• D. Philippe (unregistered)

    Er, that would be "elicit," unless the message was illegal or something (wait, maybe in this case it should be [;)])

  • (cs) in reply to D. Philippe

    Anonymous:
    Er, that would be "elicit," unless the message was illegal or something (wait, maybe in this case it _should_ be [;)])

    Thanks, I fixed it. Now where are you guys when I'm writing that important memo or report [;-)].

  • (cs)

    I was tinkering with a program today that I took over from employee X in another office half-way accross the country.  I idly clicked some buttons to run a test case and up popped out an error box:

            AfxMessageBox(_T("Error Reading Testing Registry Values\nContact Technical Support"),
            MB_OK | MB_ICONERROR);

    What's sad is that, technically, I am the "Technical Support", and even though it couldn't read the registry values, it fills out proper default values anyway, and will save them to the registry.  But this message box will conveniently close the program for you.  cries.

  • (cs)

    My all-time favorite is in Windows, download something, and save it to the desktop. When done, click 'open folder'. You'll get a message box: "The item specified is on the desktop [OK]". You click ok, and it all goes away. Gee, thanks Windows... way to be completely NOT helpful.

  • Jake Vinson (unregistered)

    When you'd cancel a print job on my old printer, it'd pop up a message that said "Are you sure you want to cancel the print job?" and your choices were OK or Cancel.

    On a Christian Games CD I had, this is what'd pop up when you quit the game:

    [image]

  • Adam Saxton (unregistered)

    Using an older version of DevEdit, we ran across a message box that poped up.  it read "Die!".  I'm guessing this was one of their debug messages within their javascript.  I'm just happy we found it before one of our customers did.

  • (cs)

    I've been clicking the Techbase dialog box for 20 minutes now.....
    sombody help!!!!!!
    I can't stop clicking it!!

  • (cs)

    After reading about the "Steve Rule", I decided to check it at our software development meeting yesterday.  Pathetically, the rule proved all too true...

  • Tom (unregistered)

    Spot the WTF's. :)  The first three actually did go together.

    I was working on a rather large log file:
    [image]

    in Microsoft Word...
    [image]

    But when I was done...
    [image]

     

    Unrelated, but I found this in a nearby folder. I love saving WTF messages, but most are at home.
    [image]

     

  • Chris Lundie (unregistered)

    [image]

    It pretty much speaks for itself.

  • Dave (unregistered)

    Personally, I'm a big fan of the following, when Windows XP suddenly and inexplicably reboots, destroying all my unsaved work, and comes back with this dialog: "The system has recovered from a serious error." Uh, no you didn't! You crashed and burned on a serious error!

  • Darren (unregistered)

    The absolute best error message I have ever seen thrown by a twain driver "The operation completed successfully."

  • (cs) in reply to Dave

    Anonymous:
    Personally, I'm a big fan of the following, when Windows XP suddenly and inexplicably reboots, destroying all my unsaved work, and comes back with this dialog: "The system has recovered from a serious error." Uh, no you didn't! You crashed and burned on a serious error!

    I wish I would get some messages from XP.  Today, Explorer.exe was running at 99% CPU for about 10 minutes straight. [I know I know, if Windows crashes it's generally the users fault.  I shouldn't have tried to create a 8K zip file, you're right.]  Finally I decided it wasn't coming back, so I killed explorer.exe.  That's a crap shoot.  Sometimes it just rearranges the task bar but this time, total freeze no task manager, nothing.  Had to kill the power.  No complaints when I restarted.

  • pbounaix (unregistered) in reply to dubwai

    just as an fyi, whenever i've had explorer.exe issues, once i've killed him, i go to Start->Run and start explorer.exe manually.

     

    works most of the time.....

  • (cs) in reply to pbounaix
    Anonymous:

    just as an fyi, whenever i've had explorer.exe issues, once i've killed him, i go to Start->Run and start explorer.exe manually.

    works most of the time.....

    Usually it comes back up.  It started to but then everything locked up.  There was no 'Start' menu and I couldn't even get a reponse from ctrl-alt-del.

