Re: Can a computer virus kill the CPU?

"w_tom" <w_tom1@xxxxxxx> writes:

Well how does that happen? Intel CPUs throttle back when hot. Where
is this overheating? Intel thermal protection has been common
knowledge since the 1980s. Why did I mention it? Because I knew some
have so little technical knowledge as to 'take the bait'; 'assume' an
Intel CPU can overheat. No wonder they also 'know' viruses can damage
hardware.

Bait? We have seen systems which died the heat death; is it important
how this happened? I know for a fact that certain laptops do not have
sufficient overheating protection and the systems will run hot and
get damage or die. Sometimes in exceptional circumstances but sometimes
also due to poor design (such as packages were the CPU will need to
throttle back *IN SOFTWARE* when it is running for a while at fullspeed;
design error, yes; do we know how to solve such errors; yes. Do people
still make these mistakes, yes, they do)

If true, then a 'computer expert' who built Casper's system bought a
power supply only using two numbers - dollars and watts. Even 30 years
ago, such failures were not acceptable. Intel specs for power supplies
even list a wire gauge (wire size) to test supply outputs shorted with
no damage.

Oh, and so is the ATX power supply standard prescribes; but *not* for
all outputs, so try and short the 0.5 A output of your favourite
ATX powersupply and watch it go up in smoke.

(Since the ATX power supply standard defines protection only for a few
but not all of the outputs, we can safely say your statement is nonsense;
the fact of the matter is that the the standard *also* specifies that
the powersupplies should not produce "a lot of smoke" (they can produce
some) and should not catch fire (fortunately, they did not), I think
that I can safely say that having "short all output" ATX powersupplies
are not likely to exist.

Perhaps we can make them, but the fact of the matter is that people don't
bother.

Casper
.