What would be the optimal way to hide a desktop pc from a 6yr old that wants to play "fotrnitee"

[greenhorn]

While there are ways to make the PC seem not to be in working order, I strongly suggest you tell them no decisively or they might not take you serious. If your cousins are staying overnight and you cannot guarantee they wiil not be able to access the PC during the night (for example because they have to sleep in that same room the PC is in), then the methods mentioned by the other users might help.

[Radium_Angel]

2 minutes ago, Berkomeister said:

Passwords will just make him cry about me not giving it to him.

Your PC, your rules.

Simple as that.

[Haro]

3 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Your PC, your rules.

Simple as that.

I should add aswell

If their parents came to force you to do it 

Call your parents I'm sure they will understand as it's your property and they know that it costs hard earned money 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, greenhorn said:

Lock your room.If you are living with your parents, get them to back you up, telling them your cousins seem to have mad ideas about very risky procedures that could very well cause damage. 
There is time for subtlety, this may not be it.

 

edit/addon: Just had a look at your PC specs in your profile. It is comparable to the one I have and to be honest, no 6 year old that I know would be allowed to own such a PC or be able to use it for any prolonged amount of time (if any parenting is involved). If they want to play with you, play a boardgame (at least I would consider that more age appropriate for your cousins).

Exactly. I have an idea, what if I used a virtual machine? Can you mess with gpu,etc in a vm?

[Nbd508]

14 minutes ago, Berkomeister said:

Just wanted to cut  things short. I don't know how it's related either

Ok then now we can proceed... 

HS so aprx 15-18.  You're close enough to being an adult that you need to learn that being passive won't get you the results you want.  You need to explain to this young boy that the computer is yours and they are not entitled to using it as they please.  It can be very awkward and uncomfortable to be forward with people but it will go a long way for you in life. Just because you disabled the power button, or took the cord... that doesn't mean they wont try to use it and possibly damage something which will cause further issues.

At six years old he ought' to know how to respect other people property.  You do not have to give him a reason "WHY" he can ask his parents why; Your Aunt/Uncle/Mother/Father should back you on this.  Unless THEY bought the computer and THEY will pay for damages, it's your property.  Act like an adult and you will be treated like an adult more often than not.  I am not telling them how to parent or you how to be an older cousin, but rewarding poor behavior just reinforces it.

Maybe you can see how my answer would be different if you were 25 or 12.  This is an opportunity for you to establish personal boundaries.
I come from a family where I have 6 niece/nephews and a crazy number of cousins, I know how difficult they can be; they always seem to get louder and whinier... but you can do this. You can set the ground rules for your home, your stuff.  You don't have to be the fun cousin all the time.

 

[Nbd508]

15 minutes ago, Berkomeister said:

Hah. He didn't respond too.

sorry it wasnt instant , i forgot everyone on the internet was jobless, impatient, and apparently better  than everyone else... good luck . grow up

[Guest]

Just now, Nbd508 said:

sorry it wasnt instant , i forgot everyone on the internet was jobless, impatient, and apparently better  than everyone else... good luck . grow up

sorry, it was just a joke

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Nbd508 said:

Ok then now we can proceed... 

HS so aprx 15-18.  You're close enough to being an adult that you need to learn that being passive won't get you the results you want.  You need to explain to this young boy that the computer is yours and they are not entitled to using it as they please.  It can be very awkward and uncomfortable to be forward with people but it will go a long way for you in life. Just because you disabled the power button, or took the cord... that doesn't mean they wont try to use it and possibly damage something which will cause further issues.

At six years old he ought' to know how to respect other people property.  You do not have to give him a reason "WHY" he can ask his parents why; Your Aunt/Uncle/Mother/Father should back you on this.  Unless THEY bought the computer and THEY will pay for damages, it's your property.  Act like an adult and you will be treated like an adult more often than not.  I am not telling them how to parent or you how to be an older cousin, but rewarding poor behavior just reinforces it.

Maybe you can see how my answer would be different if you were 25 or 12.  This is an opportunity for you to establish personal boundaries.
I come from a family where I have 6 niece/nephews and a crazy number of cousins, I know how difficult they can be; they always seem to get louder and whinier... but you can do this. You can set the ground rules for your home, your stuff.  You don't have to be the fun cousin all the time.

 

thanks, you are right.Somebody will have to do this eventually. Guess it's me

[Nbd508]

Just now, Berkomeister said:

sorry, it was just a joke

its fine, just put your damn foot down. 6, 7, 8 doesn't matter. your pc not his

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Tristerin said:

Put a USB stick with Manjaro Lite on it into the back of the motherboard, and change BIOS settings to boot from USB.

 

That's what I would do for fun.

 

 

Either this or a VM could be a good idea

[Guest]

Unplug from inside. 

[billcxsby]

4 hours ago, Berkomeister said:

Since the quarantine is ending my cousins will come over and normally this wouldn't be a problem but he called me and said a lot of inaudible stuff about overclocking,msi and razer. I really hope he doesn't get into afterburner/bios and mess stuff up. How would I hide my PC?

Also telling him it's broken or it doesn't have any games on it doesn't work

 

hopefully his parents aren't entitled

[Guest]

1 minute ago, billcxsby said:

hopefully his parents aren't entitled

No his parents are pretty understanding. He's just very stubborn

[dalekphalm]

4 hours ago, Berkomeister said:

Since the quarantine is ending my cousins will come over and normally this wouldn't be a problem but he called me and said a lot of inaudible stuff about overclocking,msi and razer. I really hope he doesn't get into afterburner/bios and mess stuff up. How would I hide my PC?

Also telling him it's broken or it doesn't have any games on it doesn't work

 

Why don’t you just put a BIOS password on? Problem solved. 
 

