Timeline for Can some software physically damage hardware?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
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| Mar 20, 2017 at 10:17 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| May 13, 2013 at 14:47 | history | edited | Breakthrough | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 28, 2012 at 16:20 | history | edited | Breakthrough | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 10, 2011 at 12:35 | history | edited | Breakthrough | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 10, 2011 at 18:20 | history | edited | Breakthrough | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 26, 2011 at 15:50 | history | edited | Breakthrough | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 25, 2011 at 14:55 | history | edited | Breakthrough | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Slight grammar.
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| Jul 25, 2011 at 6:35 | comment | added | James Mertz | You might find this link that was featured by the SOPHOS blog interesting. | |
| Jul 24, 2011 at 9:03 | comment | added | user11934 | Also... SSDs (always?) have an indirection system wherein a given LBA does not correspond to the same physical location on sequential writes. Sure it can be damaged by repeated writing, but this is a known issue with SSDs under normal use. And the results would be indistinguishable from writing a single large file to the SSD repeatedly. | |
| Jul 24, 2011 at 9:01 | comment | added | user11934 | Hard drives CAN be damaged by viruses, but not from any arm&platter related silliness. The most vulnerable point is the main spindle motor. Start the drive up, shut it down, start it up, shut it down, etc etc etc. This is (relatively) hard on the componants. This is the major reason (aside from physical shock) that laptop drives don't last as long as desktop drives, power requirements keep the things spun down as much as possible. So a virus could theoretically shorten a desktop drives lifespan to look more like that of a laptop drive. | |
| Jul 24, 2011 at 8:58 | comment | added | user11934 | @Breakthrough: Uhm... no. Continually writing to the same sectors will do absolutely nothing to those sectors. Magnetic platters don't "wear out from excessive bending". I'm a bit confused as to why you think this would cause a problem. If your drive has issues seeking between platter edges, you have a bad drive... once again that interface is electro-magnetic, not mechanical. To have a problem there you would have to literally wear out the sealed bearing that holds the arm assembly in place. | |
| Jul 23, 2011 at 13:47 | comment | added | Breakthrough | @Bryon Whitlock I would argue that it depends on the usage pattern. Most servers cache the information they retrieve and perform write-backs sequentially. You could create a virus to write information at the very edge and very inner edges of a platter back and fourth very rapidly, causing excessive wear a lot faster. Finally, if you could continually write to a selected group of sectors, you may be able to cause a few bad ones much quicker then usual. | |
| Jul 23, 2011 at 13:47 | comment | added | Breakthrough | @Phoshi correct, I also believe some video cards have thermal safeguards built in. As far as I know, most hardware does not have the same protection for voltage however. Good point, answer updated. | |
| Jul 23, 2011 at 13:41 | history | edited | Breakthrough | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 22, 2011 at 22:37 | vote | accept | nopcorn | ||
| Jul 22, 2011 at 20:45 | comment | added | Phoshi | Though on the CPU issue, any modern board will have thermal cutoffs that should kill the power long before the CPU is in danger of physical harm. | |
| Jul 22, 2011 at 20:35 | comment | added | Byron Whitlock | -1 I disagree on hard drives. Server hard drives run constantly and do not wear out within a week. static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/… | |
| Jul 22, 2011 at 19:06 | history | edited | Breakthrough | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 22, 2011 at 17:35 | comment | added | user31438 | +1 - overheating and excess wear-and-tear are the more real-world issues. | |
| Jul 22, 2011 at 17:13 | history | edited | Breakthrough | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 22, 2011 at 17:04 | history | answered | Breakthrough | CC BY-SA 3.0 |