The BSOD you were experiencing sounds strange. But if there were compounding issues, a fresh install fixing them is not too surprising.

It could have been some kind of driver conflict after a Windows update? If it happens again, make a note of the date and exact time, then check event viewer for any error logs leading up to the crash. It would also allow you to figure out if a specific windows update install might have contributed to it.

If installing all your software, drivers, and updating everything causes the problem to return, then it’s worth trying to narrow down what is causing it.

To me, it doesn’t sound like a hardware issue, but I could be wrong. Ideally you want exactly 1 thing to break at a time, so you can fix it before moving to the next problem, but when multiple things cause cascading failures (like you describe one application crashing and causing windows itself to also crash), then it can be harder to unpack the multiple faults that were lined-up like dominoes to cause it.

The truth is that until you find the problem, a reliable way to trigger it, then fix it, and confirm it is fixed, the root of the problem could still be there somewhere.

But if your PC is working now, that’s good. If you notice any of the strange behaviour happen again, try to follow up on it before more problems pile up, and it will be easier to troubleshoot.

If it was a hardware problem, then it might need the system to be under a specific type of load that won’t happen until you’ve restored all the software/drivers etc. For example if there was issues with the RAM, you might not notice until the system actually tries to use all your RAM. There are stress-test software for most components that can help figure stuff out.

Prime32 is pretty great for CPU stress testing, helped me notice issues with an overclocked CPU, and I’ve used a RAM test before that identified a faulty module for me once. With GPU, there are lots of tests out there, and new ones come out fairly often, so I’ve not got a specific one I’d recommend, usually you’re mostly testing the thermals/power draw with those.

It’s not a glitch, it’s the intended behaviour of the software on your phone.

Many apps (like WhatsApp, for example) use your phone’s SIM card as a unique identifier to log you into their service. This is important as it prevents someone else (e.g. somone with your old phone) from logging in to that app/service and compromising your security/privacy.

This is usually also a part of helpful features that allows you to migrate your account for the app/service over to a new phone by associating your SIM with the service.

But it also means that without that unique identifier, you can’t access the app/service.

Maybe another way of thinking about it is your phone uses it’s phone number to receive calls and that is tied to the SIM card, and some apps (like receiving calls, sending/receiving old-fashioned standard text messages via the cellular network, WhatsApp, and I guess Snapchat? idk) use thst phone number to “log in”, so when you use an old phone without a SIM card, it will work for stuff that just needs your Apple/Google account, or stuff that can be accessed via the Internet through your local WiFi network, but nothing that needs your phone number or the cellular network to “log in” to use.

Depending on the specific app, it might work if you swap the SIM into the other phone, but unless the app has been designed to maintain continuity between multiple devices, you’ll find it does weird stuff. For example, WhatsApp messages will be “stranded” on each device, because it expects to you backup everything to the cloud first before migrating to a new device. Plus, you are more likely to wear out the contacts on the sim, swapping it in and out every day, I have experienced this, and it sucks.

Personally, I’d just use Discord or something else that doesn’t need the SIM. It’s way simpler.

But also, as an adult, I have enough patience to simply wait till morning to see updates to the group chat or whatever. And also understand the long term value in a consistent sleep schedule, so I’m honestly kinda with your parents on this one, hahaha!

“Form1” is the default window name when you make an application using the Windows Forms toolkit.

Either this person created their own application or they used a homemade application written by someone else and run it on the PC. This sort of thing doesn’t need to be installed. It might be set up to autorun as a service or a scheduled task and run in the background.

It might be a harmless custom tool they used to set stuff up and forgot to remove, or it might be something unpleasant.

In the real world, a workman leaving a tool behind isn’t a safety risk in quite the same way as it is in the software world. I would recommend following other comment’s advice and wiping the PC and reinstalling windows.

If they are a 1-man operation, it is much more likely they would be tempted to try something suspicious than if they are part of a team with supervision, oversight, and accountability. A place where the consequences for being discovered would be much more severe.

The other comment is correct.

To add some context, if the USB has been formatted before (so that you can open it like a normal drive and put files in there), that means there is already a partition (a 16GB one). Some partitions can also use older file systems have a small maximum file size, this might be the issue if you just want to store the file on the USB.

If you use the Disk Management tool in Windows, you can delete the partition.

Then either you can create a partition with a different file system that supports large files, or create a bootable Windows ISO using Rufus, and likely you will still have room on the drive to create a second partition afterwards out of the unused space if you want.

You assign a letter, and the drive will remember it. You can change it at any time using the “disk management” tool in Windows.

If a drive is already connected using that letter when you plug it in, you’d need to go to disk management to change the letter to make it visible again in file explorer.

If the game has HDR enabled and Windows doesn’t, it will take a second to disable. That’s one thing worth checking.

Most of “tabbing out is not smooth” genereally is down to the game. If you run games in a full screen window instead of “exclusive fullscreen” it can help with this.

If you only have 1 monitor, you might feel there isn’t much functional difference between “fullscreen window” and “fullscreen”, because you may be tabbing to another window that is also filling the screen. But once you have 2 monitors, the difference between running the game in exclusive fullscreen and fullscreen window/borderless window is much more noticeable.

Either way, fullscreen window means it doesn’t minimise the game when you alt-tab. It just brings another window to the foreground.

Exclusive fullscreen can have better game performance than windowed mode. But I find a small performance drop is worth it for a smoother user experience.

I am imagining you using a petrol AC generator, some scissors, and a soldering iron to set a USB cable on fire and destroy a phone. Assuming you don’t put yourself in danger.

I’m guessing this is not what you are asking.

If we replace “generator” with “a source of DC electricity with the correct voltage and current,” then yes. But why do this when “something that provides the correct voltage and current” very safely already is the standard charger?

New GPU should load with default drivers, then you can use DDU (display driver uninstaller) to get rid of all the old drivers before you install the new ones, especially a good idea when switching between Nvidia and AMD.

I wonder if removing the internal speakers so that it only works with headphones would be a more comprehensive solution? (Assuming they are comfortable with headphones more generally)

Lots of other suggestions seem just too easy to circumvent/reverse.

Assuming “my monitor shat the bed” is not a misdiagnosed issue related to the PC rather than the monitor, it seems like HDCP compliance could be the most common cause. Either your PC doesn’t recognise the TV, or the TV doesn’t recognise the PC.

If there are any other video inputs on the TV, for example, VGA, DVI, display port, try using one of those if possible (you may need to use a passive converter cable, just make sure to convert from non-HDMI to non-HDMI to completely sidestep any HDCP issue).

It is possible to strip the HDCP using an active converter. This is sometimes necessary when the source TV is demanding compliance from a converted signal, e.g. VGA converted to HDMI. These converters will have on-board logic and require power.

What device are you planning on plugging the USB into?

“SDHC” has a specific logo, make sure the SD card has 16-32GB capacity, and has the “SDHC” logo.

If the SD card has more than 32GB, it will probably not have that logo and be replaced by “SDXC” or something similar, and depending on the tech in your car, those higher capacity ones may not work.

If it is an external SSD, the fact that it is external is less relevant than the interface connection.

What you are really comparing is the interface, if the external SSD is using USB interface, then it might be better quality memory than a generic USB flash drive, but it will still be limited by the USB interface between the PC and the SSD (And if it USB 2.0, it will be even slower than USB 3.0).

If it is using eSATA or something like that, it’ll be pretty much as good as an internal SATA SSD.

I’d guess the SSD would have a better memory controller than a generic thumb drive, so it would probably out-perform even over the same USB interface.

But I think in lots of real-world use cases, that you won’t really notice the difference too much.