Reasons not to leave your laptop unlocked around cats, #243

[brooksmoses]

I went to unlock my laptop this morning, and when the screen came up, the login dialog box was upside down. (Also, caps-lock was acting rather strangely, and it took a few cycles to get that right.)

There is something really quite unsettling about having one's login box upside down on the screen.

After I got logged in, I eventually figured out that somehow something had happened to change the display driver settings to rotate the screen 180 degrees. I have no idea what the magic key sequence is to do that, but apparently our cats managed to hit it....

Comments

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Now that was truly clever! Have you figured out how to restore it? (Maybe not, or you might know how they'd managed it in the first place.) None of my cats have ever been quite that creative.

[brooksmoses]

I figured out how to restore it by going through the control-panel menus and checking the appropriate checkboxes, but somehow I doubt that's how they did it.

[(Anonymous)]

If this is a Dell, mine does that on Ctrl+Alt+Down Arrow. Which is *REALLY DISTRESSING*, since that changes virtual desktops on the same laptop, in Ubuntu. Ctrl+Alt+Up Arrow will make it right again.

[brooksmoses]

Thank you! Yes, it's a Dell, that indeed does the flipping.

[aedifica]

We got a call for that once at the help desk I used to work on. No cats were involved, though.

[aedifica]

Not all Dells, though--this is one, and that didn't do it. (Yes, I had to try it immediately!) I'm running Vista on this, do you have XP or what?

[brooksmoses]

XP, yes, on a Latitude D630 laptop. The settings that adjust it seem to be in the proprietary parts of the Intel display driver, rather than in the standard Windows display stuff, so it may also be specific to Dell laptops with Intel graphics chipsets.

[aedifica]

That would make sense. I'm on an Inspiron 1420 with NVidia graphics.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My friend's kiddo did that when she was 2. Heh.

Twilight Zone moments

[cobalt-00.livejournal.com]

That would have been really unnerving, esp. if you weren't really awake at the time! :) I know Spot has a thing about playing with the mouse pad on my laptop, but he hasn't gotten to typing yet.
I suppose it could have been worse. Upside down, and a message from the cats - "Buy more milk."

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

We have Dells at work, and I like to do this to people who have walked away from their computers but will be returning soon. (Because if I don't abuse my coworkers, I'll go insane.)

[mschlock.livejournal.com]

When did you get kitties? And where are pictures of said kitties?

[suzanne.livejournal.com]

Yes, there are cats! Beatrice and Eowyn.
Pictures here: http://pics.livejournal.com/suzimoses/gallery/0000eqqp

[mschlock.livejournal.com]

KITTIES!!!

They are cuteness!