The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

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nonpartisan · 2013-01-24 Reply Admin

Summary:

Idiot builds computer. Idiot breaks computer. Good guy diagnoses computer. Good guy becomes bad guy. Good guy loses job*. Idiot keeps job. Probably gets promoted to CEO too.

We all know this is what happened; he just happened to have a safety net under him.

nonpartisan · 2013-01-24 Reply Admin

GEoff:
>Can you fix it?
The correct answer, is yes, absolutely it can be fixed. We'll simply need to purchase a new CPU and a new Motherboard. Once we replace those components it'll work like a champ.

Oh the optimist thou art.

Here's what really happened.

"Once we replace those components it'll work like a champ."

The new components came in. Alexander wasn't there. But because Alexander said "once we replace those components," Nicholas said, "I can do this myself!" Having learned* the correct orientation of the CPU, Nicholas slathered the thermal paste onto the bottom of the CPU again and inserted it. The resistance this time was strictly due to the quantity of thermal paste and not because the pin orientation wasn't correct. He cabled it and turned it on. He got a beep out of the thing, for which he was busting out with pride, and left it on until Alexander got in three hours later. The CPU overheated in that time and fried. When Alexander got in, Nicholas accused Alexander of breaking the new components, saying that Alexander never told him that the thermal grease doesn't go under the CPU even though that's the most logical place to go because it should create a barrier between the CPU and the plastic socket so that the socket doesn't melt. At which point Alexander rips Nicholas' head off his neck and swishes a 100' jump shot into the Dumpster across the street.**

A bit of an optimist myself; even an idiot has to pick up a teensy weensy bit of information somewhere.

** Unrealistic, I know. They probably have their own Dumpster in their parking lot.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

Peter:
Some of the more exotic "Arctic Silver Ice" thermal compounds are electrically conductive, making for even more fun. I suppose the .1 degC/Watt is worth the extra hassle. I just use the good ol' white stuff that doesn't come off your clothing...

And then there's the "slab o' putty" kind of heat sink compound that you have to replace if you ever take the heat sink off. I have an old G4 "Windtunnel" that I bought new years ago and use as a real-IP-address Bit Torrent box and file server. It flaked out last year when its slab o' putty dried out. It runs fine now after replacing that crap with the white stuff.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

Old Fart:
A developer:
I'm sure Alexander learned a valuable lesson from this experience... Make sure the blame falls onto the right person who fucked it up. I would have not touched it until the idiot owner came over and I showed him EXACTLY what his moronic cousin did. After that if he blamed me I would tlel him to go fuck himself.

You don't know what the problem is until you look at it, so you can't "show" the idiot owner anything until AFTER you touched the machine.

Let's say you are psychic: You realize what happened without touching it. The idiot owner would not have come to look at the computer. He would have told you "do what your supervisor tells you, or you're fired".

Let's say you are psychic and very persuasive. The idiot owner comes over, does not know what he is looking at, and says "get back to work".

And in any scenario where you tell the idiot owner to go fuck himself, you get fired anyway.

Alexander was screwed no matter what.

You're absolutely right. The only way out I can see is if Alexander said something like this: "Listen, I only touched this machine after Jeff had screwed it bad. In fact when it comes to computers he doesn't know 1/100th as much as he says he does and it's costing you money. He will probably say I'm the one who screwed up, so before you believe him I want you to consider this: if he knew what he was doing why did he call me for help in the first place? If he is the embodied god of IT knowledge why did he needed me to touch your computer at all?"

Hopefully the owner isn't impervious to logic because if that's the case there's no hope at all.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

the beholder:
Hopefully the owner isn't impervious to logic because if that's the case there's no hope at all.

It was going so well until you got here. He was clearly impervious to logic. Old Fart was 100% right. He was screwed no matter what.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

I used to have trouble connecting D 50 pin SCSI connector the right way but once I discovered that a rather musclely guy managed to connect it in upside down. I can only guess how much strength that would require, certainly brawn over brains.

So when I managed to get it off and connect it correctly, I decided to pass on telling him it was upside down. ;)

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

urza9814:
Reminds me of a friend of mine who, when building his first computer, couldn't figure out what those little riser screws with the motherboard were for, so he just screwed the thing directly to the steel case...shorting out EVERYTHING and frying his motherboard.

