Fix this laptop?

DeathBlossom.exe

The whole story is fabricated, and it was put there by your work colleague in order to test you

The whole story is fabricated, and it was put there by your work colleague cougar in order to test you us

Hah! Nice idea but no, it’s a genuine story.

See my post at the top of this page (3). What’s the burning question here?

burning a few weeks back – like a guy fawkes thing? Fireworks screensaver?

Got an advent calendar chocolate stuck in C:\Windows\System32?

Santa radar tracker app gone rogue?

Something to do with mince pies?

misguided attempt to evade sales tracking cookies on black Friday?

Has someone swapped/nicked the original laptop for a faulty one?

Well I’d be asking the user exactly what they used the machine for a couple of weeks back when this problem happened. Have we checked the browser history?

Someone clicked on one of those stupid ‘speed up your pc’ links while researching another problem?

Well I’d be asking the user exactly what they used the machine for a couple of weeks back when this problem happened. Have we checked the browser history?

I don’t believe it’s anything the user has done on the laptop. Chrome was fecked, but I think that was an unrelated issue.

No-one else has used it in months.

…as far as the user is aware. That doesn’t make it true though.

My money’s still on prankage by a technically proficient third party who has gained illicit access to the machine without the users knowledge.

…as far as the user is aware. That doesn’t make it true though.

I believe her in this case.

My money’s still on prankage by a technically proficient third party who has gained illicit access to the machine without the users knowledge.

It would seem so, wouldn’t it.

Do you have an answer to this part, or are you also guessing still?

I don’t know with absolute certainty I suppose, but I’m pretty sure what’s happened, yes.

I don’t know with absolute certainty I suppose, but I’m pretty sure what’s happened, yes

Is that because you are a wise old owl?

(-:

Cougar – Moderator
What do we do with it?

System restore!

Good point. I tried that. No difference.

format c:
install linux

the symptoms will definitely go away 😉 (along with many others)

or ditch it and get a mac

hmm, just read the rest of the thread.

guess you could maybe try installing latencymon, see if there’s any actual processes/drivers are going mental? then kill it/them? will at least tell you the most active processes/drivers to start having a look at.

andytherocketeer – Member
format c:
install linux

the symptoms will definitely go away (along with many others)

until you need to do something useful! 😆

Is there an entry in the “programs & features” list where the “Installed On” date & time correlates with the creation/modification date & time of the task and/or .vbs file? If so, what is it?

^-and that includes “updates” too.

Do we have anything more specific than a couple of weeks? I’m assuming that is significant – though not getting it (Thanksgiving, Black Friday, start of Advent?)

I presume the vyi name isn’t significant, but the ch.vbs and ch.bat might be given you don’t exactly remember one, but do remember the others…

Anything to do with children who have just broken up from school/uni?

Do we have anything more specific than a couple of weeks? I’m assuming that is significant – though not getting it (Thanksgiving, Black Friday, start of Advent?)

I presume the vyi name isn’t significant, but the ch.vbs and ch.bat might be given you don’t exactly remember one, but do remember the others…

Not to my knowledge. I should’ve written them down really, then I could’ve asked her.

The file names / task name aren’t relevant to anything I’m aware of.

Is there an entry in the “programs & features” list where the “Installed On” date & time correlates with the creation/modification date & time of the task and/or .vbs file? If so, what is it?

We’re almost there. “When” is the question I was looking for.

There’s no creation date on the Task (logging is disabled, which IIRC is default behaviour), just “last run” which tells us nothing.

The dates on the two scripts is October 2015.

End of October?

IIRC MS changed the method of patching Win 7 in October.
MS patch issue?

End of October?

I see where you’re going with that, but no, 12th I think.

Glorious – edit: nope that’s August

Glorious

Nope, it wasn’t Eddie Izzard either.

I have the feeling this is a massively drawn out joke, leading to a puntastic punchline

Would I do that to you? (-:

It’s not, honest.

do we know when (exactly) the issue was first noticed?

Not exactly. “A couple of weeks” is all I was told. (I asked for System Restore purposes, it was a sufficiently accurate estimate for me to be able to pick an older restore point.)

10/12 <> 12/10?

Oh, nice thinking. But no, it’s a UK date format.

Can we have a summary?

Can’t remember what we know and what we’re trying to figure out any more!

The scripts dated October 2015 but there seems to be a suggestion that the month of October is significant, but not the year.

Either that or the ending of the “one child policy” in China has something to do with it.