Tonight I installed some new case fans on my computer (with blue LEDs - I’m such a geek).
After firing it back up, some things have changed - e.g. IE doesn’t “know” that I’ve visited GQ before. The link to GQ, which used to be the “site has been visited” color is now the “unvisited” color. All of my temporary internet files are intact, including the IE history.
My case has a window on it, and you only need to remove one side (with the window, only two screws) to get access to the guts. The only thing connected to this panel are the fans that I replaced.
The question is: does anything “reset” when the case is opened? I seem to recall seeing somewhere (BIOS?) a statement such as “Case opened? Y/N: Y”. I think that some desktop manufacturers void the warranty if you open the case, but I thought this was managed with seals or stickers. Can the computer itself detect when the case is opened? If so, how is this done?
Or did I happen to replace the fans at the same time that IE “flushes” visited links?
I have been building and repairing PCs for a while now and I have never seen a PC reset anything just because the case was opened. I suppose… if you managed to get an static discharge going inside the case, some strange things COULD happen.
Dell is one manufacturer that has a case intrusion sensor. If the case is opened, the next and all subsequent time(s) the machine is turned on, an alert will display during boot up. This is turned off in the system BIOS.
JXJohns Thanks for the reply…my computer is one that I had Fry’s assemble after I picked out all the components. So, nothing special or proprietary about it. Also, I am VERY careful about static discharges…I don’t want to fry anything inside, because the bill will come straight to me. It seems like it might be an IE glitch that happened to coincide with me replacing the fans.
It’s just a very simple microswitch that opens (or closes?) when the case is opened. This is then connected to some proprietary circuitry, and controlled by the BIOS.
No rocket science at all.
I believe you can set how long IE remembers visited links (I know you can in Netscape and Mozilla). So you could check that and then try and remember the last time you visited GQ.
Computers that care that they’ve been opened? With all the cards that can be added or removed? We’ve come a way since the days when we opened our computers so often that this riddle was current:
Q - How many screws are needed to hold on the cover of an IBM PC?
Chassis intrusion alerts can be very helpful when a savvier user claims he only has 64 MB of RAM, I personally upgraded the RAM in the machine to 256 MB and I reset the chassis intrusion setting when I was finished.
Ive worked places that had the machine set up not to boot if the chasis had been opened, until a password was entered. That way, if they got in and screwed around, they had to call the help desk to send someone out. Most of the techs just disconected them because they would go off by themselves.
Getting back to the OP, it was probably something you did prior to shutting down the computer that caused the changes. E.g., not shutting down properly: one of the history files was open and got trashed.
Getting back to the OP, it was probably something you did prior to shutting down the computer that caused the changes. E.g., not shutting down properly: one of the history files was open and got trashed.
A lot of motherboards offer chassis intrusion detection; sometimes you can even set a PC speaker alarm to go off if the case is opened.
There’s some commercials running often here that advertise “professional” installation of hardware upgrades. In the commercial, someone comes to a counter with a lot of boxes, and, boy, that’s one major upgrade the Professional has on their hands.
Now, only a certified professional should open a computer, because there’s a lot that a non-professional could do wrong, and you have to complete years of training (erm, 8 weeks of training at a career college) to know how to do it. For example, installing a CD burner might require the correct placement of as many as four screws and three cables! And a USB hub might actually require plugging an AC adapter into a LIVE ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT, in addition to finding the right socket to plug the cable into!
Good thing the friendly certified technicians are there – they’ll get your computer back within one business day, for just $60 an hour!
Now that manufacturers are nice enough to include phone-home software in their value-added bundles, there’s one more reason to buy or build a generic PC.