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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Phil21 on Mon, 31 December 2012, 22:21:17

Title: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: Phil21 on Mon, 31 December 2012, 22:21:17: So.. About a month ago I dropped a 3.5" hard drive onto my Filco TKL cammo and broke the caps lock key :( I thought that was pretty hilariously nerdy as far as breaking something goes.

However, I think I got topped. An employee at work, brought his Macbook Pro in saying he needed a new keyboard. I asked what happened, and after a minute or two of cajoling he finally relented and told me.

He apparently had his original Lego X-Wing fighter model fall off the shelf, and land on top of his (opened) laptop. We're both in our 30's :) For those who don't know what this monster looks like it's something like: http://www.chuma2.com/lego/images/Lego_X-wing.JPG and weighs quite a bit.

Any other fun stories? I have quite a few boring ones (spilling drinks, getting upset and banging on the board hard, etc), but I don't think I'll ever top having a lego model cause destruction :)

-Phil
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: razorsharpgears on Mon, 31 December 2012, 22:23:36: lmao, that's pretty funny ;D

Wish I had some stories of my own to share, but [un?]fortunately I've never actually broken a keyboard...
I guess you can call me over-cautious, lol

Looking forward to reading others' stories though :p
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: esoomenona on Mon, 31 December 2012, 22:23:50: I think the nerdiest you'll find is someone breaking it while modding, or even more so, building a keyboard. Is that considered nerdy?
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: razorsharpgears on Mon, 31 December 2012, 22:27:43: Breaking a keyboard while in the process of trying to build it would really suck :/

I built my own computer, and although it isn't that hard, it is still kind of scary knowing you might accidentally break something you spent all this money on. (Or have static short the wiring)
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: esoomenona on Mon, 31 December 2012, 22:29:43: I built my computer, and I felt the same way. I know of at least one person who broke their keyboard while building it. It is quite unfortunate.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: razorsharpgears on Mon, 31 December 2012, 22:39:13: ^May his keyboard rest in peace.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: WhiteFireDragon on Mon, 31 December 2012, 22:45:49: With the amount of keyboards I've built and modded, I wish I had stories to share :( , but fortunately none of them broke.

WASDkeyboard got back a keyboard that cracked in half because a bowling ball was dropped on it though. Yes that's right, a bowling ball.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: Phil21 on Mon, 31 December 2012, 23:15:14: Haha, bowling ball is pretty good. And they wanted a free exchange?!

I haven't built a keyboard, but I'm sure if I did I'd eventually have a good story to tell. Building computers though...

Way back in the day, when I was eh.. 13 or 14, I saved up *all* summer mowing lawns, washing cars, etc. Finally had enough to go to the local store and buy a motherboard + CPU to upgrade my machine.

I get it all built, works great. I remember this being either a 486/66 or the AMD clone equivalent. Something along those lines.

Anyways, I'm feeling pretty badass. Got a nice machine going, did it myself - life is great! Time to show this off to friends! A fairly non-technical friend came over and wondered how it all works - so I proceed to take everything apart to show him. This of course includes pulling the CPU (iirc, they didn't have heatsinks even - one of the last generations to not need them). I pull the CPU, show him, and toss it back on the board.

Hit the power switch.. POOF -magic smoke! I pretty much crapped my pants at that point. Ended up (I'm guessing, didn't have the technical chops back then to diagnose it) blowing a few caps off the motherboard. Amazingly, the CPU still worked. After giving my pathetic story to the owner of the shop, he felt bad enough to give me a board at cost + let me pay it off over a couple months as long as he helped me build it in his shop with him. I will forever be in his debt :)

The cause? You know how they make CPU's now with pins that can only be inserted in a particular direction? Yeah. I'm one of the dumbasses who made that come to be. You can indeed insert a 486 chip backwards in the socket, it will fit fine, but the motherboard will blow up. Now you know!

-Phil
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: tp4tissue on Mon, 31 December 2012, 23:25:46: Quote from: Phil21 on Mon, 31 December 2012, 23:15:14
Haha, bowling ball is pretty good. And they wanted a free exchange?!

I haven't built a keyboard, but I'm sure if I did I'd eventually have a good story to tell. Building computers though...

Way back in the day, when I was eh.. 13 or 14, I saved up *all* summer mowing lawns, washing cars, etc. Finally had enough to go to the local store and buy a motherboard + CPU to upgrade my machine.

I get it all built, works great. I remember this being either a 486/66 or the AMD clone equivalent. Something along those lines.

Anyways, I'm feeling pretty badass. Got a nice machine going, did it myself - life is great! Time to show this off to friends! A fairly non-technical friend came over and wondered how it all works - so I proceed to take everything apart to show him. This of course includes pulling the CPU (iirc, they didn't have heatsinks even - one of the last generations to not need them). I pull the CPU, show him, and toss it back on the board.

