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
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.
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.
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.
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.
You know, I made a bit of a hobby out of Arduinos and Raspberry Pis, which use similar connectors, so those never bothered me. The ones that always make me cringe are those USB 3.0 ones with the heavy inflexible cables, the big stiff plastic plug, and the delicate little pins. I cringe every time I plug one of those in.
Apart from the front panel connectors on a motherboard, of course. Those fiddly little bastards can get straight to hell.
Wait till you see this. Fucking game changing.
“Please pass the POST (Power On Self Test)” 😫🙏
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.
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 😭
apparently it’s a thing with am5 and ram training, especially with high speed rams
Ah, I’ve never used that platform before, but I could see that
Memory training, most computers do it. AMD systems take a lot longer for some reason
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. 😅~
It was a miracle on my 3rd or 4th build when I just put everything together and it worked on first try. Didn’t even have to make a blood sacrifice.
Sacrilege, the machine spirit needs its blood!
He said thay he didn’t have to, not that he didn’t.
You don’t always have to charge the machine spirit.
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.
I usually forget to plug in a cable or two or miss the PSU switch among other silly mistakes. Never killed a machine, though.
miss the PSU switch
Oh sure, I didn’t even count that. Probably has happened to me as well.
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.
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?”
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 so it sounds like it’s knocking
Quite the opposite. When you don’t hear the RAM beep, then you’re scared.
I really miss case buzzers :(
Digital codes are so much nicer. Well in theory, until they show random invalid codes.
Computers must be able to scream
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.
Same.
What I would like is LEGO-esque PC system, where you just slot shrouded hardware bricks and cartridges, no wires. The game cartridges of the SNES had variable amounts of storage or chips to enhance performance, such as the SuperFX for Star Fox and Yoshi’s Island.
First boot: -turns on fine- Second boot after setting correct memory speeds and other options: -obscure error 86tlxV-nih!-
Oh, I do miss the thrill and danger of a lively overclocking party.
That’s me connecting a wall socket.
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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.
