#motherboard maintenance

[uvaldecomputerrepairsstuff]

Troubleshooting BIOS Issues: When to Repair, Reflash, or Replace

Understanding BIOS Chips and When You Might Need a Replacement When it comes to troubleshooting computer issues, one of the components most people overlook is the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) chip. This small, unassuming chip is vital for your computer’s operation, storing the essential firmware needed to start up your machine and manage the communication between your operating system and…

[moghedien]

honestly I encourage everyone to get comfortable opening up their electronics. game consoles. computers. phones. keyboards. headphones. whatever. like obviously don't start with the most difficult thing to open up and don't just mindlessly pop open something and lose all the screws and don't do it while its on. but get comfortable looking inside your stuff yourself

its not hard to open up most electronics that don't have an apple logo on them (and even a lot of those are easier than you'd think) and it DOES NOT VOID YOUR WARRANTY.

Companies will try to scare you from learning how to care for your own stuff because they get money that way. Warranty stickers are technically illegal in the US but just isn't enforced, and a company can't actually void your warranty if you repair something yourself, so long as you don't break something else in the process.

like I look at threads all the time where people express fear about just opening up a console and looking at the internals to see which version they have but don't be! its easy, its safe, its free! get comfortable with your electronics and learn how to clean and repair stuff yourself, it isn't scary, companies just want you to think it is!

[wingedalpacawinner]

MacBook Air Repair

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[cryptotheism]

The city was drowned slow, its ankles tied to the moon as the tide rose to meet it.

Blind and reaching, its tongue cracked and split with thirst, its thousand iron throats burning with salt and pollution, desperate to drink, the head of Teleth Avaris sank deeper beneath the waves. A hundred more hydroelectric dynamos. A thousand. Ten thousand. Breathe in, let the sea flood your lungs. Let it pressed its weight upon the sternum of Teleth Avaris, and beat upon it with a tidal rhythm to spur its thousand hearts. Breathe out, feel the salt burn as it escapes your lungs. The sea staunches the atomic piles, distilling itself on the city's fever heat.

There was an impulse to abandon the low places, to cast the unwanted and unworthy into the dark, to climb higher, to build on their corpses. But not here. The pumps refused to die. As the great sprawl of Teleth Avaris was cast to the sea, the pumps continued. Time would march on. The low places were scoured of their materials, their technology, their working masses. Yet the pumps continued. The city built higher, piling itself above the waves, sealing its orphaned thralls in its cast-off shells. Yet the pumps continued. For all the filth the high places cast into the dark, the pumps continued.

The gates were sealed, the old blocks quarantined. Networks of communication died. Diagnostic panels went dark. The nature and structure of the deep was lost to history. Yet the pumps continued.

Time passed. Records were lost. Official inquiries into city infrastructure returned only ancient blueprints and useless maps. Inquiries became expeditions, surveyor teams sent deep to explore the abandoned cargo shafts. The roots of Teleth Avaris became unmapped places. Theories turned to stories. They said the old machines are still running, whole automated armies of maintenance drones. They say legions of lobotomite husks keep the water-wheels turning. Stories turned to legends. They say the deep is a lost nation, a rouge state that lives of the trash from the city above. They say it is a bunker, a guarded enclave where the old lords are cloistered in paranoia. Legends to myth. They say the deeps are a holy kingdom, a paradise where life is long and beautiful and the old world never died. They say it is a city of ghosts, a hell where sinners turn the dynamos for all eternity. Expeditions became pilgrimages. Yet the pumps continued. There was something in the deep.

Slaves combed through the runoff. Prisoners and lobotomites on stilted prosthetics picked life debts in the processing basins, minds mirrored along cybernetic proxies under careful watch. They worked without rest, their hands whittled into probes for testing the value of bodies and machines. Rigged overseers in military armor scanned for mechanical faults and disobedience as field techs kept watch over minds and circuitry.

Time passed. Peasants worked the processing fields. Children born with tall shins and smooth dense flesh sang as they trawled the processing basins. Plumber-knights patrolled the far marches. They returned with songs of strange beasts and great hunts. Irriation-sages tended to the forest reefs where the bodies necrosed to crops. The abandoned processing basins bloomed with lilies in the summer, roots tangled with old bones and neurocircuitry. The king was dead.

Lay-clerics divined wisdom from the bodies in the water. Salt-spoiled bones and corroded motherboards became syllables of the divine hymn. Discarded knuckles were whittled to dice for children's games. Bloated stomachs were dried and tanned for ballgames. It was winter in the deep and the water was cleaner, cooler from snow-melt on high. The Holy and Sacred Order of Water Treatment wore cloaks woven from synthetic furs and reclaimed silver wire. They did not need to, but it helped fight the chill. The druids built shrines of pseudo-driftwood and terracorals about the diagnostic stations. They would sit in silent meditation beneath the wireless towers, relay-staves thrust into the wires in communion with the diagnostic spirits. It would be a good harvest this year. Long live the queen.

At the root of the pumps were the mourning stacks. Where bodies and machines were piled for processing. Work lines became necropoli, morgues for holy burial. Here augments were cut from flesh, metal sorted by its alloy, organs preserved and reclaimed. At the north lay the tomb of the old king, his body embalmed in resin lest he rise again one day.

