Can a virus do harm on a hardware of a PC or laptop?
By pickoy
@pickoy (733)
Philippines
February 15, 2010 12:39am CST
Some virus are really nasty, it either slows down internet connection or totally messes up your files. I think the worst I've come across is the Trojan virus coz its too persistent and hard to remove by simply scanning the system. I used to ignore it before until it shows up on the "my computer window" counting down and shutsdown my PC. The only resort was to totally format the PC and install a fresh copy of Comodo. My brother-in-law has just told me that its more effective to be vigilant and stay on the defensive mode rather than on the cure mode where you'll only install an antivirus and a good firewall when your system is completely overran by a virus.
Well, now that its all gone, I just need to ask for an expert opinion if it causes damage directly on the hardware of just on the software? Thanks
1 person likes this
10 responses
@calai618 (1773)
• Philippines
15 Feb 10
Well most of them really trigger softwares and not the physical drives and the PC itself. But since there are a lot of them which meddles with your system like preventing it to boot up, blocking or interrupting your use of your external drives, etc, in the long run these will cause physical damage to your system. A lto of those nasty viruses prevent us from using our PC so we end up having to reboot our PC without any improvement so physically, the PC suffers stress of having to boot up and shut down over and over again.. as we all know, not properly shutting down our PC really affects it physically since the electricity flow is not regulated properly.. That's just some of the examples I can think of. i really believe that these viruses' physical effects aren't really direct.
2 people like this
@pickoy (733)
• Philippines
16 Feb 10
thanks for elaborating your response... its really annoying when you're quietly working and this viruses keeps on bugging you consistently with RED notification that you have a virus, it's freaking me out, lol, more if it asks you to shut down all the time.
@jpso138 (7851)
• Philippines
15 Feb 10
I have always been careful with my laptop with respect to viruses. I use my computer for presentations as part of my work and as much as possible, I do not want anything to infect my computer. I have experience getting viruses on my computer way back then. I do agree that prevention is better than curing. That is why, now, I always insure that my anti virus is updated as well as my firewall. It is quite clear that viruses not only destroy your software but also your hardware later on.
2 people like this
@rosdimy (3926)
• Malaysia
15 Feb 10
It depends on what the virus is designed to do. Most viruses do damage to other software and/or data. If frequently attacked and the HDD needs to be reformatted each time, then they can be said to be a contributory factor in shortening the life of the HDD.
There are viruses which force the system to work hard. This can cause the temperature to rise for long periods of time. This can create further problems due to physical failure caused by excessive heat.
I use Comodo too, set to maximum security. So far, so good.
2 people like this
@ajith_kumar (721)
• India
15 Feb 10
I don't think so that the virus can directly affect our hardware.Virus is a software that will make our system to perform incorrectly .It cannot directly affect the hardware .For example virus can be written to automatically shutdown our system or not even to switch on our system .So these kinds of activities can be performed .
So virus cannot directly affect our hardware.
2 people like this
@laura_lmaxi (678)
• United States
16 Feb 10
Of course, those are the worst viruses, the ones that harm the hardware, everything depends what kind of virus it is, and those are the most harmful because if you damaged the hardware there is nothing else you can do but replace it, and that will cost money, yes it is right what your brother in law said, it is better to watch, than then have to clean the mess that all those viruses give you.
1 person likes this
@siliguri (4241)
• India
15 Feb 10
Yeah friend some times virus even damage the hardware of pc or notebook even there is antivirus installed in your computer because the antivirus which might be not good and incapable to detect the virus. your brother-in-laws is rightly said
@neildc (17239)
• Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines
15 Feb 10
i also can't find a reason how can a virus harm the hardware. first of all, viruses are only transmitted thought software, the memory and the files and applications in the hard drive. one response here says, what will happen to the industry if this will happen.
1 person likes this
@machivado (528)
• Indonesia
15 Feb 10
I don't know any virus that can directly damage your hardware..Think about it, if there is one like that what will be the future of computer industry?
This kind of virus won't exist as long as the computer industry keep their quality.
@aviambitious (342)
• India
15 Feb 10
Your hardware is not affected most of the times by viruses (but sometimes it may), software is 100 percent affected by virus. Trojan virus are very difficult to remove. If once it enters in your system files then it affects everything. Only formatting is solution for this.
1 person likes this
