Viruses break computers.

First reply, my own side of the tale, I say Busted.

I cant go into it, but, unless you over-clock the thing too much, software cant physically break a computer.....
Not by Download alone. If you download and choose to run something, then its not a true virus.... you are aware of the risks.....

(Writing for all readers, Cant or more truthfully wont go into exacts, as a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, to find the right tools to over-clock, you will have to go through a few sites that will warn you of the dangers, and I would rather you do it that way than give you direct links.....)

If you download something dangerous that allows you to change the clock speeds of your computer and stick it in overdrive mode, thats akin to running an engine at top speed permanently, then something will break.
But as of yet, I have not seen in the wild anything that will download and do that maliciously without some form on Human Interface action.
As in the users must choose to do so.
Its not in the interest of the hacker to break the machine targeted.


But can the rest of the denial of use viruses and remote control actually break your machine?...
Define break.
Can YOU fix it?... no.
Can no one fix it?... well, yes I can, but I cant always tell you how.
(To do so would be dangerous?...)


If in dount, use your backups and restore.
You dont have backups?...

Well, you do have a set of disks dont you?...
You can re-install everything cant you?...

What, you were silly enough to buy a machine with no re-install disks and didnt burn them from the hard drive as instructed when you bought the thing?...

I wont say anything, just how much do you want to pay to have it repaired?...


So far, I have never encountered a problem from downloaded stuff that can truly put the machine beyond repair with anything more than the computer and the right knowledge.

I do carry a memory stick with certain tools on, but thats just to save me the time of having to download them again... the tools I use are Power eraser, BAKU, Spyware Blaster and the like...
Nothing no one on here cant find for themselves.

But the right knowledge?... you can google it, again, nothing you cant find for yourself, knowing how to use it, thats the key.


So the myth is, can you go and download something and get a computer beyond recovery....
Go get a computer expert near you to tell you more.
I wont be trying this at home, because as of yet, I know.

Rootkit Removal... google that and you will find some useful tools.
Bios bugs exist, but, again, flashing the bios is a dangerous thing, if you do that, may the gods be with you, because if you do it wrong, you now have a brick,

Yes you can find stuff to break your computer, but a lot of them are not Viruses, they dont work automatically, you have to choose to do so.
And most of them are reversible... most of the time....
Go make a backup.
Now.

Some time back, I recall reading an article in a major computer publication (PC World?) in which one of their writers deliberately surfed the web in a brand-new computer w/o virus protection in order to see how long it would take to kill the thing.

IIRC, he had it almost completely bricked up within a single day.

This may come down to semantics -- if Joe Average can't get his computer to start, he'll say it's "broken". If there's nothing physically wrong with the computer, but Joe's got several different computer virii staging a winner-takes-all cage match on his hard drive, he'll probably still say it's "broken".

But what is "broken"? Is it that the computer won't start at all. Is it that it'll start, but you get a BSOD or it freezes up mid-boot every time? Is it actual physical destruction of hardware, such as the CPU, GPU, HDD or PSU overheating and flat out dying?

What are we talking about here when we say "broken"?

I am talking about broken as in not recoverable.

So we're talking nobody can fix it with software and tech wizardry alone. It has to have hardware, possibly even the entire computer replaced (minus screen, mouse, keyboard and other external parts that aren't affected). Your tower/laptop has to be turned into a very expensive paperweight.

I've heard of virii capable of physically killing off a CPU, GPU or motherboard (as in overworking and frying the chips, rendering them completely useless), but I don't know if it's true.

So saying, there is two relevant tests.

Put a "Fresh" computer, maybe an old replaced doorstop that will take a fresh re-install, say wind-woes XP pre service pack 1, put that up, connect to the internet, with ZERO protection, surf the internet.... making note of which sites you are drawn to.
If asked to download something, download it.

Take computer two, any O/S, fully protected, and do the same exact web sites number one visited. see what is blocked by the anti-virus, and anti-malware, such as Spybot search and destroy, spyware blaster, and other relevant anti-malware.

Take computer number Three, repeat as above, If asked to download something, only download what you "KNOW" to be safe... as in Adobe Flash etc.... and get that from the genuine site as well, take security advice before you accept any request, go full paranoia against anything that looks questionable.
This isnt the test, this is the control, this computer should survive anything thrown at it.........

See which fails first.

See if it can be recovered.

The question can be narrowed down to "Can software damage or destroy the hardware of a computer?"

Yes, it can!

In early computing, you could cause tremendous physical damage to a computer.

Driving the R/W heads of old HDD systems with a specific frequency could make the HDD crash. This grinds off the top layer of the disc causing physical damage. In the early HDD systems, you could replace the discs since it wasn't that uncommon that those things crash on their own. But you could also rattle the system so violently that the expensive mechanics of the HDD station breaks or even make the entire heavy unit trip over!



Of course, the operator would instantly shut it down when it starts to make creepy noises.

But even the "microcomputers" for office desks and as home computers could be physically damaged.
The manual how to program EGA graphics tells you numerous times to shut down the screen before changing the video mode. I f you don't and switch the graphic mode rapidly, high line frequencies are generated and those feed the HV transformer. Either the transformer burns out or the CRT arcs and the entire monitor can catch on fire.

Even the C64 could be damaged. Just switch the Joystick ports to output and then let the user wiggle the Joystick to burn out the I/O chip by causing short circuits.

The next generation of the "PET" (CBM 2000 series) also had a problem. Since this was the first wildly used office and home computer, this "hack" became famous as the "Killer POKE": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_poke

But even modern systems can be affected.

The BIOS can be upgraded by software. Overwriting the BIOS with garbage "bricks" the computer, you need to replace the physical chip in order to "unbrick" it. In the latest systems, a "shadow BIOS" is used and the chips are directly soldered to the board because if the regular update fails, the backup BIOS is used and you can try again flashing the BIOS. But by uploading data which seems to be a valid BIOS, the shadow BIOS won't kick in and the fake BIOS does nothing except e.g. mocking you with messages instead of booting your computer.

You can slow down or even stop the fans to reduce the lifetime of a computer by overheating.

Even Smartphones can be destroyed easily, this usually happens during "jailbreaks".

The most famous "hardware damaging virus" is the computer worm Stuxnet: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

not recoverable at all.