On 1 May 99, at 14:44, Sami Al_mohssen wrote:

> how does a virus earase the BIOS. how come the bios is so vernable.

  In the last few years, many motherboards have shifted from using ROM (EPROM) to
hold the BIOS to using "flash RAM".  The benefit of this is that updates to the
BIOS can be installed by rewriting the flash RAM under software control, rather
than requiring that the ROM chip by replaced or removed, reprogrammed using
special equipment, and reinstalled.
  The downside is that malicious code may also be able to rewrite the flash RAM --
and this is what the CIH virus does.

> also, i've heard that there is a virus from pakistan that acually
> "overclock" the cd-drive and make it spin faster than its origonal speed
> causing the drive to burn. is this true. if it is. how can a virus (or a
> program) make the cd-drive spin faster.

  It's unlikely that the rotational speed of any drive is exposed directly to
control by software on the host, so this rumour is unlikely to be true.


David G

            PCBUILD maintains many useful files for download
              on our web site - visit our download page at:
                     http://nospin.com/pc/files.html