Date   : Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:54:33 +0100
From   : mfirth@... (Michael Firth)
Subject: Tales of woe and stupidity

> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Alex Taylor" <zeem.uk@...>
> To: <bbc-micro@...>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 9:34 AM
> Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] Tales of woe and stupidity
>
>
> 2009/8/11 Julian Stenning <julian_stenning@...>:
> >
> > > Ok, what died : The motherboard, The video card, The hard disk 
> > > controler.
>
> When I was at school, I once borrowed a 486DX4/100 CPU off a friend on
> the basis that I'd buy it for ?20 if it would work in my motherboard,
> because it appeared to have jumper settings for a DX4 but I couldn't
> be entirely sure it would work.
>
> I tried a few times with various settings, it would usually attempt to
> boot but crash on the BIOS screen and things like that. Each time I'd
> put my previous DX2/66 back in so I could use the PC again. Then I
> decided to have one more try with the DX4 - this time it did nothing
> at all. Then I realised that this time, I'd forgotten to change the
> voltage jumpers from 5V to 3.3V. I put them on 3.3V and tried it
> anyway, at which point it made a brief crackling sound and that smell
> of burning electronics.
>
> I couldn't admit what I'd done, so I told my friend it worked fine and
> I paid him the ?20 for it.
>

In a similar vein, while at University, I managed to prove conclusively that
beer and PC repair don't mix.

After a couple of beers, I tried to swap the CPU in my 486 PC (I can't 
remember
why, possibly upgrading from a DX2-50 to a DX2-66), but managed to get
the CPU in 90 degrees round from the way it should have gone.

On turning the PC on, there was a crack, and the top of the CPU's ceramic 
case
split open.

I was lucky that on replacing the original CPU the right way round the rest 
of the
machine was fine!

Regards

Michael