Above bloomed the sanctum. In a time now lost to history, it was little more than offices and residences. Old-world bioconcrete melded with terrestrial coral, cut and shaped by secret geometries into a cathedral of municipal irrigation. Verandas of sea-green fan corals, colonnades of deep blue staghorn, great arches of maroon finger coral, all carved over centuries into a living basilica of the pumps. Within, beside an empty throne, sat the queen.

(more)

[mistytpednaem]

late last year I had a dude my dad's age transplant my CPU, GPU and RAM into essentially a whole new chassis complete with all the other shit a PC needs to function and I have many regrets for a variety of reasons, but one baffling thing about the process that I only discovered recently is the wallpapers folder that this man left behind

like, it starts out normally enough,

but. you might notice.

oddities.

let's look at some of them more closely.

I'm not sure what img1 is supposed to convey. Is it supposed to be like, a virus thing? This is a boomer building PCs in a small town so I'm sure he's been paid for basic virus cleanup and maintenance many, many times. This is an EXTREMELY generous guess on my part, though, because there are far more inexplicable things coming.

ok this one isn't that weird, I just want you all to know how bad this dude's sense of graphic design is. also wait it IS kind of weird, what's windows 7 doing here??? this man was totally ready to install windows 11 (though when I said I'd rather stay on 10 for now he was like "oh yeah that's smart 11's no good for gamers yet"). that's his logo below the windows logo. I feel like I'm also being generous when I call it a logo.

is this just an intel marketing image that he slapped the name of his business on in MSPaint??? also my CPU's AMD but lbr this man made a "wallpapers" folder a decade ago and he just drags and drops it to every new windows install he's made since

HUH????????

IMG6 IS JUST A BLURRY JPEG OF SPEEDY GONZALES????????? I DON'T wait is it supposed to be like a metaphor. "i made your pc fast, like speedy gonzales, you're welcome"?? is this how the mind of a man in his late 50s works

I. frankly I should have saved this one for last because it doesn't get any more baffling than this, but I've been going in order so it'd feel wrong. this image is the only thing justifying my tentative interpretation of the stickman with the syringes sticking out of it, but that's all I can get from it. I don't know why this man apparently kins Dr. Wily, and the Simpsons, uh. The, the Simpsons,

look I'm going to translate the barely legible text because you might think it helps make sense of what's going on here

daaaaaaaamn it's alex!?! ... he fixed our PC and this is how we ended up !!!

BUT IT DOESN'T.

imgs 08, 09, 10 and 12 are all F1 cars with a crude MSPaint i5 GAMING Intel Racing by Windows 10 on top. I don't need to go over why this makes no sense again.

img11 raises a question, asks it, and in the end, provides no answer.

img13 is just the penguin doctor image from earlier, sans Dr. Wily, so I'm not posting it again. img-- ok no I know what I said earlier about going out of order but I AM going to save img14 for last because otherwise this post is going to end on a wet fart.

imgs 15 and 19 are identical except he wrote "Servidor" (server) on the latter.

these three i can see actually being MINORLY tailored to my build because my motherboard is Asus, but it isn't ROG, it's TUF and-- christ sorry I just realised he also crudely wrote "Asus" on the last one. that's the only difference between img16 and img18

and finally. left this one for last because I remembered that there IS one image in this folder that baffles me almost as much as "this pc repair job made us get naked, thanks dr. wily"

img14 is stolen Doctor Who fanart with the name of this man's business and Windows crudely written on top, and frankly, the second most surprising thing about it is that he didn't ALSO write the name of his business in Comic Sans.

[dirt-nerd]

Yes this! I know so many people- and weirdly often younger people- who take terrible care of their computers! Like laptops shouldn't be running like ass after only 2 years! Most forms of technology have some form of basic maintenance requirements that people really need to take the time to learn if they care about sustainability!

As much as I agree that programmed obsolescence is definitely a thing I also think some people are very careless.

Like, if you break your phone after 1,5 years every time but the average is 2,5 (I’m being very generous here because I’m very clumsy and my phone is nearly 6 years old) then the problem is you.

If your 9 yo computer is slower than a grandpa but then someone else come, wipe out everything on it and now it’s a sightly disable 25 years old speed wise then buying a new computer won’t truly resolve the problem because the problem is you.

Same with books, cable, bag, clothes,…

‘Don’t change if it isn’t broke’ is good ONLY if you take care of your stuff. There is no difference between someone buying a new shirt every month because they want to and you having to buy a new shirt every month because you are damaging them.

*of course I’m talking in equivalent situations. If you break your phone every year because you have a job that makes you it more likely for whatever reason that it will break then you aren’t in this situation. If you break thing more often because you are poor and you can’t buy things of better quality then you aren’t in this situation. Same with disabilities that make it more likely to be clumsy or rough in your movement Etc

[bun-unit22]

Thanks to some creative conversations with friends I’ve been thinking how fun it would be having a huge robotic gf.

But when I say huge I’m not talking 8 feet. No, I’m talking more like a thousand or so!

Just imagine talking while walking inside of them, conducting simple maintenance as you two usually do.