But that's a legitimate design flaw. The CPUs were designed to require ZIF so they would slide right in if oriented properly. If the CPU came with risers you had to laboriously screw into each pin connector in the socket first, it might be similar.

I, too, ruined a motherboard due to this horrible design flaw. I haven't seen a case in a long time that didn't have risers pre-installed or as a part of the fabrication, which indicates someone cleaned up after the moron who thought that was a good idea, and in your story, that is TRWTF.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

HeWhoFriesMotherboards:
urza9814:
Reminds me of a friend of mine who, when building his first computer, couldn't figure out what those little riser screws with the motherboard were for, so he just screwed the thing directly to the steel case...shorting out EVERYTHING and frying his motherboard.

But that's a legitimate design flaw. The CPUs were designed to require ZIF so they would slide right in if oriented properly. If the CPU came with risers you had to laboriously screw into each pin connector in the socket first, it might be similar.

I, too, ruined a motherboard due to this horrible design flaw. I haven't seen a case in a long time that didn't have risers pre-installed or as a part of the fabrication, which indicates someone cleaned up after the moron who thought that was a good idea, and in your story, that is TRWTF.

Not that much of a WTF; anyone who's building a PC should know enough about electronics to know that that's not a great idea. Of course, I realize we all have lapses in judgement...in my example, he asked me to look at it since it wouldn't boot up, and when I got there he shows me the risers and says "I wasn't sure what these were for...", and when I told him he instantly realized what had happened.

So yeah, glad to hear they aren't really using those anymore, it's been a while since I've built one (living off laptops for the past several years); but I wouldn't quite call it a WTF. If you don't have common sense -- or if you wind up with leftover parts that you don't know the point of -- take a second to read the directions!

DescentJS · 2013-01-24 Reply Admin

urza9814:
HeWhoFriesMotherboards:
urza9814:
Reminds me of a friend of mine who, when building his first computer, couldn't figure out what those little riser screws with the motherboard were for, so he just screwed the thing directly to the steel case...shorting out EVERYTHING and frying his motherboard.

But that's a legitimate design flaw. The CPUs were designed to require ZIF so they would slide right in if oriented properly. If the CPU came with risers you had to laboriously screw into each pin connector in the socket first, it might be similar.

I, too, ruined a motherboard due to this horrible design flaw. I haven't seen a case in a long time that didn't have risers pre-installed or as a part of the fabrication, which indicates someone cleaned up after the moron who thought that was a good idea, and in your story, that is TRWTF.

Not that much of a WTF; anyone who's building a PC should know enough about electronics to know that that's not a great idea. Of course, I realize we all have lapses in judgement...in my example, he asked me to look at it since it wouldn't boot up, and when I got there he shows me the risers and says "I wasn't sure what these were for...", and when I told him he instantly realized what had happened.

So yeah, glad to hear they aren't really using those anymore, it's been a while since I've built one (living off laptops for the past several years); but I wouldn't quite call it a WTF. If you don't have common sense -- or if you wind up with leftover parts that you don't know the point of -- take a second to read the directions!

I've seen a few recent cases where you still needed to add them, however they were cases that were designed to support multiple form factors.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

The description of the Socket-A reminded me of the first time I assembled a PC... Those were the good old days.

If Alexander was a drama expert, he would answer to Nicholas' request with a "Sure, please show me what you did" instead of pulling the CPU by himself, imagine the tension it would generate between the characters. :)

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

urza9814:
HeWhoFriesMotherboards:
urza9814:
Reminds me of a friend of mine who, when building his first computer, couldn't figure out what those little riser screws with the motherboard were for, so he just screwed the thing directly to the steel case...shorting out EVERYTHING and frying his motherboard.

But that's a legitimate design flaw. The CPUs were designed to require ZIF so they would slide right in if oriented properly. If the CPU came with risers you had to laboriously screw into each pin connector in the socket first, it might be similar.

I, too, ruined a motherboard due to this horrible design flaw. I haven't seen a case in a long time that didn't have risers pre-installed or as a part of the fabrication, which indicates someone cleaned up after the moron who thought that was a good idea, and in your story, that is TRWTF.

