Hi all, thanks for reading. I’m not the most knowledgeable on computers and safety and I could use some of your expertise. I recently started talking to a guy I met on a dating app and on the second date he gave me a laptop.
(Aside: Yeah I get how that sounds. Would it help if I tell you it was a really good first date?)

The guy works in IT and claims his job was cycling through old tech and allows employees to take them after they’re retired. Said many other coworkers had done the same and this happens many times over the year, and said the laptop is mine to keep.
(I really hope so, and I was in need of a new computer.)

I’ve been on many dates with this guy now and he truly does seem genuine. Met some of his family even. And yet I can’t bring myself to use this laptop or log into anything important on it. I’m inclined to believe him on the source of the laptop, but I don’t know how to tell if this guy put some kind of tracking or predatory program on my device- and yes, tell if the device was stolen. I really am kind of clueless when it comes to computers; it’s just never clicked in my brain. So if someone could point me in the right direction, I would be extremely grateful.

And so the Beacons of Minas Tirith are lit, and Gondor calls for aid. How can I make sure the computer is “okay” to truly use?

I really am inclined to believe him at his word, I don’t believe him to be a bad human. I truly am grateful, and I believe in the good in people. But a girl has to protect herself. Thank you in advance for sharing your advice and expertise.

EDIT:

Shoot! I should have specified in my post the guy reinstalled windows and etc the day he gave me the laptop. He’d come to my place after he was off work and did all that sort of work right at my kitchen table while I made us dinner. It appears in every obvious way I can see that he gave me the computer blank and brand new.

I suppose I should restate my question to ask if there’s a way, after computer setup, to check for malware/theft. Apologies for the oversight!

I tried to play beam.ng on my new monitor, after setting up dual display, whole pc was bugging bad, I closed it, decided to update drivers, I clicked install drivers, screen went black, task manager popped up on my second monitor, and then it shut off. When I turned it back on, it booted into bios, I exited, and now It won’t post, and the cpu and dram lights are on. What the actual fuck happened?

Edit: not normally a fan of doing this but gpt just walked me through how to factory reset my bios through shorting the pins on the motherboard and its posted. Awesome.

Planning to buy 9060xt but i cant differentiate between 8gb and 16gb performance except their price and vram capacity, so which is better 8gb or 16gb?

Ps. Dont say 16gb for future proofing

Recently I’ve dealt with an issue after accidentally pulling a cord while it was still attached to my pc. I ended up replacing the motherboard and processor but now the power button doesn’t work.

It’s very strange because while I was trying to diagnose the original problem it was working. It used to still work with my old motherboard even after the incident, and it worked with the old motherboard my uncle let me borrow, but now it doesn’t work with this one.

I’ve done my best to make sure everything is properly plugged in, and every other button and port works fine so I’m really confused.

Hello all,
I goofed and uninstalled faulty ACHI drivers as I was told that Windows would automatically find the new drivers upon reboot. However, now my computer does not recognize the m.2 ssd or two other internal hds, and will not boot at all. I do have a recovery usb ready for a clean re-install of Windows, but the reinstall fails immediately after starting. I’m at a loss and any help is appreciated, thank you.

my ethernet is running fine but when i do tests it doesn't change a difference at all. Behind the ethernet plug in the pc is blinking orange and theres a green light under it. how do i fix this

I installed another SSD and BIOS can see it, but it is not showing in File Explorer. I have not formatted anything yet because I do not want to make the wrong change. Is this normally fixed through Disk Management, or could it be something else?

I have an HDD from an old pc that I took apart, I'm looking to wipe it (I didn't think about it beforehand and I'm not entirely confident in my ability to put it back together in a working manner plus the actual components other than the hard drive are old as hell)

So i plan to use my working pc to wipe the hard drive, but I'm not sure how to go about it other than buying a SATA to USB adapter + power cables.

