Dencandy Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 Christmas - the season to laugh - especially at yourself!! Anyone can laugh at other people, but can you laugh at yourself?Here's how to do it: write in this thread the dumbest, most stupid thing you ever did with your computer. The sort of thing that you didn't intend to do, but it made your hair stand on end, your heart drop down to your boots, and your hands start shaking! Also tell us how you solved it.Here's mine:A few weeks ago I accidentally changed my Admistrator Account to the Guest Account by messing with a command prompt. I nearly had a heart attack when I thought that now I wouldn't be able to do anything worthwhile with the computer. I couldn't even do a System Restore to bring my Administrator Account back.Then I remembered reading that with Windows XP it's impossible to delete your own Administrator Account from within that account. So there had to be (I hoped) another Administrator Account on the system.My heart sank even lower when the User Accounts screen didn't show another one except my own now useless Account as the Guest Account, plus another Limited Account. Neither of them would let me do a System Restore. Fortunately after another nail-biting 10 minutes I managed to find the missing Administrator account using the same command prompt as before.Having found it I then spent another tortuous 30 minutes trying every combination of every possible passwords I had ever used in order to open it. I dug out old note-books and computer manuals looking for clues. No good, nothing would let me open the account.Then I had an idea: maybe there's no password! Fortunately I was right and was then able to sort the mess out, but it was a very stressful time.That hidden User Account without a password, by the way, is the original one used by the retailer to install the system & other software. You've probably got one on your computer without knowing it & without a password. So I've kept it , but now with a passord added, as a failsafe, just in case I ever lock myself out again.So what's the dumbest thing you ever did on your computer? :lol: :lol: :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artist Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 I can empathise with the password problem having shut myself out. SO frustrating! I must get a password manager one of these days............ One of the most annoying things I've done was to accidently slightly pull the plug out of the wall and spend hours swearing that it's 'got to be something simple'!!It was........ :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 Artist, your Avatar reminds me of the Rupert Bear and the Walking Woods story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 I have messed up too many times to remember in the early days. This is why I soon learned how to reinstall the O.S. I am so glad that pops nagging persuaded me to buy Acronis. Another reason NEVER to buy a computer without a full installation disk. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 Several from the early days: Replace McAfee anti-virus with Norton as McAfee was giving problems. Little did I know then that my problems were only just starting.Install the restore system (can't remember the name now, it was bought by Symantec) for W98 and watch my computer slowly grind itself into oblivion.Use multiple Zip disks and the associated Iomega backup software. It didn't work. It went through the motions of progressing well right up until the last (of 10) disk and then decided to tell me it had failed.Install MS Works instead of a real office suite.Fill my machine(s) with loads of fonts and clip art thinking they would be useful one day. They never were and, in times when hard drive space was at a premium (100MB was enormous) they just wasted valuable space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catgate Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 So what's the dumbest thing you ever did on your computer? :lol: :lol: :lol:I bought one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rong Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 So what's the dumbest thing you ever did on your computer? :lol: :lol: :lol:I bought one.But you didn't do that on your computer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 The first time I flashed a BIOS, we had a power cut and one dead motherboard was the result.The first computer I ever built, I put the CDRW in the case upside down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanHo Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 I had problems with the computer and decided to reformat and reinstall Windows. All my data files were backed up onto an external USB drive so I felt safe in formatting the hard drive which had only one partition in those days.When I booted from the Windows CD it found one hard drive - with a strange drive letter. I assumed it was just a blip and went ahead with the reformat etc. To my horror I then found that Windows had failed to find the C: drive and had reformatted the external USB drive. It transpired that the internal C: hard drive was faulty and had to be replaced. I managed to recover most of my data from the USB drive using file recovery software recommended by one of our members here. However - the directory structure was lost and some - if not all - the file names were changed so it took several days before I got sorted. Unfortunately my Outlook pst file was lost so I never fully recovered my contacts list and past Emails - you can imagine what a pain that was. Fortunately I have a laptop and was able to reconstruct my contacts list from there - but it was not comprehensive.This taught me a salutory lesson. I immediately replaced the computer with a new one having two hard drives and a USB external hard drive.The first drive has two partitions - C: for the OS and programmes and D: for all data including Outlook pst files, Favourites etc..The second drive also has two partitions - E: for weekly Acronis back ups of the C: drive and F: for daily data incremental backups using a programme called Second Copy.The external drive is used to take weekly Acronis backups of C: and D: and is stored remote from the house.I now feel fairly safe and protected from my own carelessness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sapins Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 First computer, spent over 2 hours on the phone to Tech support to try to play a DVD till I suddenly realised I had put the disc in the CD ROM drive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rong Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 First computer, spent over 2 hours on the phone to Tech support to try to play a DVD till I suddenly realised I had put the disc in the CD ROM driveI had to help someone with a problem with a CD, he had put it in the wrong way up. Like a fool I checked everything out first before trying myself (he has had a computer for years and I expected him to know which way up a CD went) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dencandy Posted December 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 A friend told me he once accidentally deleted or dissabled all his fonts - leaving no letters or numbers anywhere on any screen. Everything replaced by those little black-edged squares. Said he nearly had a heart-attack. Fortunately he was able to find his way to System Restore and got everything back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Here's how to do it: write in this thread the dumbest, most stupid thing you ever did with your computer.Too numerous to mention.........and still making them. I just have to think about which of them was the dumbest. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dencandy Posted December 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 We're waiting... from you and andsome... and Irene... and Pat Willener... and others. Come on you lot, it's confession time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 We're waiting... from you and andsome... and Irene... and Pat Willener... and others. Come on you lot, it's confession time! See my post above. Too many stupid blunders to decide what was the most stupid. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4\/!d Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Years ago when mucking about with Display settings I changed the font colour to Black - on a Black background. Getting out of that was interesting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dencandy Posted December 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 I bet it was!! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted December 30, 2007 Report Share Posted December 30, 2007 Years ago when mucking about with Display settings I changed the font colour to Black - on a Black background. Getting out of that was interesting I did something like that, and had to get a friend of my daughter to come round and reset everything. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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