Tell us about the last time you had a tech failure!

Years back i had my First Real Smartphone.

A Galaxy S1.

One day my left Inear doesnt worked anymore. After i tested other Earpieces with the same Result i filed a Warranty Claim.

Result was the Audio Chip for the Left Channel was Dead.

Never had that before :)

My last tech failure was fairly minor and is reoccuring: The repeater in our flat (a FritzBox) keeps disconnecting from the router (also a FritzBox). So about once a month the LAN I get from this repeater grinds to a halt (still kinda connected but at 1-10% of the speed we normally have) and I get to crawl under my desk to unplug it, wait a few minutes, and plug it back in. Because of course the repeater sits in the most inconvenient place of our whole damn flat!
The repeater is around 10 or so years old now but has this fault for at least the past 2-4 years. And I refuse to buy a new one until the problem either can't be solved anymore or the repeater just gives up entirely.

My favourite tech failure was back about 8-10 years ago. I had a computer with fairly good specs for the time (I had the new GTX 970, very exciting!), easily enough to run all the games I wanted. Bought the new Assassin's Creed Unity game and installed it. This took I believe 6 CDs and several hours. When I started the game, I got maybe 2 FPS and crazy graphical glitches. I would be lucky to make it into the settings menu, let alone start the story. But nontheless I tried solving the issue in what was basically an unresponsive slide show. I tried for several weeks before emailing Ubisoft. They said it must be a problem with my graphics card drivers. So I emailed Nvidia, who said the GTX 970 should handle the game no problem, it sounds like a Windows issue to them. So one email to Microsoft later and I got the news that this is definitely not a Windows problem and that the game is probably broken, maybe I should try Ubisoft. At this point I gave up. Swore to never buy another AC game again and left it alone. I could play most other games just fine, so what was the problem?
Well, about 3-4 years later I got a new monitor. The monitor did not have the same plugs as the old one so I needed to buy an adapter for the DP cable, in the meantime using the VGA port instead. This was when I noticed that my computer had grapics ports going vertical and going horizontal. Two clusters. Up until now I had simply used whatever port fit the cable I wanted. Turns out I had my monitors plugged into the motherboard, which then rendered my games using the CPU. My at that point ~4 years old GPU sat unused, still waiting to get something to render.
Because I had to wait for the adapter, I figured out that you can set in the settings which games will be rendered using the CPU and which using the GPU. So I set all my games to use the GPU and suddenly it all felt smooth as butter. Even Skyrim, which had run "flawlessly" was suddenly so much nicer to play! In hindsight I had probably never gotten above 20-25 FPS but because I had no frame of reference, thought this was fine. I am surprised that I didn't end each day with a massive headache.
Suffice it to say that all my games felt much better and even Assassin's Creed ran perfectly. Though at that point I was a lot less interested in the game and never finished it.
Sometimes the issue sits in front of the monitor. And I now read up a lot more on the stuff I have so I don't make easy mistakes like that again!

It was a normal day at college, and I was about to give a group presentation on a subject called Experimental Physics 2. I brought my laptop with all my work. I arrived early for class because the grade for this work was important. When I turned on the laptop, it made a strange noise and the screen didn't turn on, and it was charging. I started to panic. Everyone seemed focused and nervous to present their work, but I, besides being very nervous, needed help.

I decided to ask my friend who was part of my group, who knew more about technology than I did. He came over and, with a serious look, said: "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" And I had already tried that many times, but I tried again, and nothing. The professor started calling the groups, and I still couldn't get anything.

That's when I tried everything: I connected a flash drive that had my movies on it, put it to charge, turned it on and turned it off. And guess what? My laptop started working again at the last minute. The presentation was a success, and now I never underestimate the tactic of doing everything at once, like in fighting games.

I still don't understand what happened, if someone can explain it to me

So this is a short one.

back in 2020 I was building myself a little server to sit just in front of my router to provide additional security for the house, we have 3 PCs, 2 laptops and multiple consoles. So, I was busy sorting that out and then I was ready to turn it on.

Only when I turned it on, we had a power surge and my so-called "protector" extension, which is designed to stop this, failed miserably and the tower's CPU just burned out on the spot.

It's not the best time for a tech failure.

The day I almost sued the most famous hardware store in Brazil because of a Tech Failure.

It was early September. I had built my first PC on the first day of August; it was a basic setup with a Ryzen 5 4600G and 8 GB of RAM. I couldn't wait for payday to buy my first upgrade: an additional 8 GB of RAM to enable Dual Channel.

This upgrade meant a lot to me for two reasons: first, since I played Valorant without a dedicated graphics card, I needed to enable Dual Channel for better FPS and to be more competitive; second, as a Brazilian, hardware parts are very expensive here, so I felt privileged to have a computer.

It took 14 days for the RAM to arrive (I had issues with the courier), I installed it in the PC, powered it on, and...

The computer didn’t turn on.

I was incredulous; the RAM must have been defective. How could I be so unlucky? I was struggling to contain my anxiety, and now I would have to wait over a month for a replacement, as I would need to return the faulty RAM, receive my refund, and buy a new one.

Time passed.

About 32 days later, I had a new RAM module in hand, purchased from the same store as before because it’s the best store in Brazil for hardware parts. And to my surprise, my PC didn’t turn on again.

I confess that day anger took over my mind and led me to do things I bitterly regret: I called the store and threatened to sue them if they didn’t send me a functioning product. Until...

After listening to my complaints and insults, the attendant told me that the "defective" RAM I returned was working and that my PC probably didn’t turn on because I had another RAM already installed. To resolve the issue, he said, all I needed to do was remove the motherboard battery, reconnect it, and start the PC with both RAM modules together.

How could I forget such a basic detail? How could I put myself through such embarrassment?

I apologized to the attendant, explained the situation, and he understood and forgave me. What a kind man. I reset my PC's BIOS, and now I’m here, achieving high ranks in Valorant and enjoying all the capabilities my PC has to offer.

Moral of the story: anxiety is a “blindfold” that prevents you from seeing the obvious. Take care of your mental health, as it’s worth more than electronic components.