Thread: Silly things going wrong - gremlins? Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
This morning, preparing for tomorrow, I sorted out some carol records, some others I had for school and didn't need, which I took to Oxfam, and set up my record player.
This is an antique Pye Black Box, which uses the walls in a corner to reflect sound into the room. It cost me £6 at a church bazaar, and has played very nicely since I out a stereo cartridge in. (It doesn't do stereo, but it doesn't mess the records about.)
One of the Oxfam lot was 'Missa Luba' and then, while I was delivering cards to neighbours, I found the 'Sanctus' had become an earworm. So I went and bought the record back, and started to play it while I got the living room ready.
Only it won't play. The motor is OK, the auto playing function is OK, the stylus is picking up the sound OK, but it isn't getting through the amps at all. The connections from the cartridge look OK.
So, no old carol records tomorrow. Irritating. (Fortunately, it is my sister's friend's line of business, so he may be able to fettle it. But not by tomorrow.)
I'm quite grateful when it is this sort of thing going wrong, because it suggests that nothing worse can be managed by the forces I don't believe in.

[ 24. December 2016, 12:40: Message edited by: Penny S ]
 

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Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :
 
Woke one morning to find water leaked out from under the sink onto the floor. Not a little water, a lot of water, Called the plumber who took an hour under the sink looking for a sign of dripping water. Nothing. He laid paper down and said to call him as soon as I noticed a leak again. That was Thanksgiving, I check under the sink each morning. Nothing. At the same time the ice maker in the refrigerator stopped making ice. Called repair he said it would be a day or two before he could come out. Next three days no ice. The morning he came out it was working again. I am afraid people are starting to think of me as the crazy lady who is lonely and makes up stuff to get visits.

 

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Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :
 
Sorry for your experiences.

I think that such things are often due to physical stuff we don't realize going wrong. Like someone I knew whose cars would mysteriously die under them, in traffic. No explanation found. I wondered if the the person's electromagnetic field clashed with the car's electrical system. (Some people can't wear watches, for similar reasons. At least, analog watches. Dunno about digital.)
 

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Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
@Graven Image: might not the water on the floor have been leaking meltwater from your refrigerator, when it went wrong?
 

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Posted by Japes (# 5358) on :
 
Sighs deeply. Printer decided to play up just as I was printing out last required order of service for me (I print myself a larger version for by the organ) which I think is its death knell.

On looking at my "larger purchases" spreadsheet, something in the computer line has given up or died on me around Christmas for 5 of the last 7 years.
 

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Posted by M. (# 3291) on :
 
I can't wear clockwork watches, they stop. I have no probs with digital watches.

M.
 

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Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Graven Image:
Woke one morning to find water leaked out from under the sink onto the floor. Not a little water, a lot of water, Called the plumber who took an hour under the sink looking for a sign of dripping water. Nothing.

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quote:

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Originally posted by M.:
I can't wear clockwork watches, they stop. I have no probs with digital watches.

M.

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Are you Uri Geller?
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
You are farting around on your phone, playing Angry Birds for two hours straight. Everything works fine.

You get a push notification that a friend of yours has lost a parent. You head over to FB to express your care. Wifi drops two bars, the page won't load, and even when you finally get there, the text function keeps hanging up on you.
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
My DVD recorder chose this afternoon to play up and consequently did NOT record the Doctor Who Christmas Special!


 

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Posted by M. (# 3291) on :
 
Schroedinger's Cat, you're not meant to out people, you know.

M.
 

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Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Sparrow:
My DVD recorder chose this afternoon to play up and consequently did NOT record the Doctor Who Christmas Special!

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Isn't it on the BBC iSlayer, and you could record it off there?
 

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Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
You can watch on iPlayer - but can you record?
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I can record from iPlayer via my TIVO, channeled through to my VHS/DVD recorder, but not ITV stuff which has a lock on it.
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
It is apparently repeated next weekend some time at around 2 am so I will make sure to record it then.
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
BBC2 Thursday 29th, 2.30 am, signed.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
I got up from my bed and stood on the remote handpiece of my phone. I didn't break it but managed to press the Do Not Disturb button, which means no one can ring me. I have lost the owners manual


I hate technology.

Huia
 

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Posted by Rowen (# 1194) on :
 
Google your phone like this...

Brand name + description of problem

You may find your answers there
 

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Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
We have consistent plumbing problems in our house, which tend to take forever to fix because they come down to totally rudimentary issues that the plumber never thinks to look for.

One month into living in our house, the kitchen sink starts backing up at the least provocation. Roto rooter shows up, nothing comes back on the snake to suggest major issues. Finally, someone goes down into the crawl space, and discovers that the issue is being caused by a drain pipe that runs uphill. Apparently water flows downhill?

Ten months later, the master bath stops draining. We call in roto rooter again, they snake the drain and hit mud, call it a broken pipe and tell us to call someone to scope the thing. Scope guy comes in, can see an issue, but doesn't think it is a broken pipe. Finally, he holds his ear up to the drain clean-out in the back yard while I run all of the sinks and toilets in the house, one by one. Turns out the master bath was never actually tied in to the drain, and has just been draining into the back yard for the last 11 months. He can tell because it's the only place where running water won't make a sound in the main drain line.

The worst part was that I needed to send a nasty "we intend to sue you on this specific date if you don't cough up some cash" letter before the builder offered to pay to fix that second pipe.

[ 27. December 2016, 23:32: Message edited by: Og, King of Bashan ]
 

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Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :
 
Rain water from our roof drains through an attached pipe into our neighbors back yard. His fence at one point is about 2 feet onto our property. We decided to call it even.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Rowen:
Google your phone like this...

