After a long day at work on September 19th, 2023, I stumbled upon an abandoned PC lying in the grass near my home. Acting on impulse, I swiftly stowed it in the trunk of my Lexus IS and brought it home. Once there, I meticulously cleaned the exterior, discarded the worn prebuilt case, and salvaged the components that seemed salvageable, including an Intel i5 2500k CPU, an ASUS motherboard, a GT 610 graphics card, 16GB of DDR3 Corsair Vengeance RAM, and a Cooler Master PSU rated at 700 watts.

Upon attempting to boot the system, I encountered a frustrating issue: it failed to POST, emitting error beeps indicating a GPU detection problem. Despite troubleshooting efforts such as cleaning the PCI port and testing different GPUs, the issue persisted. Suspecting a corrupted BIOS, I embarked on the task of re-flashing it using my Mini-Pro TL866+ programmer and a spare chip.

After sourcing the appropriate BIOS file from the ASUS website and extracting the necessary headers, I successfully re-flashed the chip, and to my relief, the system booted up smoothly. Delving further, I tested its capabilities with a Puppy Linux boot disk, running benchmarks to gauge its performance.

Later that evening, exhausted from the day’s endeavors, I retired to bed around 1 am, leaving the PC components on my workbench. As sleep beckoned, movement caught my eye: a female black widow spider was stealthily advancing towards me. Reacting instinctively, I leaped from my bed, waking my mother with my alarm. Armed with a C programming book, I dispatched the arachnid and disposed of its egg sack, which had nested within the PSU.

The following day, still shaken by the nocturnal encounter, I counted my lucky stars that the black widow hadn’t emerged during the entire day when I was testing the PC or even when I was out in Burbank cruising and eating with my buddy. Determined to ensure my safety and that of anyone else who might come into contact with the PC, I enlisted my brother’s help, who happened to be not only a hardware expert but also a spider arachnid expert.

Together, we meticulously inspected the PSU and were astounded to find another egg sack tucked away. With nerves of steel, my brother removed the egg sack with his bare hands, his expertise ensuring minimal disturbance to the contents. We also discovered a wounded male black widow, which my brother carefully dealt with, ensuring no harm came to either of us.

After the delicate operation, we didn’t leave anything to chance. We meticulously disinfected everything with 99.9% isopropyl alcohol, ensuring that every nook and cranny was thoroughly sanitized. Reflecting on the ordeal, I realized the importance of having someone like my brother around, with his combined expertise in hardware and arachnids proving invaluable in such a situation.

Taking extra precautions, including checking my car for any hitchhiking pests, became standard procedure after that incident. Though a harrowing experience, it underscored the importance of thoroughness and vigilance in unexpected situations.