The stuxnet virus was software intended to damage very specific hardware. Now, software can damage other software in the hardware that makes. The software designed to utilize the hardware isnt doing it well or can t run as stably as it does when using only the cpu. As noted, however, if you have a particularly obscure piece of hardware, an update may cause it to stop working until you can either roll back the update or get a newer update that restores support for that. How to tell a hardware problem from a software problem. If the computer is attached a bomb that it was designed to set off, you can probably pretty effectively destroy the hardware with software. If the voltages are set wrong, you can destroy a very expensive detector. Almost all types of electronic devices are highly sensitive to extreme temperature and humidity.
How can i test for hardware failures in my computer. A bad computer motherboard or cpu can cause an assortment of different issues on your computer. Can a bad processor damage a mobo anandtech forums. He has given his p4c 3,0 ghz cpu to me, to replace my own p4c 2,4 ghz. It is important to remember that the issues below can also be caused by more than a bad motherboard and cpu. Overworked hardware with little or no downtime and smoke or fire damage can wreak havoc on a system. This is a common reason to disable hardware acceleration in an apps options, unfortunately, but it does happen.
What is hardware acceleration and why does it matter. For example, if you have some kind of infinite loop bug on a background process, itll eat the battery of a phone in no time. Power can fail, electronics age, addin boards can be installed wrong, you can mistype, there are accidents of all kinds, a repair technician can actually cause problems, and magnets you dont know are there can damage disks. Had an old computer that i thought the mobo was bad on powered up, but no display whatsoever on the monitor, had tested all other components. Hard drive if the power is cut, can that be bad for it. A virus is a software and if somehow it can supersede the original software, it will be able to control the hardware. In such stories, viruses, for instance, fed some wrong interlacing to a crt. Consequently, data recovery companies are often employed to salvage important data with the more reputable ones using class 100 dust and staticfree cleanrooms. Recovering data from physically damaged hardware can involve multiple techniques. How to test a computer motherboard and cpu for failures. How outdated drivers would damage your pc systweak software. Windows 8 is on millions of machines, if there was a problem, there would be a much higher failure rate then just your machine. Yes because it is possible to control hardware with software.
This technological crime has grown in recent years due to the surge of new technology on the market. Inadequate ventilation and cooling in and around your computer hardware can cause severe damage to the equipment. It does not tell you if the hardware is good or bad as you would have to swap out the suspect parts to really know. A virus inflicting damage on hardware is not a myth, after all. The nes can be damaged by software, so removing the cartridge at just the wrong timing could theoretically damage the console the 2co2 ppu in the nes normally reads the background color from palette index 0, but this isnt hardwired into the chip it actually reads the palette index of the background from four ext pins.
Computer does not boot, instead you get a beep code. You can also use other program to do zero fill erase, software provided by manufacturer of your hdd might have that option. Hardware is controlled by software drivers and operating system, virus is a software and if somehow it replace the controlling software, it can control the hardware. This damage will typically be internal damage to the disk platter andor the readwrite heads. You can software control the disc tray in desktop computers, you. Both the mobo and psu were gone, and he decided to do a major upgrade.
Not that other brands dont have bad stuff from time to time, but other brands. Or is damaged accidentally due to a programming fault. For ssds, bad sectors point towards hardware failure of the memory modules known as cells, and replacement of the cells might be required. This means youll have to make the hardware do a damaging operation. Usually hardware can be damaged when controlled directly, but this direct controlling is performed usually by firmware low level logic usually stored in the hardware itself, and this firmware offers abstract functions to other high level software i. Bad capacitor a capacitor that is leaking, blown, or otherwise defective can cause a hardware device to no longer work. Hi pchardware, software is programming and binary code. Prevent direct access to the detonator, however, and the hardware is safe. Other ways software could potentially damage hardware are. High end cards tend to consume more power and produce more heat, but any system can overheat if not properly ventilated. A humidifier does not harm your electronics but having extremely low or high humidity can. Currently, there are no known viruses that damage hardware. Any type of physical force, such as bumping, jarring, or dropping your computer may lead to. Once a virus is in a position of controlling the hardware, it can damage it for example.