At times teasing her by pulling on some of her wires to send tingles through her frame and making her industrial sized fans spin faster as she wonders what you’re doing in her.

Rubbing exposed low voltage wires to signal where you are. Which you’re able to since it is expected to know your partner…inside and out.

Allowing you to do more as they place full trust in you.

Leading to some days where you push for more as you sometimes play with her more vital and sensitive wiring that leads to her motherboard. Sometimes tugging, other times kissing or rubbing the copper to get those sweet sounds of them glitching for a moment or two.

Eventually leading to more that ends with you wrapped in loose wiring and an overheating glitchy mess that is your robotic lover.

Which you slowly put back together, making sure everything is ok with them. Placing small kisses along the way just so you let her know you love her…

I’m so normal btw =>

[inkblotsonmyhands]

okay im having some thoughts about the bosses/secret bosses of deltarune.

it's generally accepted that the boss and secret boss of a chapter mirror themes—re: the king has power over his subjects, despises the lightners for the control they have over him, thereby keeping him trapped, and eventually ends up imprisoned in a cage by a team consisting of 2/3 lighters, meanwhile jevil starts off trapped by the king himself in a cage, has no power whatsoever over anyone, yet wholeheartedly believes that he is free and the rest of the world is trapped, and seems to achieve a greater personal satisfaction than the king ever does through that belief. the king and jevil also display dynamics characteristic of their inspirations; the king is amongst the most powerful of playing cards, superior to almost all others except the joker, which operates outside the rules, likewise, a king reigns supreme in court, but the court jester has freedom to do whatever they please and is bound by no law.

the queen and spamton display similar parallels. queen believes she knows best, she craves control and takes it by force in a misguided attempt at actually satisfying her subjects; spamton is a salesman who hopes to sell things to others to satisfy them, through which he hopes to satisfy himself. spamton is obsessed with personal freedom; queen limits others' freedom. while this is a massive simplification of spamton's larger, deeply compelling narrative, im keeping myself from rambling about spamton and the concept of choice to try to stick to the original purpose of this post. these two characters' ends are also reflections of each other: queen ends up happy, but in a sense trapped and powerless—she becomes a resident of Castle Town. spamton gains the freedom he craves and ceases to exist. a motherboard thrives under proper maintenance and control; a spam email has no identity outside the force that propagates it.

having established all that, i want to talk about the narrative roles these bosses/secret bosses play.

jevil is a truly hidden character. you have to investigate the map thoroughly to find him; if you don't, you may not even know he exists unless you're particularly observant. you certainly won't know what he looks like, his musical themes, his attacks, his interaction with other characters, or any part at all of his story. regardless of whether or not you unlock jevil's fight, the main boss of chapter one is still the king.

spamton is different. spamton appears prominently in any playthrough of the game—you do not have to go looking for him. multiple characters talk about spamton before you see him, and once you meet him, he further elaborates on his interaction with them. spamton's main musical motifs are all heard in the main game. you battle spamton in all runs of the game, albeit lesser and more powerful versions—regardless, even a normal playthrough familiarizes you with spamton's attacks. spamton is a character in the game with as much presence as any other without any need for you to go out of your way to find him—he arguably has a larger presence than any other miniboss, because spamton's scenes and fights are striking, memorable, and dramatic right from the first, "normal" time you encounter him. he's called a secret boss because to unlock his boss fight, you have to either perform a long, long series of steps which spamton himself guides you through, or you have to manipulate the main character's childhood friend into performing some truly chilling (hah) actions which dramatically alter the course of the game. if you do this, you do not fight queen, the real boss of chapter two, at all, and instead fight spamton, the secret boss, in her position.

spamton is not a secret boss in the same capacity as jevil. jevil's existence and boss fight are both a secret, while spamton himself is not inherently a secret at all—only his boss-ness (boss-ship? boss-hood? boss-form?) is. this development between chapters one and two, between jevil and spamton, makes me wonder how bosses and secret bosses will develop in upcoming chapters.

ive started thinking about how the differences, similarities, parallels, and overlaps between the boss and secret boss could be explored in further chapters. right now spamton becomes the main boss of chapter two after making some disturbing choices—but they're still your choices, you're still the one who made them, you were too curious for your own good. what if bosses overlapped and interchanged based on softer, less damning choices? what if the choices were just as damning as they were in chapter two, but you were desensitised to their gravity? what if the game itself directs you to make these damned choices, to the extent that you never even realize that you're making them, and the "secret" boss starts rising up as an increasingly prominent antagonist, until they fully replace the normal boss?

two further elaborations:

(one) toby fox has set up the boss and the secret boss's character inspirations in a very precise thematic manner, especially the primary bosses. the main boss of a chapter based on playing cards is the king of the set; the main boss of a chapter based on a computer lab is the motherboard. the secret bosses are a little less obvious in their inspiration, but a thread i see between them is that they're based off something almost irrelevant, forgettable, yet also overwhelmingly in your face. the joker and a spam email. my purpose in pointing this out is to clarify that im not suggesting that this theming will change in future chapters; i expect a main, overt boss and a secret, covert one to be present. what im suggesting change in is how you encounter them, to what degree, and as a result of what action. the two secret bosses so far explore ideas of freedom, control, choice, and perception. i think there is great potential to explore these and further ideas through playing with the way one encounters these characters in addition to their personal character traits. after all, encountering any character at all is a result of control and choice, which are results of freedom, and perception guides the choices, the very feeling of control, and the opinion one makes of the character. perhaps these secret bosses will cease to be perceived as antagonists at all—or maybe they'll start to come off more antagonistic, in contrast to how the secret bosses so far have been characters it's almost too easy to sympathize with.

