Unpacking a Bizarre Laptop 'Hack': Instant Battery Drain, Power Issues, and Community Skepticism

A Hacker News user recently sought explanations for a deeply unsettling experience they believed to be a sophisticated hack. The user detailed a strange sequence of events that led them to suspect malicious interference by a "demonstrably capable hacker" following a contentious conversation.

The Alleged Incident

The user described the following occurrences:

A distinct, "softer," "bass-boosted" buzzing sound, reminiscent of a power generator but without a final "crackle."
A momentary dimming of room lights, while other devices like a cable TV box remained unaffected.
Their MacBook, recently battery-serviced, plugged in, and fully charged, inexplicably shut down without warning (no overheating, minimal app load).
Upon self-rebooting, the laptop's battery charge was displayed as "0%," with system settings showing a sudden nosedive from full charge coinciding with the strange sound and light dimming.
Crucially, a message appeared on the laptop (e.g., in a sticky note app) that seemed to taunt the user about saving their work, leading them to believe the incident was intentional. The user mentioned, "This part didn't happen exactly this way and I don't want to go into details of how it did happen, but let's say something like this happened," which added a layer of ambiguity to the account.

The user's primary questions were:

How can a laptop battery be instantly discharged from 100% to 0%?
How can a laptop's hardware be manipulated to ignore AC power when the battery shows 0%?

The original poster also added a comment noting previous experiences with "hacks" that forced emergency shutdowns via CPU overheating, but emphasized this incident was different, with normal laptop temperatures.

Community Skepticism and Alternative Explanations

The Hacker News community met the post with considerable skepticism. Many commenters viewed the narrative as highly improbable, likening it to a "creative writing exercise" or a "plot off a low budget film."

Key points from the comments included:

Dismissal of Feasibility: No technical explanations were offered to validate how such a hack could be performed. The described events (instantaneous, targeted battery drain ignoring AC power, coupled with external physical phenomena) are generally considered outside the realm of known remote hacking capabilities.
Suggestion of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: One notable comment suggested that if the events truly occurred as perceived, the user should "buying a carbon monoxide detector and making sure it's tested regularly." CO poisoning can cause hallucinations, confusion, and misinterpretation of events, potentially explaining the bizarre sensory experiences and memory of the sequence.
Sarcasm and Disbelief: Other comments were sarcastic (e.g., "I used to do this to people but I'm bound by NDA"), further highlighting the community's disbelief in the literal interpretation of the events as a hack.

Ultimately, the discussion did not yield any plausible technical methods for the "hack" described. The prevailing sentiment was that the scenario was either fictional or, if real, more likely attributable to environmental factors, misinterpretation, or an incredibly advanced, undocumented attack vector far beyond typical understanding. The OP's vagueness about how the taunting message appeared also contributed to the skepticism.