Scared to the Bone
A few weeks ago, I walked into the office and my PC was off. Weird. Started it up and.... nothing. Unplugged and replugged, tried again, and it started up. All good and I go about my day, until less than five minutes later, it switched itself off again.
Power supply.
I am annoyed.
Well, most likely, power supply. After about 20 attempts trying different things, I decided I wasn't going to fix it as it is under warranty still, so I took it to where I bought it from. They said they would send it to another city and it would take three weeks to have a look at it. Three weeks!!
I said no.
Took it to a local repairer.
It scares me to my bones.
Because, despite me trying to be careful and everything being passworded and accounts like my Trezor requiring the physical key, it is very easy to miss something and giving my PC to computer nerds who probably know what they are looking at, is worrisome.
So much so, that before taking it there, I considered just buying a new PC.
But they are ridiculously expensive at the moment.
Less than losing my wallets though.
Still, I took the risk and crossed fingers hoping my security hygiene was good enough. And, after a week and a half of testing and a few phone calls in between, they could not only not find the reason for the issue, but they didn't experience the issue at all. The PC ran for days with no events.
Damn it!
Not that I want to pay for repairs, but it is also frustrating as I know there is something wrong with it. However, I still haven't tested it, even though I picked it up a couple days ago, as I just haven't had the time to set it up, meaning that I want to clean a bit first - and I haven't had the time to do that yet. Our office is a mess.
I am on my work laptop, which only has access to some functions, as I do not have complete control of who has access to the PC - the IT Team have too. But, what has been interesting is how "out of sorts" I am as my digital habits are built around my personal PC, and without it, I am at a bit of a loss. I don't have all the sites I use memorized and these days, even the ones I use commonly don't spring to mind, as I am so used to having them in an open tab.
It has also heavily disrupted my Hive activities, as everything feels a "bit" different and my normal processes don't flow. I don't learn so well or fast, so I forget to do things or, when I normally would do something, I end up doing something else instead. It is very easy for me to get sidetracked.
Look, a bunny.
I am going to try and get things set up properly this weekend so I can get back into the groove, as I don't like the constant feeling that I have missed something. Would also be great to get the entire office set up, but that is going to take a lot more time, and money.
I guess the "good news" of having my PC tested is that it only cost me 20€ (as long as they didn't steal my crypto), as that was their diagnosis fee, no matter how long the spent on it. And, if it isn't a physical problem, it now puts it in the realm of an update issue, or perhaps a faulty peripheral or USB dongle. Fingers crossed it was some kind of strange anomaly and I can just get back to normal.
What are the chances?
Does anyone else have rational security fears like this?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Posted Using LeoFinance Alpha
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You can try to take a look at it, so as to get away all of your worries. But I think it could be a destructible move of the repairer against their reputation if they steal your crypto.
There is a "prove it" problem.
I'm the same with my phone. Exit and back out and password password protect protect. Just had to get the thing fixed yesterday. Again. Never easy.
It sucks to have to think about these things so much.
You seem to have a secure system. SayitWithAcheck (cap sensitive) accesses all my shit.
I feel better now. Thanks dude!
Oh I've heard a few frightening stories of people's Hive accounts hacked and their wallets emptied, crypto stolen and since then, I've written my keys down in several private places, done some other security measures and not give my mobile to anyone like that. It's a scary thought but the risks are too much.
Writing it down somewhere is goo and I have mine. The problem here is, is there somewhere my keys appear on my Pc? Because I couldn't get into it for long enough to check.
So you didn't even get some kind of blue screen when it restarted? Sometimes you have to turn that setting on for it to stop at the blue screen. They added that in 7 or so I think. It does sound weird. Lucky for me, I am a tech guy, so pretty much do all my own repairs. Makes it nice not having to send it out of my possession somewhere I totally understand your hesitancy!
If I had built this one myself, I would have fixed it myself, but had no idea what I was doing when I opened it, so decided against it. I am not great at this kind of complexity now and learning from YouTube. No Bluescreen, just off.
That's crazy, I am sorry. Laptops were scary the first time I opened one up, but you get used to them. I just always worry I won't get stuff back in the right place. I've wound up with some extra screws a time or two as well.
Personally, I don't give over any computing device to a third party. However, it does require you figure out how to fix it yourself, or recover data. No easy way to choose between trusted third party and time spent learning to DIY hardware.
For intermittent problems, it could be heat related: Check fans all operating properly (especially on the CPU and GPU), no dust buildup, and computer itself has plenty of breathing room around it.
A screen blackout could be graphics card: If you are able, switch out the graphics card with another.
PC tech support can sometimes be trial and error swapping if you don't have monitoring tools.
And I know that feeling... wondering if there's a security hole or oversight. That's good you have that fear, because if you didn't, you'd be a whole lot more vulnerable. Hope all works out ok.
I would have looked at it too before, but I struggle with these kinds of things now. This PC I bought rather than building myself, because of the challenges I have with that kind of learning. I am not "not" technical, but not as technical as I once was :)
Wasn't heat and all PC components were performing well. Very strange.
Fear is good. Most people are scared of the wrong things.
Not sure about the rational part, but when I walk passed one of our two ADT Security Cams in my skivvies scratchin' my arse...
Are they watching me?
Techy Nerds would never do anything like that right?
I make sure my camera is closed, and facing the other way, before I scratch myself. Unless I want them to watch...
Why do you bother with such stuffs? Is there no technical deparment or person to take care about PC problems of workers? At my company, they would quickly replace it with another one running properly.