Hit the power switch.. POOF -magic smoke! I pretty much crapped my pants at that point. Ended up (I'm guessing, didn't have the technical chops back then to diagnose it) blowing a few caps off the motherboard. Amazingly, the CPU still worked. After giving my pathetic story to the owner of the shop, he felt bad enough to give me a board at cost + let me pay it off over a couple months as long as he helped me build it in his shop with him. I will forever be in his debt :)

The cause? You know how they make CPU's now with pins that can only be inserted in a particular direction? Yeah. I'm one of the dumbasses who made that come to be. You can indeed insert a 486 chip backwards in the socket, it will fit fine, but the motherboard will blow up. Now you know!

-Phil

hahaha.

man you're old school.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: precarious on Tue, 01 January 2013, 01:15:32: everything is nerdy and geeky therefore nothing is

break a keyboard with another keyboard
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: rowdy on Tue, 01 January 2013, 03:35:04: Can't say I've every broken a keyboard, per se. I snapped one of the little plastic legs off the bottom once by slamming my fist down on it after one too many silly support call from the same person with the same problem interrupting me for the nth time while I was trying to do something fairly urgent (at the request of the person who kept interrupting me).

Apart from that I am surprised how much abuse I can hurl at common peripherals, like keyboards and steering wheels, and they just keep functioning.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: TotalChaos on Tue, 01 January 2013, 04:24:31: I have only broken 3 keyboards in my entire life:

1. Rosewill RK-9000RE 2012. It broke while I was gently typing a GeekHack forum message to recommend the Rosewill RK-9000RE as a cheap keyboard on sale. Seriously? It breaks while I am trying to recommend it to other ppl? Useless Defective Junk. It was 26 days old. I am typing on it now. I stuck some tape on the connector and that seems to help a lot. For the last 30 mins it has only died a few times and only flashed lights at me once. This keyboard gets the GeekHack 2012 WTF Award

2. Commodore Amiga 3000 1990. This was when Commodore had switched over to those lame rubberdome over membrane keyboards. It was junk. Some keys stopped working after 3 years. The keycaps are indesctructible though and super smooooth professional quality. So I keep the keyboard stashed in the closet.

3. Commodore Amiga 2000 1988. Back then all the millions of keyboards Commodore made had always been "mechanical" keyboards. After 17 years of loyal service, after dropping it on the floor a few times each year, after yanking on the short spiral cable relenetlessly for many months, it finally broke the solder and stopped working. If I would have known to buy an extension cable I am sure it would still be working. I need to dig it out of the closet and send it to someone to fix it.

I guess banging out code on an A2000 keyboard in 2005 could be considered nerdy. :))

I have owned many other springloaded keyboards and rubberdome keyboards; used them heavily for a couple of years and then gave them away, sold them cheap or threw them in the closet without them ever having broken.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: engicoder on Tue, 01 January 2013, 07:42:09: I temporarily killed a Model M by spilling Code Red on it during a all night EverQuest session....
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: esoomenona on Tue, 01 January 2013, 10:41:50: I broke a N64 controller once. I was playing a game, which I can't recall, and I ended up getting really upset because I couldn't beat the part I was working on. So I calmly set the controller on the floor, went and grabbed a bat, and proceeded to smash it to bits... Nerd rage?
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: razorsharpgears on Tue, 01 January 2013, 12:35:57: I remember that good 'ol fashioned nerd rage >:D
I was playing some pokemon game, can't remember which Gen or Color, and couldn't beat this one trainer.
So basically, I bent the top part of my GameBoy SP all the way back :3
Yeah, had to go buy another one after that xD

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Game-Boy-Advance-SP-Mk1-Blue.png/250px-Game-Boy-Advance-SP-Mk1-Blue.png)
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: Vintage on Tue, 01 January 2013, 12:46:36: Havn't broke a keyboard before but I have broke an Xbox controller from "nerd rage."

Halo was very frustrating sometimes. :p
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: fohat.digs on Tue, 01 January 2013, 13:03:10: I don't think that I have ever broken a keyboard "in use" although I have wrecked several when taking them apart to "clean" or "adjust" them. I suppose that I accept a 10% "breakage" rate when I buy or otherwise receive old/junk/salvage boards and attempt to rehabilitate them.

These photos are probably fake, but I like them anyway:
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: razorsharpgears on Tue, 01 January 2013, 13:11:57: Quote from: fohat.digs on Tue, 01 January 2013, 13:03:10
Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/qmBJB.png)

That guy must have had a portal gun :/
(http://images.wikia.com/half-life/en/images/archive/c/c5/20110318142731!Portal_Gun_w.jpg)
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: davkol on Tue, 01 January 2013, 13:13:28: I guess I've never destroyed a keyboard, only damaged a scissor switch mechanism few times. However, when I bought a second-hand Apple Aluminium Keyboard, I couldn't do anything but wonder, what the original owner did with it. There were very long, more than milimeter-deep scratches in the aluminium plate — keys seemed almost untouched, though.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: rootwyrm on Tue, 01 January 2013, 16:14:32: Sun Type 6 keyboards. We threw them off the roof. Along with the Ultra5's. What a steaming pile of **** that all was. (The Type 6 was rubber dome, and the Ultra5 was nothing but trouble and tended not to play nice with Type 5's.)
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: jabar on Tue, 01 January 2013, 16:26:53: Worst damage to any keyboard was from beer being spilled, hardly the nerdiest way to break a keyboard.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: Leslieann on Tue, 01 January 2013, 17:19:24: Quote from: Phil21 on Mon, 31 December 2012, 22:21:17
So.. About a month ago I dropped a 3.5" hard drive onto my Filco TKL cammo and broke the caps lock key :( I thought that was pretty hilariously nerdy as far as breaking something goes.
I had the same happen to a Logitech illuminated, the same key no less.

