I have a machine, supposedly protected by Symantec Endpoint Protection, that is acting like it has hardware damage. I was getting messages that Symantec had multiple problems, couldn't load and was sending error messages to Symantec and Microsoft.

I installed a new hard drive, and completely reinstalled Windows, and then the first thing I did was to reinstall Symantec BEFORE I loaded any of the user's files. But, I am still getting the same message as before.

Are there any known viruses/malware that can destroy BIOS chips, Processor chips or similar?   

Iolair MacWalter
Network Engineer

There has been malware that can damage the bios or the processor in the past.

The BIOS ones would zero out your bios, making it impossible to boot.

The processor ones would work a memory location in the CPU over and over until it fried.

Haven't heard of one doing that in a long time though.

Personally, Symantec = EVIL  (IMHO)

 

Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg  http://parallel.tzo.com
 

I'm not real happy with the amount of load and memory useage Symantec puts on workstations. (or servers, for that matter).

I can boot this machine, but I took out the hard drive, installed a new hard drive, then loaded the OS and before I did anything else, I loaded Symantec, and still couldn't get a good installation. I've looked on the server side to see if there was a setting there goofing things up, but all the other clients are fine, and when I installed this user to a new computer, no problem. Just this one machine, for whatever reason. Maybe Symantec is blocking the MAC address????

Iolair MacWalter
Network Engineer

Go to he manufacturer's website and download the latest BIOS and their flash utility.  Even if it's the same version, maybe re-flashing would help.

I agree about Symantec's weight.  I've told people for years that the way Symantec products protect your PC is by sucking up all available CPU/RAM so there's nothing left to execute any malware.

Jeff
It's never too early to begin preparing for International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks,  The software I write sucks.  It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me

Well, I've tracked down the problem, finally, to its' source. But, haven't been able to learn how to fix it yet. It seems Symantec Endpoint Protection has a "profile" that is causing this problem, and I haven't tracked down where to "fix" the profile.

Iolair MacWalter
Network Engineer