Bonus points if you put a Boot password too. 

[adamaquarius]

Buy a cheap decoy computer with terrible specs and watch him try to play it at 10 FPS.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, dalekphalm said:

Why don’t you just put a BIOS password on? Problem solved. 
 

Bonus points if you put a Boot password too. 

He will just start crying about me not giving the password,etc. If I am going to put my foot down might as well do it the right way

[Guest]

1 minute ago, adamaquarius said:

Buy a cheap decoy computer with terrible specs and watch him try to play it at 10 FPS.

or a VM

[Haro]

Just now, Berkomeister said:

He will just start crying about me not giving the password,etc. If I am going to put my foot down might as well do it the right way

If he is gonna cry he might as well learn a lesson that not everything in the world is his 

After all a 6 year old is not braindead and has to have manners

[Curious Pineapple]

Smash the monitor with a brick, will probably stop him messing with it.

[Guest]

Just now, TofuHaroto said:

If he is gonna cry he might as well learn a lesson that not everything in the world is his 

After all a 6 year old is not braindead and has to have manners

Exactly

[dalekphalm]

3 minutes ago, Berkomeister said:

He will just start crying about me not giving the password,etc. If I am going to put my foot down might as well do it the right way

Put a BIOS password on so he can’t change any bios settings. 
 

Then if you WISH to give him access, enable the built-in guest account. He won’t be able to make any system level changes. 
 

If he cries about the password, explain to him that it’s your property and the password isn’t his. 
 

I see zero reason to unplug stuff or make it seem broken. If you decide to let him use the PC, just don’t log into your account. Also make sure your account has a password. 

[Nbd508]

11 minutes ago, CircleTech said:

Why are we just examing the hardware ways to stop yout Cousins? There are other ways to stop him from using your PC without going that far.

 

1. Use a strong password on your computer - 

 

Now yes, it's quite easy to bypass this with a bootable drive in linux, or some USB related windows tools, but we're gonna cut those off too with the next move.

 

2. Password Protect your BIOS. Configure the bios to boot from your hard drive ONLY, and disable every other boot media (flash, CD, other HDD, ect) -

 

Your Cousin can't overclock anything, boot from a different drive, or mess with your computer in general because he can't access the bios. Yes, you can just open up the PC and remove the CMOS battery, but your cousin may not know how to do these things. Now if you are really concerned this could happen too, do thing number 3:

 

3. Add a physical lock to your PC:

 

Some Dell and HP computers have a little loop on them like this:

 

 

Take a standard masterlock Combination lock (so he can't pick it open) and place it in the loop with the Side panel closed. He won't be able to access the computer since he can't get it open.

 

What if your PC doesn't have a loop?

 

Cut one. Get a Drill bit, and cut two holes. One in your Side panel, another in the back of the case. Loop the lock around the side panel and back of the case. Remember to drill inside and outwards of the case so all the chips fall outside the case. 

 

What I have outlined here is the standard practice that Schools, Libraries, Government Agencies, and Universities use to keep their students and Employees from tampering with their computers. If these things can keep out College students with CS degrees, then they can keep out your Cousin.

 

Everything I have outlined here locks HIM out, but does not lock YOU out. You can continue using your computer as normal, but your cousin just can't use your computer. 

 

Now what If none of these things work? Maybe your Cousin cuts the lock, and gains access anyway?

 

In that case, this is vandalism. Destruction of private property. the only way to protect against this is to hide your PC somewhere, get it out of his reach, or give it to a friend temporaraly. I do not think your Cousin will do this, but if he defeats everything else outlined here, then I wouldn't allow such a monster to visit my house anyway. Maybe don't worry about that scenario because it probably won't happen.

Show me a 6 year old fluent in linux and lock picking, I need to bring that kid to space x

[Nbd508]

4 minutes ago, CircleTech said:

I mean when I was in 6th grade I was designing schematics for Linear Power supplies. I bypassed windows on the laptop my parents gave me when I was 10 by installing linux because my parents installed some stupid parental controls and I didn't know the password.

 

My point is this - He doesn't need to be fluent in Lock picking or Linux. He needs to google "how to boot linux from a USB drive" or "how to pick masterlock Model MS3873 (I made this model number up). He might not be fluent in Linux or lockpicking, but he doesn't need to. Google can fill in the knowledge gaps and teach him just enough to get to his end goal, just like how google helped me when I was a litle kid. Never underestimate children based on the statistical intelligence of their age group.

6 years old is very far from 11 years old and 6th grade my friend.

They lack patience. Also, judging by the post he lacks access to the internet 

At 9 i started loading customer boots into windows so I get it man. 

[Evolution.]

1 hour ago, CircleTech said:

I mean when I was in 6th grade I was designing schematics for Linear Power supplies. I bypassed windows on the laptop my parents gave me when I was 10 by installing linux because my parents installed some stupid parental controls and I didn't know the password.

 

My point is this - He doesn't need to be fluent in Lock picking or Linux. He needs to google "how to boot linux from a USB drive" or "how to pick masterlock Model MS3873 (I made this model number up). He might not be fluent in Linux or lockpicking, but he doesn't need to. Google can fill in the knowledge gaps and teach him just enough to get to his end goal, just like how google helped me when I was a litle kid. Never underestimate children based on the statistical intelligence of their age group.

err in 6th grade youd almost be double the age of a 6 year old lol 

[Nbd508]

13 minutes ago, VenomZ_ said:

err in 6th grade youd almost be double the age of a 6 year old lol 

That is literally what I said, but does anybody read anymore ...  Not sure if you agree'd with me or not

 

Quote

6 years old is very far from 11 years old and 6th grade my friend.