What is the scariest experience you have had on a computer?

[Spinneret]

My computer dying on me

 

[fly girl]

Blue screen of death with Windows eons ago.

I am a Mac girl now.

 

[Jml813]

Lost my entire senior thesis for my MBA the night before it was due. I thought I was backing it up and it didn't back up and I got the blue screen of death and I spent the next 15 hours rewriting a 50 page paper.

 

[TippyThomas]

My scariest experience would be the first time I ever tried to use one. Growing up with zero modern amenities didn't prepare me for the life I'd lead once I left the plain life and religion. I still don't have many of the things others use daily and learning how it all works has been quite the task. I'm getting better at it, but I still feel guilt that I own things and am doing things that my adoptive parents would be horrified of.

 

[BrianL]

It wasn't exactly "scary" but I was at my first big business conference and I had helped to create this database of attendees for registration, etc. (my department was responsible for putting the conferences on). This was way back in the day, so people signed in on paper, but then they could be checked off on the computer, something I was handling. Anyway, my boss was hovering over my shoulder, and I somehow deleted all records in the database! Argh! Anywya, I had a backup, but it didn't have any of the updated check-ins and last-minute registrants. Anyway, I had to spend several hours into the night/morning to re-enter the hand-rolls. I told my boss to please just go away and I'd handle it. I did, but it was stressful.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

What is the scariest experience you have had on a computer?​

When I thought I had lost my iTunes library.

 

[Chupaca bruh]

So sad

 

[Boopuff]

Lost part of my photo library way back when putting photos onto your computer was a thing. Luckily it wasn't a ton of pictures (at the time I was still a slave to prints)

 

[loves to dive]

It caught on fire. I'm guessing there was a loose wire and there was a power surge and then smoke then fire.

 

[nw6675]

It caught on fire. I'm guessing there was a loose wire and there was a power surge and then smoke then fire.

Was just about to post this as well. Puff of smoke out of my 2004 Dell desktop while I was using it.

 

[RogueX]

I was working on my computers finals in college and the computer I was working on as well as the entire row next to it started beeping, the screen turned white, text scrolled by and everything crashed.

Turns out that section was infected with a virus. I was lucky, the head of the department didn't make me redo my work, they averaged my work throughout the year for my grade.

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

Turning the damn thing on

 

[tvguy]

Buying my first computer in 1994, and 6 months later finally being brave enough to download the Prodigy web browser and connect to the Internet for the first time. High anxiety as that first web page loaded in the dark and evil place known as the Internet.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Probably the time at work when there was a mouse in one of the printers.

 

[Jml813]

Probably the time at work when there was a mouse in one of the printers.

And I'm guessing you're not talking about a computer version! Yeah, I would not be happy.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

And I'm guessing you're not talking about a computer version! Yeah, I would not be happy.

Yep, it was the old fashioned kind of mouse. It was in a school computer lab so you could only imagine the chaos that ensued.

 

[mrodgers]

TVguy beat me by a year, didn't buy my first computer until 1995 about 4 months after I got my first "real" job (which I am still at, pretty proud to be top 5 in seniority. Started 4 months after the facility opened up.)

I didn't go online. Around 97 after I was married is when I went online with AOL. No big deal.

AOL was gone and I didn't have internet. Then found free internet. Moved and had an actual provider service. While everyone was getting fast internet, I still only had dialup. Finally got broadband.

And my scariest experience. I had been playing racing games all this time offline. Found one that was like racing street cars on a track. And that was my first experience with gaming online. It was a very realistic racing simulator, not a game. Had a new force feedback steering wheel controller and pedals. I joined online and I was scared joining real people to virtually race on the computer. It was nerve-wracking.

20 years later and I have a much better wheel controller, pedals with a clutch (didn't have that before). Also an h-pattern shifter to go with the clutch. Plus I have a yoke and rudder pedals and use a joystick that has a good throttle. I have a blast racing on Assetto Corsa on real very detailed tracks and I fly all over the world in MSFS with groups of people.

The flight sim is unbelievable. I fly on my 55 inch TV using a head tracker so when I look left, my view looks left. Look right, up, down, lean forward my view moves where I move. Almost like VR but in 2d on the TV. Going off real world geographical data, when it was released, I actually flew down with a camera drone that you can use and sat underneath the tree in the cemetery where my Dad is buried in the sim.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

Blue screen of death while taking the NY bar exam. Still had the NJ portion to go the next day. Good times...not so much. I ended up passing both so it worked out fine, but it was a bit nerve wracking at the time.

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

I have an ONGOING fear... Ransomware. Basically hackers gain access to your computer, encrypt it and force you to pay them large amounts in BitCoin for the privilege of getting your files back or else, zap. Nasty.

The New Scientist was talking this week about a new attack, where hackers can access your WiFi device and force it to drain its entire battery in one go!

 

[CGB]

I guess it was about 15 years ago. I think I had parent conferences one evening and was late coming home. While I was gone, DH thought he had downloaded a virus or something and had contacted AOL or Norton for help. I came home to find a technician had remotely taken over our computer. There was a text box to talk with them, but they had full access while they checked out the computer. I was/am pretty tech-literate, but that freaked me out. It definitely made me more cautious about info I kept on the hard drive.