2 different machines bricked by custom program sent to us by a company.

[Jun Ishiwata]

Some back story first : We at our company use different pc's to manage social media account for our clients (facebook on chrome). We contacted a company to make an automation program to do so. After a lot of testing and such we decided to let them run for a few days on 2 new computers. After about 2 hours the first computer turns off.. ( We weren't watching it closely because we were in a meeting). As we came out of the meeting i see that the pc is turned off and thought it was weird. I tried turning it on again and the fans spin for 1 second and just turns off again and after that i cant even turn it on anymore (power button does nothing). I then need to turn the PSU off and on again to have the same result : Fans spinning for 1 second. I thought the PSU or something was bricked but i didn't have a spare one so i tried the second computer. After succesfully working for 1 full day i suddenly hear a MB beep (when one restarts). So i go check and its just stuck at the ASUS motherboard start up screen. After that does nothing.. Reset button does nothing... turning it off by holding the power button works but then turning it on again does nothing. The whole thing does nothing.

I've talked with the company that made it and they're saying that their program only uses chrome and therefore is impossible to brick computers. I just find it weird that 2 separate machines just don't work anymore after using their program. Also the machines were fresh installs.. didn't have anything on there. 

Do you guys think the program could be the cause (sorry if i didn't add enough details, i can provide more if needed)? How do i troubleshoot the machines to maybe salvage anything ..

[Bombastinator]

There are lots of things that can make a computer stop working.  That their code itself did it is unlikely.  Things that shut down a computer generally require action on a lower level than these things operates on.  These are programs that run on top of other programs which should in theory at least, be safe.  If the layer they run on cannot do it they wouldn’t be able to either.  That something else other than their code came with the code is possible though I guess.  
 

 

[Jun Ishiwata]

18 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

There are lots of things that can make a computer stop working.  That their code itself did it is unlikely.  Things that shut down a computer generally require action on a lower level than these things operates on.  These are programs that run on top of other programs which should in theory at least, be safe.  If the layer they run on cannot do it they wouldn’t be able to either.  That something else other than their code came with the code is possible though I guess.  
 

 

Hey yeah thats what i tought. Though its pretty weird that both of them dont work anymore. I also would find it very strange that they would insert a virus or some sort to brick it since its a genuine company. Do you have any idea how i can troubleshoot the pc's ? i was thinking of interchanging parts to see if PSU is broken and so on.

[mariushm]

It's VERY unlikely that the software caused a problem.

 

The only thing I could think of is maybe the software writing A LOT of logs or temporary files filling the SSD and potentially causing the SSD to  break down, which would cause the computer to no longer be able to boot because the SSD no longer works.

 

[Jun Ishiwata]

1 minute ago, mariushm said:

It's VERY unlikely that the software caused a problem.

 

The only thing I could think of is maybe the software writing A LOT of logs or temporary files filling the SSD and potentially causing the SSD to  break down, which would cause the computer to no longer be able to boot because the SSD no longer works.

 

I see, thats a very good take on it. So you think the SSD's are totally bricked then? The first computer just does not turn on anymore. The Fans spin for 1 second and then its done... if it was SSD it would at least go through the boot sequence right ?

[mariushm]

6 minutes ago, Jun Ishiwata said:

I see, thats a very good take on it. So you think the SSD's are totally bricked then? The first computer just does not turn on anymore. The Fans spin for 1 second and then its done... if it was SSD it would at least go through the boot sequence right ?

Yes, it should.

For the system that can't boot, I'd test it with another video card, just in case the video card somehow died.

I'd unplug it and remove the battery in order to reset bios settings, wait a few seconds, then put the battery back and try turning it on again.

Maybe pull out ram sticks and put them back it, it's easy and simple so it won't hurt even though it's unlikely it would be the problem.

Some motherboards have debug leds, which will tell you where the motherboard "hangs" so that would point to what could be an issue.

 

The fact that fan spins a bit is a sign that the power supply is OK enough for the chipset to receive 5v stand-by and for chipset to detect power good signal from power supply and tell the power supply to start the pc.

Then, motherboard bios goes through initialization and that's where bios could be corrupt which could cause a reset, or the bios could try to apply some bad memory timings which would cause the memory to not work properly (and you'd get a reset), or other things ... a video card that consumes too much power due to some failure could trigger the power supply to shut down, same for a cpu that suddenly is broken, or same for a short circuit on the motherboard (for example a faulty mosfet in a dc-dc converter circuit on the motherboard)..

 

[Jun Ishiwata]

3 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Yes, it should.

For the system that can't boot, I'd test it with another video card, just in case the video card somehow died.

I'd unplug it and remove the battery in order to reset bios settings, wait a few seconds, then put the battery back and try turning it on again.

Maybe pull out ram sticks and put them back it, it's easy and simple so it won't hurt even though it's unlikely it would be the problem.

Some motherboards have debug leds, which will tell you where the motherboard "hangs" so that would point to what could be an issue.

 

The fact that fan spins a bit is a sign that the power supply is OK enough for the chipset to receive 5v stand-by and for chipset to detect power good signal from power supply and tell the power supply to start the pc.

Then, motherboard bios goes through initialization and that's where bios could be corrupt which could cause a reset, or the bios could try to apply some bad memory timings which would cause the memory to not work properly (and you'd get a reset), or other things ... a video card that consumes too much power due to some failure could trigger the power supply to shut down, same for a cpu that suddenly is broken, or same for a short circuit on the motherboard (for example a faulty mosfet in a dc-dc converter circuit on the motherboard)..

