Ever heard the old adage, there are no stupid questions? I'm here to tell you, that's as big a load of crap as a C-130 carrying fertilizer. I've heard quite a few impressive ones, between various forums, and people I've met. Sadly, I see about twenty times more stupid answers than questions. I'm far from perfect, and I know it, but I usually try to say when I'm not sure about something, and I can admit it when I'm proven wrong.
For starters, a couple of the dumbest questions. Just today, I saw a good one. "I want to put the liquid cooler back into the computer. I bought an extra syringe of thermal paste, and the instructions tell me to remove old thermal compound reside with isopropyl. Is this really necessary? I was planning on just heating up the old paste with a hairdryer, adding a bit of new paste, and "gluing" my computer back together. Is it bad to mix compounds? Even if I do remove my old paste, I'm not going to use this isopropyl stuff."
Now for starters, how do you get old enough to be trusted with tools and electronics and not know how to google on the very slim off chance you've never seen a bottle of rubbing alcohol? More importantly, a hair dryer? Last time I checked, moving around hot air, if it's dry enough, can cause some pretty hefty static. Static, of course, being one of those things we try to avoid having near our CPU for some batshit crazy reason. I think we're trying to keep balloons from sticking to it or something.
Another time, back in the Army, I got asked this gem: "I have my PC hooked up to my bigscreen TV with HDMI, but the sound won't come out the TV speakers." So, of course, my first question: "Is it connected to an HDMI port on your graphics card, or are you using an adapter?" I'm sure you can figure the rest of this one out. I guess since HDMI carries audio, it should be able to extrapolate appropriate audio from a video signal, and play it, right? Makes sense to me.
And now, for a collection of a tiny fraction of the dumbest advice I've ever seen given on various tech boards.
Here's one talking about paging issues and HDD speed. One of my all-time favorites.
"They USED to be a lot slower than ram. But the fundamentals are no longer like this. You see, RAM bus is outside the chip, hence subject to abysmally slow speeds compared to intra-chip solutions. It also means that the speed growth of the connections is limited. And while harddrive read/write speeds are increasing EXPONENTIALLY, similarly how hard drive sizes are, the linear growth of ram speed cant keep up. So hard drives ultimately have come close to the speed of RAM read and write, only being limited by the same outside-chip fundamental problems."
Advice on cleaning old TIM:
"tbh you are ok with a slightly damp cloth as long as you are gentle+careful and dont run any power through the cpu until its totally dry"
And, the best solution for scareware I've ever seen!
"try to update drivers! if not, just clean all unnecesary files from youre hdd, or reinstall (reinstall is the last option) ofcours you may need to buy a new hdd, cause these kinfs of slowdowns are happening cause of HDD or drivers, sometimes it maybe something like a soundcard, or overheating!
change the thermo paste on youre CPU, cause it might be overheating! its called autothrottling, you can disable that, just google it, but it maybe risky!"
So, let's get into explaining this really complicated concept, for anybody considering giving out tech advice. If you aren't sure, GOOGLE IT. Please. You'll save time explaining why you're wrong, and lower the potential of turning somebodies PC into a collection of overpriced paperweights. It isn't rocket science, hell it isn't even computer science. It's a combination of common sense and common courtesy. It isn't your PC, you don't have the right to ruin it by being a moron.
If you aren't willing to do a photo guide of whatever advice you're giving with YOUR PC, don't tell someone else to do it. I mean seriously, Information Technology isn't an event in the Special Olympics, so why try out?
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