..

this link talks abot the possable extra damage we can cause our PC's when they "Crash".. problem is many times the so called crash isnot a HDD Head crash..or do we have more of the metal on metal screaching failures than I have encountered..

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7329279/

the point it makes is more in regard to PC abuse.. I know I have bitch slapped a tower or 2 in my time..
but when is hitting (ok pressing out of frustration) the power or reset button potentialydamaging to the hardware or software.. and when do you decide that a lockup requires a steelcap reboot..

thought for simple discussion..

I think the repeatedly pressing the on/off button is probably in response to BOFH. There were a few episodes where the solution to a luser's problem was to switch the monitor/workstation on/off about 30 times as fast as they could, which usually either ended in a phonecall to the police about a manic switch flipper or reminants of an explosion because the poor PSU couldn't withstand the startup current surge and built up heat until something blew... :p


But, whenever my computer locks up, I usually know what the issue was and how to resolve it. Basically if my computer can do it, I spend time figuring out how it works to the point that I can visualize the problems when they occur and then usually solve them...

...such as realizing that at some point in time I wrote to the MBR to execute a bootloader from the end of the disk and then repartitioning a chunk of it that sort of adopted those sectors and forgetting about it (since it worked fine) until one day I filled up that disk up to find the computer didn't start. After realizing that err on my part from many months before, I just went ahead and *made* Windows rewrite the MBR info despite how much it wanted (and many times almost mislead me to) reinstalling all critical components and system files that were never the problem in the first place. If the OS wasn't so friendly to offer suggestions to problems I 100% knew I didn't have, I think there would be much less stress in this world :)


But other than treating my computer nicely, I do happen to recall smashing cassette tapes and a crappy portable tape recorder due to broken play/record heads & leaky batteries & crumpling/breaking/stretching of worthless tapes... :D

ahh trans orbital Tapes.. forgot those.. I still partake in the sport of Frisbie floppies..

discovered the other day Jump Drives Don't

Cd-Roms are not Floppy (they go off like a shot gun)

BTW.. had customer that had a problem with an AT PSU (ok this was a few years ago) .. the system wouldn't start, then they discovered if they flicked the power switch a few time quickly it would start.. this was fine untill the psu spat the dummy.. the original cause of problem was a 50cent electro.. at the time it was marginal repair or replace PSU (now it is replace dont stuff around) .. oh final wash.. PSU, Mobo.. and HDD..


In a users anger, things can become unplugged or forced into places they dont belong ... or worse (as in the artical thrown through closed windows.)
I know in one incident.. I "diagnosed" a faulty mobo only to find a week later that all that was wrong was the CMOS batt.. it was a case of one of these F'n brand Y mobo's... chuck it.. didnt bother testing.. expensive..

I've heard a story at my local computer shop where a customer bought some DDR-RAM and cut a notch in with a Dremel it to try and use on their SD-RAM PC. The computer store quite firmly defended their reasons for not providing the customer with a refund for the stick they mutilated... Moral: don't stuff it where it doesn't fit; think calmly and seek help from someone who knows this stuff :)


Then there is a story that I received first hand of a mother deciding to fix the family PC's "overheating" problem. After working all of the pieces out of the chassis and motherboard by force and cleaning them throughly with a vacuum cleaner, the daughter returned from school to find her mom toiling away at cleaning the dust bunnies out of each component. It was then escorted to a computer shop, and well I haven't heard the rest of the story from the girl yet...though she was devastated by her mother's actions to the family computer. :D


I'd post a few videos of people playing games getting enraged at a h4x0r ruining their game at a large LAN and then trashing this bad kid's computer, but I can't seem to find those videos right now... :p

I NEVER take my anger out on my tower... I usually take my anger out on something sitting around that I can throw or by smacking my monitor.. Once I get a good monitor I will stop doing that... But this monitor is a fairly crappy 15", and I'd be more than happy to HAVE to replace it... Give me a reason to get a good one finally.