How much does it cost to find out you're a moron? (1 Viewer)

[Dustin B]

Answer, $14.95CDN.

I'm writing this in hopes you fine folks will pity me and tell me I'm not a moron, I'm just a little slow sometimes :b

I feel soooooo stupid right now

On Sunday I bought some sticky clips to clean up my runs of speaker wire. I pulled my equipment appart and cleaned it all off while I was at it. Then I put it all back together. DSS receiver wasn't working. Try it on a different cable in the house still doesn't work. Try a different receiver on my cable works. Hmm, tuner must be gone (everything else worked fine including watching shows I'd already recorded).

Phone Bell (I'm 6months out of warranty on a 5100 PVR). $150CDN plus $14.95CDN shipping to exchange mine for a refurb. Ok guess I have no choice. Lets do it.

Refurb arrives today. Hook it up, no signal. What the hell Go look again, I've plugged the cable from the dish into the RF antenna input (a total of 4 times now on two different receivers :frowning: ). Hook mine back up properly, works fine.

So there you have it, $14.95CDN (oh and a $150CDN until I get it refunded) to find out I'm a moron :b

 

[Mark Brewer]

The other day I thought my SACD player was broken. The CD I wanted to listen wasn't being read. I was getting really mad. I tried everything I could think of I cleaned the cd, I even blamed my wife for breaking it, after about 15 minutes of frustration something caught my eye on the cd.

DVD-A

Maybe I should get a universal player.

 

[MikeH1]

Well, you got balls Dustin. Most wouldn't post something about themselves looking stupid like that.

I can top it, but I'm not posting it!!

 

[Max Leung]

I bought an NEC LT240 DLP projector sight unseen (based on positive reviews all over). I thought, "Only a small percentage of the population can see rainbows (DLP color separation artifacts), so I should be safe".

D'oh!

I feel so dumb. The restock fee is horrendous, so I might as well take drugs like prozac or even start trying out Mary J to dull the effects.

 

[Jim_F]

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but here goes-

When I was installing my fire safe, I had to drill a couple of holes in my closet floor to bolt it down. I carefully checked to make sure I wouldn't hit any electrical, plumbing or duct work. I marked my spots and started drilling. Man, was it going slow! I thought that either my bit was dull or this was the hardest hardwood flooring ever, but the bit was brand new. I got all the way into the closet and leaned on it with all my weight. The tip of the bit started to smoke. I was burning through the wood faster than I was drilling. Damn was this some hard wood! Consistent with the adage that a good workman never blames his tools, I stared at my drill in disbelief. That's when I saw the problem:

The switch in the position marked "REVERSE".

 

[Dustin B]

Come on Micheal, have some more liquid courage and top mine. That was really the point of my thread. To share in others pain with laughter so we all stop feeling quite so stupid for a little while

Well except for those special people who have never done something stupid, they can just go away and leave us foulable folk alone :p)

 

[Alex Spindler]

I've got plenty of stories like that. Happens to all of us.

I'd rather think we fall under this category:

 

[Scott Bourden]

I made a thread in the receivers section 4 days ago about my stupid problem.


No voices in DD or DTS. All sound effects, just no voices what so ever.

This happened with 5-6 friends over, and it was quite embarrassing, my pride and joy HT not working and all... Stereo sources were fine, just no voices in DD or DTS.

Ended up watching a movie in PL2 that night :frowning:

Turns out the painters I had in a few days earlier must have hooked a wire with a drop cloth or the like...

The next day I spent about 3 hours trying to trouble shoot it. After switching all DVD player settings, resetting all equipment, and everything else I could fathom, I went to redo my wires...


And noticed one of the wires had been pulled loose from the center channel :b

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

One time I was up late at night watching Television. It was the dead of night and I couldn't see anything except for what little the TV illuminated. Anyways, I grabbed the TV remote and went to change the station down one click only to find that I had turned the volume up one click.

Just kidding that happens like every day.

The real embarassing technical moments happen when I plug something into an outlet that's activated by a light switch. I thought my Sharper Image air purifier broke when I couldn't get it to work at night.

It's like that Visa commercial where the guy finds out the blender really does work.. "priceless".

 

[MikeH1]

Yeah ok I'll bite. When this happened I couldn't help thinking that it was something out of a Seinfeld episode.

I was in a small nightclub a year ago and it was a packed house. I went into the bathroom and some dude was in there and was rolling a little "happy smoke". A problem arose and he had to leave the bathroom for a minute and he asked me if I could watch his small stash. I said sure, no prob. Well, after about 5 minutes the dude didn't return and I was getting antsy for there was this nice girl I was chatting with. I decided to grab the "stash" in the palm of my hand and go looking for him (I'm half-drunk). Well I see him just outside the bathroom doors yapping with someone and say "here's your goods you shouldn't leave it laying around like that" and handed it to him.

