Not Again ! Computer wrecking Nephew.

[fossyant]

My nephew has borked the family computer again. He's 17, and as usual it's buggered. Last time it was so full of viruses that the Master Boot was damaged - then was a lengthy process for me to rebuild. He then was 'locked off it' via passwords. Had his own notebook, but guess what - same again, although this time wrecked the recovery partition - I said - take it to a shop (he hasn't).

He's now done the same thing again with the PC - blames it on leaving the computer on whilst out and a possible power fail (just because the bootup says that).

I really can not be bothered to spend hours again. My SIL doesn't have much money, but this is getting out of order. I told her not to let him use it at all. I suspect it's from his 'file sharing' web sites he uses to watch live sport.

If I find any viruses, I'll say, can't do it !

I know if I refuse, I'll get an ear bending from my wife..yadda yadda, they need the computer, but can't afford the repairs - his mum uses the computer for business records - can't even get through to them about backing up.

What would you do ?

PS no use showing him what to do, he hasn't a clue with computers.

 

[defy-one]

You could ghost an image, onto a spare USB spare disk. That way it becomes very easy to put it back to a virgin installation.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

Lock him off the computer? Username and password for the SIL, none for him? Remove windows and install Ubuntu? Install backup software that runs automatically on a system event (I've set up BackupMaker - when you plug a USB in it automatically backs up)?

 

[dan_bo]

Tell him to stop looking at nipples. Tell him in front of his mum as well.

 

[Dan B]

Tell him to stop looking at nipples. Tell him in front of his mum as well.

If that doesn't work, substitute "nipples" with "tentacle porn"

 

[MossCommuter]

You could ghost an image, onto a spare USB spare disk. That way it becomes very easy to put it back to a virgin installation.

^^ that's what I do with family's PCs

Remove windows and install Ubuntu?

I would like to do this; he'd still be able to watch his porn streamed live sport but it won't be as vulnerable to being borked.

 

[fossyant]

It is actually live sport - nothing 'that' dodgy -

Oh and I did the password lock - mum must have 'caved in' eventually - really not happy with that.

I know nothing about Linux, and I suspect this would confuse them more problems as the family aren't IT literate. Facebook is about it !

Set up auto backup - come on, they have yet to bother despite me giving them USB pens.

 

[ColinJ]

I cleaned up a friend's PC after her teenage son's porn habits resulted in 500 infections, a Windows boot time of over 30 minutes, and the machine taking 30 seconds to switch between open windows!

I set her up as admin, banished her sons to user accounts and told her she was responsible for running the computer.

Within a week or so, it was infected again. I asked her if she had installed anything and she said no. I was surprised, until I asked what the boys had been up to. "Oh, they wanted to put some free stuff on there but weren't allowed to do it because you had messed with their accounts, so I told them my password ..."!

Aaaaaaaaaargh!

 

[guitarpete247]

On my Dad's computer it's my uncle that's the problem. He's always trying to add something that will make it run a little faster. He sets his printer to do things he has set up on his computer. My Dad then can't use his printer for days. He used to get free disks from the front of PC mag.s and install these. I used to have to do a couple of formats in the past. He's not done any serious damage for a couple of years now but still tinkers with it to make it better .
When GF and I go up there we usually have the job of sorting out what he has recently done. Today my Dad told me that Media Player won't work. He and my young brother deleted then re-installed Media Player but it still won't work. I suggested setting VLC as default player but they couldn't do it. So another job waiting for us in a couple of weeks time.

 

[MrJamie]

My parents' pc was the same, Id get it all nice and set up and then after just a few weeks theyd manage to get a virus on it. Ive actually been there when my mums got a virus email, asked me about it before opening it, then opened it anyway from curiosity. It happened every few weeks, where id have to spend half a day sorting out their PC. After me explaining numerous times how if they took it to PC World, theyd end up with a quick reinstall for their money and none of their things set up (printers/internet/email etc) it started happening less often.

Eventually I convinced them to upgrade that pc, which id built from spares and they bought a windows 7 machine, which hasnt had a single problem or infection since install a couple of years ago. Separate user accounts, AVG antivirus and auto updating on. Theyd also bought a Win7 laptop which likewise has been totally infection free in about a year.

I suspect moving from XP to Win7 made the difference, might be worth a shot if youre still using xp/vista.

 

[david1701]

set up a decent antivirus and show him how private browsing works, I mean come on how do people still have issues with viruses

 

[Red Light]

Another one for creating a cloned disc of the working set up before he gets near it. If it all goes pear shaped you then simply clone the disc back onto your hard drive and you are fully back where you started. Much better than backups. Of course you could put some decent security software on there. Avast is pretty good and free.

 

[fossyant]

It had Avast !

My wife didn't realise last nights call was 'broken it again'. It's not turned up at my house yet - if it does I'll be washing my hair every night for 3 hours for at least a month - won't get 'time' to fix it.

 

[fossyant]

He finally dropped it off yesterday. Taken a look, and it's borked , he also dropped it on the way round. Checked for loose parts, switched on, floppy clicks and nothing. No beeps, no screen, no bios posts. Tbh that's it, they can sort a new computer.

The hard drive is impossible to get to without a complete strip down, so no quick extract files to back up.

This might teach him a lesson.

 

[musa]

well, tell them thats that then.....give them a list of good deals....go round install an antivirus and scupper off put blockers in make his internet experience very dull