    The other thing I love about Windows is that when I go home, I must reboot my laptop.  If I try to plug it into the network after it was connected to a different network, the whole machine is brought to it's knees.  Every action is slow motion.  I'll never understand my the explorer must check the CD-ROM and the network before I can look at my hard-drive.

  • (cs) in reply to dubwai
    dubwai:

    Anonymous:
    Personally, I'm a big fan of the following, when Windows XP suddenly and inexplicably reboots, destroying all my unsaved work, and comes back with this dialog: "The system has recovered from a serious error." Uh, no you didn't! You crashed and burned on a serious error!

    I wish I would get some messages from XP.  Today, Explorer.exe was running at 99% CPU for about 10 minutes straight. [I know I know, if Windows crashes it's generally the users fault.  I shouldn't have tried to create a 8K zip file, you're right.]  Finally I decided it wasn't coming back, so I killed explorer.exe.  That's a crap shoot.  Sometimes it just rearranges the task bar but this time, total freeze no task manager, nothing.  Had to kill the power.  No complaints when I restarted.



    One way to alleviate this problem is to turn on the option to "launch explorer windows in a seperate process".  What happens in that when opening several folders, you'll use up more ram, but if one folder crashes, the rest are left okay.  The program CachemanXP will also allow you to launch your taskbar in a seperate process so that if explorer gets nuked, your taskbar icons won't crash along with it.
  • (cs) in reply to Dave
    Anonymous:
    Personally, I'm a big fan of the following, when Windows XP suddenly and inexplicably reboots, destroying all my unsaved work, and comes back with this dialog: "The system has recovered from a serious error." Uh, no you didn't! You crashed and burned on a serious error!

    I guess it's expecting a pat on the back for not corrupting the registry ala 98.

    The one I've been dealing with lately is:
    [image]
    Besides the obvious first response (fuck you, borland), it turns into a real wtf because every click after it shows up brings it back. You can't change anything, you can't save, you can't even exit without task manager. It happens about 3-4 times a week that I'm sure of, probably more, and the company's been no help yet.
  • (cs) in reply to Charles Nadolski

    Charles Nadolski:

    One way to alleviate this problem is to turn on the option to "launch explorer windows in a seperate process".  What happens in that when opening several folders, you'll use up more ram, but if one folder crashes, the rest are left okay.  The program CachemanXP will also allow you to launch your taskbar in a seperate process so that if explorer gets nuked, your taskbar icons won't crash along with it.

    Thanks for the info.  Technically, I'm not supposed to dick around like that on my machine (outsourcing is GREAT!) but I probably have the rights.

  • ern (unregistered)

    These are all awesome candidates for the Flickr Computer Errors group. Feel free to upload there.

  • travis (unregistered)

    These are all awesome. You guys should post them in this Flickr group pool:
    http://www.flickr.com/groups/errors/

    -Travis


  • travis (unregistered) in reply to ern

    d'oh!
    I was too slow i guess ;-)

  • Pyramide (unregistered) in reply to foxyshadis
    foxyshadis:
    The one I've been dealing with lately is:

    [image]

    Besides the obvious first response (fuck you, borland), it turns into a real wtf because every click after it shows up brings it back. You can't change anything, you can't save, you can't even exit without task manager.


    I encountered a similar one when I was using win98 with winamp and the "this program has crashed and needs to be closed. [close] [details]" dialog kept re-appearing. Really annoying because it's an always-on-top dialog and only reset helped (task manager or regular reboot made windows freeze - thanks win98)

  • (cs)

    not so long ago, i've seen the scariest thing - Windows XP's task manager, and next to its title [not responding]

    also, today i tried to install MS BootVis while installing Visual Studio in the background. BootVis's installation notified me that it can't continue, because something else is installing ... well, okay, we'll try again later, so i hit the "abort installation".
    and then the installer asked "are you sure you want to abort the installation?"
    er, well, mr. installer, it was your idea at first, but never mind...