(two) the average deltarune player has already played and been deeply immersed in undertale. undertale teaches you many things, but i want to highlight two here: it teaches you to be kind, and it teaches you that a kind heart is only an entertained one. the first of these informs a lot of players' instincts in deltarune—we tend to choose the "nice" options and go for the "morally right" thing. as we have been taught, when one does that, they meet the real boss as the final antagonist, who they know is definitely a bad guy, cause they, the player, have been nothing but good. i think that deltarune wants to teach us something about morality even further than the point undertale made with its no mercy run, where we were shown how one loses their pretence of kindness to a burning urge to be entertained. i think a very interesting way to do that would be through un-teaching us the nice!nice!nice! instinct that undertale hammered in, potentially teaching a completely different, possibly chaotic instinct in its place, then manipulating the game and its bosses based on those choices we start making instinctively. a key aspect of a toby fox game is the fact that any choice, regardless of how or why you made it, is finally your own, and i fully want to be punched in the face with that fact once again through deltarune, which i think it could achieve by subverting our understanding of a "normal" play of the game. i fear i am rambling too much for my point to be clear, so to illustrate with an example, what i mean is this: we accept that the normal chapter two occurs by playing the game the normal, obvious way, while the weird route occurs by playing it the intentionally absurd way—but what if those lines between normal and absurd started blurring? what if you started feeling unsure of which was the "correct" way to move forward in the chapter? what if you started having to take morally ambiguous decisions to achieve the "normal" ending of a chapter, which conditions you to start making morally ambiguous decisions in general, until chapter six rolls around and the fandom talks about the normal route and the weird route, but somehow, the weird route is the one where everything is fine and all four friends who fall asleep in a librarby wake up?

i have never typed the word boss this many times in my life. good night, humans and monsters.

cross posted on reddit.

[lesbx]

this pc maintenance has also gone and fully triggered one of my nightmare responses. like as in when i’m actually sleeping and having a nightmare i have a defense mechanism where i focus really hard and try to “reload a save��� to get out of a situation that’s scary and when i thought i broke my motherboard i had a moment of disassociation briefly where i then realized i was mentally trying to quickload in real life

[rangerpippin]

no but genuinely what DO they do when there's a legitimate IT problem that isn't just Mark pretending to fix Helly's computer like a car

I've always been fascinated by the question of maintenance for these scary super secret Evil Bases Hidden In Plain Sight. who empties the wastebaskets? who refills the soap and paper towels? who do they call when the power rails fail on the motherboard?

absolutely loved Severance showing that the custodial maintenance is Mark's new responsibility, and taking us with him as he takes pride in refilling the soap dispensers and running the carpet sweeper. But I do have to wonder who does lifecycle maintenance and break-fix for the computers they all use. Most of it could probably be done remotely or the workstations brought upstairs to a nonsevered IT department, but there are some fixes where you just can't get around an onsite visit. Do they have a severed IT department? Do they call in nonsevered contractors to come in over the weekend? Do they just replace the entire workstation anytime anything goes wrong? Would it be an effective form of protest to surreptitiously switch the plug to a dead outlet necessitating a total replacement since no one is going to check? What happens if MDR sustains a cyberattack? What would it be like to work in the severed IT department, because I can't stop thinking about severed IT department?

[thephonemenarentreal]

(who wants to transfer to the buttcrack outpost of the Alliance? ) TITLE: STAFF NEEDED: Actual Skills Optional

OUTPOST 51

Purpose: Rocket testing for space flight capacities and anti-gravitational lift capacity; communication way station; monitoring station for anomalous space activity Current Supervisor: LT-2 Paralipsis Current Staff Count: Ten (severely understaffed)

Current Output on Research: Nothing of note. Notes insist they are still building the facility up to do safe rocket testing. No engineer of record to lead development team...and no development team present

Supervisor claims no "talented applicants" have put in for transfers to the Outpost. Does not comment nor expound on this statement.

Only the communication way station is operational and space monitoring, although it is at minimum output. HIGH COMMAND REPORT: Outpost 51 is required to have the minimum staff to achieve all goals. More transfer options are to be sent to the outpost until the Supervisor hires. Replacing the Supervisor is not an option given the sensitivity of why he is there. ----- TRANSCRIPT BETWEEN HEAD OF MAINTENANCE AND CONSTRUCTION AND OUTPOST SUPERVISOR

Civic: Sir, we rilly need to talk abaht da staffing issue here. Supervisor Paralipsis: Kind of busy.

CIvic: Sir, I wouttent be interrupting yinzes roasting yinzes motherboard in da ninety degree desert heat if it weren't kind of important...

Supervisor Paralipsis: Sarcastic much?

Civic: Trust me, ahz showing a lot of self restraint and doone my best polite, sir

Supervisor Paralipsis: Fine. What's wrong with the staffing?

