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Topic: Miner Meets Voldemort (Read 2755 times)

hero member
Activity: 966
Merit: 501
PredX - AI-Powered Prediction Market
June 19, 2011, 11:17:14 PM
#20
Who knows...

I more than once worked with computer maintenance, every day was a surprise.

Rat inside computer (do not ask me HOW, it was only there)

Exploding components.

A motherboard burns so hard that a huge hole forms on it (this one was particularly interesting... It was a 486-DX2, I installed a fresh copy of Win95, and thanks for the Plug-and-pRay connections of that era, the mouse failed, I left it "searching for new hardware" and went to lunch. When I returned, the mobo had a 3 inch hole on it and most of the rest was black, I never figured what happened)

Client running away when I mention "virus" and later returning with medical face protection (later I learned that this client was a nurse...)

A Pentium II that barely worked, but still worked, that had 284 different viruses on it. Several of them being boot or bios viruses. Until that day, I believed that was impossible, and I had no seen a bios virus so far, to me they were stuff of legends, and then that machine had several of them. The only thing the owner claimed to do with the machine was "get music". I wonder where she got music from... (at the time, Kazaa was still popular, but.. 284 different ones? seriously?)

A virus named "Natas", only infects DOS, few anti-viruses catch it, and it eats all your memory to the point of making windows fail to boot. It spreads by infecting any removable media you insert on the machine. It caused 3 days of scanning every single HD, floppy and zipdrive we had on the company (no, flash and pendrives did not existed yet, and memory cartridges were absurdly expensive).


A machine that somehow got the cable tangled on the CPU cooler, and it managed to rip the CPU from the socket (granted, the mobo was a low quality one and the socket was pretty crap and had no lock, yet I expected the cooler itself to break, or a separation of the heat-sink and CPU... I almost separated them myself out of curiosity to know what sort of thermal material was used and glued so well...)




And once I got mad after pressing the power button and losing work, and striked with a open hand the side of my machine, one of the memories jumped several meters out of the machine... After this day I never hit a computer again.

Sorta.

After that I had to fix a old compaq that only turned on after getting hit. (in the end I gave up, and told the owner to keep hitting it).
newbie
Activity: 21
Merit: 0
June 19, 2011, 10:53:49 PM
#19
Total BS. At work we spun 24volts into a hard drive once, did nothing apart from make the motor scream real loud and fast, its a motor not a damn c4 explosive lol
hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 500
June 19, 2011, 08:54:56 PM
#18
Total bullcrap. There have been stories of "exploding harddrives" since time immemorial, from virus or power or whatever. The fact is that a hard drive is one of the most solid components in your computer, it's just a big fat heavy hunk of magnetic metal encased in a solid block of hermitically sealed metal.

Maybe if the user had removed the casing and jarred the drive head and then applied an overvoltage spinning the now offtilt platters at super speeds maybe it could hit some physical object and splinter, but it would never have been functional in the first place.
legendary
Activity: 1147
Merit: 1007
June 19, 2011, 07:03:46 PM
#17
Yeah I don't understand what power supply would allow you to plug the wrong cable into the wrong place. Modular PSU's wouldn't let that happen, pretty sure it's fake.

Modular PSU's are actually necessary to be able to make this mistake. That's because connectors at the PSU side are not standardized. Therefore it is theoretically possible that brand A HDD connectors can be attached to a brand B PCI-E outlet. From the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_power_supply_unit:

Quote
Currently (as of early 2011) most modular power supplies use the same connectors, but with non-standardized pin-outs. Interchanging cables between brands can damage equipment by appling incorrect voltages, grounds and opens to outputs such as SATA power connectors. There is rarely any visual indication or keyed connector to prevent using an incorrect cable.

The story says that the old cables were used with the new PSU, which could easily have triggered the overload. However, I'm still a bit sceptical about it making the drive explode.
hero member
Activity: 770
Merit: 500
You're fat, because you dont have any pics on FB
June 19, 2011, 06:37:57 PM
#16
BULL SHEET!!

Exactly how did he get these plugs in?

They are completely diff plugs..

lame story bro..
legendary
Activity: 1806
Merit: 1003
June 18, 2011, 05:08:39 PM
#15
lol, but not possible, difference connectors, and hard disks don't just explode into shrapnel no matter how much power you fed it.
full member
Activity: 168
Merit: 100
June 18, 2011, 04:58:28 PM
#14
Quote
HDD exploded ...

