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Bob YoungA small business client called me this morning in a panic. Their Dell computer prompted them to do “an update,” the client clicked okay, things happened, and then the screen went black. The client then tried to restart the computer and got a black screen again. Next they unplugged the computer, and that’s when they called me.I asked, “During this whole time, did you ever see the word ‘firmware’ on the screen? Or B-I-O-S?”“Yes.”I cringed a little. “Okay, let’s plug it back in and see what we can do.” Reports of various blinking lights, sounds, then nothing. “Let’s leave it alone for several minutes, don’t do anything with it, and I’ll call you back.” I waited about ten minutes and then called the client.Now we were able to power off, power back on, it booted normally, and the client logged in. Crisis averted!Sometimes updates – firmware or otherwise – take longer to complete than we might like. This calls for patience. Go get a cup of coffee, or read “Gone With the Wind,” or something. Give it time. If you turn the computer off or try to reboot it at the wrong time during a firmware update, you run the risk of “bricking” the computer.<a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/HelpDesk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#HelpDesk</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/TechSupport" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#TechSupport</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/RemoteSupport" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#RemoteSupport</a><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/CallMeIfYouNeedMe" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#CallMeIfYouNeedMe</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/FIFONetworks" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#FIFONetworks</a>

Kevin Karhan :verified:<a href="https://chaos.social/@Natanox" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@Natanox</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/@djvdq" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@djvdq</a> I do agree in that regard as in that a lot of <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/FLOSS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#FLOSS</a> doesn't do good <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/UI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#UI</a> & <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/UX" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#UX</a> but I've yet to see an issue that wasn't already covered well-enough (even for <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/GnuPG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#GnuPG</a> / <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/GPG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#GPG</a> there's <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/Kleopatra" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Kleopatra</a> as a nice <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/GUI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#GUI</a>!) to the point that even on <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/Windows" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Windows</a> or <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/macOS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#macOS</a> you'd have to use a <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/CLI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#CLI</a> tool for that...<ul><li>Cuz 99,999% of what "<a href="https://infosec.space/tags/TechIlliterates" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#TechIlliterates</a>" and "<a href="https://infosec.space/tags/Normies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Normies</a>" want is to get their basic stuff done and working.</li></ul>In fact, they don't give a s**t about tje underlying OS. Most don't even care if they use <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/Firefox" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Firefox</a> or <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/Chrome" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Chrome</a> and <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/Google" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Google</a> or <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/DuckDuckGo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#DuckDuckGo</a>.<ul><li>All they want is get shit done! And these.folks are eadily helped with a hands-on on a good <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/Linux" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Linux</a> dostro and maybe preinstalling some <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/RemoteSupport" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#RemoteSupport</a> tool like <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/Dayon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Dayon</a> where one can help them if there ever was a need to do anything...</li></ul>

Kevin Karhan :verified:Kinda nice to see <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/AnyDesk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#AnyDesk</a> actually do something against <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/Scammers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Scammers</a> abusing their <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/RemoteSupport" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#RemoteSupport</a> tool... <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUHFpfVPUYc" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUHFpfVPUYc</a>

Wayne DixonDoing Remote Support from a MacI switched the app that I am using for remote support after some issues with the previous product<a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Screens" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Screens</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/RemoteSupport" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#RemoteSupport</a> <a href="https://www.waynedixon.com/2024/04/05/doing-remote-support-from-a-mac" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.waynedixon.com/2024/04/05/doing-remote-support-from-a-mac</a>

Bob YoungHDMI woes... This week one of my clients complained that their second monitor on their laptop was blinking on and off. Periodically for no obvious reason the screen would go black, and then a moment later it would come back on. Sometimes it did it maybe once in an hour, and other times it would happen every few seconds. I went to their office and observed the problem. They had a 3 meter (about 10 feet) HDMI cable from some unknown manufacturer. I replaced it with a 2 meter cable rated for 8K video. I checked back with them a couple of days later, and the problem hasn't reoccurred. This is not to say they had an 8K monitor, or that the HDMI port on their laptop was capable of 8K. The point is that cable quality matters, and cable length matters. Longer cables introduce more signal attenuation, and inferior cables cause both attenuation and waveform distortion. The newer 8K HDMI cables are backward compatible with (almost) all earlier iterations of HDMI, so that’s all I carry.TROUBLESHOOTING TIP: It’s highly unlikely that a faulty HDMI cable will result in a poor quality display. The display is either there, or it’s not. In this client’s situation, the signal was borderline. It was either just above minimum (voltage) signal level, or it was at the BER (bit error rate) threshold, and when the signal didn’t meet minimum requirements the monitor simply went blank. So, if an HDMI-connected display is intermittent or constantly black, it’s a good idea to check the cable.<a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/callmeifyouneedme" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#callmeifyouneedme</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/fifonetworks" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#fifonetworks</a><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/helpdesk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#helpdesk</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/techsupport" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#techsupport</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/remotesupport" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#remotesupport</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/hdmi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#hdmi</a>

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