Worst Technology-Related Incident?

[SonicKade2048]

Has anything bad happened to your devices, such as computers, smartphones, or even video game consoles? Talk about it here and share your experiences with everyone.

As for me, something pretty bad happened. A dump truck collided with something to make the internet go out for Xfinity around my house, alongside many others. I have no way to get to the internet on my computer at home, so I'm using the internet access at school right now. It's pretty limited, such as how things like Discord are "Blue Coated", meaning we can't get to them, along with not being able to use some online services, most of which are in games. Not to mention I can't download and/or open any applications or .zip files. I hope the internet gets fixed soon.

Twitter / YouTube / Bandcamp / Neocities

[Syaxamaphone]

When I was like 10 my dad's computer's hard drive failed and I lost all my poopy sprite comics I would make in MS Paint and Microsoft Word and I cried. My parents did not understand computers and they could not understand why I was so upset.

I miss those sprite comics...

My games | My twitter | My stream | Sprites Unlimited

[HylianDev]

When I was 11 I had the right-click menu open on a site and accidentally clicked "set as desktop background" and changed the wallpaper.

My parents sat me down like "WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!?"

I told them what happened and mom was like "YOU DOWNLOADED IT FROM A WEBSITE?!?!?"

I explained that I didn't exactly "download it from a website" (it wasn't even a damn wallpaper, it was a generic background texture) so much as accidentally click one of the right click menu options.

They grounded me from the computer.

Later that day, they said "well we FINALLY figured out how to fix that thing you did"

I got in trouble somewhat frequently over stupid computer stuff because apparently somebody sat down my dad at one point and told him that downloading any file ever destroys your computer, and that any browser other than AOL is constantly downloading porn in the background.

[Catonator]

When I was a kid, about 6 years old, I got a popup ad to an adult entertainment site from some flash game I was playing. Unfortunately, the popup ad froze the primitive primitive PC I was using. I got a mild panic attack from this, and refrained from using that PC for months, as well as avoiding that flash game website like the plague from that day on. Fun.

My mom is also quite good at turning bad situations worse by just not knowing how to use technology. I've had to clean her PC a few times because of random viruses from whatever malicious e-mails she has opened up, simply because she has refused to listen to me or my dad. Luckily she has become better during the past few years.

Catonator.net | Twitter | YouTube | Soundcloud | Bandcamp

 
signatures are hard pls listen to music thxbye

[Hyper]

Back in 2006 (before I actually got my computer), I snuck on my parents PC when they leave for shopping and watch SMW hack videos. Then I found a “neat” site that has some interesting Mario games (not MFGG) so I decided to download it. The downloaded file is an installer, after the installation the system is acting strange (a lot of adult ads popping up) so I lock the computer and pretending that I did not break it. Later that day my parents are confused why their PC is acting strange so they reinstalled the system.

Another case is when I was helping out school Apple computers for the first time in 2007, I forget to remove the passwords and everyone have issues using the computer. I almost forget the passwords as well until a day after I realized the password for the computers are “windig”.

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Main Site | YouTube | Bluesky | My OC

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[Syaxamaphone]

When I was in like, grade 7 or w/e I had to get my parents' permission to download my first copy of Game Maker. It was 6MB and I thought that was a lot so I thought they would say no.

They did, but I downloaded it anyways.

My games | My twitter | My stream | Sprites Unlimited

[Cap'n Coconuts]

I broke a Windows 98 PC by deleting things I shouldn't have deleted.

[VinnyVideo]

I haven't had any catastrophic or particularly embarrassing incidents relating to technology. However, I've had a bunch of monitors die over the years, so I've become well-acquainted with the burnt electrical smell of a deceased computer monitor.

Back in 2002, my mom got Klez, an annoying worm that was one of the most common pieces of malicious software at that time. It didn't cause any damage, but my primary PC was out of commission for a while when we took it in to get the malware removed.

Course clear! You got a card.

[HylianDev]

I haven't had any catastrophic or particularly embarrassing incidents relating to technology. However, I've had a bunch of monitors die over the years, so I've become well-acquainted with the burnt electrical smell of a deceased computer monitor.

My monitors are precious to me, I hope none of them ever die

Back in 2002, my mom got Klez, an annoying worm that was one of the most common pieces of malicious software at that time. It didn't cause any damage, but my primary PC was out of commission for a while when we took it in to get the malware removed.

I got Antivirus 360 back in around 2008. Much to my surprise, it wasn't actually a mysterious new antivirus program warning me whenever I opened a new tab, but in fact a virus!

It ruined my wifi drivers and nobody in my family was very computer-literate back then. I tried reformatting but that didn't work (I guess Vista didn't have acceptable drivers for my wifi card?) so we had to call Dell and pay a lot of money for a computer takeover session.