Well of course the bouncer saw me. He asked me to open my hand and I had nothing in it. At that moment I thought I might not catch heat. He then asked buddy to open his hand and there of course was a small mittfull of happy smoke.

Needless to say I got escorted to the door and was told to never return. :frowning:

 

[Jared_B]

Here's mine:
I was installing recessed lights for my HT room. I went up to the attic, found the power wire that I would spice into running accross the rafters above the room. I got all my equipment ready, then went down and flipped the breakers for that room. Just to be safe, I also turned off the power to the hallway adjacent to the HT room. I climbed back up to the attic and got my equipment ready. When I clipped the power wire, there was a bright flash of light, and a loud pop from downstairs. I sat there for a moment, wondering what the hell just happened. Luckily, my wire cutters were insulated.

I visually traced the wire I had just cut - I went along the rafters above the HT room, but continued going into another room...a room with a breaker that I didn't turn off. I still didn't know where the popping noise came from.

I went downstairs, and this time I turned off all power to the entire house. I finished my wiring, installed the lights, and turned the power back on. Everything worked fine...almost. A couple hours later I went to use the microwave in the kitchen, but it wasn't working. It took me a few minutes to figure out what happened, but I finally realized that the wire I had cut was the kitchen circuit. The microwave was fried.

 

[Ron-P]

I re-wired my entire rig once, watched a few movies and thought, something just does not sound 'right'. Checked the wiring out, yeah I had the amps all screwed up and wired wrong. The center amp was powering the right main, the amp for the left main was powering the surrounds, it was FUBAR!

Don't drink beer and re-wire your rig (at the same time).


Peace Out~

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

How much does it cost to find out you're a moron?

Let me check with a divorce attorney. I'll get back to you.

I always turn off the main breaker anytime I'm going to do anything involving electricity. It simply isn't worth the risk to do otherwise.

(As I read this thread I kept thinking about that cringe-inducing commercial for a hardware store where the wife is about to throw what she thinks is the switch for the newly-installed kitchen ceiling fan while her husband has his hand in the garbage disposal. Also the "finding out the blender does work - priceless" MasterCard ad. )

Regards,

Joe

 

[MancusoB]

When I was a kid, I used to sneak my sister's suitcase-type record player into my room to listen to her records. This was a big no-no in my house.

One afternoon, I grabbed it, went into my room and shut the door. I went to plug the cord into the wall, but the prongs were splayed out a little too far to fit the socket. I held them together with my fingers as I plugged it in....

The surprise from the shock made me fall backwards and hit my head on a table. I was knocked-out for a little while and woke up to find my mom and sister standing over me while I'm still holding the plug...

 

[Luis Esp]

I can top that one. At work the air is really dry and I'm constantly getting shocked. I swear I think I could light a lamp just by touching it.

Today in my futile attempts not to get shocked, I tried to avoid any contact with anything metal.

But unfortunately, I got a major shock from a door knob, my hand flew back and I squared myself right in the nuts

!

Let me tell you, it took awhile before I was able to stand.

 

[Malcolm R]

Today in my futile attempts not to get shocked, I tried to avoid any contact with anything metal. But unfortunately, I got a major shock from a door knob, my hand flew back and I squared myself right in the nuts!

No more entries, we have a winner!

 

[Max Leung]

That's quite a reflex you got there Luis. Makes me wonder what you do in your spare time! *duck*

 

[Dheiner]

Luis,

I hope someone was rolling tape.

 

[Chris Rosene]

I've got an HT-related moron story:
I just got my new HTPC set up with Theatertek, new XP install, updated Radeon drivers, etc, etc. Put in Phantom Menance to demo and I kept getting stutters and video freezing. I spent many, many hours formating the HD, reinstalling/uninstalling drivers, cruising forums looking for an answer to my stuttering and freezing. Pulled cards out (video and audio) and cleaned the contacts, and on and on. Turns out my 2 year old had handled the DVD while eating what appears to be a Ding Dong or Ho-Ho. Once I demo'd the system with a clean DVD, all was fine.

 

[Steve_Tk]

On the way to work, I hit something in the road. So I stopped the car and got out, you know, to look at the car even though I would have no idea what I was looking for. I have a bad habit of locking the door without even thinking about it.

So I jump out of the car, lock the door, with the car running, and check the tire. Find out I'm locked out. Cell phone, wallet (with spare key) are both in the car. No change.

So I walk to a gas station and beg for a quarter, call my father who I left a spare key with. We happen to live close so he hurries to help me. Unlocks the car, after sitting idle for 30 minutes when running.

So I figure I'll get some gas. Pull up to the Gas station, get out and lock my keys in my car again. Keys and wallet in the car AGAIN.

I don't know where my brain was that day, but I was so mad that I almost threw something through my window. It's just a really terrible feeling that you did something stupid already once that day, then to turn around and do it again 10 minutes later, makes your blood preasure rise just a tad.