Old Company Computer, will they re-set it?

hoyles10

I worked for quite a large company a while ago that were bought out by a larger company, and part of my job involved having a company laptop, phone, credit car etc.

After a while there was about a dozen of us leaving because I job roles had changed that much. My boss at the time said as the laptops belonged to the previous company and they were missed off an asset register then we could keep them and just had the phone and credit card in. I know that he took 2 of these laptops, he even gave us something on letterheaded paper saying that the computers were given as part of our leaving packages.

I have since found out that he didn't have the authority to do this and can't find the letter anywhere.

The computer has now got a virus and really needs totally resetting to start from fresh.

What I want to know is if I took it somewhere they would obviously notice that you need company login details to access it. Would they report this to the company which may open a big can of worms for everyone else? Or what would be the best way to go about it?

I am worried that these may now be classed as stolen and I can't find that paper work anywhere saying it was passed on to us by our IT manager.

Browntoa

try this

Please download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and save it to your desktop.

• Make sure you are connected to the Internet.
• Double-click on mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
• When the installation begins, follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
• When installation has finished, make sure you leave both of these checked:
  • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  • Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• Then click Finish.
• MBAM will automatically start and you will be asked to update the program before performing a scan. If an update is found, the program will automatically update itself. Press the OK button to close that box and continue. If you encounter any problems while downloading the updates, manually download them from here and just double-click on mbam-rules.exe to install.
• On the Scanner tab:
  • Make sure the "Perform Quick Scan" option is selected.
  • Then click on the Scan button.
• If asked to select the drives to scan, leave all the drives selected and click on the Start Scan button.
• The scan will begin and "Scan in progress" will show at the top. It may take some time to complete so please be patient.
• When the scan is finished, a message box will say "The scan completed successfully. Click 'Show Results' to display all objects found".
• Click OK to close the message box and continue with the removal process.
• Back at the main Scanner screen, click on the Show Results button to see a list of any malware that was found.
• Make sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
• When removal is completed, a log report will open in Notepad.
• The log is automatically saved and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
• Copy and paste the contents of that report in your next reply and exit MBAM.

Note: If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you may be asked to reboot your computer so it can proceed with the disinfection process. Regardless if prompted to restart the computer or not, please do so immediately. Failure to reboot normally (not into safe mode) will prevent MBAM from removing all the malware. MBAM may make changes to your registry as part of its disinfection routine. If you're using other security programs that detect registry changes, they may alert you after scanning with MBAM. Please permit the program to allow the changes.

hoyles10

The virus it's got won't let it connect to the internet, which is the problem.

cmatt360

I would doubt most companies would bat an eye lid. Normally they would use something like ERD Locksmith to gain access to the admin account anyway.

The truth will out - as it always does. If there is a genuine concern that the laptop is 'stolen' the worst that will happen is the police will just investigate the complaint. However they may seize the property.

Depending how computer literate you are - you could probably fix the problem yourself on here (with a little help from the forum users).

I am quite surprised that when they handed the laptops over - that the IT dept did not vanilla install of win xp and then hand them over... As thats what I would have done at work.

Browntoa

put mbam on a usb drive or cd then copy over to laptop

put combofix on the cd as well

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix

hoyles10

I am trying to get in touch with a friend who worked in the IT department at the company for his advice as well.

To be honest I have another laptop I can use anyway I was just going to try and get it sorted out as a back up in case anything goes wrong with this or I might just give it to my mother as she's started going on about getting one.

fuzzball172

I would be very surprised if anyone would even think to ask if it was yours or works. They are being paid to fix the computer, not investigate every PC that comes across their desk. This would take a huge amount of time and effort. In my own business I can't remember a single time it occurred to me to ask where the PC came from. My main concern is being asked to reinstall a hooky copy of windows with no disk or product key, something just not worth the risk for me to do...

Browntoa

fuzzball172 wrote: »

I would be very surprised if anyone would even think to ask if it was yours or works. They are being paid to fix the computer, not investigate every PC that comes across their desk. This would take a huge amount of time and effort. In my own business I can't remember a single time it occurred to me to ask where the PC came from. My main concern is being asked to reinstall a hooky copy of windows with no disk or product key, something just not worth the risk for me to do...

tell that to Gary Glitter, thats how he was found out

TheFlyingGerbil

If you backed up regularly you could just do a clean install of the OS and use the license key6 on the back of your computer.