  • (cs) in reply to Chris Lundie
    Chris Lundie:

    [image]

    It pretty much speaks for itself.

    Chris, I guess you should just feel lucky that the lack of an error message didn’t *itself* generate an error message. With even more exclamation points.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

    <o:p></o:p>

    If you give extra points for frequency, it’s hard to top the old “Illegal operation” error from Windows 95/98. I mean, why not say what it *really* means?

    “Program broke. No, there’s nothing you can do about it now. And no, there’s nothing you can do to predict if it will happen again.”

    No wonder users get in the habit of ignoring message boxes.<o:p></o:p>

    <o:p></o:p>

    I remember the days of DOS when, if you wanted a program to crash, you had to write the code yourself.

    --RA

  • (cs) in reply to Rank Amateur

    I got one at work--"Symantec could not open the dialog box!"  Oh, really?



    Here's a great one: [image]




  • (cs) in reply to FrostCat

    That one I got the screenshot for was for ATI drivers I downloaded.  Why it wants a disk in my CF reader is beyond me.  (My CD is drive D:).  I guess that's a double-WTF.

  • Evan (unregistered)

    One of my personal favorties that I have gotten over the years.


    [image]

  • (cs)

    This brings back memories of the late, lamented iArchitects "Interface Hall of Shame" website (while there are several archives of the site around, and even a downloadable PDF file of it's contents, the original is long gone and there haven't been any new entries in years). Each of these would have had a place there, I'm sure.

  • Mat Hall (unregistered) in reply to Schol-R-LEA

    Unfortunately I didn't take a screen grab, but a couple of years ago I go an interesting error from Outlook Express:  "The operation could not be completed because the operation completed successfully."

  • dragorn (unregistered)

    I work for a .edu and we used to be all tokenring.  Used to get this gem now and then.  It wasn't kidding, either.  It would refuse to ever touch that device again until you registry-hacked windows or reinstalled the whole damn thing.  F you, windows.

    -m


    [image]
  • Simon (unregistered) in reply to dragorn

    But. But. But. Aren't Microsoft pushing the new slogan :

    Windows - "It just works"

    Muahaahahahahahahaha!

    Simon

  • (cs) in reply to Simon

    Hey it's truth in advertisement! It's all in how you place the emphasis: It just works. Barely, but it does.

  • (cs) in reply to Schol-R-LEA

    I forgot to add that this applies equally to Linux and MacOS. Every OS sucks...

    It also occurred to me for MS and Apple that it could also be a statement of security through obscurity, or perhaps an admission of mystification: It just works. We don't know how and we would tell you if we knew. Stop asking so many questions.

  • (cs)

    I just HAD to sign up to post my little WTF:

    [image]

  • (cs) in reply to dragorn
    Anonymous:
    I work for a .edu and we used to be all tokenring.  Used to get this gem now and then.  It wasn't kidding, either.  It would refuse to ever touch that device again until you registry-hacked windows or reinstalled the whole damn thing.  F you, windows.

    It's probably not the worst policy; you wouldn't want a bad driver to never let you startup again. But having no "Yes I understand, now enable the ^%@&! thing again!" is a definite wtf.
  • (cs) in reply to foxyshadis

    I sometimes get an error box popping up really briefly when I shutdown my machine saying that svchost.exe crashed. I don't mind, it doesn't happen very often.

    Then all of a sudden a few weeks ago when I start my machine I get all those 'Send your error to Microsoft' boxes popping up for errors that occurred up to half a year ago... WTF. Delayed error reporting?

    Drak

  • castle (unregistered) in reply to dubwai

    You probably don't need the application.  If you hit ctrl-alt-del and go to the task manager, which you had to do to kill explorer anyway, from the applications tab you can start a new program.  Whenever explorer doesn't come back up after I kill it, this is what I do.  Just right click on the applications list and select new process (I think.... I'm not real sure because I'm on a Czech system. The Czech translates to new task.) and then a run dialog will pop up. Just enter explorer and you're off to the races.

