10:45 pm

Hardware & Tech Questions
1

So at 10:45 pm on the dot, my machine (Win 11) unceremoniously decides it’s time for me to stop playing games and have a look at the desktop.

It’s been happening for months, and it has been making me slightly crazier each time it happens so I’m finally turning to you guys for a little assistance.

I’m guessing a task of some sort is running and ‘taking focus’ of the screen?

Honestly I’m pretty good with hardware stuff on the PC but software/registry type issues are not my strong suite; if anyone has ideas/could spare a minute I’d appreciate it.

2

Anti-Virus file scan, perhaps?

1 Like
3

Have you taken a gander at the event log viewer?

1 Like
4

Not quite sure how to check it, but isn’t there a Task Scheduler tool available on Windows 11? Maybe check the documentation for it and see if some job is running always at 10:45. Good luck!

1 Like
5

Thanks guys.

Not using antivirus besides what windows has; I did take a gander at the event log viewer and went through the ‘windows logs’ (application, security, setup, system, forwarded events) but nothing stands out as happening at 10:45.

The ‘applications and services logs’ section looks pretty hairy, particularly the ‘microsoft’ and ‘openSSH’ folders. Not sure I even want to step foot in there!

Next stop the task scheduler, thanks again for the hot tips

1 Like
6

Well, task scheduler could be a likely culprit but the amount of tasks under the microsoft/windows task scheduler library is a bit overwhelming! Doesn’t seem like there’s any way to do a find/search so not sure how to narrow things down.

7

This might be tricky. Maybe there’s a way to disable the Task Scheduler completely, or at least pause it at 10:40 and see what happens at 10:45 then?

I haven’t found a way to see the time a task is scheduled to run, but this script seems to export the tasks as csv (untested by me): https://www.netwrix.com/how_to_get_list_of_scheduled_tasks.html

This page has some documentation on individual tasks via powershell: ScheduledTasks Module | Microsoft Learn

3 Likes
8

hey thanks!

At first glance those links make me want to reevaluate exactly how much this is bothering me, but who knows maybe I’ll be inspired to dig into it.

9

Your computer isn’t an Asus prebuilt by any chance is it? I recall someone having a problem that sounded a lot like this and it was solved by uninstalling the Asus Armory Crate software.

2 Likes
10

I am not a hardware guy. As such, meaning as a tech idiot, here’s what I’d do: I would load something that get’s pushed to desktop at 1045 (guessing your favorite sim) but before that time hits, take the machine completely off the grid (wifi/bluetooth/ethernet). That way you can eliminate the world beyond your machine. I’d then check my BIOS just in case there’s a service can be scheduled from there. (Probably not possible but, hey, like I said, I am a tech idiot). Also, what @Torc said above about Asus.

3 Likes
11

That was exactly what I was thinking. Mine has an Asus mobo and does an in-your-face update every night at midnight.

2 Likes
12

thanks again guys for all the tips - I do have an asus board but built this machine myself so didn’t install any of the software (just double checked to be sure and it’s not on the machine).

I like the idea of taking things ‘off the grid’ right before that time and seeing what happens, maybe I’ll try that tonight.

2 Likes
13

This is an awesome thread bTW. I’m absolutely convinced you have a russian numbers station transmitting at 10:45pm every day.
Captain America Bucky GIF

2 Likes
14

Ha I wish! But thanks for sending me down a nice UVB-76 rabbit hole, has been fun reading.

3 Likes
15

Thats exactly the response we expected to receive comrade

3 Likes
16

I fell down a big rabbit hole years ago with the available online simulators of different WW2 and CW era cipher machines. For example: KL-7 (cryptomuseum.com) the main US analog machine in the CW era that the Walker spy ring compromised. Or the contemporary Fialka (cryptomuseum.com) in the Warsaw Pact.

And you can use the simulators (or if you happen to have an original for some reason…) to try them out on pseudo messages for some great story telling. The KL-7 for example is used for Operation Tinker Bell (ciphermachinesandcryptology.com)/

Both Crypto Museum and Cipher Machines and Cryptology excellent sites to learn about some fascinating history and technology.

5 Likes