technology Strangest Computer Bug Ever?

[Splashee 28,471]

So sometimes I just want the computer to fail badly, especially Windows. Since it was so common for Windows to crash back in the day, you could get some really cool and unique bugs. I used to stress test anything in Windows until it got too much and usually hang (require the power button to be pressed). But sometimes randomly I got some very strange bugs that I will never forget.

 

What is the strangest bug you have ever encountered (in any computer/game/operating system)?

Do you remember what you did when you got the bug?

 

Understanding how Windows worked back then was key to understand why it failed/broke so much. And also how incredible fast and good it was when it didn't fail (there wasn't much competition).

 

The coolest bug I encountered was getting the mouse cursor to show up during a blue screen. You must understand how unique that is. The original blue screen (not the one you are seeing today) was in text mode (the same mode as when you computer boots up, with that blinking cursor), which allows no graphics at all. There is no way you can have art, other than the standard text showing up. All of a sudden I could see the mouse cursor, and move it around the blue screen, pixel by pixel, and it was the Windows mouse cursor design as well, like it was nothing. It was impossible, so I managed to run and get my video camera and film it. The video didn't do it justice.

Last year, I managed to hack Windows 98 to get the mouse cursor back. So I finally understood what had happened. And also, it was just the way I remembered it to be, you know, impossible? It should have been impossible. I have photos of it... somewhere. I cannot find them now. But if someone is really interested, I would find them.

 

[LegoDashie 1,806]

hmmm i dont think so and im not sure how everyone is getting a lot of problems on windows 10 i hardly ever run into any problems as far as i know :/

[ExplosionMare 17,866]

- At school I was using a Chromebook and it actually told me to copy and paste my document somewhere else because it didn’t want to auto save anymore. I was told this had never happened to anyone before. I think I’m cursed when it comes to technology because I always break it

- On the Wii, my sibling and I were playing Disney Infinity. I was Elsa and my sibling was Rapunzel. For no reason at all my sibling made Rapunzel ground pound on the spawn area and at the same time Elsa was spawning because I accidentally drove her off a cliff. Poor Elsa got body slammed and it looked like we killed her because she was just lying there and I couldn’t make her move. I think we had to restart the game afterwards to fix it.

[The Wife of Law 18,772]

I wouldn’t classify this is bizarre, as I’m sure this is how many viruses/bugs work but after executing a music ripping website, I constantly received ads in the right bottom corner of my screen. They were advertising all sorts of things and it was incredibly annoying. I still get ads here and there but not as many as I used to get.

[TwilySparky 24,714]

One I had was where the PC would just loop indefinitely on the login screen. Turns out it was because I modified files for a theme.

[Cagey 4,124]

Not exactly strange, but: there was a bug once where my mouse kept clicking and dragging for no reason, and it made it hard to type in documents because everything kept getting automatically selected.

[Oleks 1,967]

The strangest one I had was no sound from speakers after installing a bilingual file processing program. It was on Windows 7 and probably had something to do with drivers. The solution was even stranger: after trying everything I could think of I found out that I had to plug my computer to my TV via an HDMI cable, set the TV as a default audio device, turn off the computer, unplug it from the TV and turn it back on.

[Splashee 28,471]

10 hours ago, Bakugou Is My Man ❤ said:

I wouldn’t classify this is bizarre, as I’m sure this is how many viruses/bugs work but after executing a music ripping website, I constantly received ads in the right bottom corner of my screen. They were advertising all sorts of things and it was incredibly annoying. I still get ads here and there but not as many as I used to get.

When a website deals you a virus of this sort, download Malwarebytes and let it scan your computer once. It is usually very good at finding those and removing them. The free version works fine, and when you are done, you can uninstall Malwarebytes again.

[Early Sunsets 2,096]

This was almost certainly due to hardware damage, but my first laptop (which suffered a rather violent tumble that shattered the screen and I think cracked the motherboard) had a few problems after its incident.

