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.
this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2025
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After having built a bunch of pcs through the years, I've learned that components really aren't as fragile as they feel.
Yeah, I know. Doesn't stop my stupid brain from getting anxious though, especially when they're being a bitch to get in/out.
This is how it usually goes for me.
I've never had this issue. Though to be honest I have an industrial motherboard that isn't prone to failure and has to be configured manually for literally everything on the machine in the bios. Currently rocking 48 gigabytes of ddr4 ram running in fucked quad channel with a core i5 9th gen and an RX 6600. Running Linux as Windows 11 literally halves my performance in games.
I've quite literally shocked my motherboard and forced shut it down several times and it does not care. It also has PS2 keyboard and mouse ports and a single PCI slot alongside serial and VGA on the back. Yes I try to avoid shocking my electronics and genuinely try to be careful with them. Kinda hard when your power cuts though. Or you think that blanket you have on would be fine to wear in the cold while you are repasting.
The thing is also neat as in it has a backup bios when I was modding my BIOS I really appreciated because it meant you could always just flash the motherboard without desocking and reprogramming the bios chip.
You also have to configure where the thing boots and how the ram works as well. Or else it will just refuse to boot past the bios. Oh yeah and enable settings specific to your CPU and what it can do.
Whenever you reset the CMOS it has a default password which is just password as well.
Ahahaha. Last time I did clean my PC and re-paste for the first time since 4 years - my wife has touched PC case and hit it with static. She saw my face fall into despair the moment it happened. She didn't knew. It didn't start after reassembly. And that's how I bought my current PC.
After many attempts and debugging I found out that one ram slot is dead and PC wont boot with any ram sticks in this port. But that was too late.
This is why you don't clean it with soap, water and a wire brush. Just use air.
I have been living with only my work laptop for years now because that happened and then I didn't want to deal with it until later.
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.
Nobody does that
I do.
I understand the reasoning, why computers nowadays take forever for the first boot due to ram optimization, but a previous computer that I built, I didn’t know that and for hours I thought the motherboard was broken. Now it always makes me nervous on if there’s an issue or it’s just taking forever to do the optimization.
Hang on, I've never heard of this. I haven't built a huge amount of machines but never knew about RAM training!
I even did a Compaq course back in the day ~25 years ago. Is this a recent thing, by any chance (DDR era)?
Yeah RAM training is just unnerving. For like 6 minutes you have a Schroedinger's box that is either fucked or about to POST
Ever tried doing it with 256 gigs of ram? I think it took 15 minutes.
take forever for the first boot due to ram optimization
That's not just a downloading RAM joke?
Wait what? How does that work? Is there some data storage in the motherboard that's remembering the best way to organize your ram?
The BIOS/UEFI has a battery powered CMOS storage.
First boot: -turns on fine- Second boot after setting correct memory speeds and other options: -obscure error 86tlxV-nih!-
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.
Wait till you see this. Fucking game changing.
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.
Some IDE (PATA) connectors had no keying....
Similar to the smoke-button at the back of power supplies. This might not work in the US, I don't know.
Next time buy quieter case fans. 🤷♂️
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
"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
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. 😅~
You can prepare all you want, but the smoke test will always be a nail biter lol
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.
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.
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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
Oh, I do miss the thrill and danger of a lively overclocking party.
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.
That's me connecting a wall socket.
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