>>51234422
Lets start slow..
>friend calls me one day
>"anon, I might have a virus. It says all my information is encrypted and I need to pay a fee for them to unlock again"
>isthisreallife.avi
>connect to his PC with TeamViewer, running on a WM
>cryptlocker ransomware on his PC
>I start laughing
>all his work data is gone for ever
>all his porn pictures are encrypted
>the poem he was working on for his gf is encrypted
>"dude, how did you get this?"
>"I think I clicked on some links in my emails or w/e"
>getting scammed via email
>2010+5
>I laugh even harder and disconnect
I maybe shouldn't have been so mean to him...

>>51234448
"toolbar maymay" inc.

>15yo neighbor tells me to fix his PC for 10€
>too lazy
>weeks pass
>tells me now hes barely able to use his PC,
>"pls help me fast, 20€"
>decide to fix his shit
>power on his PC
>Windows 8 boots
>log in
>first thing I see is ~5 "make your PC faster" programs starting
>close all of them
>desktop full of shortcuts to addware
>launch IE
>multible tabs open full of "buy this" and "thanks for using "faster PC.exe""
>~5 toolbars
>default search engine and home page set to some malware bullshit that is really hard to remove (had this on another PC already, story maybe later)
>close IE again
>Avast pops up
>unregistered since early 2013
>tfw we already have late 2014
>Norton pops up, telling me that its expired
>Kaspersky pops up telling me that the database is outdated and you'll need to buy it to update
>open taskmgr.exe
>6Gb RAM used when IDLE, 70% CPU because of addware
>most likely part of a botnet
>look at my neighbor in horror
>he sees my face
>tells me hes worried about his "personal stuff" which are ~10000 selfies a few documents for school and some stupid games.
>make a backup of his pictures and documents and reinstall Windows8
>install and activate Avast for him
>install all the stuff he needs so he will never ever download something again
>almost set up a non-admin account for him because he doesn't know how to internet
>decide not to, because he wouldn't be able to download his "Landwirtschafts Simulator 2013" mods this way.
Believe me, this was truly a horrible experience.

>>51234480
Would be nice, if someone could tell me wtf was going on with my fathers PC in this one.
Also, why do people buy prebuilt PCs?

>father needs a new PC
>has been using winXP with 2Gb DDR1 RAM and a P4
>the worst PC anyone could think of
>"Dad, can I build you one?"
>"no, I don't trust you. I'm sure it wont work if you build it yourself"
>buy 400€ prebuilt PC
>AMD quad core, HDD, Nvidia GPU
>bloated with Addware
>meh tier PC
>8Gb RAM
>32 bit Windows 7
Again:
>8 G b
>3 2 b i t W i n d o w s 7
>builtbyretards.jpg
>literally retarded people must have built this
>comes with a few drivers and Windows 7 32 bit on DVD
>download Windows 7 64 bit
>format HDD, reinstall everything
>install drivers and stuff he might need
>also Avast (because its free and it works kinda well without getting in the way once changing some settings)
>weeks go by
>father starts complaining about the PC smelling bad
>visit him again, start up PC, run prime95 and furmark
>PSU starts smoking
>PC shuts down
>father panics
>runs into the kitchen, grabs a bottle of water
>gets ready to pour water onto the PC in case it starts burning
>"father, what the fuck"
>hes not THAT stupid, so he realizes pouring water onto electronics is not acceptable
>"sorry, anon"
>"Its okay, but that's what you get for prebuilt bullshit, father"
>give him one of my old 400W 80+bronze PSUs
>some more weeks go by
>father calls because his PC seems to be slow
>turn it on
>windows boots up
>as soon as I log in the mouse starts to stutter
>Chrome, Word and even opening "Computer" takes for ever
>open taskmgr.exe
>CPU 96% on all cores, fluctuating between 70% and 99%
>wtf
>look at tasks running
>Avast, 89% system usage
>what
>WHAT
>uninstall Avast, everything works fine
>reinstall Avast CPU usage 30% max
>everything worked fine till now

I'm confused till this day. I'm not shitting you, guys, this was one of the weirdest experience I ever made with software.

>>51234544
Need a cig now. If no one wants to share stories and no one is interested I'm gonna let the thread die, slowly. Ill try again on another day, maybe.

I kid you not, this really happened.

