Tales of hardware failure?

HammerBlade · Mon 08/02/2010 06:11:08

Hey there,

After years of iffy WLAN functionality, my laptop's 'A' key is refusing to consistently stay attached to the keyboard. Also, the laptop is refusing to power on consistently.

It's one of those HP Pavilion dv6000 tragic duds, whose hardware failures are well documented. (Apparently it's a motherboard failure)

I'm thinking I'll try to use my warranty to have it fixed, but if they won't do anything I'll either get one of those mini laptops, or a custom built desktop. I suppose I should be thankful these failures happened just after it would have been tragic (e.g., the middle of a full-time semester at a university), but now I'm not getting the most out of my internet bill.

Anyway, I wanna hear some hardware horror stories so I don't have any excuse to complain about my problems in light of the true tragedy others have experienced. Any takers?

xenogia · Mon 08/02/2010 20:38:43

One catastrophic weekend, two hdd's decided to die on me in space of a few hours. I lost 2tb of data.. Wasn't a happy day ..

RickJ · Mon 08/02/2010 22:29:42

I had two, I say two Western Digital Hard Drives fail last year. One was relatively new and it's replacement was brand new and failed within weeks. I took the hint and replaced the last one with a Seagate. In the past I have preferred Maxtor but it seems like the have been aquired by Seagate or something.

Privateer Puddin' · Mon 08/02/2010 22:32:22

I'm on my fifth Xbox 360, does that count?

xenogia · Mon 08/02/2010 22:33:51

I used to prefer Maxtor as well, but your right they have been bought out.

I just have a mirror raid system now. 4tb mirrored.. hehe

Calin Leafshade · Mon 08/02/2010 23:09:14

My PSU quite literally blew up last year.. Sparks, flames, the works.

It didnt damage anything else in the computer though which was a little bizarre.

xenogia · Mon 08/02/2010 23:12:14

Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Mon 08/02/2010 23:09:14
My PSU quite literally blew up last year.. Sparks, flames, the works.

It didnt damage anything else in the computer though which was a little bizarre.

Now that's a spectacular PSU

Ryan Timothy B · Mon 08/02/2010 23:15:20

QuoteMy PSU quite literally blew up last year.. Sparks, flames, the works.

Same happened to me last year, minus the flames. But from hearing your version of the exploding PSU, I wish mine had done the same thing instead of just a measly blue flashing spark and smoke.

Calin Leafshade · Mon 08/02/2010 23:34:45

The fire was caused by the label adhesive catching fire... which was fun.

zabnat · Tue 09/02/2010 11:59:33

Well, PC hardware tends to be unreliable. I've had many many hardware failures. Funnies one is the nomen est omen thing I had at work. On my desk there is a 500GB LaCie Brick. It worked, then I've left it unused on the table for six months and now it's bricked.

Wonkyth · Tue 09/02/2010 12:05:18

I once had a laptop that only worked upside-down...

Khris · Tue 09/02/2010 13:01:19

That reminds me of my PSX; after a year or so I had to turn it upside down for it to read the CD, and a few months later I had to prop it at a pretty precise angle, still upside down

Besides that, I've seen my old gfx card draw stripes and had to replace it. The funny thing is, I was using my very first PC case which I got in '98 for over ten years, including sawing part of the HD frame off to be able to fit memory into a new motherboard. A few friends couldn't wrap their head around how I was able to play recent games with "that old box" although I kept telling them that the insides are constantly upgraded...

I had to get a new one last year though because the motherboard kicked the bucket and I decided it's time to get AM2/DDR2/etc.

HammerBlade · Tue 09/02/2010 16:22:27

Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Mon 08/02/2010 22:32:22
I'm on my fifth Xbox 360, does that count?

Okay, I'll stop whining. That's got to be the most horrible thing I've heard all month.

Speaking of Western Digital drives, I have a 320 GB that hasn't failed on me yet (although I tried creating a Linux partition for it once, and now I lost access to 100 summad GB of space on it). I probably shouldn't have bothered though, in spite of the fact it was on sale.

And that laptop I mentioned earlier? I've got it consistently starting up now...provided I bang on the thing as it boots up.

Haddas · Tue 09/02/2010 16:28:41

Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Mon 08/02/2010 22:32:22
I'm on my fifth Xbox 360, does that count?

Dang son. I'm on my first xbox, which I bought used, 2Â½ years ago. I rape it daily and the cat's peed on it twice. I got the red ring once, but that went away by rebooting.

I guess I've just been lucky?

Ryan Timothy B · Tue 09/02/2010 21:37:25

I think Microsoft is going to have a tough time competing against Sony on the next consoles. I know too many people that are joining the darkside (Sony) because their 360 had the red ring of death. It's sad, really.

My 360 died the first 2 weeks I had it, so I had returned it to the store for another. Luckily the new one has lasted this whole time with no failure (however long the 360 has been out for).

My brother had the red ring of death after almost a year of having his. Microsoft replaced his for a refurbished one, and now he can't play a game without it freezing. He had to unscrew all the casing and attach a fan to it and it usually stops the freezing.

Calin Leafshade · Tue 09/02/2010 21:49:56

The RRoD is actually usually very fixable. Its due to shitty heatsinks on the chips (they are like little rubber pads).

Stick 2 pennies covered in insulation tape to the back of the chips with thermal paste and its fixed.

I've fixed at least 3 different Xboxs doing that.

Snake · Thu 11/02/2010 13:17:08

Quote from: Rickj...Maxtor, but it seems like the have been aquired by Seagate or something.

Yes, they have. They've been Seagate for quite a few years now (5 maybe?). I remember when I first tried accessing my old harddrive and I was looking up the jumper settings online (someone apparently thought it would be okay to skip stamping them on the HDD shell) and all I kept getting was Seagate.

Quote from: RyanI know too many people that are joining the darkside (Sony) because their 360 had the red ring of death. It's sad, really.

Heh, I would think that Microsoft would be the "darkside" you speak of

Quote from: LeafshadeThe RRoD is actually usually very fixable. Its due to shitty heatsinks on the chips (they are like little rubber pads).

Stick 2 pennies covered in insulation tape to the back of the chips with thermal paste and its fixed.

I've fixed at least 3 different Xboxs doing that.

Wouldn't you think that at one point we could buy something reliable enough that we wouldn't have to do shit like that? Oh wait a minute, Microsoft would lose money by making something too reliable...