What is the worst luck you have ever had building a system?

Das Capitolin · 31st May 2006, 12:30 PM

I'm just curious; I have built hundreds of high-end systems, and it wasn't until very recently that I felt like giving it up. Has anyone else had luck as bad as I did on this project?

About three months ago I had a client want a D830 system with SLI 7900 GT's. Okay, fine. I shared with him the pro's and con's of the various components, we compromised, and I started ordering the parts. Generally, I give clients a 5-day turnaround. This would turn out to be a bad decision.

The first problems began when both the BFG GeForce 7900 GT's arrived. The retail box was prestine, however the plastic inner holding box was a bit roughed up. Both of these cards would be found to have missing/broken away surface joined capacitors. Fine, RMA them and add one week.

Next came the Raptor 150GB gaming hard drive. It began fine, but about an hour into loading the O/S it locked solid (onfirmed via see-through window). Fine, contact WD and get a replacement. Add two weeks.

Then once the next set of BFG GeForce 7900 GT's arrived, to my very surprise, the exact same problem was seen: capacitors rolling around inside a perfect retail box. F*ing fine! Research the card and find that I am with the majority on the problem. RMA, substiture eVGA card instead.

Next came the motherboard. It uses Realtek's High Definition Audio. Unfortunatly, only the latest driver from Realtek (whom I must add has realeased six driver revisions for their hardware from the start of this project to the end of the entire nightmare one month later) will keep this system from seeing BSOD's.

Finally, I get the WD Raptor in and all looks well. The eVGA 7900 GT's are in and look good. The system has a solid O/S and has been overclocked to 3.6GHz without additional voltage or cooling. It's even running the DDR2 at 800MHz without a problem. Then, without any warning, during an hour of FEAR demo testing the 600w power supply goes up in smoke.

I swear, getting a deposit on this system was the only thing that went right. Thankfully the client was understanding (but only believed me after I showed him all of the RMA forms and smoked PSU).

Share your horror stories.

zy · 31st May 2006, 02:33 PM

not much ... hmm ..

my hard disk came one week later than the rest of my components..

...
then my motherboard has some "bug" where the clock reset after disconnecting from the wall

.. rma it after a year & got a replacement board

.. waited for one month for it but luckily the shop is kind to borrow me a brand new board which is almost similar to my current board.. no there is no need of reinstalling windows

Papercut · 31st May 2006, 03:46 PM

Damn man, that's a pretty bad run of luck.
My worst experience so far was killing a 6600GT, screwing up a motherboard and discovering that one of my CPUs was dead, all in the space of about 1 week. I was just about ready to sell everything and use a PIII

Chai · 31st May 2006, 05:27 PM

My worst luck was blowing up my cheapo 300W PSU about 5 years back, blowing the processor, motherboard, CDROM drive, 2 HDD, sound card, network card. I can't remember what else was broken, I think this is bad enough.

I had some shitty luck with graphics card too. 2 R9500 broke for different reasons, broke a Voodoo2 while trying to SLI to different brands...

PowerSlide · 31st May 2006, 05:45 PM

wow..dats bad run of bad luck *phew*

never hav really badluck building a system..but only once building a cheap pc for my cousin..went to shop all the stuff back home discover the psu is 20pin rather than 24pin..ahh..lazy go back jus try my luck..plug it n work brilliantly

dun care after tat..jus send to my cousin..anything wrong i would jus say bad psu n less money gave me buying a good psu

ChampionLLY · 31st May 2006, 07:39 PM

the bloody lousy idiotic icute psu burnt my hdd...

i saw spark n smoke coming out fr my hdd b4 the whole system auto power off...

s p r a n k i k o · 31st May 2006, 10:33 PM

Whoa! Such terrible coincidences!

Cheap 350W PSU burned and with it, a Gigabyte motherboard. But I was at least lucky enough that it didn't burn the CPU.

ChampionLLY · 31st May 2006, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by s p r a n k i k o

Whoa! Such terrible coincidences!

Cheap 350W PSU burned and with it, a Gigabyte motherboard. But I was at least lucky enough that it didn't burn the CPU.

good 4 u..
& i forgot to mention that 1 day, when my dad was using the pc (hdd replaced),

that stupid psu EXPLODED with a loud bang... he said he saw some white smoke & got freaked out...
but luckily it suicided without killing any other components...

