Computer Horror Stories

[mrasmus]

Horror story.... Well, a couple months ago, I went to delete some software (warez) that my idiot friend installed and was bogging down my computer. Now, Norton didn't detect a virus, and I had a full firewall set up, so I uninstalled via a/r programs. Of course, it doesn't like it when you uninstall it, so it renamed EVERY folder on my root directory to something allong the lines of "C:\HACKHACKHACKHACKHACkWindows\", as well as certain random subdirectories. Oh, Joy. Of course, somehow I didn't notice this until I shut down (happened soon after the uninstall). When I booted up, I got "NTLDR not found" message. Never having heard of that before, I looked it up. Turns out it is the NT (New Technology) system boot loader program thingy that is required to boot. I go in my copy of KNOPPIX, it won't even read the partition with the NTFS drivers (can't remember what they're called, but they've worked before). So, I go to my XP CD. It won't let me use the command prompt, because it doesn't detect that I know the password. I try to hack and reset the password, but guess what? the folder name is wrong, so it won't permanently reset it, making it worthless. So, I kept downloading, burning, and trying different CD bootable Environments, and finally one works (BartPE) and lets me get a C:\ prompt. Figures, despite my greatest efforts, a Windows based environment was the only thing that could read my almost fubar'd NTFS partition. oh, the irony. So I go in, change the names of the important stuff, and am able to boot my computer and fix the rest. My computer now works fine, didn't even end up reinstalling windows (I was ready to, but then someone on a board I post to recommended BartPE), and I saved all of my data.

Oh yeah, the "idiot friend" is now "arsehole enemy" unless he pays me for the, I dunno, 30+ man hours I spent when I could have been fraggin' somebody in UT.

It's times like this that I want a Mac. The greatest irony of it all was that the computer I downloaded and burned all the software on (for the most part) was a friend's Mac. I have great respect for the fact that nobody targets Apple systems.

mrasmus

[Shmi]

ooh, and UT is on mac.

[mrasmus]

tousche (sp?). But, no offense, I prefer my games on a Sony system, thank you very much.

[brickwallfish]

Well, I had quite a few computer horror stories but this one is kinda freaky....

Ever heard of white noise? Not the movie, the real deal. On or of (even with all cable's unplugged), it didn't matter, but at some time at night, my pc boxes would make some sort of... noise. Like a voice, played backwards! And not softly, no, quite loud actually, with no static or whatsoever. Kept doing that every couple of nights for half a year or so. Very creepy.

Oh and my former HD had a heartbeat. I still have that hd, but it's locked safely in a led box in a wooden crate in an airtight bag in a cement block in a 12 foot deep hole the back of my yard. (read: somewhere in my room)

I may joke about it but it really freaked me out...

[TheLAD]

I had a 'good' horror story a few days back...

While removing my GeForce2MX to install my new 9800 Pro for Tiger, I dragged the end of it across the motherboard. Now, me being rather stupid, I hadn't turned the power off at the wall so the motherboard was live...

Sparks went everywhere!

I quickly tore the card out of the tower before I did more damage. Fortunately, I didn't kill either the card or the Mac, but I did put a lovely scorch mark on my GeForce2.

2 more...

1. My mate spilled coffee all over his Pismo while it was on. Basically I had to stick the keyboard under the sink to clean it. Once it dried out it worked fine again.

2. MY CPU will make an odd pulsing noise in time to the Activity monitor's refresh rate. Rather freaky.

[Sony]

Well, I had quite a few computer horror stories but this one is kinda freaky....

Ever heard of white noise? Not the movie, the real deal. On or of (even with all cable's unplugged), it didn't matter, but at some time at night, my pc boxes would make some sort of... noise. Like a voice, played backwards! And not softly, no, quite loud actually, with no static or whatsoever. Kept doing that every couple of nights for half a year or so. Very creepy.

Oh and my former HD had a heartbeat. I still have that hd, but it's locked safely in a led box in a wooden crate in an airtight bag in a cement block in a 12 foot deep hole the back of my yard. (read: somewhere in my room)

I may joke about it but it really freaked me out...