This is my personal PC. I have my own desktop. I am on my work PC (laptop) now. I don't put everything on my work one for security reasons.
This is really pathetic. One week ago, my cell phone switches off suddenly while it was charging. I tried to turn it on but I ended up in vain.😂 Next day I went to a repairing shop. They said it was charging IC problem... No softwere issue! It was a relief for me. I got it fixed next day.
I hope your pc gets fixed soon. Good luck!
Hopefully it didn't cost you too much for the repair :)
People usually get into their comfort zone easily and takes time to adjust with changing condition ....you have adjusted with PC and now find Laptop complicated. ...but it won't take time to get adjusted ....handling your stuffs to others always scary...be it a pc or even your phone....
I can use both fine, but the setups are different for different use cases, so trying to use one for the other has challenges for me
Yes, I once gave as well the computer for some reparation and actually, it was just the power supply that went on holidays. For good.
I changed it and they even not charged me for the "opening" of the laptop as they found out immediately the origin of the lack of power.
BUT, yes. Usually in the computer we all have something quite compromising and it would be good (like we always say) to have a separate back-up for such data
I worry about security a lot these days, but I am not sure how safe anything ends up being. It is a very real fear for me after all of this work.
The frustrating part of gadget is that they wont show any sign of packing up before and it will just start suddenly which might result to high spending of money. just like my laptop which has fan problem and i went for repair not me getting there and i was told there are other things doing it which later cost me more money.
Tech is a sinkhole for money taken from the non-technical.
Hmm thats true though
good luck with your pc.
My pc at times loads like normal and at times loads this:
Perhaps you know what I should do to fix this? F10 doesn't do anything( pc still boots to this)
perhaps @bozz can help :)
thank you very much.
Any chance you have a key stuck on your keyboard? It almost looked like you have one stuck down and it is automatically going to the bios. Did you spill anything on the keyboard at some point?
From what I see no key is stuck. I might have spilled something on the keyboard. What I find really strange is that in the morning it always works fine. After that I shut pc down at about 12.00 Few hours later I start again. That is when it loads this. Then I have to shut it down multiple times and then it works like normal again.
That's interesting. Maybe check to see if there is something in the BIOS to change the key you use to access it. That might narrow down the part of the keyboard that is bad. If that is even the case.
It's very difficult when this machine does not work. Very hard to manage work.
I think no body wants their things on others hand. Like I always think multiple times if somebody asks my scooty. if somehow i gave them, then it creates scary ripples down the spine till it comes back to me. our stuff always remain safe at our hand and we are more possessive of them. Thre are always risk of data stolen in case of our digital items. I remember, my friends used to looks out for porn video whenever he get any PC or laptop for repair. It was very old incident. but now a days, you never judge a person.
There is a responsibility thing with it too - if I screw it up, it is on me.
This is something I didn't have to worry about :)
lol....surely you do :) ... his brother was an engineer and he made use of the chances. when he is away. ...
Man! Just a week ago my brand new PC started acting up, just like my previous one. I got spooked badly. I have so many files and important info on here, and I don't even have all of it properly backed up. Yet, thanks to my "basic" knowledge about PC repairs, I somehow got it to start again.
After that I backed everything up in my very old scrappy laptop ASAP. For now the PC is working fine, I really don't know what happened on that day. Yet, I think it'll start acting weird again, sooner or later. You never know with these devices, no matter how good the tech is. That's why sometimes pen and paper still seems like the better option.
It is a warning to get your backups sorted!!
In this area, my PC can die completely and I am fine, as I have backups to just about everything - it would just be very annoying.
I believe I've got it all backed up now, both on my phone and on my crappy laptop.
I'll also get another storage system for my PC, so that whenever I have to do a clean Windows installation my main drive with my files should stay as it is, intact.
There is something I noticed about gadgets. There are times when they will malfunction and after a while, they will begin to work normally
It is just like what you wrote in this article. It happens very well.
Also, telling you that they will give you the system after three weeks seem unfair because they were supposed to understand that you use it all the time and they shoul make it snappy
All my time in the military was working in some type of operational electronic communications or IT, after I worked in IT Management for the U.S. government. I am surprised that after some of the counter-electronic warfare and cybersecurity briefs and training that I received I don't just go off the grid completely and start wearing a tinfoil hat.
I have kept two laptops. One I use regularly and one as a backup. I don't let my family make use of that laptop either. As it is backup and only meant to be used when all the machines in the house fails.I wish to get something portable as mac mini in near future as it consumes less space and easy to start when other machines fail.
I get the nervous part....
It also freaks me out when I loosed my gadget last year, I was like damn, I'm missing so much on hive and loosing days going bye too was worrisome....
I hope they get it fixed soon enough
We have become so dependent on our computers. Could we even exist without them for a day, a week or a month. I learned that the hard way when I was without my laptop for 7 months. I hope to write about it soon. But it can be done. enjoyed. your story.
I had the same worries when I took my dead harddrive over to a repair service. In the end, I decided to just do it because there were some crypto keys that I did not back up. It worked out in the end and I ended up changing my keys as soon as I got my data back.
1000% I am always paranoid of a keystroke file or random picture that I thought was deleted. I have 3 laptops I'd love to recover to a master drive, but I have this same fear as you that maybe I overlooked something. I don't have the means to power any of them on and check, so I guess maybe I haven't yet met that trusting buddy who can figure it out with me. The computers o back to 2013, though most of those old cryoto accounts were wiped out in 2017.