Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages

[Deozaan]

I thought for certain that we had a thread like this before but I couldn't find it. And rather than resurrect two similar threads from last year (here and here) I decided to start a new one.

The general idea of this thread is to post screen shots of any genuine error messages you've come across that are funny, strange, absolutely not at all helpful, or even confusing. I'll start off.

I encountered this one a few days ago. I can't remember what application I was running at the time, but I think it was one of those free MMO games.



This one I got a couple years ago and once again I can't remember what application it came from.



And finally, this is one I didn't personally witness, but an online friend of mine sent me the image of this even more years ago. I believe this was a message that occurred during the installation of some software he owned.

[fenixproductions]

2Deozaan

Interesting idea but, personally, I don't believe in many error mesages screenshots posted through Internet. It is to easy to create fake one.

The general idea of this thread is to post screen shots of any genuine error messages you've come across that are funny, strange, absolutely not at all helpful, or even confusing. I'll start off.

-Deozaan (December 07, 2008, 08:15 AM)

Hm. Why screenshots? Ctrl+C works globally for all MessageBox dialogs in Windows...

[tranglos]

An earlier version of Windows (could be 95) would sometimes display an error message when shutting down, to the effect of "The system cannot close, because [...] is still working". In place of [...] you would see the name of the process that was refusing to close. Sometimes though it was as if the system could not even obtain the name of the process, in which case the error message read "...because Unknown is still working".

This is still fairly innocuous in English, but in the Polish version of Windows the message gained a bit of chlling ambiguity. "Unknown" was translated as an adjective in masculine form, which could also be a noun (just like "rich" or "blind" in English), so at first sight you would interpret it as referring to a person. Efectively, the message read "The system cannot close, because the Stranger is still working".

It was a major ROTFL every time.

[tranglos]

Also, for an endless supply of wacky error messages, check out the Error'd section from The Daily WTF blog:

http://thedailywtf.c...es/Error_0x27_d.aspx

(Make sure to navigate to previous months, there's years of material there)

[Deozaan]

2Deozaan

Interesting idea but, personally, I don't believe in many error mesages screenshots posted through Internet. It is to easy to create fake one.

The general idea of this thread is to post screen shots of any genuine error messages you've come across that are funny, strange, absolutely not at all helpful, or even confusing. I'll start off.

-Deozaan (December 07, 2008, 08:15 AM)

Hm. Why screenshots? Ctrl+C works globally for all MessageBox dialogs in Windows...

-fenixproductions (December 07, 2008, 09:27 AM)

I didn't realize that Ctrl-C would work if the message box wouldn't let me select the text with my mouse.

As for the verity of those screenshots, I took the first two myself. So if you still think they're photoshopped or faked, thanks for letting me know you think I'm a liar.

[fenixproductions]

2Deozaan

I didn't realize that Ctrl-C would work if the message box wouldn't let me select the text with my mouse.

-Deozaan

Many people don't know either

As for the verity of those screenshots, I took the first two myself. So if you still think they're photoshopped or faked, thanks for letting me know you think I'm a liar.

-Deozaan

I don't think that. I am simply sceptical since I know that writing:

[Select]

MsgBox "Can't joke properly!", 16, "Windows XP"

in notepad is not so hard

After all, I didn't say that I don't believe in all of them.

[app103]

Here are my 3 favorites that all occurred on my old pc:

AOL 5.0 would give you an error message if you tried to join an empty chatroom:



This is why I hate DRM. A music CD refused to allow me to play it in the media player of my choice, and insisted I use the player contained on the CD, instead. But there is only a few applications capable of playing CD's on that computer, and it sure wasn't on that CD.



Moving data from one drive to another can be a royal pain in the butt on that PC, sometimes:

[Deozaan]

I don't think that. I am simply sceptical since I know that writing:

[Select]

MsgBox "Can't joke properly!", 16, "Windows XP"

in notepad is not so hard

-fenixproductions (December 09, 2008, 06:09 PM)

That might be true, but plain text is a lot easier to fake than a screen shot.

In any case, maybe we should open the thread up to some funny error messages that may or may not be genuine. But I guess there are already entire websites devoted to that.

[f0dder]

Screenshots are more fun anyway, and some dialogs can't be Ctrl+C'ed anyway (some developers love custom dialogs and don't just use a MessageBox() call).

I prefer genuine error messages btw, the fake ones are often not that funny. I should have a search for the various BSODs and other oddities I've snapped around town

[Josh]

Here is one that just popped up on me at foxitsoftware.com when choosing to "Purchase Foxit PDF Creator (Upgrade)".



Seems like they do not have confidence in their products if they are already telling me the product is "Fail." ;-)

[Renegade]

I don't think that. I am simply sceptical since I know that writing:

[Select]

MsgBox "Can't joke properly!", 16, "Windows XP"

in notepad is not so hard

-fenixproductions (December 09, 2008, 06:09 PM)

That might be true, but plain text is a lot easier to fake than a screen shot.

In any case, maybe we should open the thread up to some funny error messages that may or may not be genuine. But I guess there are already entire websites devoted to that.

-Deozaan (December 16, 2008, 03:01 AM)

I think he means something like the attachment I'm uploading. It's a simple application to create fake error messages. You could change the message by changing this line:

MessageBox.Show(textBox2.Text, textBox1.Text, btns, icon, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1);

Then recompiling. The way I have it though you can just choose from a drop down then get a fake error message.

FunnyErrorMessages.zip (67.59 kB - downloaded 270 times.)

[mouser]

cough cough.. Dr. Windows:


https://www.donation...DrWindows/index.html

[Renegade]

cough cough.. Dr. Windows:
(see attachment in previous post)

https://www.donation...DrWindows/index.html

-mouser (September 28, 2010, 06:39 PM)

Hahahaha~! That's awesome! I never saw it before!

[mwb1100]

Funniest fake error message I've seen is courtesy of the old Back Orifice trojan:

  - http://www.unixbigot...org/humour/best.html

Don't forget to scroll down after reading the error message.

[Deozaan]

NECRO THREAD ARISE!!!

I just encountered this one today while upgrading AdGuard from v5.x to 6.x:

[x16wda]

Had this happen to me just the other day, although it's really more of a fail message than an error message... 

Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages

[holt]

I think this definitely qualifies--