Ok - where to start?
I once bought a voodoo 3 gfx card and in my haste to fit it, forgot to power down the PC before removing the old agp card.
"Phut!"
Once I realised I'd killed the motherboard, i decided to build my own PC, emboldened by the fact that my brother [not the sharpest tool in the shed, bless him..] had built his.
It was only after I powered up and got nothing but a frantic beep from the mobo - i realised i hadn't seated the agp card correctly...
"Phut!"
Returned the mobo to microdirect saying it was faulty. To their credit they replaced it in days.
Tried again.
This time it all powered up fine, but would cut out after 10 minutes. Two days of struggling to install Windows later, I suddenly noticed i'd fitted the heatsink 90 degrees the wrong way round. It wasn't actually touching the cpu.
"Phut!"
New cpu fitted and with the heatsink on the right way round, i finally got it all built and installed. A lovely new Athlon XP 1600. Worked great.
Then, my mate told me he could overclock it and turn it into a 2ghz!!
I was gullible and let him fiddle with the jumpers on the mobo. After 30 minutes of going "Ummm... errr..." and breathing thru his nose, we booted up and the HD made a sound like a lawnmower.
Faint smell of burning.
"Phut!"
New HD fitted.
Eventually, I got it working and started a tune. All fine. Then, one night we had a major thunderstorm. The house next to mine recieved a direct lightning strike and lost its roof. I lost my modem, motherboard, midi interface and everything on my HD's.
"Phut!"
Haven't had a major mishap in a couple of years now, but I'm sure as soon as I get complacent and forget to back up my song folder, my house will get hit by a falling grand piano, or fall into an abandoned tin mine under my street.
Best advice I can give? Get a DVD burner and back up regularly.
