Lapenstein

So, the clients computer is water-damaged, and BitLocker is enabled but not officially activated, so everyone and there mom is locked out.

K.

The computer doesn't power on, has no lights, makes no noises. Probably a good thing it didn't power on, cuz it was a complete disaster when I opened it. The battery was clearly BAD LOL. There was visible damage on a USB card, and the audio card. I took everything out of the case, let it dry by fan for a hot sec, and did some thinking.

So BitLocker will only let me log into windows IF I boot from the original motherboard.

I thought to myself, well maybe if I remove everything but the absolute essentials, I can reduce the possibility of a short occurring or something.

I cleaned the motherboard to the best of my ability. I didn't see any visible water damage. But I removed the CMOS battery cuz that could be sus if it gets wet. Lo and behold, a tiny fleck of rust was on it. So I popped in a different one. Gotta be as sure as possible! I also removed the damaged audio card and USB port that were visibly damaged. I also removed the keyboard becuase there was some suspicious looking marks on it. Definately can't trust that.

Ok, all the bad stuff is out! Lets power it on, right? XD Nope. So the power button was connected to the motherboard via the the USB port that was clearly fried. Well, at least some of the components on it. I summoned my boss and he did the one thing I thought I shouldn't do, reconnected the USB port. I was feeling skeptical. But it worked! I got my power button back to my surprise.

What is the lesson here? If a component is damaged it doesn't mean it wont carry a current, as a last resort lol.

I was SO EXCITED when it turned on. I had been dealing with this for two days, trying to save data for a client. I thought about how I would feel if I lost all my data, and I didn't want a client to feel like that. So I invested some time.

I heard my boss talking to another employee, pretty sure they were getting the login for the user account and I heard... 'Because she's the magic man'. I didn't express any emotion when I saw him turning the corner saying that. But I can't express what that felt like to hear, being the new guy and all. It was very validating. It gave me a sense of warm fuzzies internally knowing I did something of particular special value.