Civic: Yinz mean other than da fact wir running an ahtpost on a literal skeleton crew and main control is asking hauscome we don't have a team doone da rocket testing?

Supervisor Paralipsis: Aren't you an engineer?

Civic: I'm a civic engineer sir.

Supervisor Paralipsis: Same difference. Just go shoot some records. put in some data, and send it to high command so they piss off.

Civic: I'm not abaht to go wasting allsiance resources building half-assed rockets and launching dem into da desert. We need to hire a least an engineer or two.

Supervisor Paralipsis: Then we can just promote idiot one and idiot two to the rank of engineer. They fuck around with the Titan Cameraman engineer enough to at least know how to put something together and push the launch button.

Civic: Sir, Prattle and Tattle are not qualified fer anything, let alone testing rockets.

Supervisor Paralipsis: Ugh, can't make this easy on me, can you?

Civic: how's abaht I hanle picking aht da staff from da transfer requests? I'll git at least two engineers and a few hans to help me, maybe another com officer.

Supervisor Paralipsis: That is like ...six new people I have to put up with here.....

Civic: I'll hanle em or have Tremolo do his duty as vice-supervisor. Hell, I can git yinz a secretary to hanle yinzes shit so yinz can do even less work if that gits yinz to hire people...

Supervisor Paralipsis: ...Fine. But you better hire a secretary that just does what they are told, asks no questions, and can handle basic number crunching.

Civic: Don't worry. I'll find someone who won't say a word abaht yinzes side hustles sir.

Supervisor Paralipsis: Then go find some more suckers to come roast out here...and take the twins with you. If they don't like whoever you pick out, they aren't going to survive here.

<muffled giggling is heard behind the chair. CIvic sighs>>

Civics: I'm aware of that sir. I'll start sorting through allsa transfer requests and run dem by yinz whenever yinz aren't busy doone wahever da hell yinz do

Supervisor Paralipsis: Mmhmm.

------ TRANSFER REQUEST PROTOCOL Please give the following information on your transfer request. Once request is sent, please allow three to five business days for Outpost to process request. Reason for acceptance or decline will be given. Outpost 51 is currently recruiting for the following positions: Lead Engineer for Rocket Testing Engineer Team Communication Daytime Officer Secretary Construction Team -------- Please record the following information for Transfer: UNIT DESIGNATION: FACTION TRANSFER FROM: REASON FOR TRANSFER: POSITION REQUESTING: WORK EXPERIENCE: By applying, you agree for disclosure of medical records to Outpost 51 stationed EMC for care needs and accommodations. By applying you are aware of the risks of working at a remote outpost which include the following: Accidental injury or death Feelings of paranoia Feelings of isolation Termination of position at the discretion of the Supervisor Existential Crisis and Mid-Life Crisis from long periods of sitting and considering the circumstances that led you to this Outpost Potential for abduction by unknown hostile factions causing you to vanish completely and be taken on a cosmic adventure If interest, please inquire to the office of Maintenance and Construction for details.

[wingedalpacawinner]

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[chiprewington]

Any hcs for Chip post override battle? Or maybe even the possibility of some sort of sentient override?

Rubs my hands together. This IMMEDIATELY caught my eye because I have some very specific thoughts about this.

As always, headcanons are under the cut!

There is no "Post-Override Battle". The implication in Chip's words "You critters again." makes it seem as though toons invading his office are a regular occurrence.

Toss in the fact that what "CLEARING ALL RAM" from the Override means to me is essentially clearing out Chip's recent memories (as well as. a little bit of something else in his memory storage), it would mean that toons invade his office often enough for him to still recall it regardless.

Additionally, I feel like despite the above, he cannot recall specific toons. He can remember they invade his office, but all their faces meld together in his mind to the point that even if you fought him multiple times, he wouldn't remember you.

In short, after the fight he probably bitterly sulks in his office (he is pissed to have the Override triggered, he's so full of rage that he can't properly let out lest it just takes control once again) and then the maintenance hour comes around and he's forced to go in to get repaired. Rinse and repeat the next time some toons come in. Ad infinitum.

That being said he probably also has a drawer full of replacement bulbs. Still has to go in for maintenance anyways for other repairs, but these are for special cases where he can get away with not going in during maintenance (which he will get chewed out for later. but he can't be bothered to care because he gets chewed out for everything anyways)

I also, unfortunately, don't think the Override is capable of becoming sentient. It could theoretically mimic "sentience" to an extent, but it is fundamentally not capable of it by virtue of being a faulty experimental hardware (I personally imagine it as a modchip planted on Mr. Revvington's motherboard.)

Basically, the Override is like ChatGPT but with Employee ID Recognition.

[ms-demeanor]

Quick question about Framework laptops: Can you not actually upgrade the motherboards on them? Because their site/Ifixit makes it look like you can.

https://guides.frame.work/Guide/Mainboard+Replacement+Guide/79?lang=en

It has admittedly been a few years since I looked at their site and it does look like they've launched an upgradeable motherboard.

I will admit that this doesn't necessarily do much to quell my skepticism, for this reason:

When I first started working with computers professionally in 2011 it was maybe a 70/30 split between SATA/IDE drives that came in with laptops and it was still quite common to pick up PCs with 32bit operating systems.