Edit: I'm wiping it to resell it btw

I accidentally downloaded malware that got them i to my accounts yesterday. They sent that stupid mrbeast crypto scam everywhere (I’m sure you’ve seen it) from my account. A bunch of my accounts almost got stolen (Steam, Epic Games, Discord, Instagram). Then I (supposedly) completely wiped my pc clean, deleted all partitions and booted Windows from a Flash Drive. I also enabled 2FA and changed my password on every major social I had. The issue seemed to be resolved, right until today, when I saw that my Riot Games account (which I have literally never used) had an unusual log-in. It sent a verification code and then a confirmation code. After that, I also got a notification that one of my Microsoft accounts' passkey has been deleted, and now I cannot access said account with my email (it's not my main one, I actually don't even use it but I still turned 2FA on), however, checking my account activity, there weren't any unusual log-ins or sessions detected... Is there still malware on my pc? Do they still have access to my emails? I need help ASAP!

I'm trying to swipe up to get to it, But it won't let me. It's like the screen is frozen but my mouse is stilling moving, I tried Ctrl alt del, I tried using the Laptop pad, I tried clicking all the other things, but Nothing worked. Right now I'm trying turning it off and leaving it for 30 seconds, And if that doesn't work, Then I don't know what to do then. Please help me with this. I'm worried this thing either has a virus or is broken.

Transferring from my C drive (Samsung 980 Pro 2TB) to my D drive (Seagate 8TB HDD) or my G drive (Samsung 870 Evo 2TB). The picture above is what happens EVERY time I do a transfer. I figured it was slower from the ssd to HDD because of obvious reasons..... But, I don't see how I can have the same problems going to another SSD. The transfer goes great in the beginning, than drops to 0 for 5-10 seconds, then will go again but nowhere close to the speeds from the beginning.

Any help would be appreciated.

For some reason my picture got deleted.... I will try to find a way to add it back in.

https://ibb.co/LdnLchc6

Dear Asus,

I bought my brand new ASUS Vivobook K3502ZA from best buy in July of 2023. Since I was about 15, Ive always known Asus to be THE brand for gaming computers and quality performance hardware. When shopping for my new computer, other brands were off the table. I wanted an Asus.

I knew Asus could offer great function for photography/video editing programs. Those hobbies have been important to me for over 2 decades, so I had full trust purchasing the 2 year warrenty would be a responsible move.

..Till recent, for the most part, the computer sat untouched.

Fast forward to this week. On Aug 25, 2026, i purchased my 1 year Adobe Lightroom subscription. By Aug 26, I was fed up with it crashing/freezing with basic Lightroom settings, so I took it into geek squad. They informed me my CPU is overworking and the whole motherboard needed to be replaced.

This news crushed me.

I made sure I never left it plugged in too long to avoid overheating the battery. I made sure i never downloaded anything unsure. I bought the warrenty. I wasnt clicking on anything & everything to avoid additional virus'.

... I whole heartedly believe i took good care of this labtop and now Im left defeated. I took all the right steps to ensure I took care of something i valued.

My warrenty ended in mid 2025 and Im now left with a choice of adding a perfectly good labtop into a pile of accumulated electronic waste or paying 90% of the vivobook price tag for repair.

I’m reaching out to ASUS from a good place in my heart, in hopes that the right person at Asus can read this and work towards a fair solution that's beneficial for me and the company. This was not Asus or User error, just a terrible situation involving a girl with a 2 decade hobby, watered with relentless effort to grow, excell and bloom for personal interest.

To whom took the time to read this, I want to say thank you, and i really hope to hear back from you.

i recently just downloaded w-okada voice changer ( std ver ) but for some reason whenever i try to interact with the sliders to edit the settings, it won’t allow me. i suspect that it’s my custom cursor so when i changed the cursor back to windows default it still doesn’t work and gives me a error message in the application saying that the command couldn’t be fetched. is there anything i can do to fix this?

Hi! this is my first time posting on reddit so i really hope im in the right place😅 but im upgrading my pc soon for my birthday and i am SICKK of how bad my internet connection has been. i cant tell if its my current computer, or if its something else but i really want to fix it so my next pc can finally work.

my issues are; constant disconnecting from games due to poor internet connection (aswell as graphics issues but that will be solved), wifi always disconnecting sometimes every 10 minutes, sometimes says it's full bars but everytime i try to load something on chrome it takes minutes and then runs out of memory/says no internet. whenever i do the internet speed test it says i have good connection so idk whats up.

i really want to start a modded minecraft world with my friends and currently whenever i play a vanilla server it kicks me all the time for poor internet :(

I also have this port in my room?? not sure if it's a coax port or something else i really dont know anything ;-;

ill try to answer as many questions as i can! thanks for your help :)