  • Martin Jost (unregistered)

    Ok, couldn't find my original note about it. But once Windows 3.1 (and DOS for that matter) crashed to a black screen.
    Written there was just one message (rouhgly translated back from German):

    "EMM386 has experienced a protetction error at address foo:bar.
    To prevent a possible loss of data, the machine has been stopped."

    Then you had to power-cycle the damn thing....
    All I could think was: "Well, thanks then for protecting my data !"

     

  • Henry Burrows (unregistered) in reply to Martin Jost

    Here's a great related WTF from InstallShield that happened this morning:-
     [image]

    "The error" ?!?

  • (cs) in reply to Henry Burrows

    In fact it is "severe, the error" :)

  • Zatanix (unregistered) in reply to nonDev

    It's because it's THE error. The ultimate error! The error that makes all other errors look pale in comparison. Yeah!

  • (cs) in reply to Zatanix

    Except for that catastrophic failure.

  • (cs) in reply to Simon

    Anonymous:
    But. But. But. Aren't Microsoft pushing the new slogan : Windows - "It just works" Muahaahahahahahahaha! Simon

    [:D]  Me Likes! [:P]

  • (cs) in reply to matejcik
    matejcik:
    not so long ago, i've seen the scariest thing - Windows XP's task manager, and next to its title [not responding]

    also, today i tried to install MS BootVis while installing Visual Studio in the background.


    Just as a warning, don't use BootVis in Windows XP service pack 2.  It will crash and burn.
  • jmo (unregistered) in reply to Henry Burrows

    Anonymous:
    Here's a great related WTF from InstallShield that happened this morning:-
     [image]

    "The error" ?!?

    if you've ever tried programming InstallShield's script language with out any documentation (coz there is next to none) you'd understand this error!

     

  • (cs) in reply to Schol-R-LEA
    Schol-R-LEA:
    I forgot to add that this applies equally to Linux and MacOS. Every OS sucks...



    "Every OS Sucks" is a song by "Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie".  I think their site is www.trollxp.com but I'm not sure.  You may find it very humorous :D
  • (cs)

    I remember Win9x always irking the hell out of me when it would just crap out and reboot itself, then chastise me for not shutting down properly.

  • James (unregistered)

    AutoCAD gives this error message (all in one message box, with an OK button):

    "You have at least one Windows System Printer configured for Microsoft Document Imaging Writer Port, so the HDI driver cannot open Microsoft Document Imaging Writer Port directly.  The output will be spooled through a System Printer, which usually works fine.  (We have tried to select a System Printer that will not corrupt the output.)  The HDI I/O port configuration will not, however, take effect.  To allow direct output to Microsoft Document Imaging Writer Port, all System Printers configured to use Microsoft Imaging Writer Port must be reconfigured not to use Microsoft Document Imaging Writer Port.  The appearance of this dialog may be controlled in Tools/Options/Plotting."

    (posted as text instead of image for formatting)

    Aside from the sheer length of this message (in ONE message box), take note:

    "usually works fine" -- boy, that's a real vote of confidence

    "tried to select a System Printer that will not corrupt the output" -- ehhhhhhh

    "will not, however, take" -- so an English major wrote this error message while reading Strunk & White's Elements of Style.

    "The appearance of this dialog ..." -- WTF is the option?  "Don't show asinine long-ass error message that noone can possibly understand?"

    ...and look at how many times it repeats the phrase "Microsfot Document Imaging Writer Port"...

    Such a classic WTF.  Whoever put this message in needs a quick, hard run-in with a blunt object.

  • EdwinR (unregistered)

    A dutch medical application once gave me this and I saved it because it was a good laugh:
    [image]
    The rather boring explanation is that the dutch designer/developer did not know the word 'Gender'...
  • daveb (unregistered)

    Best one I ever saw was on an old VMS system that was chugging away in a server room I was working in. The message was (I paraphrase)

    There is no tape in the backup tape drive, your backup will take an indefinite amount of time..


    Note that NOTHING ever failed on VMS :)

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