Can a virus affect the motherboard?

[ImodiumAD]

A week ago, I wouldn't even have considered asking such a question...

A friend of mine, who is not really computer saavy, got some problems with his Win98 AthlonXP machine. Long story short: his wife took it to a tech at the university library where she works, and the tech said that there was a virus in the motherboard (!???!). The guy apparently "fixed it," and my friend says his machine now even runs WinXP (don't know why he installed it, though... he only has 384 MB of RAM).

I listened to my friend politely (though I really had to clench my teeth real hard), and didn't comment anything. This is the first time I've ever heard of a virus infecting the MB. I mean, is that for real? Or is this "tech" fibbing to cover up his inability to admit he didn't really know what was going on with the machine? From what I could gather, all he really did was repartition/reformat the HDD and install the OS...

Ed

 

[jrbarnett]

The CIH virus can wipe the BIOS out if not caught before execution, but this is the only one I know of that can cause physical hardware damage.
Others only affect the software on it to my knowledge.

I suggest asking this tech which virus it was that caused the problem, then do independent research on it at a few of the antivirus sites to find out for sure.

John

 

[BadBigBen]

Hola, just like jrbarnett said, the KillCMOS virus aka CIH can wipe the BIOS, but if this was true, then mostlikely your friends comp would not be able to BOOT at all, unless the mobo had a DUAL BIOS... ergo no XP no Win98 at all...



Ben

If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...

 

[jimbopalmer]

On the Other Hand, it is true that some Motherboards need a newer BIOS to run XP, so the tech may have upgraded, for whatever reason. It is also true that some BIOSes can help prevent boot sector viruses, so that may have been how it helped.

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[bcastner]

The explanation stills strikes me as horribly suspicious.

I am just glad whatever was done worked for the end user.

 

[ImodiumAD]

Thanks to everyone for your insights. I e-mailed my friend asking for more details (such as if the tech had to install a new BIOS), to see if what happened to him fits the profile of the CIH virus. I don't know if he will be able to help much, since it seems the tech just explained what he did in general terms...

Oh well... If I find out anything, I'll post here one more time to give this topic a sense of closure...

Ed

 

[FredWagner]

The Chernobyl virus is the only one I've run into that does infect the BIOS on the motherboard - the big flag that you've got it is when it pops up a DOS window asking you to enter a path to Command.com - and if you do, you've already got it, and then it will infect that media you specify for command.com, and anything else it comes in contact with. I had it on one machine, and lost another before I figured out what was going on.

Fred Wagner
KQ6Q@arrl.net

 

[ImodiumAD]

Hmm, I doubt that my friend got that pop-up DOS window... he would've mentioned it. I'll ask him again, and see if I get an answer... he's too lazy to answer his own e-mail sometimes...:-/

 

[starzwell]

As tech folk we should concider that what the tech told your pals wife may not have been what she then explained to him. The tech may have tried to simplify the issue making it sound normal to her but crazy to us. Or we all know how users will confuse parts and what they do. How many times have we been told about the HD and what they mean is the case.

Steph

Do random nice things for no good reason.