Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2017 January 12

= January 12 =

Any virus can make computer on fire?
I know the email about Torch virus is fake but any virus really can make computer on fire? Include normal computers, laptops, phones and iPads. Not include special computers for factory work or airplane. Not include bad hardware example Samsung Note 7 battery unless if virus can cause the fire. --Curious Cat On Her Last Life (talk) 09:24, 12 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Maybe not the computer, but it was at one point possible to set the printer on fire. Mitch Ames (talk) 09:51, 12 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Or a virus could call the Halt and Catch Fire instruction. Mitch Ames (talk) 09:53, 12 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Not actually catch fire, but it was possible for malicious software to physically damage some older computers with a killer poke. Mitch Ames (talk) 09:54, 12 January 2017 (UTC)
 * If the device has a lithium ion battery of some sort which would include most laptops, phones and tablets but not desktop computers, it may be possible to change the firmware of the battery charger to cause overcharging or allow over discharging and then attempt charging. Both of these potentially could cause a fire. See some brief discussion of this possibility here . However this assumes that there is modifiable firmware that allows that and there are no additional unmodifiable safety features to prevent this or at least which will prevent them "venting with flames". In terms of charging, one obvious consideration is whether it's even possible for to output sufficient voltage. This documentation for a Sanyo 18650 cell allow up to 4.5V with a faulty charger.  Suggesting while it's possible frequently charging to 4.5V may cause sufficient damage to eventually vent with flames, it should not happen after a single instance. Most other components are unlikely to catch fire or cause something else to catch fire. E.g. even if if you turn off the fan (if any) and heatsinking etc means there's a limit to how hot the CPU and GPU are likely to get before they die. And in practice most modern CPUs and GPUs (at least in desktops/laptops) have thermal throttling in addition to a thermal cutoff which normally stops them killing themselves from overheating alone and which often AFAWK can't be shut off. (Well if you're relying exclusively on the builtin thermal cutoff t's possible if you're doing it several times a day for many days you're eventually going to cause sufficient damage to break it. In addition, you may or may not be able to kill it by overvoltage, especially with a computer designed for overclocking.) I do wonder about the VRMs (as stuff like Furmark etc have shown( but you're more likely to just kill them then cause a fire.  Nil Einne (talk) 16:25, 13 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I have no idea if this would work (and after an incident in Dubai several years ago, I believe standards on harmonic distortion have been improved), but I've speculated that an alternate plan is to make a virus that uses heavy processing power for half of each 1/60 of a second, synchronized with an external time source; this "harmonic distortion virus", let loose in office buildings and hotels or even homes with many computers, might shift the ground voltage for the entire building's electrical system to something close to the mains voltage and (putatively) burn down whole countries, especially when integrated with the approach above. Wnt (talk) 17:42, 13 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Printers can be hacked to catch fire - Scientific American, 2011. This theoretical idea resembles some very early programmer jokes. Note the entries on this list for ETO, KFP and OBU. I read recently (but where?) that this harks back to early printers - was it thermal line printers? - when the mild smouldering of a jammed and unattended printer was a genuine risk. Card Zero  (talk) 15:10, 14 January 2017 (UTC)