Hardly my worst or most expensive computing accident though.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: Viz on Tue, 01 January 2013, 18:32:50: I sadly have no stories to share, except for one time where i nerdraged so hard that I ripped mousebutton 1 off of my deathadder :p
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: vun on Tue, 01 January 2013, 18:38:26: I took a rubberdome board apart to see what it looked like underneath several years ago, that's the only time I've destroyed a keyboard.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: SmallFry on Tue, 01 January 2013, 21:24:37: Threw an old Apple CRT with the keyboard off the roof of my high school for ****s and grins. Twas quite a fun experience.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: domin8r on Wed, 02 January 2013, 06:21:27: Back when we still had an MSX I broke the shift keys from playing a ridiculous amount of pinball (and probably using the same force as a pinball machine)
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: akuJIWA on Wed, 02 January 2013, 07:22:27: Never broke a mechanical keyboard, but I broke my Arctosa while trying to take off the keycaps to clean them, it was my best gaming keyboard.. until I met mechanical.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: xDezor on Wed, 02 January 2013, 15:18:23: I broke a keyboard once, and have the scar to prove it.

Back in college after a heavy night of mindless self indulgence I fell out of my bunkbed trying to grab a water bottle from my shelf. I landed face first onto my desk, smacking my head against the keyboard I had placed there before falling to the concrete floor. This little incident broke both my keyboard and Razer mouse, and left me with a 1 inch scar beside my right eyebrow. I've actually got a really cool picture of my face immediately afterwards with blood running down it and whatnot but I don't really want to show it here. :P
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: esoomenona on Wed, 02 January 2013, 15:20:21: Do it!
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: razorsharpgears on Wed, 02 January 2013, 15:35:09: Yeah, come on show it!
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: Findecanor on Thu, 03 January 2013, 08:26:22: I have never broken a keyboard in any spectacular way. In all these years, I have never spilled any liquid on a keyboard. I have only worn out a few keys and shortcut a membrane with water left from cleaning.

Once, long ago, a nerdy friend of mine managed to get so angry at his computer that he took it out on his keyboard by breaking it in half over his knee. Luckily, it was of cheap plastic construction, and did not have a steel plate. :)

A few mates in college entered a competition for wrecking things gracefully. They choose to go Office Space-style on a printer, and won.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: esoomenona on Thu, 03 January 2013, 08:39:11: I got upset at my laptop a few months ago because it has a small amount of RAM and was running very slow, so I proceeded to Hulk smash the keyboard. It has a wave effect to it now, but surprisingly still works, except I have to push the V and numpad . a little harder than normal to register.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: Noko on Thu, 03 January 2013, 15:40:19: I wore through an original iMac keyboard (destroyed the rubber domes) on the arrow keys from playing emulator SNES/Genesis games.
The parents were not amused at that one at the time.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: Glod on Thu, 03 January 2013, 16:05:34: I can think of 2 times where a MS Natural 4000 Almost met its destruction across someone's face in rage-quit. :))
(http://gifsoup.com/imager.php?id=1130578&t=o) (http://gifsoup.com/view/1130578/wanted-keyboard-smack.html)

I once ran over with a Ford Explorer a bunch (12+) of old dell keyboards being thrown away; being young and doing stuff for no reason. lol
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: xDezor on Thu, 03 January 2013, 16:29:00: (http://www.websitetrafficwarehouse.com/uploads/mad_at_computer.gif)
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: Leslieann on Thu, 03 January 2013, 16:33:42: Quote from: esoomenona on Thu, 03 January 2013, 08:39:11
I got upset at my laptop a few months ago because it has a small amount of RAM and was running very slow, so I proceeded to Hulk smash the keyboard. It has a wave effect to it now, but surprisingly still works, except I have to push the V and numpad . a little harder than normal to register.
This is why people love IBM Model M's, you can smash, beat, and probably light them on fire and it would continue to work. They should probably be listed as a deadly weapon as well. :))
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: haitu on Sat, 05 January 2013, 02:01:42: Spilled a bowl of pho on it.
Title: Re: Nerdiest way you've broken a keyboard?
Post by: razorsharpgears on Sat, 05 January 2013, 02:05:17: Quote from: haitu on Sat, 05 January 2013, 02:01:42
Spilled a bowl of pho on it.
You have just won the internet sir.