Not that much of a WTF

You never want the motherboard touching the case.
Therefore, you'll always want spacers between the motherboard and case to prevent this.
People, even experienced people, will make mistakes. It's part of being human.
This mistake can cost one hundreds, even thousands, of dollars.
You can significantly reduce the chance of the motherboard shorting against the case by spending ten cents during production to install the spacers before it leaves the factory.
Preventing the majority of people who made this mistake from suffering hundreds of dollars of loss is a good thing. They won't associate your project with anger and disappointment, and they have more money to spend on your products. Also, simply helping people avoid that kind of personal loss is a good thing in and of itself (to some).
Therefore, it's a major WTF and design flaw.

You sound like the kind of person who makes lots of excuses for shoddy work.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

[quote user="Steve The Cynic"][/quote] You know that thermal paste is actually a good thermal insulator, right? You use it to make sure that there aren't air spaces between the CPU and the heatsink, because those air spaces are an even better insulator.[/quote]

You that thermal paste is actually a good thermal conductor, right? You use it to make sure that there aren't any air spaces between the CPU and the heatsink, because those air spaces aren't as good conductors.

herby · 2013-01-24 Reply Admin

We could go on about this, but the common sense that SHOULD prevail is that "if you have to force something, you are doing it wrong".

Unfortunately there are way too many gorillas out there that don't know this rule, and have little common sense. They are in the majority (SIGH).

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

pcfan:
Actually PCs use extended ASCII, not regular ASCII...

If you go back far enough, IBM computers use EBCDIC (pronounced "ebb's dick").

And if you're really, really unlucky, some day you'll have to write code to parse an old file still in that encoding, like I did when I helped build a system for the State of Illinois.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL:
I have an old G4 "Windtunnel" that I bought new years ago and use as a real-IP-address Bit Torrent box and file server. It flaked out last year when its slab o' putty dried out. It runs fine now after replacing that crap with the white stuff.

As someone who repaired more than a few of those when he was in college, I'm impressed. Those machines are easy to open, easy to upgrade, but can be real bitches to repair. They were also well-known in our repair shop for having razor-sharp internal frames. Every time we had to replace a part in one of those we would end up cutting ourselves.

If you escaped from that repair job with all of your skin, I applaud you.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

urza9814:
HeWhoFriesMotherboards:
urza9814:
Reminds me of a friend of mine who, when building his first computer, couldn't figure out what those little riser screws with the motherboard were for, so he just screwed the thing directly to the steel case...shorting out EVERYTHING and frying his motherboard.
Clearly you've never taken anything apart. You ALWAYS end up with extra parts when you put it back together! ;-)
But that's a legitimate design flaw. The CPUs were designed to require ZIF so they would slide right in if oriented properly. If the CPU came with risers you had to laboriously screw into each pin connector in the socket first, it might be similar.

I, too, ruined a motherboard due to this horrible design flaw. I haven't seen a case in a long time that didn't have risers pre-installed or as a part of the fabrication, which indicates someone cleaned up after the moron who thought that was a good idea, and in your story, that is TRWTF.

Not that much of a WTF; anyone who's building a PC should know enough about electronics to know that that's not a great idea. Of course, I realize we all have lapses in judgement...in my example, he asked me to look at it since it wouldn't boot up, and when I got there he shows me the risers and says "I wasn't sure what these were for...", and when I told him he instantly realized what had happened.

So yeah, glad to hear they aren't really using those anymore, it's been a while since I've built one (living off laptops for the past several years); but I wouldn't quite call it a WTF. If you don't have common sense -- or if you wind up with leftover parts that you don't know the point of -- take a second to read the directions!

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

Friedrice The Great:
urza9814:
HeWhoFriesMotherboards:
urza9814:
Reminds me of a friend of mine who, when building his first computer, couldn't figure out what those little riser screws with the motherboard were for, so he just screwed the thing directly to the steel case...shorting out EVERYTHING and frying his motherboard.
Clearly you've never taken anything apart. You ALWAYS end up with extra parts when you put it back together! ;-)
But that's a legitimate design flaw. The CPUs were designed to require ZIF so they would slide right in if oriented properly. If the CPU came with risers you had to laboriously screw into each pin connector in the socket first, it might be similar.

