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So Frustrating
Earlier today my cat sat on my keyboard and managed to activate the shortcut for increasing the contrast on my computer screen. Needless to say, I didn't even know there was a said keyboard shortcut, and I had no idea how to fix it.
Well I scoured the internet and did some messing around and finally found it hidden deep in the crevices of my system preferences. I am relieved to finally have it fixed and I am also impressed, my cat managed to hit three different keys at the same time in order to adjust the contrast settings. Discuss: Problems that have occurred that you had no idea to fix. How long did you have to work on it? Where did you find the solution? Were you incredibly relieved? Has a pet(may also be read as younger sibling/ a parent/spouse/friend or partner) done something by accident that you were amazed they were able to do? What was it and did it cause as much trouble as my cat did me? |
My problem? Spyware alllll over the basement computer. =) Who did it, I have absolutely no idea what-so-ever. How long I took to fix it? Twelve hours over two days, I'm not even kidding, I was desperate. I have my laptop, but I can't play my favourite computer game on it.
Where did I find the solution? I didn't. -.- My daddy ended up shipping it off to his friend who fixes computers. One month later (after many many scans were run and viruses removed, computer comes back! =D) The next day, guess what I find? =) Yes, spyware, AGAIN. I was not happy. -.- In fact, I don't even like thinking about this time, so I'm gonna shush now. xD I'm glad you got the contrast problem fixed!! =) Kitty kitty. <3 |
Holy crap, that sounds horrible. Viruses absolutely suck. My old PC used to rack them up like made as well. It was crazy. We had to ship ours off as well, but it didn't really get any better.
I'm glad too. |
Once my laptop reset itself and I lost EVERYTHING. So since my dad is a computer genius I asked him if anything could be restored. We tried to restore the computer but nothing showed up. So for a week I was computerless and I decided one day to mess around with it. So I was able to select a date to when the computer was perfectly fine.So that afternoon I told my dad what I did and he was socked. Now I have to save everything on a thumb drive in case it happens again.
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Oh, spyware pretty much just happens to everyone, no way around it unless you actually take steps to prevent it. You get tracking cookies without fail if you accept all cookies by default, some plugins have rather dubious privacy policies - yeah, eventually shit happens.
There are plenty of free removal utilities on the internet - I personally recommend Spybot. It has an immunization utility that actually works to PREVENT infection before it happens, as well as removal tools. Works pretty damn well. As for me, for weird shortcuts being accidentally activated...I can't remember any specific examples right off, but I an remember that's happened to me on MANY occasions. I have four computers in a house with four cats, a dog, and a computer-illiterate mother; YOU do the math. Usually I can figure out what they did; I've been working with computers since before I could walk, but sometimes I have a new program running...that's always a fun situation. XD I can think of something similar though - the keyboard attached to my desktop had a power button on it. Immediately turned the computer off. Uncleanly. Why that key was there is beyond me. I lost SO MANY files due to data corruption from CATS STEPPING ON THAT KEY you would not believe. Now, you see that I say "had." The reason I say that? After losing a drawing I had been working on (luckily only for an hour at that point - I've suffered far worse losses), I took a butterknife and pried the damn key off. |
Guhhh the family computer got the worst virus ever a couple of months ago. It totally changed the desktop wallpaper and made Google links not work and all kinds of crazy irritating stuff. It is kind of fixed now but it runs SO SLOW and crashes frequently. My dad says it's not worth fixing, but my sister has her itunes and stuff on there so she is about to bust a cap.
Thankfully I got a laptop for my birfday! <3 |
The toolbar on the bottom of the screen of the computer (the one with the Start menu)! Somehow my kids would every so often do something and it would end up either on the side, so that it would be vertical on the side of the screen, or disappear altogether, or end up two sizes too big. I know that's a simple one to fix, but believe it or not, it would always take me a while to figure it out, and I still don't don't know how I fix it each time (except for the too big one-that one I figured out and remember).
And networking! Way back when, I used to network my two computers to go online in a way that most computer geeks and MOST (not all, that's how I learned how to do it-a few select places online had instructions) places online said couldn't be done-which meant no one could really help me when I had problems with it. I did it with one crossover cable and NO router or hub. The problem was that your settings had to be just right, and it seems they had to be done in a certain order or something, and following the few instructions I could find online never quite worked right. Because my older son would always screw up the computer so bad with popups, spyware, and junk that my daughter couldn't even get on anymore, my only fix was always to crash the computer and bring it up clean. That, of course, would drop all the settings to default. It would take me days, sometimes up to a week, working hours each day on it, running between two computers in different rooms, redoing settings and doing restarts! It always happened that I'd finally get frustrated, change several different things on both computers and give up and walk away, saying SCREW IT!!! I'd finally come back and wouldn't you know it?! The network would be up and running fine all of a sudden, and I'd have no idea what I changed that finally brought it up. But hey, they said it couldn't be done, and I proved them wrong every time!!! I finally broke down and bought a wireless router about 2 years ago. Sooooo much easier! |
*sigh* Mine hit the power button... >.<
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I once accidentally hit the lock button on an mp3 player and it took a good solid hour to find out what happened. >.<
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My dog once managed to flip my entire screen 90 degrees by stepping on my keyboard. Why they have an option to set your laptop screen sideways, I do not know, but it was very uncomfortable navigating my way to the internet to find the solution.