 

Hmmm... I've already tried changing the RAM sticks from their slot, i was thinking of taking the battery out too... didn't get to that yet. I did take out the GPU and tried using the onboard one from the AMD cpu. Didn't do much so i'm thinking maybe the cpu is broken? Do you think this could all be cause of the writing of those Logs?

[Bombastinator]

40 minutes ago, Jun Ishiwata said:

Hey yeah thats what i tought. Though its pretty weird that both of them dont work anymore. I also would find it very strange that they would insert a virus or some sort to brick it since its a genuine company. Do you have any idea how i can troubleshoot the pc's ? i was thinking of interchanging parts to see if PSU is broken and so on.

Troubleshooting and merely getting them working again is perhaps possible.  I might want to save the contents of the drives so the “what the hell even happened” issue can be looked at later if needed.   Ditto for the onboard bios and cmos stuff though I don’t know if that is even possible without simply shelving the motherboard and drive. Erasing them is easier. 
The issue with already compiled stuff is it’s effectively a black box.  I wouldn’t assume that the company in question would deliberately include something. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen though.  there might be something already in their system that managed to add something. This is low probability.  So low that coincidence may actually outweigh causality.  Looking at other causality possibilities do these machines share any common links?  Same power strip for example?  I don’t know if there is even anything there. I assume there wasn’t any network connection. 
 

Simply getting the machines moving again assuming it is even a problem caused by the software would involve flushing the current contents of the cmos and restarting the machine.  This would not keep it from happening again though.  A reset rather than a fix.  
if one has lots of spare parts lying around swapping out and shelving the motherboard and drive solves several problems at once. Not quick or easy of course.  It’s a sort of “jump the cue” move as far as standard troubleshooting goes. 
 

Standard troubleshooting would start flush the CMOS, (and make sure nothing else was disturbed by this act) and see what happens. Depending on what occurs different next steps might be taken.

[Jun Ishiwata]

4 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Troubleshooting and merely getting them working again is perhaps possible.  I might want to save the contents of the drives so the “what the hell even happened” issue can be looked at later if needed.   Ditto for the onboard bios and cmos stuff though I don’t know if that is even possible without simply shelving the motherboard and drive. Erasing them is easier. 
The issue with already compiled stuff is it’s effectively a black box.  I wouldn’t assume that the company in question would deliberately include something. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen though.  there might be something already in their system that managed to add something. This is low probability.  So low that coincidence may actually outweigh causality.  Looking at other causality possibilities do these machines share any common links?  Same power strip for example?  I don’t know if there is even anything there. I assume there wasn’t any network connection. 
 

Simply getting the machines moving again assuming it is even a problem caused by the software would involve flushing the current contents of the cmos and restarting the machine.  This would not keep it from happening again though.  A reset rather than a fix.  
if one has lots of spare parts lying around swapping out and shelving the motherboard and drive solves several problems at once. Not quick or easy of course.  It’s a sort of “jump the cue” move as far as standard troubleshooting goes. 
 

Standard troubleshooting would start flush the CMOS, (and make sure nothing else was disturbed by this act) and see what happens. Depending on what occurs different next steps might be taken.

hey thanks for the reply. The systems weren't on the same power strip. The second one was in the one where my main system is also in. They do use the same Wifi but not like a specific connection to one another. I'll try to flush the CMOS later today to see if that does anything. If i do get those machines working again... how do i troubleshoot them and find out what happened or caused them to fail ? I can take out the drives and try to connect them to my main system to check the contents... but then again if theres something malicious on there i'm not to sure if i should connect them to my main.

[Jun Ishiwata]

23 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Troubleshooting and merely getting them working again is perhaps possible.  I might want to save the contents of the drives so the “what the hell even happened” issue can be looked at later if needed.   Ditto for the onboard bios and cmos stuff though I don’t know if that is even possible without simply shelving the motherboard and drive. Erasing them is easier. 
The issue with already compiled stuff is it’s effectively a black box.  I wouldn’t assume that the company in question would deliberately include something. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen though.  there might be something already in their system that managed to add something. This is low probability.  So low that coincidence may actually outweigh causality.  Looking at other causality possibilities do these machines share any common links?  Same power strip for example?  I don’t know if there is even anything there. I assume there wasn’t any network connection. 
 

Simply getting the machines moving again assuming it is even a problem caused by the software would involve flushing the current contents of the cmos and restarting the machine.  This would not keep it from happening again though.  A reset rather than a fix.  
if one has lots of spare parts lying around swapping out and shelving the motherboard and drive solves several problems at once. Not quick or easy of course.  It’s a sort of “jump the cue” move as far as standard troubleshooting goes. 
 

Standard troubleshooting would start flush the CMOS, (and make sure nothing else was disturbed by this act) and see what happens. Depending on what occurs different next steps might be taken.

So i tried flushing the cmos on both systems. The first one is still not doing anything besides having a 1 second cpu spin and then dying with further no movement even if you press the start button again. The other system i put on a "test bench" and seems to be running but i'm not getting any visuals. I will try switching up with some gpu's to see if theres any difference. I don't have another AMD processor to put in to the first machine to test that so i'm thinking i'm at a dead end there. Is there anything else you can think of that i can do to test something ?