About 5 years ago it started becoming more normal for us to send computers out of the shop with either an SSD and an HDD or just an SSD.

Then it went to M.2s. Then NVMEs.

About every three to four years I've watched memory technology change - when I started is was DDR3, then DDR3L, then DDR4, and DDR5 has been shipping recently.

When I look at the Framework website I see that all the DDR4 is on sale and all the DDR5 is pre-order. Is motherboard that's compatible with DDR5 going to be backwards compatible with the parts of your framework laptop - like the keyboard, screen connections, battery, etc, that you've ordered over the years? Apparently the last three generations have been compatible for major components, but there have been issues with chargers between generations. It won't be compatible with the RAM, that's for sure - or your M.2 drive.

At that point you're replacing the motherboard every couple of years and possibly other components and will just be keeping the frame and body? I feel aluminum is not the biggest extractive concern associated with computer manufacturing. (Like at what point are we reducing actual waste and at what point are we bound up in aesthetics? If you're replacing your motherboard, processor, RAM, and storage drive every few years what is the waste that you're saving - the screen? The touchpad? how many motherboard cycles do you think a screen will last?)

Basically I have doubts about the durability of the modular model and the ability of framework to keep pace with the inevitable changes that will happen in computer technology as time goes on.

And if you have to replace your motherboard, processor, and RAM every two to three years to stay up to date I'm really not certain that I see much advantage (ecologically or technologically) in doing that over using a single laptop for 7+ years and upgrading it periodically.

Basically, here, what this user on the framework subreddit says:

(I'm not certain that IS the minority of users - tons of people on the specs post are talking about their 10-15 year old laptops, and I feel like if we could teach people more about computers from a purchasing and maintenance standpoint we'd have more people using their computers for ten years)

And also, it's expensive. The motherboard upgrade for a framework owner is as much as a lot of people would hope to spend on a new computer, and you'd still have to get new RAM at a minimum.

And I mean look I know that I think about computer part compatibility more than most people; i have probably purchased more computers in my life than anybody but corporate buyers at this point.

I think that framework is a great option for the people who know that that's the option that they want, but there seems to be the assumption among the community that people are blithely buying computers every two years and throwing out the old ones because they don't know any better and that misses a couple of points:

1 - most people work as hard as possible to get the most out of their computers, often pushing past the realistic ability to upgrade or maintain their existing devices

2 - people who do replace their computers on a 2-3 year schedule tend to do so either because they are very wealthy or because they are pretty broke. Most people who I encounter would *love* to keep their computers longer, but also find that $400 is prohibitively expensive and so are stuck in a cycle of refurbs and chromebooks and black friday sales.

Basically i think that framework is a great idea for people who need to have a new top of the line computer every three years; it is an improvement over buying a new computer every three years, it is doing the "re-use" bit of reduce, re-use, recycle.

However I think that's not most users and I think we could pretty easily get to a place where more users would benefit from reducing through better proactive purchases and maintenance.

Basically: I'm leery of telling people who aren't power users to get a power user computer even if it is theoretically easier to install RAM in a framework than to pop the bottom off of a Dell because it's not actually that hard to pop the bottom off of a Dell.

IDK the entire computer industry is fucked in a major way and at least framework is acknowledging that so props to them on that, and hey it rules that they have a refurb marketplace. That is definitely a company I'd trust for refurbished devices.

[vikenticomeshome]

Cyberchase: How to Hack the Motherboard

So, when I was writing my episode discussion post on Cyberchase Season 1 Episode 1 "Lost My Marbles", I mentioned that I might make another post about the security breach that allowed The Hacker to infect Motherboard with the virus. What did The Hacker do to set this up? How did the kids accidentally open the breach? And other questions like that. I have a bit of background in software engineering. I will try to keep things as simple as possible.

Much of this is head-canon built on top of what we see in the episode. Of course, the show plays it fast and loose with computer terminology. Don't try to hack things in real life. You will go to prison.

So, here's an MSPaint diagram of a tiny piece of Motherboard's setup. Keep in mind that she is the god of the Internet, and her Internet may even stretch beyond Earth into other galaxies.

So, there are three separate network segments here. We have the library's internal network, which has the big board on it. We have Control Central's internal network, which has Motherboard on it. And then we have a Database Server internal network, which has a Database Server running on it.

The Database Server is something that I invented here. Remember that this whole diagram is head-canon. However, it's not too far-fetched to think that Motherboard must reach across Cyberspace to a separate Database Server, maybe at the Cybrary.

Now, we know that Motherboard is not directly reachable, even with her Firewall down. Otherwise, The Hacker wouldn't have needed a separate security breach to get to her. He would have just pushed the virus once she took down her firewall for maintenance.

However, Motherboard has a Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunnel to the Database Server. If The Hacker can compromise the Database Server and get his virus in there, it might be able to ride the tunnel into Control Central.

The purpose of any Firewall is to apply a set of rules to any network traffic going into or out of a network, device or application. A good Firewall configuration allows on the traffic that is needed and denies everything else. Motherboard's firewall between herself and the Database Server is currently down. The Database Server itself has connection points to the larger Internet without using a VPN tunnel. However, the Database Server's own Firewall for that access point is UP. If The Hacker tried to throw his virus at that access point, it wouldn't work.