I, too, ruined a motherboard due to this horrible design flaw. I haven't seen a case in a long time that didn't have risers pre-installed or as a part of the fabrication, which indicates someone cleaned up after the moron who thought that was a good idea, and in your story, that is TRWTF.

Not that much of a WTF; anyone who's building a PC should know enough about electronics to know that that's not a great idea. Of course, I realize we all have lapses in judgement...in my example, he asked me to look at it since it wouldn't boot up, and when I got there he shows me the risers and says "I wasn't sure what these were for...", and when I told him he instantly realized what had happened.

So yeah, glad to hear they aren't really using those anymore, it's been a while since I've built one (living off laptops for the past several years); but I wouldn't quite call it a WTF. If you don't have common sense -- or if you wind up with leftover parts that you don't know the point of -- take a second to read the directions!

Duh. Clearly you've never taken something apart. You ALWAYS end of up with extra parts after you put it back together! ;-)

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

Nexzus:
Had an IT Manager at my last place who panicked when the files were in the wrong order in a Windows Explorer FTP site browser instance. No nepotism there, though, so I'm not sure how she got the job.

She might have been right. When I used Windows Explorer FTP and a copy operation failed part way through, I selected the uncopied files and did another copy. It finished. Very luckily I noticed that the number of files wasn't correct. When I thought I selected the uncopied files, actually I only selected some of them, because the FTP view sorts filenames differently from the local drive view. (These were two Windows Explorer windows on the same desktop, same Windows language, same locale, etc. This is just Windows Explorer, no language issues.)

Windows command line ftp is worse. mget pretends to copy all the files in a directory. It doesn't tell you that it stopped after the 255th file in some random order.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

An Event ID 41 (Task 63) that bafflingly recurred with a vengeance turned out to be melted thermal paste that ran down the sides of the chip, onto the motherboard, and into the space between the chip and the socket. I had run CoreTemp, it showed normal temperature.

I built it about 3 years ago; apparently I used too much paste. A thorough cleaning with isopropyl alcohol, vacuum suction, less paste this time, and prayer cured the problem.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

Martin:
pcfan:
Actually PCs use extended ASCII, not regular ASCII...
Windows-1252.
Because ISO-8859-1 is too standardized.

Shift-JIS for text files (usually including VC++ source files). UTF-16 for internal operations.

I bet Macs use UTF-8, in which case Macs and PCs really do use different encodings. But I bet older Macs used to use Shift-JIS.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

monsterzero:
I feel sorry for Nicholas' girlfriend (or boyfriend).

Peter:
Some of the more exotic "Arctic Silver Ice" thermal compounds are electrically conductive, making for even more fun. I suppose the .1 degC/Watt is worth the extra hassle. I just use the good ol' white stuff that doesn't come off your clothing...

I guess I'd better not say I feel sorry for your girlfriend, because of what you'd say about me.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

Sanhadrin:
1) My users never want the motherboard touching the case. 2) Therefore, they'll always want spacers between the motherboard and case to prevent this. 3) People, even experienced people, will make mistakes. It's part of my business plan. 4) This mistake can earn me hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. 5) You could significantly reduce the chance of the motherboard shorting against the case by wasting ten cents during production to install the spacers before it leaves the factory. 6) Allowing the majority of people who made this mistake suffering hundreds of dollars of loss is a good thing. They will associate their failure with their own stupidity, and they have good reason to stay quiet about it so their story doesn't end up on TDWTF, so they'll grab more money to spend on my products (because I promise them I'll treat the matter confidentially, so they don't have to feel ashamed and know they can trust me forever). Also, simply helping people avoid that kind of personal loss is a good thing in and of itself (to liberals only). 7) Therefore, it's a major part of good design and idustry standard.

Man, learn something about capitalism!

