Gaming PC breakdown

First off, if this isn’t the correct sub for this question I would greatly appreciate your recommendations as to where it would be better suited.

Four or five years ago my then 12-year-old son built his own gaming PC and boy was I proud of him. He would hop on my Amazon account and just add individual components to the cart to which Santa ended up delivering the goods. I have learned a great deal since then and he has too, but in all honesty I had no idea what or how or anything in between that would work but I wanted to encourage his curiosity and dedication.

He ‘forgot’ one critical part that was the Wi-Fi component because, well, he’s of the generation that doesn’t know life without the internet and thought it just magically appeared, bless it. The day he finally finished wiring it up and was ready to power it on I drilled it into him that the next day we would go purchase a legit Windows package and to just be patient.

He had a friend at the time who was even more advanced in the tech stuff than he was, and this friend barged into my home and ran upstairs to where my son was. Before I could run up behind him and observe, the kid had already inserted a USB with a ‘free copy of Windows’ that some stranger had offered him online. I immediately died a little inside because I knew what was happening, and my son did too. Needless to say, all the time and effort my kid put into this, not to mention all the money I had invested, went right out the window. My son was pissed. I thought I was going to murder a 13-year-old that day, and it would’ve been worth it to me.

Anyway, this completely took the excitement and joy away from my kid, and he eventually just gave up and moved the tower into the closet. We’ve been talking about it a little bit lately, and he came downstairs the other night with the tower in hand and said he was done with it and wanted to know how to dispose of it. So, here is where I need your help. I need a crash course in how to properly break it down, what components to save for privacy purposes, and which are worth trying to sell. If it’s even worth selling, where should we do that, and is there a site to guide us in pricing things?

To sum things up, I contacted the friend’s parents and they were oblivious and even wondered why they were constantly having to take his devices to be fixed. They aren’t friends anymore, and I still would love to knock the snot out of this know-it-all, but I digress. Thanks, y’all! Also, my apologies if the flair isn’t correct either.

My goodness, the computer is likely perfectly fine. When you begin the installation of a legit copy of Windows you will have the option to erase the hard drive before continuing.

I’m a little confused about what exactly happened to the PC. The Windows installation media is available for free online via Microsoft’s website, which has a tool that allows you to create a bootable USB drive with Windows on it, and you don’t even need to activate Windows until it’s been installed. Could you elaborate a bit more on what happened when he plugged in that USB?

Anyway, the only thing you need to keep are the drives. As for taking apart the PC, it’s a relatively easy process, and all you need to do is follow a YouTube video. Most parts will have stickers or something on them that reveals exactly what they are. Just google them to see if they’re worth anything still. Given that the system is only 4 years old, I’d say there’s probably parts that are still worth selling.

No matter what was on that USB, it could not have ruined the components. It’s a perfectly good PC.

This makes no sense. How is it broken? It is highly, highly unlikely that a rogue Windows copy actually damaged the computer in some way. That’s just not how it works.

Can you explain a bit more about what happens when you power up the computer and try to use it?

I do sympathize, though. I would have been livid if some little snot barged in and interfered with a project my son had spent so much time and effort on. The good news is, there’s a 99% chance the computer hardware is just fine.

Search for “media creation tool” on Microsoft’s website, download it, and create a USB. Boot from it and reinstall Windows. When it asks which partition to install to, delete all partitions and click next. It will repartition and install fresh.

For selling, find out the CPU, memory, and video card types, and look up the prices on eBay or FB Marketplace. Use a screwdriver to unscrew and unplug the components.

@Frost
PS: The hard drives or SSDs are the only components that contain data.

Frost said:
@Frost
PS: The hard drives or SSDs are the only components that contain data.

Thank you. I think that’s what he pulled out when I said we needed to get the info. My terminology is still a work in progress, so I appreciate the patience.

Frost said:
@Frost
PS: The hard drives or SSDs are the only components that contain data.

I wish I could share a picture of the parts he pulled to confirm it’s the right one. Two identical pieces, about the size of a harmonica. They say G.Skill Trident Z Neo, with 16Gx2 Intel XMP 2.0 Ready.

@Gale
Those are the RAM sticks, not the hard drive or SSD. Most likely, it has a PCIe SSD, which is smaller than RAM.

Frost said:
@Gale
Those are the RAM sticks, not the hard drive or SSD. Most likely, it has a PCIe SSD, which is smaller than RAM.

I think I found it! It’s labeled ‘Inland 1TB NVMe SSD 3D NAND M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4.’ Am I on the right track?

It sounds like the PC was brand new. A virus on a USB wouldn’t ruin components. It might mess up the OS, but a fresh install of Windows would fix it.

You should’ve asked for help when it happened. A 13-year-old isn’t the CIA. They likely just used a Windows install from Microsoft. You didn’t have to buy a boxed version.

It’s okay to be new to tech, but don’t jump to conclusions without asking for help. I hope you weren’t too harsh on that kid. He might’ve meant well.

@Jin
I wasn’t on Reddit back then, so I didn’t know where to ask. As for the kid, he had a reputation for messing with things he shouldn’t. Thanks for the advice, though.

I realize now that the PC wasn’t broken. I’ll ask my son for more details about what went wrong and see if he wants to try fixing it. If he does, I might come back for more advice.

Windows is free to install. The key is optional. You could’ve just tried turning it on again. I’m surprised you didn’t.