worst luck with technology

[amptor]

IBM 40GB 75GXP DeskStar (yes the one that they got sued over, which was stupid and I didn't claim because IBM didn't deserve to be sued.. anyways...)

So I had 4kb bad sectors after I did a scandisk on it. I was like wow well let's see here, google searched the phone number for IBM RMA. The guy quickly without hesitation issued me an RMA number. Odd? Well ok so they did an advanced exchange.

I got my drive in and was like well my old one still works so let's xcopy everything from the one with bad sectors to the new one. I plugged both drives in and didn't realize that the old drive Molex connector cracked and broke off on the side, so I accidentally plugged in the molex backards (folks, this goes +12V, ground, +5V ground, guess what happens if you FEED +12V into a +5V rail? smoke.)

The computer surged power back through my nice SCSI Plextor 40x CDROM drive and literally arced electricity to the case through the firmware chip which made a big scorch mark inside the CDROM case. This also burned the solder off of one of the molex connection pins to the PCB of the old IBM hard drive that I was replacing.

The new HDD worked and actually it still works and is still inside a Pentium II.

I then RMAd the Plextor CDROM not realizing that they have the shittiest RMA service of any manufacturer besides Asus but that is a whole other story. They sent me a drive that literally was dropped HARD on the ground at the factory and rattled like crazy when spinning a CD. But it accesses files fine. Also the bezel was cracked so I contacted them and they sent me a free "complimentary" bezel. I have never bought a Plextor product again since this.

What did I learn from all of this? Notice crappy build quality on your electronics and when things are this bad make sure that the polarity and voltages are always lined up correctly when plugging into broken electronics.

Did IBM deserve to be sued over the 75GXP Deskstars? No because no hard drive manufacturer is liable for information that you put on their drive. All they should have done for me was RMA one drive which they did. They sent me 2 letters in the mail for claims (one for the drive I bought and one for the one I got in exchange). Well this time around I didn't shaft the company. But what I did didn't put a dent in anything at all,t hey eventually sold out to Hitachi. I still don't buy these drives they aren't a good brand name. Lol they still call them Deskstar.

 

[Demonbart]

I once had an mp3 player of which the battery would drop out every time I put it down too quickly. This one got smashed by some dude who lost a game of Mario Kart to me and smashed his ds on the table on the exact position of my mp3 player.
Then I got a quite good one, nothing really wrong with it until I dropped it once and it stopped working completely.
Now I have another copy of that model, but the slightly flimsier version, which surprisingly didn't die on me yet.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

I once had an mp3 player of which the battery would drop out every time I put it down too quickly. This one got smashed by some dude who lost a game of Mario Kart to me and smashed his ds on the table on the exact position of my mp3 player.
Then I got a quite good one, nothing really wrong with it until I dropped it once and it stopped working completely.
Now I have another copy of that model, but the slightly flimsier version, which surprisingly didn't die on me yet.

Which one is it?

 

[ProtoKun7]

I don't think I'm familiar with the case over the DeskStar. Why were they sued? Because of the build quality you mentioned?

 

[Jasper07]

Oh I rememer one. My ps2 phat got replaced about 5 times by sony. The bitch just died on me again and again. I didn't know why though. I got sick of it and I bought a slim which still works great even after I modded it.

 

[Slyakin]

I only have these little OCD problems with Nintendo Handhelds. My DS Phat? Okay. It started with my DS Lite, though. It would squeak if you put pressure on the flat area next to the control pad, and it eventually killed itself. My Blue DSi would sometimes die if I moved the hinge the wrong way (just the top screen though) and my new DSi XL has the same squeaky problem.


My 360 has never RROD'd. It was nearly a launch system, and it works beautifully to this very day. Ha.

 

[Deleted member 158512]

Oh I rememer one. My ps2 phat got replaced about 5 times by sony. The bitch just died on me again and again. I didn't know why though. I got sick of it and I bought a slim which still works great even after I modded it.

Lol it's the opposite for me. My original PS2 works alright even after 7 years (5 modded), but the slim... laser burnt out in two months :\

 

[.Chris]

When I semi-bricked my Wii two times. One is with the Wii theme thing. The other is with AnyTitleDeleter.

 

[mrfatso]

Let's see a year back, i bought an external harddrive and after a light bum for around 5 times, it was dead, took me a week to killed it unintentionally, needless to say a lot of stuff was lost..

 

[Scott-105]

I've had RROD several times. I think my count is like 7 times now? Well at least 5 i know that. I have the worst luck.

 

[syko5150]

i've never had RROD yet on my launch 360 but probably because i havent really used the 360 much over the past 5 years lol...but i've had to replace multiple PS2 and Xbox1...i used to be a heavy smoker few years back and the smoke formed a tar on the processor of my old PC yeah that didnt end very well for the computer lol...

 

[Thunderboyx]

My worst lucks were buying something online and finding it doesn't work :C

 

[Krestent]

Once, I was in my home office when I smelled something odd. I noticed that it came from my dual-Xeon rig. I immediately turned it off and looked inside, and lo and behold, there was melted plastic dripping from one of the 200GB WD drives straight on to the identical drive underneath it. Even though it was two years after I bought it two years beforehand, WD RMA'd both drives.

 

[gameboy13]

I lost two hard drives with all of mine and my mum's art and pics on it.

 

[Infinite Zero]

this is very heartbreaking for me.. I ALMOST DIED.

I was using the laptop in the morning. Bus was almost coming still surfin' the net.
Then I remembered someone saying that I should change my password, HELL YEA I did.
Now it was kind of complicated AND OH SHIT I FORGOT IT!! I told my mom TO KEEP IT OPEN AND ON.
But I remembered that It might go into lock mode and I will need to re-enter the password again!
The bus is there *panicking* still trying to remember the fucking password for the admin account..

THEN I REMEMBERED IT! So I was like O YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

that was I think my worst luck with technology.
I almost have my UA locked. Remembering it scares me.

 

[secretsauce]

why did you have to change the password? :/

 

[agentgamma]

My laptop started overheating VERY badly one day. Couldn't do basic shit for like more than 10 minutes.
Then I put a fan on it, which helped.
15 minutes later, I accidentally broke the power adapter.

And I couldn't do anything as I was on holiday in Fiji and pretty much no shops there sell decent laptop power adapters.

 

[Maz7006]

-360 RRoD, fixed, then e74 1 week later

-Radeon 9200 LE AGP card (was really good at the time) died, got green lines, then purple, then black screen

-Buying the wrong Stimulus pack for MW2 (didn't know at the time that DLC was region locked) PSN that is

-Getting banned from Xbox Live.

That's pretty much it

 

[zuron7]

I've had no tech problems but except that the stupid DS hinge keeps breaking off.

 

[murkurie]

I haven't had any bad luck yet. Knock on wood

I guess the screen dying on my cars radio, but I got all my favorite stations saved under presets.