PsYkHoTiK · 31st May 2006, 10:51 PM

I think mine was a Abit NF7-S that was DOA. I spent a few hours trying to get it to work. It would sometimes boot but wouldn't at other times and I couldn't install windows on it. After a while, it quit out on me.

EDIT: typo

Shorter · 31st May 2006, 11:25 PM

Power surge took out everything once. Was fun.. it was a clear, bright, sunny day, and then the whole room suddenly lit up, there was this huge *zap* and everything turned off. The entire inside of the plug was burned crispy. Cousin had a hard disk blow up in his hand once.

31st May 2006, 12:30 PM	#1 (permalink)
Das Capitolin Warming up Join Date: 21 May 2006 Posts: 93 Reputation: 36 Rep Power: 0	What is the worst luck you have ever had building a system? I'm just curious; I have built hundreds of high-end systems, and it wasn't until very recently that I felt like giving it up. Has anyone else had luck as bad as I did on this project? About three months ago I had a client want a D830 system with SLI 7900 GT's. Okay, fine. I shared with him the pro's and con's of the various components, we compromised, and I started ordering the parts. Generally, I give clients a 5-day turnaround. This would turn out to be a bad decision. The first problems began when both the BFG GeForce 7900 GT's arrived. The retail box was prestine, however the plastic inner holding box was a bit roughed up. Both of these cards would be found to have missing/broken away surface joined capacitors. Fine, RMA them and add one week. Next came the Raptor 150GB gaming hard drive. It began fine, but about an hour into loading the O/S it locked solid (onfirmed via see-through window). Fine, contact WD and get a replacement. Add two weeks. Then once the next set of BFG GeForce 7900 GT's arrived, to my very surprise, the exact same problem was seen: capacitors rolling around inside a perfect retail box. F*ing fine! Research the card and find that I am with the majority on the problem. RMA, substiture eVGA card instead. Next came the motherboard. It uses Realtek's High Definition Audio. Unfortunatly, only the latest driver from Realtek (whom I must add has realeased six driver revisions for their hardware from the start of this project to the end of the entire nightmare one month later) will keep this system from seeing BSOD's. Finally, I get the WD Raptor in and all looks well. The eVGA 7900 GT's are in and look good. The system has a solid O/S and has been overclocked to 3.6GHz without additional voltage or cooling. It's even running the DDR2 at 800MHz without a problem. Then, without any warning, during an hour of FEAR demo testing the 600w power supply goes up in smoke. I swear, getting a deposit on this system was the only thing that went right. Thankfully the client was understanding (but only believed me after I showed him all of the RMA forms and smoked PSU). Share your horror stories.

31st May 2006, 02:33 PM	#2 (permalink)
zy Dead Join Date: 16 Dec 2002 Location: Penang,Malaysia - Buffalo,New York Posts: 12,884 Reputation: 2064 Rep Power: 39	not much ... hmm .. my hard disk came one week later than the rest of my components.. ... then my motherboard has some "bug" where the clock reset after disconnecting from the wall .. rma it after a year & got a replacement board .. waited for one month for it but luckily the shop is kind to borrow me a brand new board which is almost similar to my current board.. no there is no need of reinstalling windows __________________ current: P4-3.2\|P4P800-Deluxe\|512x4-DDR\|NV6600 WD2500KS\|WD5000AAKS\|AD-7191A\|1860NX\|Z2300\|MP470 home (malaysia): P4C-2.6@3.1-StockHSF\|AI7\|256x2-BT-D43\|512x2-DT-D43\|A9600XT-VIVO WD1200JB\|2xWD2500KS\|DRU-800A\|DVD-E616P\|LTR-52327S\|152x\|V.S.4121\|iP1500 laptop: M1210\|T7200\|2GBDDR667\|160GB5K160\|GO7400

31st May 2006, 03:46 PM	#3 (permalink)
Papercut Hold me back! I can't stop posting!!! Join Date: 14 Jul 2004 Location: Singapore! Posts: 5,009 Reputation: 2428 Rep Power: 34	Damn man, that's a pretty bad run of luck. My worst experience so far was killing a 6600GT, screwing up a motherboard and discovering that one of my CPUs was dead, all in the space of about 1 week. I was just about ready to sell everything and use a PIII __________________ PC Specs "Use in a cool dry place away from direct sunlight. Keep out of reach of n00bs. Overclock within 24 hours of opening. Do not read instructions before proceeding, do not use only as directed. May cause frustration, late nights and empty wallets. If symptoms persist please consult your hardware professional."