>friend of the family calls
>70 year old dude, living alone, no kids or wife
>uses his PC mostly for movies, pictures and news
>"anon, can you tell me how to remove the sites I visited and saved passwords from internet?"
>"which browser are you using?"
>"the internet"
>assume hes talking about IE
>next half an hour I explain to him over phone how to do it
>he still doesn't manage to delete his stuff
>get angry, quit CS:GO and tell him to launch TeamViewer (which I have installed for him after putting up his system)
>connecting to PC
>see his browser open
>tfw its firefox, not IE
>tfw I tried to explain how to remove his shit from IE
>open history sidebar in firefox
>alltheporn.webm
>he goes quiet on the other side of the phone
>animalporn search on google
>teen porn search on google
>youporn tab still open
>I start cringing a bit, remove all his stuff and show him how to do it in future
Talking to him was kinda awkward the next weeks, but everything is fine now.
Anyways, I've seen some weird shit, even outside of /b/.

>>51234422
>Friend wants me to fix his Laptop, says that it's running slow
>Decide to take a look at it
>Viruses, Crapware, and other bullshit everywhere
>If It was a Human, I'd shoot it
>Decide it's probably better to just reinstall Windows
>"Hey, Friend, do you need to backup anything? I'm gonna reinstall Windows, all your files will be gone."
>"Sure Anon, go ahead."
>"Are you sure? Everything will be gone, you won't be able to get your files back easily."
>"I'm sure, Anon."
>Reinstall Windows
>"OMG ANON, WHY DID YOU FORMAT IT, EVERYTHING IS GONE, MY PICTURES, MY SCHOOL PROJECTS, MY GAMES, FUCK YOUUUUUUUUU, ANON!"

Why do I even try?

>>51235000
Nice trips. Also, I made the same mistake a couple of times aswell. Since then, I ALWAYS make backups and I even keep a copy of the data for some time, in case the guy Im doing the work for fucks something up and loses it.
Just in case they are trying to blame me for their data loss, even though I backed everything up and restored it after the installation.

>>51235089
Yeah, I learned my lesson after that, I now always backup their shit even if they told me that it's not needed.

>>51235000
There's a way to solve this. Whenever I have to format someone's data, I ask them first "If I told you right now your device was completely broken but I could give you a new one, would that be a problem?". Guaranteed "No man my fucking stuff is on there!" if there's anything worth backing up.

>>51235220
>>51235089

On the topic of data loss, a quite recent story for you guys:

>mother needs laptop for work
>father and I decide to buy her one for 600€
>ASUS, 8Gb RAM, decent I7 (which she doesn't need, but w/e), 820m for nothing, 500Gb SSD
>I make Windows 8.1 usable for her
>Classic shell, move stuff out of metro so you can actually work with the shit Microshaft has created
>shes using Skype to call with our family, which is living in Hungary
>one day she calls because her microphone is too quiet
>do some research, seems like a lot of people have problems with their mic when using Skype
>try to fix it for her using the knowledge I have gathered though google
>no success
>update drivers
>no success
>play around with audio settings
>no success
>try to talk to guys in teamspeak
>shitjustwerks.jpg
>decide that Skype is a huge pile of shit and Microshaft sucks even more
>tell her to move to another program for talking
>"no, anon. I need Skype. Just fix it."
>decide to show her how to plug a headset into her laptop so she could use the headsets microphone, which just works fine
>a few days go past
>I get a call from my father, telling me that my mother has destroyed her Laptop
>"she plugged the headset thing into the USB port, or maybe the HDMI port or something"
>she srsly shorted out some stuff on her motherboard with the headset cable
>Laptop has been sent to the manufacturer for a free repair

cont.

>>51235262
>pick it up 14 days later
>employee hands me the laptop
>ask him if the personal data is still on the laptop
>"its really important stuff, the owner of the laptop needs it for work"
>"yes, it is. There were no changes made to the hard drive, only the external PSU has been exchanged"
>only the external PSU
>what
>boot up the laptop in front of his eyes
>Windows 8.1 installation literally says "Hello"
>realize again that Microshaft is shit
>click through the installation as fast as possible
>fresh Windows 8.1 on the screen
>I look at the employee who is seemingly nervous
>check HDD for my mothers work stuff
>everything is gone
>I get angry
>look at the employee again
>"U-umm, there m-must have been some software problems too"
>software problems
>dead hardware
>software problems
>his head is as red as mine
>look at him one last time, then leave without saying anything more
>hear a silent "good b-bye" as the automatic doors close behind me

I fucking hate guys like him.
They could have saved the data.

But I guess its my mothers fault for killing it in the first place.
Later, at home, I tried to shorten an old motherboard with a bobby pin on the inside of the USB ports and HDMI port and it didn't work.
Well, I guess I will never find out what really happened to that laptop because of incompetent fucks repairing it.

>>51235284
Omg you're bullshitting right? Please tell me you're bullshitting.

>>51235881
Im not. All of my stories are true.