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

[quote user="Mark The Corrector"][quote user="Steve The Cynic"][/quote] You know that thermal paste is actually a good thermal insulator, right? You use it to make sure that there aren't air spaces between the CPU and the heatsink, because those air spaces are an even better insulator.[/quote]

You that thermal paste is actually a good thermal conductor, right? You use it to make sure that there aren't any air spaces between the CPU and the heatsink, because those air spaces aren't as good conductors.[/quote]

No, (s)he didn't. Thermal paste is a pretty bad thermal conductor. You use thermal paste because it is a much worse insulator than air, but that doesn't make it a good thermal conductor. Although, if you're not being pedantic, both of you are basically saying the same thing.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

Corrector Corrector's:
Mark The Corrector:
Steve The Cynic:
You know that thermal paste is actually a good thermal insulator, right? You use it to make sure that there aren't air spaces between the CPU and the heatsink, because those air spaces are an even better insulator.

You that thermal paste is actually a good thermal conductor, right? You use it to make sure that there aren't any air spaces between the CPU and the heatsink, because those air spaces aren't as good conductors.

No, (s)he didn't. Thermal paste is a pretty bad thermal conductor. You use thermal paste because it is a much worse insulator than air, but that doesn't make it a good thermal conductor. Although, if you're not being pedantic, both of you are basically saying the same thing.

No edit on anon accounts =/.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

Greased lightening? Is that the opposite of dry darkening?

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

Grzechooo:
Moral: Ain't no fool foolish enough for God to create better.

I've got your comment in my notebook. I'll make sure it's be read from time to time.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

Corrector Corrector's:
Corrector Corrector's:
[...]
No edit on anon accounts =/.

Muphry's law wreaks either way.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

chubertdev:
Mason Wheeler:
I don't feel old, and I still build my own computers. In fact, I've never *bought* a prebuilt desktop system. (Laptops, sure, because you can't really build those. But my first desktop PC and every one after that has been one I built. They work better that way. No crapware, etc.)

Same here. It's so easy to build one if you know what you're doing, and live within 100 miles of a Frys.

Agreed (local MicroCenter for me). Built a machine in December (i7 3770k, 16GB, GTX 660Ti, and running OS X 10.8.2) for 1/2 what it would cost to buy pre-assembled.

2013-01-24 Reply Admin

Corrector Corrector's Corrector Corrector:
Corrector Corrector's:
Corrector Corrector's:
[...]
No edit on anon accounts =/.
Muphry's law wreaks either way.

It was to fix the quote tags rather than any actual content, though. Does syntax count as semantics with respect to Murphy's law? Also, does it count if you do it intentionally? Hmmm...I wonder how much analysis has been done on Murphy's law.

AndyCanfield · 2013-01-24 Reply Admin

I got that out of my system as a teen-ager in the 1960's. I repaired my neighbor's desktop radio many times. Each time I had another screw left over. Of course I knew that was wrong, but what could I do? It worked, so what the heck. I build computer software, never hardware.

2013-01-25 Reply Admin

As long as you dont mind driving.back and.forth 100+ times to return DOA parts that.will just get reshelved...

ochrist · 2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Jeremiah:

If you go back far enough, IBM computers use EBCDIC (pronounced "ebb's dick").

You don't have to go that far back. Mainframes still use EBCDIC.

Jeremiah:

And if you're really, really unlucky, some day you'll have to write code to parse an old file still in that encoding, like I did when I helped build a system for the State of Illinois.

Actually you normally don't have to worry too much about it. If you use ftp, you can just convert automatically between EBCDIC and ASCII.

2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Jazz:
Every time we had to replace a part in one of those we would end up cutting ourselves.

I don't think that's necessarily a feature of one particular brand. I put a bit of myself into the last PC I constructed from individual components - in the form of bloodied fingerprints around the interior.

Zecc · 2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Mason Wheeler:
I don't feel old, and I still build my own computers. In fact, I've never *bought* a prebuilt desktop system. (Laptops, sure, because you can't really build those. But my first desktop PC and every one after that has been one I built. They work better that way. No crapware, etc.)

I'm not really a hardware guy, so even though I choose the components I prefer to let the guys at the store to assemble them themselves. They're happy not to have to install an OS.

Cost(having to assemble the computer myself) < Cost(paying to get it done)

Cost(installing the OS) ≅ Cost(removing the crapware [by reinstalling the OS])

Helix · 2013-01-25 Reply Admin

People this stupid really annoy me. It's not just a case of being absent minded but shows a genuine lack of basic ingenuity.

