Strange laptop issue occured

[Dawelio]

Hello guys,

So here is an subject that is completely out of my league and hence this thread to you guys... I want to be upfront here and say I haven't tried Googling it either since 1, I wouldn't really know what to search on or after and then the fact which will come in the next point, 2, I don't really have enough knowledge about this to be able to know what exactly is the issue and/or what I might be looking at.

So to the issue, my father has an ASUS laptop and has always shut it down the normal way, ie start menu and then shut down. The same way to power the laptop on, just press the power button and wait till the laptop has fully loaded and done it's work.

So yesterday he turned it on like normally, only this time it for some reason booted into an BIOS/BSOD like screen. The same which you see on older BIOS's, and the title was something in terms of "ASUStek Flash Utility" or something similar. Can't quite remember.

At the bottom, it said something in the terms of "Error! Connect the AC power adapter before continueing to flash the BIOS".

So we did all of this, since as far as my own knowledge goes with PCs and BIOS, BIOS updates etc, is that you never should interrupt an BIOS update, since that might brick the motherboard in whole. So we just let it flash whatever it was doing.

Probably stupid to you all, but with everything going on the world and the cyber world, could his laptop have been hacked or similarly, you think?...

As I stated above, this is way beyong my knowledge and skills when it comes to PCs. I only know the real basic, such as changing boot orders, RAM speeds etc etc in BIOS. Just basic stuff really. So this really scared us both to be honest. As why would an "BIOS flash" even occur without even having entered the BIOS in the first place? Just a normal power up...

I apologize for the lengthy thread, but I wanted to ask you all, since you all have way more experience, knowledge and skills than I do when it comes to PCs. Especially on a software level, and this is something that I am out on deep waters, so wanted to post here before doing anything to the laptop.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything more solid or similar to go on other than what I have written down, as that's pretty much what I remember from the incident.

Thank you all for your help, it's much appreciated!

Regards,
Dawelio

 

[AlienALX]

Does it work ok now?

Windows 10 is UEFI, so it is in constant interaction with the mobo and BIOS. The laptop may well have needed a critical function update to the BIOS hence the latest Windows update may have triggered it automatically.

As long as it all functions ok there's nothing to worry about. Just run MBAM and a virus scan if you are worried.

AFAIK hackers don't flash your BIOS dude.

 

[Davva2004]

Did he leave a USB stick attached?

 

[Dawelio]

Did he leave a USB stick attached?

Yup, only one which is a USB dongle for his wireless mouse.

@Alien - It seemed to work just fine, although we haven’t used it since. As we weren’t 100% sure what it was etc, so wanted to ask around before continue using it.

 

[AlienALX]

It sounds to me like the laptop needed a critical bios update. Windows triggered it, then downloaded it and put it on when you rebooted. Either that or you may have some sort of Asus software on there that does it automatically.

Like I said man, AFAIK there is no way to hack into someone's PC, put a BIOS file on it and then get the machine to install it upon reboot. Even if they were your laptop would be a paperweight by now, as the only instance of bios hacking I can remember was Chernobyl in the mid to late 90s and that sucker wiped your bios chip clean lol.

However, you needed access to the machine to put it on there (as people used to do BITD).

 

[Dawelio]

It sounds to me like the laptop needed a critical bios update. Windows triggered it, then downloaded it and put it on when you rebooted. Either that or you may have some sort of Asus software on there that does it automatically.

Like I said man, AFAIK there is no way to hack into someone's PC, put a BIOS file on it and then get the machine to install it upon reboot. Even if they were your laptop would be a paperweight by now, as the only instance of bios hacking I can remember was Chernobyl in the mid to late 90s and that sucker wiped your bios chip clean lol.

However, you needed access to the machine to put it on there (as people used to do BITD).

Alright, cool... That seems logical and I thank you Alien, you’re one who always put out an helping hand when needed! I also thank everyone else in this thread genuinely for your help!

 

[AlienALX]

No worries man!