• It only powered on about 10% of the time when I pressed the power button. Most of the time the fan would ramp up really high, but nothing else would happen.
• It was unable to shutdown, restart, etc. I had to remove the battery to turn it off.
• I couldn't update Windows or restore to a previous install or anything. It ran (and still runs. It does still function, to an extent) Windows 8.1, and I get an error any time I try to upgrade to Windows 10 or restore to 8.0. It was only worth $130 when I got it six years ago and its AMD Athlon processor is painfully underpowered, so it would cost way more to fix than is reasonable. It's now in storage, where it will probably stay.

[The Historian 514]

I was working on a Windows ME (red flag number one) box with my dad and we got a message that told us the "registry had been reset." Curious, but didn't think much of it and redid the work. Then it happened again. And again. And again. Any time we did anything with that godforsaken pile of garbage, it reset. We just gave up on that endeavor.

[Splashee 28,471]

17 hours ago, The Historian said:

I was working on a Windows ME (red flag number one) box with my dad and we got a message that told us the "registry had been reset." Curious, but didn't think much of it and redid the work. Then it happened again. And again. And again. Any time we did anything with that godforsaken pile of garbage, it reset. We just gave up on that endeavor.

Okay, so Windows Me, if installed slightly wrong, hacked, or pirated, gets all kinds of Registry errors, and you can only boot into Safe Mode.

Windows Me, while being faster to boot, and having a pre-installed Windows 2000 color theme, is not worth it! Windows 98 Second Edition was updated and fixed more times, and ran pretty good compared to Windows Me.

If I could find the proof that made Windows Me so bad, I would tell you. But the code used to disable DOS, as well as the boot into Windows is very difficult to understand.

[The Historian 514]

5 hours ago, Super Splashee said:

Okay, so Windows Me, if installed slightly wrong, hacked, or pirated, gets all kinds of Registry errors, and you can only boot into Safe Mode.

Windows Me, while being faster to boot, and having a pre-installed Windows 2000 color theme, is not worth it! Windows 98 Second Edition was updated and fixed more times, and ran pretty good compared to Windows Me.

If I could find the proof that made Windows Me so bad, I would tell you. But the code used to disable DOS, as well as the boot into Windows is very difficult to understand.

Windows ME is top level trash, but it turned out the factory OS was ME, not XP like we thought. Suffice to say, we never did another WinME machine again. And this from the dorks who bought new parts for a Windows 98SE PC in the late 2000s.

[Vefka 1,492]

Not a bug on my side, but once when I was a kid I was in hospital with pneumonia and it was boring, back then I didn't have internet and paid per each mb. I had only a couple of cents on my balance and decided to spend in on internet, after 20 minutes of serfing I realized that I still have access. I checked my balance and it didn't change! For the rest of my time in the hospital I was able to do everything on internet without spending any money. The strange thing is that as soon as I left the hospital they started to charge me again. I still don't understand what happened back then

[ExplosionMare 17,866]

One time I was using Google Docs on a school computer (which has auto save) and the application stopped me from typing and told me to copy and paste my work to another document because it could no longer save. 

Edited September 20, 2020 by ExplosionMare
Haha I knew I had posted this before. Oh well, now more people can see my ridiculous computer fail XD

[Ittoni 532]

I had once the one where your windows started to duplicate when you grab them. And another one where they kept appearing when you close them. And another were it just filled your desktop with some random file. Old computer viruses, I normally got the grieffer ones.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Ittoni

[Splashee 28,471]

The worst and scariest bugs are not really bugs, but hardware errors, when you get garbage screens, sound errors, and even electrical and smoke faults! It's hard breaking and expensive! Cause: Spilled coffee on keyboard and computer or monitor, or lightning strike. Or other stupidities!

[Vefka 1,492]

9 hours ago, You said:

It might have had a public wifi spot your phone connected to, albeit it would be weird to happen without you confirming that.

Nah, I'm sure it wasn't wifi, it would have been the first thing I notice as a bored kid