Think: "Why am i putting a load of white 'putty' type material all over these delicate looking electronic conductors .... what could it be there for"

Answer "None - i am being a complete retard!"

Even as a specialist scientific lab hardware manufacturer we get the functional equivalent of monkeys pulling cable looms and cards out of the system and then complaining it's too complicated to get working again when we tell them they should not have removed it.

Steve The Cynic · 2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Mason Wheeler:
I don't feel old, and I still build my own computers. In fact, I've never *bought* a prebuilt desktop system. (Laptops, sure, because you can't really build those. But my first desktop PC and every one after that has been one I built. They work better that way. No crapware, etc.)

I bought my first pre-built PC back in 1988, when the quantity of crapware available was basically near zero. All others were during the early parts of the Age of Crapware, but I dodged that particular bullet, and built (and re-built, and re-re-built, ...) my own after 1997.

Steve The Cynic · 2013-01-25 Reply Admin

chubertdev:
Same here. It's so easy to build one if you know what you're doing, and live within 100 miles of a Frys.

It was pretty easy for me, and I live thousands of miles from any Frys. The proximity or otherwise of a particular supplier makes no difference whatsoever to the difficulty of plugging the components together.

OK, so I do live near a supplier of components. Well, better make that past tense. I did live near one, but Surcouf (the electronics store chain, not the submarine, nor the corsair[1]) is dead.

[1] This word "corsair" is tricky. In French, it refers to a privateer, not a pirate, although historically the line between these two occupations was thinner than a very very thin thing.

biziclop · 2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Mr.Bob:
Ha ha! Everyone laugh at those whose areas of expertise do not exactly match our own, because they're hopeless morons! Ha ha!
Alexander had the chance to mold a new boss and develop major points by taking him under his wing and give him technical training, and he instead chose to throw it away by sighing and rolling his eyes every time the new boss asked for help... is that the real WTF?

It's good to know what Nicholas's real name is.

2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Sanhadrin:
1) You never want the motherboard touching the case. 2) Therefore, you'll always want spacers between the motherboard and case to prevent this. 3) People, even experienced people, will make mistakes. It's part of being human. 4) This mistake can cost one hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. 5) You can significantly reduce the chance of the motherboard shorting against the case by spending ten cents during production to install the spacers before it leaves the factory. 6) Preventing the majority of people who made this mistake from suffering hundreds of dollars of loss is a good thing. They won't associate your project with anger and disappointment, and they have more money to spend on your products. Also, simply helping people avoid that kind of personal loss is a good thing in and of itself (to some). 7) Therefore, it's a major WTF and design flaw.

You are destroying a useful sieve: having a tricky step inbetween guarantees that "i've built this PC!" at least means something, sieving out the worst incompetents.

Compare with all that Java- and other Scripts lying around that make web"programming" easy: because the bar is so low, so many WTFs end up on this site, from people who started with a "VB in 3hours" book and then improvised themselves downhill.

DWalker59 · 2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Steve The Cynic:
ubersoldat:
I would laugh if I haven't seen this before, except this guy used the thermal on EVERY SOCKET he found:
AGP (video card fucked) PCI (USB card fucked) CPU (fucked) RAM (fucked all four 500MB DIMM's)

He thought that it would protect all components from heat.

Man, I laughed and cried so hard.
You know that thermal paste is actually a good thermal insulator, right? You use it to make sure that there aren't air spaces between the CPU and the heatsink, because those air spaces are an even better insulator.

Are you trolling, or just wrong? Good thermal paste, like Arctic Silver, has high heat conductivity.

WhiskeyJack · 2013-01-25 Reply Admin

wraith:
"How. Did. You. Insert. That. Card. There." was all I could say "Well... it was kinda hard and I had to use a hammer, but I finally got it in. Is that the problem?"

Reminds me of the first PC I ever bought. A K6-266 as I recall, in 1998. Good times. I purchased it from one of those Asian chop-shop PC clone makers. There's nothing inherently wrong with that if you find a good one... apparently I didn't. One day I went in to change out one of the PCI cards to discover that apparently the shop guys had trouble getting the metal L-bracket to seat properly against the case frame. No problem, they simply hammered out the L-bracket until it was straight and then re-bent it in a different place.

