Im getting anoyed at my dad, who's been using my computer without my permission, so I wanna put a key thing or something to block him.. but I'm wondering if I can just buy a key for the purpose, and then put it on the green wire from the psu.. could that work?
Uhm howabout a password? Besides a smartass reply, You could do what ZapWizard did on his LAN case and disconnect the peripherals with a key. I believe he did it by cutting the USB groundwire. Not sure about PS/2 though. I believe you can fry your mobo by unplugging those while the PC's on Anyway cutting the green power wire would also work. It's just a little less.... subtle Think about your dad trying to get on your pc and finding the keyboard's locked. That way your pr0n'll be safe and you can rest easy
Well, easiest solution would be to repair the door on my case, but I dont have any idea how to do that, so I'll have to do something a bit more.. radical
bios password + windows password assuming your dad is an average pc user he wont have the faintest idea how to get around them can't say that i see the need to do any physical locks at all
The way I stop my sisters getting on my machine is to remove something inside the computer. If thats too much hassle what I would do is, cut the wire that connects the power-on button to the mobo. Then place a simple on/off switch (make sure its a small-ish switch) then hide that switch somewhere when the switch is on the power button will work normally when its off it wont! Simple, effective and easy to do! Edit: I've just noticed im not the first one to suggest this idea
i have a keylock on the front of my case ($1.50 at rat shack) i originaly wired it into the power switch but now i cut power to the keyboard (very simple pass through connector) also after 10 minutes of being idel my screen saver comes on and the comp locks ps when in a hurry alt+f4 will close your movie in winamp and Winkey + L will lock you workstation your pr0n.. i mean files will be safe
What's wrong with your dad getting on the computer? Are you afraid that he will break the keyboard or snoop around in your files? If its the second get him another hard drive for his birthday and a cradle with two removable trays so you can each take your HDs with you. There is no way to hack a drive that's not there. A low risk option (if the BIOS allows it) would be to enable wake up by password. After that you unplug the power button on the mobo. You can easily turn on the computer by typing the password, but pushing the power button won't do any good.
who needs a key when guilt can do it for you. not only make him stop using the computer, but make him deny he ever went near it, refute all knowledge of what a computer is, and never go near it again (and, if you guilt him a lot, get him to buy you shiny new things) it takes a little work, but its *extremely* worth it. 1. find a joke/prank store, and buy one of these exploding joke things personally, i'd see if you could find one of the little "toilet seat" or "exploding device" ones, but any of them will do, they all use the same little cap-snapper. 2. pull the little metal cap-snapper out of your shiny new toy. 3. load it, prime it, set it off. laugh. repeat until you know how it works and your bored of setting it off (they are so easy its amazing, very simple things and you can put them under anything. mobile phones are awesome). 4. the fun bit. turn on your pc. go into your bios. turn off your hdd's in bios, or set your boot device to somethign that doesnt exist. if you know what your doing, make your OS startup with a fake "omgomgwtfyoubrokeme!" screen, basicly do anything to make sure that it *will not* boot up, and if at all posible, show some really bad sounding error ("invalid boot media" is awesome for this, and, you can guilt him for a shiny new huge hdd) 5. the difficult bit. prep your computer, when its ready, rather than shutting it down normally, eject the cdrom tray. then, push the tray back in so its little motor starts pulling it in, then immedeately pull the power cord out, *before* the cd tray slides all the way in. 6. arm your little cap-snapper, and tuck it lengthways under the lip of the cdrom tray (under, so it will fall out unless you hold it). then slowly slide the cdrom tray as closed as it will go. the idea being, you want to stop the cdrom tray from being able to close fully, jam it on the cap-snapper, but *look* closed-ish. 7. insert power-cable, and walk away. wait for extended period of time. when parent looks suitably guilty, cry until wallet appears. cry more if money is not forthcoming. the science bit: cd-rom drives have a very nifty feature. open your cd-rom drive, stick your finger in the hole in the middle of the tray, then close it. it will jam on your finger, and try to close for like 10-15 seconds (long enough for your "you broke me" message to come onscreen.) then, the cdrom drive thinks its jammed, so it automatically tries to eject. the "important looking peice of something" flies out and your computer goes BANG and suddenly smells of burning. parental unit craps his pants and thinks he's broken your favourite thing in the world ever. parental guilt and shiny new toys follow shortly. ) after watchign my brother crap himself and making him beleive he had just "blown up my processor and melted my ram", he never touched my pc again. i, however, still laugh about it to this day. and yes, i am a *******. my brother thinks so too. > : )
Zidane, dude; that's ****ed up. If you don't want him to use your computer, create him an account on your PC that can do **** all. He'll get tired of not being able to use programs or surf the internet without restrictions and give up - provided that your account is password protected.
You could rewire the reset button into one of the wires going to the power button, so that the power button only works if you press it and the reset button simultaneously. Simple but effective, and doesn't require any external modification that a parent might notice
stick your hdd in one of those removable HDD bays.. then take it with you/hide it. or just put a password on your account.. considering your dad is an average pc user.
just put a password protect on your screen saver and turn it on when ur not using your comp, and put a password on your windows, should do the trick. ive seen some freeware programs that allow you to password certain apps, maybe you could just password you IE or something.
PAdlock the case closed, then set a BIOS password. Hob done. Wihout breaking the padlock your dad cannot access the PC. Dirt cheap and totally non invasive. If YOU for get the password, just unlock the padlock and reset the CMOS.
am i the only one that's more concerned about the psychology between this kid and his dad? I mean, what's he up to that he's so utterly afraid of his dad catching him? Strange that everyone is so focused on the modding that they can't see the forest for the trees.
The best solution would be to grow up and work out this tension in your relationship with Dad. Your approach is so reactionary when you should be attacking the problem at the source. Have a reasonable discussion with your dad. Is your computer worth more to you than your dad? I know, someone already said something like this. I'm expanding on his point.
I don't see what is so bad with a password. Or could you just ask him not to use it, tell him that your computer has some problem and if you don't to things properly you could break it, or something like that. Just set a user password and turn off fast user switching(assuming your using xp). then when your away from your computer just press [winkey] + [L] to lock your computer and enter your password when you come back. another thing. Have you actually asked him to stop? Maby he thinks that you don't mind him using it, and he dosnt realize that you dont like him using it.