Awww dude that gives me the creeps just reading it...sure someone wasn't just screwing with you?

I don't have very many horror stories as I am anal retentive OCD when it comes to my computer but I have many stories about my computer being a PITA.

The scariest thing for me is always mounting the heatsink...everytime I do it no matter how many hundreds of times I am always anticipating my core to go *Crack* and then I'm gonna have to buy a new 3200+

[Guardiandevil21]

Wow it's been a long time since I logged into the forums.  I had a friend from work ask me if I could fix his computer for him.  In fact he said just to go ahead and redo windows, which he has never done.  So I sat down to work on this on MLK day.  When I reinstalled windows and rebooted his bios told me that there was a hardware maulfunction.  Apparently the processor running at 170 degrees is a hardware malfunction... I call that pretty close to a meltdown.  After I stopped the machine I wondered if maybe he hadn't cleaned it in a while... try never.  My friend bought his computer his freshman year of college and he currently is in his senior year.  I had to vaccumm the computer and use half a can of air, along with having to take apart his heatsink.  Once that was said and done so far smooth sailing.

On another note I decided to download something last night from bit torrent and was happily introduced to like 30 malware and other viruses.  So my day has been using both Avast and AVG to clean up my desktop.  It should make everyone happy that the only problem with my ibook is that there isn't enough ram.  so I don't think there will be much on here about it unless it comes in contact with nuclear waste and mutates into some deadly scrotum scorching machine of death.

G-Boy out

[defekter]

Here's a never-ending computer Horror Story... I'm the system administrator of the home network I run (basically 3, sometimes 4 computers to share 'net, printing and files) and the one (newest) eMachines computer is used by mainly my mother and father. So, they bank, and stuff, but my mother spends a vast amount of time play games online, like on the MSN Game Zone site, except, not MSN.. she uses Yahoo. Now, if that's not scary enough, (*screams a blood-curdling scream at the mention of Yahoo*) I unno what is..   

[OrcishIncubus]

I played Yahoo games at my college..

Let them deal with the spyware.

[BOBTHEWOMTAD]

my advice for windows users is not norton, but Trend micro Pccillin.  Much more stable and secure.  Also runs very much in the background andeven though it doesn't come with the plethera of software that system works comes with, its solid.

BTW.  I have no horror stories.  I know better than to leave windows vulnerable.

The only thing that urks me is the fact my socket 939 3400+ doesn't support differing size memory modules in dual channel. >.< god damn clearance sales........

[Hellmark]

Grisoft AVG free edition is also good.

And, in my experience, dual channel has to be in like pairs.

[OrcishIncubus]

Hence why it's "dual"...

[defekter]

my advice for windows users is not norton, but Trend micro Pccillin.  Much more stable and secure.  Also runs very much in the background andeven though it doesn't come with the plethera of software that system works comes with, its solid.

BTW.  I have no horror stories.  I know better than to leave windows vulnerable.

The only thing that urks me is the fact my socket 939 3400+ doesn't support differing size memory modules in dual channel. >.< god damn clearance sales........

Anybody with even the slightest amount of common sense will know not to use Norton on any machine. That anti-virus program is useless, inefficient and an unneccessary memory hog.... but I digress. I use Grisoft's stuff religiously because their software is clean, easy, automatic (and who has the time to manually update stuff all the time?) and it runs with as little memory as a messaging program. Awesome.

[Darkshine]

I use Norton...*hides*..But thats because I got my laptop from work and it was already installed in it. And my dad got it a few years ago for the desktop. While it is a memory hog I cant say I've had any problems with it. Havent had any viruses or anything in a while.

As for horror stories..um..My HD crashed a few years back. Thanks to Best Buy service plan I got a new (bigger) HD and got upgraded to XP from ME (eww)

[leblo64]

Anybody with even the slightest amount of common sense will know not to use Norton on any machine. That anti-virus program is useless, inefficient and an unneccessary memory hog

I think norton is brilliant.  The only problem I have with it is that when it's doing a scan the internet slows down...but thats proble 'cause I was using IE.  I finaly remembered to put firefox on today and it's alot more faster.