So, it turns out that Russian Proton-M rocket which crashed a couple of weeks back did so because some of its parts were installed upside down (opens in new tab) . Anyone out there who has played the awesome Kerbal Space Program ( Update 0.21 has finished Q&A (opens in new tab) and is so close I can taste it!) will be able to sympathise with the poor technician responsible.
When checking out the wreckage of the doomed rocket investigators discovered some angular velocity sensors had been installed upside down. That lead to the vehicle receiving contradictory information as to its orientation and the subsequent efforts to correct it meant it thrashed around violently before smashing into the ground in a mass of pretty 'splodes. That got me thinking back wistfully on all the simple errors I'd made putting together machines with catastrophic consequences. Whether it was spending a year debugging the first PC I ever built some twenty years ago, mashing the pins on a modern Intel CPU socket or literally blowing up an expensive new solid state drive (the image below is exhibit A, m'lud) they've all been pretty catastrophic to some extent.
Though obviously not as expensive as blowing up a whole space rocket.
As PC gamers we will all, at some point, feel the need to take the side off our machine and dig around inside. That could be because something has gone wrong or we just fancy taking advantage of the upgradability of our chosen gaming platform.
But lets use this as a cathartic experience; think of this as a safe place. This is somewhere you can exorcise those moments things haven't quite gone to plan when taking to your PC with screwdriver in hand, knowing you're surrounded by like-minded folk.
So let's share; what's the worst damage you've ever done to your PC when you've been messing with it? Have you ever tried installing anything the wrong way around?