Below are a few of the possible issues you may encounter. With smart driver care, you can resolve and overcome the mentioned issues in just a few mouseclicks, and keep your system in a conditioned state. Is there software still out there that can damage computer hardware. Is there any virus which can damage the hardware of pc. Driver issues can cause severe system slowdown, device malfunctions, and crashes. Aside from impact damage and electrical spikes, there are sources of hardware failure that can arise from lack of maintenance or through improper maintenance. Heat and temperature change too much heat either because of the environment or because a fan has failed can damage hardware components. What are the top reasons for hardware failure and data loss. Is it possible to permanently damage the hardware by software. Hi catherine, every computer hardware is controlled by one or more computer program software drivers andor operating system. Extreme environments where the temperature alternates between hot and cold can cause. Software can also have negative effects on hardware, even though its not considered damage. Some damage can be repaired by replacing parts in the hard disk. How can a virus damage the hardware hardware insight.
Not that other brands dont have bad stuff from time to time, but other brands normally dont control the hardware and software in one package making it harder to isolate one company, or worse a company that should know better than to destroy. Mess with the wrong things and you can kiss your hardware goodbye. The fact is, most errors are caused by software such as drivers related problems, not by a failing hardware device. Excessive heat may cause hardware damage and constant crashes. The other comments have more or less answered you, but, if youre talking physical hardware damage, then yes, its possible for a few components. When actually running programs, the load on the cpu can cause the core temperature to rise. In order to damage hardware, the software would have to deliberately override builtin safeguards. The cih virus, which corrupted the bios on a relatively small number of computers, is the closest a virus has come to damaging hardware. Is your computers hardware failing, or does it have a software problem. Only problem is, the cpu might possibly be defective. If youre having crashes then that is a problem with the software eh this is partially untrue. List of 6 common contributors to hard drive failure. From time to time users can unconsciously cause damage to computer hardware and software.
However, a virus could corrupt data on the computer, including the software drivers that are used to allow hardware devices to communicate with the computer. Data recovery from a hard drive with bad sectors gillware. Or in fact, if youre pulling the power, a combination of software and simulated hardware failure killing the basic inputoutput software. Your laptop was working previously because it didnt have bad sectors. Killing the bios isnt really software killing hardware its software killing software. Hardware vandalism involves defacing or causing damage to computer hardware. Different sources rank these threats differently, at some point touting each of them as the numberone threat or cause of hardware failure. Its not recommend because they have not provided drivers to support it. A bad flash can mess up your motherboard to name one. Wrong use of additional hardware or mistakes made when installing, the incorrect installation of software, mistakenly deleted formatted files disks, incorrectly installed device drivers, and many other errors are all examples of user behavior. Its theoretically possible for an abrupt crash to mess up the data on your hard drive, if it happens in the middle of a write to the disk. Hard or physical bad sectors are caused by a hard drive that has been physically damaged. Software can cause the hardware to perform functions that in turn damage the hardware.
But in the instance tc is describing i dont think hardware damage is a threat. This is because electronic devices especially those powered with circuit boards are sensitive to environmental conditions especially humidity and sudden change in temperature. The only way that software can damage hardware is if the piece of hardware that is controlled by the software is purposely programmed to damage that other piece of hardware. After erasing finishes, check if current pending sector count changed back to zero. If this were to occur, it may prevent the device from working, but it would not physically damage the hardware. Can a real mode program which can write to arbitrary memory areas, damage hardware. Not included in this scenario are interrupt calls or other things that can be done in real mode. Although hardware failures most certainly may occur in your computer, it is important to check for as many software issues as you can before proceeding. I would add to this that the likelihood of any ubuntu software component, original or update, damaging hardware is vanishingly small. Apple is well known for hardware failure, a long lists of class action suits. The regular updates maintain a balanced compatibility between the windows os and the system hardware. Simply running a lot of computations wont overheat a cpu, for example a modern system would speed up the fan, then slow down the clock cycle as the processor got hotter. Windows takes precautions against that sort of thing.