dmg@mwunix.mitre.org (David Gursky) (08/23/89)
Does anyone on the list have some information about an alleged virus that caused monitors on either older PCs, Ataris, or Amigas (I forgot which plat- form was susceptible) to self-destruct? We were discussing this nasty over lunch the other day and are interested in finding out more. David Gursky Member of the Technical Staff, W-143 Special Projects Department The MITRE Corporation
samw@castle.ed.ac.uk (Sam Wilson) (08/25/89)
In article <0002.8908241743.AA12387@ge.sei.cmu.edu> dmg@mwunix.mitre.org (David Gursky) writes: >Does anyone on the list have some information about an alleged virus that >caused monitors on either older PCs, Ataris, or Amigas (I forgot which plat- >form was susceptible) to self-destruct? I don't know of any virus which does this but a couple of years ago I recall being told about a screen saver for the PC which assumed you were using an {IBM|Hercules} controller. It worked by directly writing to the registers of the controller chip. When you used it with a {Hercules|IBM} card the the controller was different and the values poked into the registers caused the controller to run at some strange scan rate which occasionally caused the monitor and/or the driver hardware on the controller card to burst into flames. Sam Wilson Edinburgh University Computing Service, Scotland - ---------- "What we really need .... .. is a piece of software that actually makes a computer blow up just like in the movies...."
baumann@ucsd.edu (Michael Baumann) (08/25/89)
In article <0002.8908241743.AA12387@ge.sei.cmu.edu> dmg@mwunix.mitre.org (David Gursky) writes: >Does anyone on the list have some information about an alleged virus that >caused monitors on either older PCs, Ataris, or Amigas (I forgot which plat- >form was susceptible) to self-destruct? We were discussing this nasty over >lunch the other day and are interested in finding out more. I believe that you are thinking of the older PC, with the original IBM Mono adaptor. It is possible in software to shut off the sync signal, and in the original mono monitor, this meant that DC was applied to the flyback transformer. POOF. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Radiation Research Lab |Internet: baumann%proton.UUCP@ucrmath.UCR.EDU Loma Linda Universtiy Medical Center | UUCP: ...ucrmath!proton!baumann Loma Linda, California. (714)824-4077|