Today is December 3, 2021. What time? I have no idea. We’ll keep it as that.
Last time, I was discussing the madness of how I suddenly ended up homing a poor, innocent abandoned HP computer.
Ahem.
Yes.
After putting in my orders, I went to bed. No point in waxing lyrical and sobbing over problems that I couldn’t really fix, right? But maybe the USB to WiFi adapter could get the PC back online. It’s an adorable little laptop and I just couldn’t imagine only scrapping her, not when I could fix her.
November 29, 2021 – I was up so long the night before that I woke up like a zombie in the morning… and called up my friend. To describe her as stunned when I said: “The computer works.” Is an understatement. I could just imagine the look on her face. I was tired, so tired but very happy.
I suggested that she get a new battery and a chill pad because the power seemed to decrease pretty rapidly and the laptop needs to be cool. She told me she would put it on a padded chair to use it. Yikes. I explained that it’s safer to put a chill pad between it and a surface. Blocked fans can lead to overheating and death of the laptop or fiery explosions.
No one wants fiery explosions.
I went to class afterwards and found out something interesting. Slow internet speed can = worms in the system. I managed to get an offline version of MalwareBytes because the laptop refused to go online. I had to go through their forum to find a link to get the file. The laptop was strange, and I started to wonder if the NIC card was flawed. It could see the connections, but could not make any.
Considering it might have a worm, I considered that a blessing in disguise. You don’t want to share a network with an infected PC like that. And I did remember seeing a popup about how a worm was blocked by Windows Defender the day before.
MalwareBytes found 96 compromised files in her computer and nerfed 95. Trojans in the Registry, Adware also in the Registry, Malware and PUPs galore.
No worms though, thankfully.
After that, I realized it would be safest to completely reformat her computer and do a clean install of Windows 10.
Only one problem. I’d had the disk and couldn’t find it. I had to find the Windows 10 ISO first though… off Microsoft’s website, then had to convince them to ONCE AGAIN let me make an installation disk without a sniff of license anywhere.
I like to keep stuff legit, so I went into command line to get her actual Windows License before I nuked the current OS.
For the curious (and myself, because I’ll need it again), the code is this:
wmic path softwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey
If you’re listening to that on the Podcast, you might want to check the actual post to see what the code looks like. My English is not always the most reliable.
After hitting Windows è CMD (under Administrator). More information can be found here: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/3-simple-ways-to-find-your-windows-10-product-key/
Anyway…
The clean install worked fine at first, then the mouse was jumping everywhere – getting stuck… and I wanted to scream.
The saga continues… Tune in for more of the chaos.
~ Miss J
Hehe, I wonder if my singing counts as screaming when I get into it.
Hey, Miss J! 
Your Thoughts?