The next PC I got was one I built myself, piece by piece...

2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Well it is a bit more complicated than that. The thermal paste is a better conductor than air, but that isn't saying much. The fact that it is no where near as good a conductor as processor die or the metal heatsink makes it act more like an insulator than a conductor. Steve is right, you should use as little thermal paste as possible, just enough to fill in the cracks where air would get in between the two surfaces.

2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Your Name:
Well it is a bit more complicated than that. The thermal paste is a better conductor than air, but that isn't saying much. The fact that it is no where near as good a conductor as processor die or the metal heatsink makes it act more like an insulator than a conductor. Steve is right, you should use as little thermal paste as possible, just enough to fill in the cracks where air would get in between the two surfaces.

Yeah the thermal resistance is proportional to the thickness, so thinner is better. But at some point the thermal grease ceases to be one of the dominant sources of resistance to heat flow. And then there is the issue of thermal expansion, too thin and areas of the heat sink might lift off. So it's a compromise.

2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Norman Diamond:
Martin:
pcfan:
Actually PCs use extended ASCII, not regular ASCII...
Windows-1252.
Because ISO-8859-1 is too standardized.
Shift-JIS for text files (usually including VC++ source files). UTF-16 for internal operations.

I bet Macs use UTF-8, in which case Macs and PCs really do use different encodings. But I bet older Macs used to use Shift-JIS.

Classic MacOS (formerly Mac System) used Mac Roman (also called Mac OS Roman) by default.

OSX (formerly Mac OS X) uses UTF-8 like a good little unix.

2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Ach! Keine blinkenlights!

2013-01-25 Reply Admin

DWalker59:
Steve The Cynic:
ubersoldat:
I would laugh if I haven't seen this before, except this guy used the thermal on EVERY SOCKET he found:
AGP (video card fucked) PCI (USB card fucked) CPU (fucked) RAM (fucked all four 500MB DIMM's)

He thought that it would protect all components from heat.

Man, I laughed and cried so hard.
You know that thermal paste is actually a good thermal insulator, right? You use it to make sure that there aren't air spaces between the CPU and the heatsink, because those air spaces are an even better insulator.

Are you trolling, or just wrong? Good thermal paste, like Arctic Silver, has high heat conductivity.

The question is compared to what? Compared to air, it's amazing, but compared to anything actually relevant to removing heat, it's downright terrible. The only reason you don't just place the heatsink directly on the cpu is because of the air between the two surfaces. I imagine that if you lapped the CPU and heatsink with incredibly high-grade machines, it's probably possible to not even need thermal paste.

2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Sanhadrin:
1) You never want the motherboard touching the case. 2) Therefore, you'll always want spacers between the motherboard and case to prevent this. 3) People, even experienced people, will make mistakes. It's part of being human. 4) This mistake can cost one hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. 5) You can significantly reduce the chance of the motherboard shorting against the case by spending ten cents during production to install the spacers before it leaves the factory. 6) Preventing the majority of people who made this mistake from suffering hundreds of dollars of loss is a good thing. They won't associate your project with anger and disappointment, and they have more money to spend on your products. Also, simply helping people avoid that kind of personal loss is a good thing in and of itself (to some). 7) Therefore, it's a major WTF and design flaw.
You sound like the kind of person who makes lots of excuses for shoddy work.

For those of you whom have not been playing the game since BEFORE your fancy ATX form factors: The mount points in the case and the mount points on the board were not always (read: never) a 1 to 1 relation. Generally, the case would have 2 dozen holes, the board a half dozen and you would need to place the risers accordingly. If the risers had been pre-placed, there would be an extra 18 points of contact for the board to short on.

2013-01-25 Reply Admin

Thank goodness it had a happy ending!

2013-01-25 Reply Admin

I always get a chuckle out of the people who say "I built my own computer!" and say it as a proud boast, like the fact that you were able to do this makes you a genius on a par with Charles Babbage.

Umm ... you bought half a dozen pre-built components, all carefully designed by the manufacturer to snap together, and you snapped them together. Okay, there is some level of intelligence involved, as I guess this article proves. But you didn't invent it, you just assembled it from a kit. The hardest part is probably making sure you buy compatible components.

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