However, there is another connection point into the Database Server. This is another VPN tunnel from the library network. Let's say that the board retrieves the data on the locations of different objects on the map and the icons for those objects by reading one of the Databases. Maybe the board also writes data to the Database to log what directions people requested.

The point here is that some traffic from the Board is authorized to pass through the Firewall on that VPN tunnel. Now, is there a way for The Hacker to get the Board to send authorized traffic over the VPN tunnel to tell the Database Server to open a breach in the Firewall for that public access point? Maybe. It is an Internet-of-Things (ioT) device. Alot of people get these devices, and then they either leave passwords set to their defaults or they forget to keep the sofware patches up to date.

There is a public access point to the Board with a poorly-configured firewall. Maybe there's a way for him to get inside. It may be possible for him to dump the virus code into the board, but there's no guarantee that it would be able to go any further, since the Firewall between the Board and the Database Server is working.

So, let's think about the Board as its own thing.

Suppose that we have two user accounts associated with the board. There is a Principle of Least Privilege that states that a given user account or system process should only be given the minimum amount of permissions required to perform its tasking. That way, if the user account or system process attempts to do something out of line with its permissions, it won't be allowed to perform the operation.

However, if you leave other unnecessary permissions open, and the user account or system process attempts to do something outside of its original intended operations, then the operation may succeed and have unintended consequences.

This also links up with the software development concept of the Minimum Viable Product. You build your software to perform only the exact tasking that it needs it perform. You don't put any additional, undocumented functions in there. Otherwise, those functions could activate and have unexpected consequences.

The board's purpose it to display the different locations. It allows for users to input two points, and it will draw a line between them to assist in navigation. We also established earlier that it reads its information from the Database and writes other information out to the Database.

However, suppose there was some undocumented functionality here. Suppose the developers had a special feature installed in the board that ran a cleanup command against the Database if you pressed three buttons in quick succession. Suppose that the cleanup command in question could be any arbitrary command. Therefore, the developers put the command into a configuration file to be read and executed by the software at runtime.

However, the developers knew that if some kids turned up and started poking the map, they could accidentally kick off the Database Cleanup command. They removed the Database Cleanup command from the configuration file. That way, if someone did poke three buttons in quick succession, the software would check the configuration file, see that there was no command defined, and then do nothing.

The trouble is that they left the part of the software that read the configuration file and ran the arbitrary command in place. So, if the command was somehow added back to that part of the configuration file, then there would be a command for the software to run. Then, if someone else pushed the three buttons, that command would be run. So, yeah, someone could put a command in there to write a bunch of junk into the Database until it filled up and crashed. Again, these are commands being sent to the Database from the Board. The Firewall would let them through just fine.

That's pretty bad, but that only lets them modify the Database, right? It's not like they can just tell the Database to open the Firewall on the server that it is sitting on, right?

Well, what if one of the things that the Database could do, upon request, was to open a command shell on the server and run a command. And what if, that command shell was able to run commands that impacted things on the server beyond the Database itself.

What if we called it "xp_cmdshell" and called the Database Server "Microsoft SQL Server 2000". Windows XP and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 would have been around at the time of "Lost My Marbles" after all. Those were also the key players in the real-world Heartland Payment Systems data breach of 2008, which inspired this post.

But hey, just because the Database could open a command shell on the Database Server doesn't mean that The Hacker could use it to bust the Database Server's external Firewall, right? He still needs a way to execute "xp_cmdshell". So, he needs an account with the correct permissions to tell the Database to execute "xp_cmdshell", and he needs the Database itself to have high-enough permissions to run a command via "xp_cmdshell" that can bust the Database Server's external firewall and open a path to Motherboard. Thankfully, the Database only run the "xp_cmdshell" for the top-level Database Administrator account.

This is where we get back to the Principle of Least Privilege. The Board should connect to the Database with a fairly low-power account. It only needs to read-from and write-to a few Database tables after all. Likewise, the Database itself should have been started on the Database Server by a fairly low-power account, as it only needs to handle reading and writing its own set of tables.

But then some moron decided to hook up the Board to the Database Server on the top-level Database Administrator Account. So, if the Board was configured to send an "xp_cmdshell" command, the Database would run it. Oh, and another moron decided to have the Database Server start the Database with the "root" account for that server. So, if the Board was configured to send in an "xp_cmdshell" command to nuke the external Firewall, then the Database would be able to nuke the external Firewall.

There is a principle called Defense-in-Depth, where you build multiple layers of defense around your critical item. That way, if a layer fails, you may be okay. We're running out of layers.

We only have one or two layers left. We know that the Board doesn't run "xp_cmdshell" for its regular operations today. Sure it has an undocumented debug mode that allows someone to execute any command in its configuration file (including "xp_cmdshell") against the Database. But someone would need to get to that file.

The board's main account doesn't give you a filesystem to play with, as they wouldn't want kids running up, poking things, and deleting the filesystem. No, you only get the interfaces that you get. You can pick two items and see a path between them. Or you can pick three items and see the undocumented debug mode run whatever command is in the configuration file.

