43. In 1999, I built my first computer. I assembled everything and… it didn’t work. As in nothing happened when I pressed any buttons. I removed the motherboard from the case and placed it on my desk, thinking I’d try removing pieces of hardware on it one by one, to see what could be the culprit. But on first try, everything worked.
It turned out that the motherboard was too close to the backside of the tower case. No risers had been provided for either the motherboard or the tower case.
So I used kitchen roll to put between the case back and the motherboard – and it worked flawlessly.
Fast forward to 2004 where I gave the computer to my parents. My mum wanted a bigger harddisk, so I revisited it – and the kitchen roll seemed just fine so I just left it in place. In 2007, I bought a new computer for her – an all-in-one type.
TL;DR: I used kitchen roll to avoid short circuit on a motherboard due to the case back creating the short circuit. It worked for many years.
