Linked Questions

0 votes
3 answers
2k views

Effects on Hardware due to Software [duplicate]

I was wondering if operating systems can in anyway effect hardware of a system. Like, is it possible that a corrupted OS can cause heating problems/ power management issues/ hard drive errors? If we ...
Zero's user avatar
  • 111
0 votes
1 answer
90 views

circumstances where software change leads to device damage [duplicate]

Recently I changed a friend's OS from a really virus filled windows 7 to Ubuntu ..but kept changing os's because lsusb wouldn't detect the camera.But after coming back to windows, the camera wasn't ...
metric-space's user avatar
27 votes
12 answers
5k views

How can I explain what a computer virus is to people who are not familiar with computers and programming?

I have to teach a group of non-CS students what computer viruses are. The course material contains only definitions and some details about what those viruses do. But those things are known to everyone ...
nixnotwin's user avatar
  • 451
16 votes
8 answers
15k views

Can a virus melt the CPU?

I was just wondering if a virus could melt a CPU by altering te voltage in the bios. :) (and no, I'm not planning on making that kind of a virus...)
kajdehoop's user avatar
  • 343
11 votes
6 answers
19k views

Can overclocking really break hardware?

My question may seem dumb, but, really, I want to think about it objectively. Let's first say that I'm not expecting to hard overclock a computer (ie. doubling the clock of the CPU), but I'd go by ...
usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ's user avatar
16 votes
5 answers
10k views

USB Stick, how to minimize risk of data corruption or data loss

I have encountered several USB sticks with a corrupted filesystem in only 2 years. In a Windows-only environment (Vista and newer), what can be done to reduce the chance of filesystem corruption and ...
Peter's user avatar
  • 4,632
6 votes
3 answers
17k views

How is CPU temperature related to clock frequency and processor utilization? [closed]

While reading Dennis's reply, it makes me think about what determine the CPU temperature. Following is my understanding. The CPU temperature is solely determined by the CPU usage in a unit time. The ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 17.3k
1 vote
2 answers
4k views

Do modern GPU/CPU's contain a fail-safe for overheating or is it in the BIOS?

I'm curious about a couple things concerning thermal integrity of a CPU(Intel, AMD, etc) and where the monitoring occurs. Do all CPU's have a thermal sensor or is the sensor located outside the CPU on ...
kris's user avatar
  • 19
2 votes
4 answers
390 views

Is waiting for hard drive activity to stop a good practice?

Ever since my time of windows 3.1 i always see myself waiting the hard drive activity to stop before opening a program or beginning a batch activity. In those times, i'm sure this helped, you could ...
bortao's user avatar
  • 1,952
4 votes
2 answers
657 views

Can software operation damage an SD card?

My SD card has a broken boot sector and the tools I've tried say that it's not repairable (I've tried TestDisk, DriveRestore Pro and Easeus Partition Recovery). The card was in my Android phone and ...
Borek Bernard's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Memtest86 reports errors outside memory region [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Why are the failing addresses in Memtest86+ higher than my total memory? I'm having some hardware related computer issues lately. My desktop contains an Intel Q6600, Gigabyte ...
Hans's user avatar
  • 209
0 votes
1 answer
617 views

Is using HP Recovery manager to perform a factory image recovery the same as a full clean format?

I have a HP Windows 10 laptop. Recently I suspected that I contracted some kind of malware on it off the internet, and I didn't want to take any risks, so took the laptop to a tech shop to get it ...
Dobby's user avatar
  • 3
4 votes
1 answer
148 views

Can a wrong i/o port call damage the hardware?

I was tampering with the i/o ports of my computer (an UMID BZ notebook), specifically with the embedded controller and ACPI, in an attempt to switch some deactivated on-board hardware on. When I ...
smoky's user avatar
  • 43