But what if there was some sort of maintenance account accessible through the Internet that didn't enable someone to send commands to the Database, but would enable someone to get into the filesystem and mess around with it? And what if that maintenance account was still using a weak or default password because people just don't check that for IoT devices?

So, he's in the Board's filesystem now. That's concerning. And wouldn't you know it, yet another moron left that critical configuration file in a state where the maintenance account can make changes to it. So, of course, he found the empty configuration item for the cleanup command. Remember, this was setup to run any arbitrary command. Of course, he put in an "xp_cmdshell" command that tells the Database to nuke the external firewall on its own server.

While The Hacker was able to put the command in place, the maintenance account doesn't have the power to send commands to the Database on its own. That power is only enabled for the system account tied to the Board's user interface. So, he still has to rely on someone in the real world to push three buttons in quick succession.

Well...shit.

That's not good.

That's not good at all.

Seriously though, don't try this at home.

I suppose we can speculate on the nature of the virus. We know from Season 1 Episode 14 "Cool It" that Motherboard goes through more cryoxide than normal due to the virus. There are actual computer viruses out there that were designed to turn off heat safety warnings on CPUs and then cause them to run hotter. Some CPUs would eventually melt and ruin the computer.

The original infection destroyed the Encryptor Chip, and it is stated that only a replacement Encryptor Chip could cure the virus. The name suggests that it deals with data encryption, but perhaps it is also a virus cleanup tool. Perhaps it worked to weaken the existing virus until it was eventually overwhelmed and destroyed. Perhaps the virus exhausted most of its strength destroying the Encryptor Chip first.

In any case, curing the virus permanently would end the show.

[nan0-sp1der]

@lyrate-lifeform-approximation

“   Currently considering becoming a bother and a nuisance, maybe even a menace or a rascal. ”

"Hmm..."

Before Bridge was a temporarily out-of-commission space probe, specifically Voyager 2, whom she had only just caught up with mere days ago. The blasted thing was only so difficult to locate because some poor soul back at NASA had mistakenly redirected the satellite a whole two degrees away from Earth. So, as a result, it simply couldn't transmit signals reliably anymore. Not until Bridge catapulted herself right to the edge of the galaxy just to get in range with it again, with the help of their nearby star--The Sun. Of course, while the woman was busy trying to give the poor machine some much-needed maintenance, LYLA decides to pop her head in and... Become a nuisance. A menace. A rascal, even. Bridge hardly believed she was capable of any real harm, although if it kept her out of someone else's hair...

"... Very well, then. Do your worst."

"... Well..."

There was a brief pause in her tinkering, her thoughts suspended with ease by a simple pass at her that she could not, for the life of her, have predicted. Or... Ok, maybe it had made itself obvious, but... For her to have the gall to say that to her, of all people? Isn't there someone else she ought to be saying that to? The automaton recommences her attempts to dislodge a stripped Phillips head screw from the inner-depths of the probe's workings.

"It may be pertinent to acknowledge those aren't exactly... Positive qualities. What do the youth call such things again...? 'Red Flags'? You may have missed just about all of them with me."

Like it was nothing at all, the hologram's words bring Bridge to a stop yet again. Every chance she had to speak it was yet another series of words that just... Scrambled her processes. Though, to be fair, she's never had to have anyone talk like this to her before. Surprisingly enough, considering the kinds of personalities they had back at the Spider Society.

"LYLA..."

Scarlet eyes radiating a foreign sense of confusion turn to point to the figure cast in a warm glow,

"Surely, you retain the logic base to know that you can't just brush off qualities like that when it comes to seeking a love interest. Besides... "

She shot a neon line of plasma at the screwdriver that had set adrift into space to rope it in before it got too far, securing it in her grip to gesture it at herself as she deliberated.

"You have to see the ridiculous coat I wear on a daily basis--Hell, the antennae, the hair, even--and come to the conclusion that it is, at the minimum, a bit much."

A contemplative 'humph' emanated from the android's chest, accompanied by the twitch of one of her antennae.

"Is that what we're calling it, then? A 'myth'?"

She contemplated it a moment before returning her attention to the control panel again, trying to work the stripped head of the screw before giving up and just torching it with a small plume of crimson from her index finger. Maybe softening the metal will make it give...

"... If I may ask, why is it that you have taken to making me the subject of your mischief?"

It hits her then--ah, that's why she's come to me! The poor thing must be itching for some kind of mentally stimulating back-and-forth, O'Hara must not be giving her as much attention as he usually does today. Granted, considering how... Wonderful his day off had been. Being entirely sarcastic, of course. Lord knows what his blood alcohol percentage was--is--after that ordeal. He still must be marginally fried, mentally.

Bridge makes herself a mental note to prescribe to him a few helpful hangover remedies. Assuming he wouldn't opt to power through it, of course. He will. So it goes.

The flathead of the screwdriver spears itself into the now softened metal of the screwhead, finally allowing it to turn in the socket and free one corner of the control panel's motherboard. It floats off into the void a bit before Bridge snatched it up in her fingers as she turned to look to LYLA once more.

"I agree with you there, that sounds preposterous. And after everything you do for everyone. Tsk-tsk... Shameful."