Brand name + description of problem

You may find your answers there

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Thanks Rowen. I knew the solution would be simple (press and hold the button again) - and I was actually on the right track, but I didn't hold it for long enough.

Huia
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Christmas lights on a wreath at the window. Suddenly noticed they were off, while the tree, on the same timer, was still on.
Bulb gone, I thought. But while checking it out, I spotted that the lead coming from the transformer showed bare copper.
But thwarted the gremlins today by finding a set of 96 battery operated LEDs in the post Christmas sale for £3.75. It took a bit of winding, but is looking good. What I do with the bulbs, I'm not sure.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
We used to live in a flat which was part of a Victorian block of four. We put a battery smoke detector in the hallway. It went off randomly every few weeks / months. We replaced it. The next one did the same. Thinking it must be affected by draughts we moved it to a different part of the hallway. Same problem. As we were in an upper flat, when it went off we checked the down stairs flat too, which was a nuisance if it went off at 3am and we had to head outside in our PJs. On two occasions a couple of years apart we called the fire brigade because we thought we could smell smoke. Both were false alarms, but after the second occasion we realised that a smoke detector in the hallway was more bother than it was worth.

Chatting to a clergy person about this he asked if we knew if there had been any deaths in the flat and if the smoke detector going off coincided with any anniversaries. We didn't know the dates of the first few false alarms, but the second occasion on which we had phoned the fire brigade had indeed coincided with the anniversary of a death.
 

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Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :
 
NEQ--

Wow!

Not to in any way discount your story; but FYI insects that stray into a smoke detector can set it off. May not be figured out unless the alarm is taken apart.

Just in case someone else runs into a similar problem, that's one more possibility to check.
 

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Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :
 
Sometimes they just become cantankerous by themselves. This week a year ago, I came home to beeping that battery needed replacing in my wired in alarm. Was attended to and whole thing fell apart and screamed at my block of apartments. It was eventually removed as nothing stopped noise. New unit was fitted which cost me almost $200. Frightfully expensive.

Six months down the track, everything went belly up again. and strata manager put me on to the Fire Alarm firm. Manager said he would have to replace it. I absolutely refused to pay anything, maintained it must be under some warranty . Then said I would be telling others of the expensive, poor quality alarms used. He suddenly thought there might be a chance it was guaranteed and replaced with a new one at no charge to me.

Our compulsory inspection in August showed all was well but the fellow doing that job said I was lucky as many give up trying to get things fixed under warranty.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
It was an oddly shaped hallway with both a stair up from ground level and a stair going up to the attic floor. There were probably all sorts of odd draughts. Lightbulbs didn't last long in the hallway either.
 

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Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
We have a smoke alarm in our unheated garage. The battery needs replacing much more frequently than the ones inside the house - in fact, I need to buy one today.

We once lived on a busy road; the smoke alarm was sometimes set off by exhaust fumes (which probably didn't do our lungs much good, either!) Tiny sandflies can set them off, too.

[ 30. December 2016, 10:06: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
One of the Venetian blinds in my bedroom has died, I pulled the cords yesterday and they snapped. Collapse of the thing. The other one no longer changes the slat angle.
I've got the gear to put up curtains, but not the time to do it yet. I'm hoping the fittings can use the screw holes from the blind fittings.
 

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Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :
 
For the last few days, my phone's voice mail has stopped accepting my password, which I know I did not change. A couple people might be wondering why I'm ignoring them!

It happened before, but was resolved by the next day. I haven't checked today, to be fair...
 

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Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :
 
I meticulously fill in my car log book when I buy petrol.
Apart from the mileage count and the trip meter, I can do it from the receipt, but this morning the two ball-point pens in the car both refused to write, whatever I scribbled them on.
Never mind, I have one in my bum-bag – or had. Nothing there now but a pencil with a broken point.
So I memorised the two numbers, went back in to the desk, used the chained pen on the counter, and then explained to the two guys behind the counter why I was doing it.
"Have a free one," one said, and handed me one.

When I got home, I checked both the original trouble-makers before binning them. Both wrote clearly without any coaxing needed.

GG

[ 05. January 2017, 23:49: Message edited by: Galloping Granny ]
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
I've had at least nine tech problems in my new work cubicle in three weeks--several to do with the phone,several with the computer, a couple with the company portal, and one with the electricity.

Today the phone went out again. Fortunately I spotted that something had pulled out from the jack and fixed it myself.

I doubtless should have put a bowl of milk out for the office hob. I'm getting what I deserve.
 

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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
When I got home, I checked both the original trouble-makers before binning them. Both wrote clearly without any coaxing needed.

GG

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My phrase for that is the perversity of
inanimate objects. Pens are amongst the worst offenders

Huia
 

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Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :
 
I think their cousin is the pen on computer desk here.

[ 06. January 2017, 08:32: Message edited by: Lothlorien ]
 

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Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :
 
I have two shopping bags, last week I could not find the green, this week I cannot find the black.

Jengie
 

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Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 
Everyone knows the angels play tricks on us like that -- they're zapping the green one black, and the black one green, just to annoy you.

Oops, that's for the Conspiracy Theory thread.
 

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Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :
 
The fluorescent light fixture in my laundry seems to have died -- when I try to turn it on it makes strange noises and doesn't light. Of course this has happened right when I've decided that I need a new washing machine before the current one breaks down (it's showing signs of imminent death). I can hardly order a new washing machine and tell the salesman that the installer had better bring a flashlight if he doesn't want to work in the dark.

(I do have my handyman coming to look at the light next week. In the meantime, a desk lamp and a wee bit of natural daylight make it possible to do laundry.)
 

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Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :
 
Jengie--

quote:

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Originally posted by Jengie jon:
I have two shopping bags, last week I could not find the green, this week I cannot find the black.

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