# Tell about your most obscure computer problem

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-about-your-most-obscure-computer-problem/600457>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 22, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-about-your-most-obscure-computer-problem/600457 "2011-10-22T17:13:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-about-your-most-obscure-computer-problem/600457/61 "2011-10-28T13:53:46Z")

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> [@Princhester](#):
>
> I once had single copy of a massive MSWord legal document worth tens of thousands of dollars of billable time which suddenly became unusable (I can’t remember in what way exactly). I could still see it and still copy/paste from it. If I created a new document and copy/pasted the old document into it, the new document was just as bad. I tried copying bits of the old document into a new document, and that worked. I gradually copied more and more of the old document into a new one until the new one failed. I eventually narrowed it down by a process of elimination until I figured out that the entire problem related to one paragraph mark. Deleted that, and everything was fine.

Ha, I remember one kinda like that. A lady called me for help with her own computer, one of her problems being that a flyer she was trying to print would only print the first two lines, then nothing else. The problem turned out to be an apostrophe. Her new version of MS Word automatically made a curly apostrophe whenever she typed a normal, straight-line apostrophe, and her ancient printer couldn’t deal with the “new” character. I changed it to a straight apostrophe, and it printed fine.

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**Author:** ![Allthegood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@Allthegood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Allthegood)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-about-your-most-obscure-computer-problem/600457/62 "2011-10-31T00:50:47Z")

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> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> Nothing in Leopard I want or need.

What???

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