CPU Badge'd



  •  Today we had a customer come in with a computer that was "shutting down unexpectedly."  My boss set to work tearing into their system to find the most unorthodox use of a case badge I've ever seen.

     CPU Badge'd

     In case you're wondering, yes thats an AMD case badge applied to the top of the cpu in place of thermal compound.



  • Replace it with a TDWTF sticker.



  • Seriously, wtf.

     Did you find out who put that there?



  • @DOA said:

     Did you find out who put that there?
     

    And, what are your plans for the treatment of his physical body?



  • @dhromed said:

    @DOA said:

     Did you find out who put that there?
     

    And, what are your plans for the treatment of his physical body?

     

    I bet he has concrete plans.



  • @Ilya Ehrenburg said:

    I bet he has concrete plans.
     

    I see what you did there and I like it.



  • @DOA said:

     Did you find out who put that there?
     

     The computer was built by the customer using parts he bought off newegg. Apparently the instructions made no mention of the case badge, so he assumed it belonged on the cpu as shown on the retail box below.



  • @GrizzlyAdams said:

    @DOA said:

     Did you find out who put that there?
     

     The computer was built by the customer using parts he bought off newegg. Apparently the instructions made no mention of the case badge, so he assumed it belonged on the cpu as shown on the retail box below.

    It's almost excusable, but he should have asked someone first.



  • Is that a stomach or an elbow on the right-hand side of the photo?



  • @Qwerty said:

    Is that a stomach or an elbow on the right-hand side of the photo?

    Unfortunately, I think, based on the angle of the hand on the bottom of the photo, that it's a stomach.



  • or, more likely is a tan-leather topped barstool.



  • @DescentJS said:

    @Qwerty said:

    Is that a stomach or an elbow on the right-hand side of the photo?

    Unfortunately, I think, based on the angle of the hand on the bottom of the photo, that it's a stomach.

    My vote is for "10 gallon leather satchel filled with cottage cheese".



  • I might be mistaken, but it looks like you need a lesson in ESD.



  • @Qwerty said:

    Is that a stomach or an elbow on the right-hand side of the photo?

    Don't tell me. I've been imagining that it's a boob.


  • @Daid said:

    I might be mistaken, but it looks like you need a lesson in ESD.

    Why's that?  Clearly his torso is enveloped by a loose rubber frock that is held several inches away from his skin by some sort of non-conductive gel.  And his hands are nestled snugly in copiously padded leather gloves made of elephant hide.



  • What I was mentioning was something along the lines of this:

    blatantly hotlinked Because We Care (TM)
    Maybe not as elaborate, but they're great for ESD problems.



  • I miss the day when computer hobbyism was just for fat nerds and if you did something like that your entire motherboard would catch on fire and most likely stink up your house for months.



  • @Dudehole said:

    I miss the day when computer hobbyism was just for fat nerds and if you did something like that your entire motherboard would catch on fire and most likely stink up your house for months.

     

    How have things changed?



  •  Everything has thermal protection circuits now, and (theoretically) shuts down before any damage can occur, let alone start releasing the magic smoke.



  • @DescentJS said:

    @Dudehole said:

    I miss the day when computer hobbyism was just for fat nerds and if you did something like that your entire motherboard would catch on fire and most likely stink up your house for months.

     

    How have things changed?

     

    Well for one, the ATX form factor has replaced the old newbie error of reversing the positions of P8 and P9.  (Remember, the black wires should be next to each other)



  • @Sir Twist said:

     Everything has thermal protection circuits now, and (theoretically) shuts down before any damage can occur, let alone start releasing the magic smoke.

    That doesn't really help when the powersupply fails to the point of blowing pieces off of the motherboard. I had that happen a while back (the athalon 1ghz cpu still ran afterwards too).



  • @smbarbour said:

    Well for one, the ATX form factor has replaced the old newbie error of reversing the positions of P8 and P9.  (Remember, the black wires should be next to each other)
    Do you really think that ATX connector will prevent people from forcing the plug the wrong way in?



  • @ender said:

    @smbarbour said:
    Well for one, the ATX form factor has replaced the old newbie error of reversing the positions of P8 and P9.  (Remember, the black wires should be next to each other)
    Do you really think that ATX connector will prevent people from forcing the plug the wrong way in?

    Well no... people will try and force a square peg through a round hole, but switching P8 and P9 doesn't require working against the design, since the connectors are identical (versus forcing any other connector against the idiot-proofing*)

     

    *Of course, the more you try to idiot-proof something, the more likely you are to only hinder the ones that do know what they are doing.



  • @smbarbour said:

    *Of course, the more you try to idiot-proof something, the more likely you are to only hinder the ones that do know what they are doing.
     

    I disagree.

    USB and SATA are fairly well idiot-proof. You can never reach 100%, of course.



  • @dhromed said:

    USB and SATA are fairly well idiot-proof. You can never reach 100%, of course.
    First time I was connecting a SATA data cable, I managed to connect it the wrong way around. I didn't have to use any force - the connector on cable cleanly cut away the tab on the disk. It worked fine after I reversed the cable though.



  • @dhromed said:

    @smbarbour said:

    *Of course, the more you try to idiot-proof something, the more likely you are to only hinder the ones that do know what they are doing.
     

    I disagree.

    USB and SATA are fairly well idiot-proof. You can never reach 100%, of course.