[Hyper]

Also one more stupid thing I did back in 2009: I destroyed my first Linux (Linux Mint Helena) by running the command “rm -rf /“.

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Main Site | YouTube | Bluesky | My OC

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[Friendly Dictator]

by the time i got rid of my old laptop both the screen and keyboard didnt work

i remember having it plugged into the monitor from my dad's old desktop and a keyboard, and trying to play minecraft with my friends like that

DO NOT under estimate this lakitu to much or it will be the end of that life (note: do not over estimate him either).

LONG LIVE LITTLELUND

[YoshisIsland3]

When the DS killed itself after hours of being played on Pokémon Diamond.

When I got a blue screen of death on a very old PC, I had a while back. It could play DS games pretty fast.

When mustard got caught in my Midnight Purple 3DS, due to my sibling touching the buttons with mustard still on his fingers. I was angry.

[Retriever II]

idk there's been a bunch of stuff.

One particular incident was with my first "good" desktop in 2001. I came home one afternoon and noted a pretty funny smell in my room. Then puzzled over why my computer was off. A section of the motherboard had spontaneously burst into flames and did a good bit of charring. The box was a total loss. Still don't have a good idea what could have happened. There weren't even active components on that part of the board.

On a more recent note, my Nexus 5X phone spontaneously died on me last week. The funny bit is I had recently been doing some research and learned that there was a manufacturing defect in the 5X production that would virtually guarantee every device to eventually fail by desoldering its own chips or something. I ordered a new phone and was going to trade the old one in for credit. Alas it failed the night before the replacement arrived. Was it self-aware??

[Yakibomb]

Back when the Games Factory was still a thing, I thought my family was running out of room on the computer so I deleted all my first completed games. I thought that 10MB was a lot! Turns out we had several gigs left... which I found out very soon after was way more than my games.

I think it might've been a year or two later, my brother was reformatting the computer voluntarily and I could have sworn he told me he backed up my stuff. Sadly, I misheard and I believe now he said he wanted me to back up my own stuff. My games got deleted, again.

[HylianDev]

by the time i got rid of my old laptop both the screen and keyboard didnt work

i remember having it plugged into the monitor from my dad's old desktop and a keyboard, and trying to play minecraft with my friends like that

Hahaha I used to do this with a laptop of mine, except my keyboard still worked. I would plug it into a big TV that I had, that was sweet. Good times.

One particular incident was with my first "good" desktop in 2001. I came home one afternoon and noted a pretty funny smell in my room. Then puzzled over why my computer was off. A section of the motherboard had spontaneously burst into flames and did a good bit of charring. The box was a total loss. Still don't have a good idea what could have happened. There weren't even active components on that part of the board.

The first desktop I ever bought myself: I was using it one day and I heard a pop and it just cut off. I tried turning it back on, nothing. I took it to a computer store and they messed with it, and it caught on fire while they were testing it. The only thing that ended up ruined was the motherboard I think. I was very thankful.

On a more recent note, my Nexus 5X phone spontaneously died on me last week. The funny bit is I had recently been doing some research and learned that there was a manufacturing defect in the 5X production that would virtually guarantee every device to eventually fail by desoldering its own chips or something. I ordered a new phone and was going to trade the old one in for credit. Alas it failed the night before the replacement arrived. Was it self-aware??

I replaced my Nexus 5X with a 6P, but then dropped the 6P and wrecked the screen. While I was waiting for that one to be repaired I started using my 5X, and this happened. Unbelievable lmao. I had to go buy a cheap Android from Best Buy until mine was fixed.

[VinnyVideo]

If I had to guess why a motherboard caught on fire, I'd suspect a broken fan or a heatsink that was missing or improperly installed. If the computer had been powered off for a long time and it still caught on fire, that's a hard one to explain! Maybe an electrical surge burned something? Of course, if that had happened, you probably would've noticed damage on other electronics plugged into the same circuit.

Course clear! You got a card.

[darkblueyoshi]

I accidentally wiped out my Windows 10 bootloader because of Linux's stupid installer. I lost some files, oh well.

[Retriever II]

If I had to guess why a motherboard caught on fire, I'd suspect a broken fan or a heatsink that was missing or improperly installed. If the computer had been powered off for a long time and it still caught on fire, that's a hard one to explain! Maybe an electrical surge burned something? Of course, if that had happened, you probably would've noticed damage on other electronics plugged into the same circuit.

Ruling out a power surge in the house, the only thing I could consider are:
- A fault in the power supply leading to an over-current situation.
- An unfortunate flaw in the board that could have led to short between layers.
- Probably a combination of both of those things.

The PC shop suggested I jammed a screwdriver into it and wouldn't admit it.