Luckily my face was only about 10cm away from it ... stopped most of the shrapnel from hitting the precious graphics cards.

LOL, that made me laugh out loud, LOLOL

BS to the max, but still hilarious
member
Activity: 112
Merit: 10
June 18, 2011, 04:47:25 PM
#13
I find it funny if people are actually going through the trouble of submitting bogus reports to the site, since they are more or less anonymous/get no credit. I can promise that I don't make up any of the incidents myself. But I am not a technical guy, so approve I will if it is on-topic and descriptive. Submit your own today, oh ye doubters, unless you're always accident-free  Grin
sr. member
Activity: 372
Merit: 250
June 18, 2011, 04:05:55 PM
#12
Just like the Chilean miners, he needs a good rescue.  First step, get back his school work.  Grin
member
Activity: 112
Merit: 10
June 18, 2011, 03:35:07 PM
#11
Yeah I don't understand what power supply would allow you to plug the wrong cable into the wrong place. Modular PSU's wouldn't let that happen, pretty sure it's fake.
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
FIAT LIBERTAS RVAT CAELVM
June 18, 2011, 03:24:51 PM
#10
I hesitate to say 'impossible' when talking about idiots and computers. Sure, the 12 volt and 5 volt cables have different connectors. Doesn't stop everybody...

Still, you do have a point.
full member
Activity: 173
Merit: 100
June 18, 2011, 03:17:42 PM
#9
Am I the only one who questions the veracity of this story?

I don't think a 1200W power supply is going to literally explode a hard drive.

Pics or it didn't happen.

it's fake

what is mean "wrong cable"?   it`s impossible
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
FIAT LIBERTAS RVAT CAELVM
June 18, 2011, 03:14:58 PM
#8
Put +12 volts through a +5 volt motor.

Bad things. Very bad things.

TBH, though, I think it was the fan that got him. Shit's blowing up in your face, you don't really ask yourself, Was that the cooling fan, or the HDD?
newbie
Activity: 28
Merit: 0
June 18, 2011, 03:07:47 PM
#7
Am I the only one who questions the veracity of this story?

I don't think a 1200W power supply is going to literally explode a hard drive.

Pics or it didn't happen.
full member
Activity: 168
Merit: 100
June 17, 2011, 04:27:49 PM
#6
Any of these accidents happening where people are getting hurt as a result of mining are simply pathetic. These people should not even be using equipment stronger than a calculator in my opinion.

Oh well, less competition I guess.
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
FIAT LIBERTAS RVAT CAELVM
June 17, 2011, 04:05:43 PM
#5
Right. Sorry for not watching all the Harry Potter movies.

Movies? I read the booksTongue
sr. member
Activity: 686
Merit: 259
June 17, 2011, 04:04:09 PM
#4
No, the HDD is Voldemort, it left the scar. Miner meets Voldemort, becomes Harry Potter.

Still... Stupid mistake, he's lucky he didn't get himself a Darwin award.
Right. Sorry for not watching all the Harry Potter movies.
EDIT: And books.
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
FIAT LIBERTAS RVAT CAELVM
June 17, 2011, 04:03:16 PM
#3
No, the HDD is Voldemort, it left the scar. Miner meets Voldemort, becomes Harry Potter.

Still... Stupid mistake, he's lucky he didn't get himself a Darwin award.
sr. member
Activity: 686
Merit: 259
June 17, 2011, 03:52:00 PM
#2
It's amazing but bitcoin miners keep finding new ways to hurt themselves. You all might want to seriously consider safety now.

http://www.bitcoinminingaccidents.com/?p=304

Got this report today - it's the worst once since the guy who suffered the heat stroke. Feel bad for this guy.
A better title would be Miner meets Harry Potter Tongue
member
Activity: 112
Merit: 10
June 17, 2011, 03:45:31 PM
#1
It's amazing but bitcoin miners keep finding new ways to hurt themselves. You all might want to seriously consider safety now.

http://www.bitcoinminingaccidents.com/?p=304

Got this report today - it's the worst one since the guy who suffered the heat stroke. Feel bad for this guy.
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