    And it's not that hard to put an usb device upside down in it, I've seen a few myself.



  • @XIU said:

    @dhromed said:

    @smbarbour said:

    *Of course, the more you try to idiot-proof something, the more likely you are to only hinder the ones that do know what they are doing.
     

    I disagree.

    USB and SATA are fairly well idiot-proof. You can never reach 100%, of course.

    And it's not that hard to put an usb device upside down in it, I've seen a few myself.

     

    It's also terrifyingly easy to jam a USB-A cable into an Ethernet port in a way that almost feels like it's supposed to work.



  • @Someone You Know said:

    @XIU said:

    @dhromed said:

    @smbarbour said:

    *Of course, the more you try to idiot-proof something, the more likely you are to only hinder the ones that do know what they are doing.
     

    I disagree.

    USB and SATA are fairly well idiot-proof. You can never reach 100%, of course.

    And it's not that hard to put an usb device upside down in it, I've seen a few myself.
     

    It's also terrifyingly easy to jam a USB-A cable into an Ethernet port in a way that almost feels like it's supposed to work.

    Fortunately, however, it won't shortcircuit when you do that.



  • @DescentJS said:

    @Someone You Know said:

    @XIU said:

    @dhromed said:

    @smbarbour said:

    *Of course, the more you try to idiot-proof something, the more likely you are to only hinder the ones that do know what they are doing.
     

    I disagree.

    USB and SATA are fairly well idiot-proof. You can never reach 100%, of course.

    And it's not that hard to put an usb device upside down in it, I've seen a few myself.
     

    It's also terrifyingly easy to jam a USB-A cable into an Ethernet port in a way that almost feels like it's supposed to work.

    Fortunately, however, it won't shortcircuit when you do that.

    True, but it can destroy the pins on a perfectly-good Ethernet port.  I consider this a positive thing though; it's Natural Selection at work.  Do we really want these people connecting to a network anyway?  By isolating their inferior DNA from the Internet we guarantee their toxic ideas don't contaminate the intellectual pool where real evolution is being carried out.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    By isolating their inferior DNA from the Internet we guarantee their toxic ideas don't contaminate the intellectual pool where real evolution is being carried out.

     

    Have you been online recently? Your plan doesn't seem to work as intended.



  • @Ilya Ehrenburg said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    By isolating their inferior DNA from the Internet we guarantee their toxic ideas don't contaminate the intellectual pool where real evolution is being carried out.

     

    Have you been online recently? Your plan doesn't seem to work as intended.

    No, my last post was made by carrier pigeon.  Besides, I'm not saying idiots are prevalent on the Internet, just that the more we can force off, the better.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @Ilya Ehrenburg said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    By isolating their inferior DNA from the Internet we guarantee their toxic ideas don't contaminate the intellectual pool where real evolution is being carried out.

     

    Have you been online recently? Your plan doesn't seem to work as intended.

    No, my last post was made by carrier pigeon.  Besides, I'm not saying idiots are prevalent on the Internet, just that the more we can force off, the better.

    Yeah, but a greater impact could be made by nuking all of Eurasia.  Let's do that instead.


  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @Ilya Ehrenburg said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    By isolating their inferior DNA from the Internet we guarantee their toxic ideas don't contaminate the intellectual pool where real evolution is being carried out.

     

    Have you been online recently? Your plan doesn't seem to work as intended.

    No, my last post was made by carrier pigeon.

     Lucky you. We're still using bottle-post here.

    Besides, I'm not saying idiots are prevalent on the Internet, just that the more we can force off, the better.
     

    Yes, I agree with that. But you really shouldn't have written "guarantee ... don't".  We have to settle for "reduces the probability that".



  • @bstorer said:

    Yeah, but a greater impact could be made by nuking all of Eurasia.  Let's do that instead.

    Can we move Canada and Mexico to Eurasia first?  And West Virginia?

     

    And, fuck it, California?



  • @morbiuswilters said:

     

    And, fuck it, California?

    And lose our strategic artichoke reserves?  Are you mad?


  • @Someone You Know said:

    It's also terrifyingly easy to jam a USB-A cable into an Ethernet port in a way that almost feels like it's supposed to work.

    If that's your idea of terrifying, you ought to see someone plug an RJ11 cable into an ethernet socket. You'll pee your pants!



  • @Someone You Know said:

    It's also terrifyingly easy to jam a USB-A cable into an Ethernet port in a way that almost feels like it's supposed to work.

    That only works on laptops.

    No really.



  • @dhromed said:

    @Someone You Know said:

    It's also terrifyingly easy to jam a USB-A cable into an Ethernet port in a way that almost feels like it's supposed to work.

    That only works on laptops.

    No really.

     

    you mean tabletops (not kidding about the name, this is what my mom calls them).



  • @DescentJS said:

    It's almost excusable, but he should have asked someone first.

     

    He should have RTFM first.  It so happens that last night I started my first scratch build in years.  I assumed that all my knowledge was out of date, so I read all the Engrish documentation.  The AMD cpu comes with a heatsink that already has a thermal patch applied, so you can literally follow the steps in a set of pictures, including all three possible types of socket, and not screw it up.  I do have to admit that the manual is folded up like a map and has written warnings in about ten languages, so it may be difficult to actually find the instructions in there if you're lazy.


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