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Computers.
My cat loves to sit on and around computers. Usually the most he does is type gibberish to my friends. But I have this touch bar above my keyboard where all you have to do is touch the pictures on it to do various things like volume and stuff. One of the things on there turns the wireless internet signal on and off. I don't really have any reason to turn it off on my computer, I'm almost always online when I'm on the computer. My cat loves to swish his tail over that wireless thing and turn it off and kick me offline.
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Spyware so doesn't happen to everyone. I have a Mac. xD The only major problems I've had with my computer are that I spilled miso soup in it... D: And then my L key stopped working. I told the people at the Apple store that it just stopped working.. they fixed it for free. ;D Right when I came back from China, my laptop wasn't taking American movies. I don't know if it still does that because I don't really watch movies on my laptop. I should probably try that again soon, though, so I can get it fixed. xD
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@StripedSocks: Mac user here too - even Macs get tracking cookies if you don't make sure you're not accepting them by default. Most common type of spyware.
I'm careful with that though, so no worries here. |D Though the rest of my family uses PCs - and the family desktop is so screwed up right now I don't know how it manages to run. My dad has all these incompatible devices hooked up to it (he's the self-proclaimed computer whiz, and I'll admit he USUALLY knows what he's talking about but when it comes to practical application...) AND it seems to be infected with a rootkit. Nasty little suckers, not detected by traditional antivirus scanners - they need specialized software to detect and remove. My dad keeps saying that he's gonna get something for it...but he keeps forgetting. Personally, my thought on the matter is that maybe it's not even a rootkit at all, but a software conflict from all the stuff he's got on the thing. I mean, he's got so much extra hardware, so many extra drivers, so many extra programs running at startup - the computer, hardware-wise, is comparable to if not better than mine and takes a good 15 minutes to start up; mine takes roughly 60 seconds (we are talking PC vs. Mac, but still), if that doesn't tell you something... Meh, I'm going somewhat off topic, but...well, I don't entirely know how my family did THAT. XD @Fabby: Someone once figured out how to do that at the library. The library assistant's solution? Reboot the computer. Which...when the library is open, can only be done uncleanly. Further screwed up the already screwed up public computer...but at least it returned the screen to normal. |
My cat lies on mine all the time, but she tends to just send random messages to people on my instant messengers. They usually take it as something funny now. :)
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I once had my sisters cat jump on the keyboard and some how exit an art project I was working on. I had forgotten to save it after each step, so I lost the whole thing and had to start over. Now I try to save as often as possible when working on a project. And I try to scare the cat away when I'm on the computer, which usually fails miserably, she almost always ends up in my lap, on the keyboard, or in front of the screen. it's so frustrating when she looks at me with sweet eyes and purrs, how can you stay mad at that,lol.
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Wow, there were a lot of great stories, I can't really respond to all of them, but I did read them all. Cats have a way of making trouble on the computer don't they? It's just the one cat though, all the other ones just want to sit in my lap, but he enjoys sitting right in front of my computer, usually while I'm doing something. I don't know how he can find it comfortable.
Sorta funny story. My sister heard about this dude (who I guess hated Macs) and would go into the Mac stores and hit the keyboard shortcut to inverse the color on the screens. Apparently most people who worked there didn't know how to fix it, so it would just get left that way. |
Now, I don't have any pets at the moment, but I do have my brothers friend. He just logged on the computer once and it took two weeks to fix the virus spy ware duo he had somehow installed. We couldn't access any games, the web browser would randomly close and the computer would randomly shut down.
I have yet to let him use my new laptop. Mainly because that wasn't the first time he broke the main comp. |
Wow, I wouldn't ever let that kid touch my computer. That's just... incredible.
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Oh my little brother does stuff like this to computers all the time! Luckily he's grown out of that now. But once he spilled milk on my laptop keyboard and I had no idea. Turns out by doing that, he had somehow managed to kill the control button on the left, but all other buttons were fine. Another time he was messing with my mom's computer and managed to do something really funky with the bottom part of the screen where the start is. I have no idea how my mom, or me, managed to fix it. I tried, I think, for approximately half an hour before giving up. Somehow I think my mom fixed it.
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