Call me parano, but i have to bring my tower to the pc shop for some improvements and i can t get the idea out of my head that there is always a risk that they might do whatever is it that they can do, to exploit the fact that i m playing online poker... (or get the little bitcoins i have or whatever...)

It s now probably clear to everyone that i have no idea what i m talking about but i m pretty sure it is a possibility right?? So my question is basically; what can i do the ensure minmal risks prior to briging the pc to the shop and also what can i do after i get it back to verify everything is safe??

Thanks!

Fix it yourself? What improvements are needed?

Also, find a shop you trust.

also if you cant fix it yourself, move all important files and programs to a flash drive before handing the PC over.

If we're getting truly tinfoil hat-like, moving files isn't enough, as it just changes or removes the header for the file location. The old file is still there, capable of being recovered, but it takes some doing and some software.

(Yes, how I'm explaining it isn't perfectly accurate, but for all intents and purposes it's close enough for this discussion)

I'm not familiar with bit coin as something that can be stolen by someone having access to your physical machine. Is that a normal problem?

Also, unless you're dumb enough to store all your passwords locally, probably not a lot they can do short of installing a keylogger.

I m way undercompetent for being able to make those changes myself as it requires making modification in the BIOS changing mother board and processor.

Makes a lot of sense to find a shop that i trust but i never went in pc shops before soo hard to evaluate with my little knowledge and there isnt a ton of them around here, but i will back off if i have bad feelings

I don t think they could acces my bitcoins unless they had some ways of accesing passwords used on this pc (obv don t have them stored on pc) and even if they did get a password they would need acces to my mobile phone as i did set up a 2 factors authentification.

Soo yes i m more worried about the key logger and all the sorts of things they could potentially install to have acces to my screen while playing poker.

I don t have soo many important files soo i guess the most helpfull advice i could get is on how to check my pc efficiently once i ll get it back.

Thanks a bunch for past and futur answers!

If you're that worried, just uninstall any poker programs before you take it in. No way to know you play poker then!

Also why would you make modifications to the bios and THEN change the motherboard?

If you are worried about any data/software issues, and if the work doesn't require them to install software for you, why not just remove the HDD/SSD all together before delivering the computer? Windows passwords are no barrier to getting inside the system, I can get on your system in less than 5 minutes if I have physical access to it. So if you don't really want to take any chances, just remove the HDD/SSD prior to delivering the machine. It's very easy to unplug/plug.

One of the reasons i need to make modification to the BIOS is because i didn t install my SSD properly and it doesn t work optimally.

Because of this , i cannot just remove my disk before handing over the machine.

Ok, but if they're removing the motherboard, either I'm completely misremembering how PCs function, or your BIOS/CMOS is on your mobo itself and it won't matter onc a new one is slapped in.

As i said, i m pretty nooby in that area, soo chances are that you re right and i wil not have to do both

Do you mean you haven't enabled TRIM and/or AHCI? If so, these are trivial to fix. You wouldn't need to take the machine in for those.

You say optimising for SSD is "one of the reasons". What are the others?

It's quite possible these are all very very easy things to fix at home, and you could save a ton of money and not have to be paranoid!