Can you get a computer virus from a pop up?

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Last year, I happened upon a site that kept hitting me with pop ups. Everytime I tried to click away, they hit me with another pop up. I had one of those pop up blockers, but it wasn't working. About a week later, my computer died. And, I was wondering if maybe the killer pop ups had installed some kind of spyware and messed up the computer. Do you think that's possible? Anyway, I have a new computer so I need a better popup blocker. What's the best free pop up blocker? Would love to know.