31st May 2006, 05:27 PM	#4 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 26,978 Reputation: 4108 Rep Power: 74	My worst luck was blowing up my cheapo 300W PSU about 5 years back, blowing the processor, motherboard, CDROM drive, 2 HDD, sound card, network card. I can't remember what else was broken, I think this is bad enough. I had some shitty luck with graphics card too. 2 R9500 broke for different reasons, broke a Voodoo2 while trying to SLI to different brands... __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/

31st May 2006, 10:33 PM	#7 (permalink)
s p r a n k i k o "0104" Join Date: 31 Aug 2005 Location: Manila Posts: 780 Reputation: 213 Rep Power: 6	Whoa! Such terrible coincidences! Cheap 350W PSU burned and with it, a Gigabyte motherboard. But I was at least lucky enough that it didn't burn the CPU. __________________ Main rig: Opteron 170/3Ghz \| DFI NF4 Ultra-D \| http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=163569 OCZ Platinum Elite Edition 1Gb/2-3-3-5/1T \| EVGA7900GTO Secondary rig: Opteron 144/2.9Ghz \| Abit KN8 Ultra \| http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=212009 Team Xtreme 1Gb/2-3-3-5/1T \| XFX7900GS

31st May 2006, 05:45 PM	#5 (permalink)
PowerSlide Super Active Join Date: 28 Aug 2004 Location: Penang, Malaysia Posts: 1,402 Reputation: 871 Rep Power: 14	wow..dats bad run of bad luck phew never hav really badluck building a system..but only once building a cheap pc for my cousin..went to shop all the stuff back home discover the psu is 20pin rather than 24pin..ahh..lazy go back jus try my luck..plug it n work brilliantly dun care after tat..jus send to my cousin..anything wrong i would jus say bad psu n less money gave me buying a good psu

31st May 2006, 07:39 PM	#6 (permalink)
ChampionLLY News Writer Join Date: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 1,182 Reputation: 716 Rep Power: 11	the bloody lousy idiotic icute psu burnt my hdd... i saw spark n smoke coming out fr my hdd b4 the whole system auto power off...

31st May 2006, 10:51 PM	#9 (permalink)
PsYkHoTiK "Little" Devil Join Date: 8 Apr 2004 Location: On the "throne" Posts: 14,385 Reputation: 4069 Rep Power: 59	I think mine was a Abit NF7-S that was DOA. I spent a few hours trying to get it to work. It would sometimes boot but wouldn't at other times and I couldn't install windows on it. After a while, it quit out on me. EDIT: typo __________________ Intel SLAPL 4.3GHz @ 1.35v : 2x2GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066 : Asus P5K Premium : WD RE3 250GB x2 RAID 0 : 3ware 9650SE-2LP : G92 8800GTS 512mb 820MHz Core : XFi Platinum : Silverstone OP650 : Silverstone TJ-07 : Dtek FuZion CPU : Swiftech MCW60 : MCP655 : Thermochill PA120.3 w Scythe Ultra Kaze CPU-Z: SLAPL : SLA9U : FX-55 : DDR 600 : VX www.techarp.com PsYkHoTiK's Meanderings Last edited by PsYkHoTiK : 1st Jun 2006 at 02:48 AM.

31st May 2006, 11:25 PM	#10 (permalink)
Shorter Warming up Join Date: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 88 Reputation: 15 Rep Power: 0	Power surge took out everything once. Was fun.. it was a clear, bright, sunny day, and then the whole room suddenly lit up, there was this huge zap and everything turned off. The entire inside of the plug was burned crispy. Cousin had a hard disk blow up in his hand once. Last edited by Shorter : 1st Jun 2006 at 11:38 PM.