Well, while "killing" a BIOS is possible (actually only "zapping" it, you just re-burn the eeprom and it is fixed) and not even difficult, I still have to see anything capable of killing a PSU.
PSU = Power Supply Unit
Last time I checked one, it had no data cables, and the only "signal cable" is the ATX ON/OFF, which of course can at the most turn the PSU ON or OFF.
About the 4 PE's let's use some logic (
reductio ad absurdum):
http://en.wikipedia....tio_ad_absurdumIF a PE actually can kill a PSU, it is likely that it will do so when running and the last "useful" moment would when you shutdown (and the PSU appears dead at first later boot)
The only way a PE (or any other OS) can "plant" a "timer bomb" and have doing anything while another OS or PE is running, is by "planting" the bomb inside the BIOS, or by modifying normally unaccessible parts of the hard disk, or however putting it in some of the other "static" memory places, that include the CD/DVD ROM (if firmware upgradable).
Now, it is obvious that if anything modifies any of these "storing places", it must do it so in such a way that "normal behaviour" of the system is NOT affected until the bomb is triggered.
Since each of these hardware pieces is "custom" and "not standard", this "payload" NEEDS to be custom crafted for the specific hardware device, or in other words, targeted for the specific make/model.
Such a wondeful piece of stealth mode malicious code would need to be programmed very, very accurately, it cannot be generated "randomly".
The probabilities of such a narrowly targeted and malicious code finding a suitable machine is very, very remote, but here we are talking about something that if present inside one of the named PE projects, has been run by at least several thousands of people on more thousands of different machines, and actual pieces of hardware are produced/sold in millions of pieces, the probability of that at least TWO reports would have been generated is so high that it would be a certainty: we would have another similar report.
So let's assume that we either:
- need a second similar report to even have a reason to imagine that the problem actually exists
OR - resolve that the connection of the (at the moment only hypothetical) problem with more than one PE is absurd.
Thus we have to assume that no "time bomb" is planted and only 1 out of the 4 PE's, the one that was last booted, may eventually be the culprit.
Now, we miss this information, so we need an inductive method, out of these:
- LiveXp
- NaughtyPE
- StandartProject
- nativePE
which one stands out for:
- being developed by the OP and thus being probably run more frequently than others on that machine and probably also in pre-alpha stages
- including a number of hardware drivers (Audio/Multimedia related) that other builds simply miss
? ![;)](http://reboot.pro/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.png)
Let me think....
![:unsure:](http://reboot.pro/public/style_emoticons/default/unsure.png)
JFYI, my microwave oven died soon after heating a rather newish kind of of pizza (instead of the usual mushroom and ham, it had additionally
BLACK OLIVES on it
![:unsure:](http://reboot.pro/public/style_emoticons/default/unsure.png)
), my researches brought me to the conclusion that olives, due to their form factor, tend to reflect microwaves at awkward angles, but with common green olives this is not much of a problem, whilst the coulour of black ones alters the actual frequence of the reflected waves, since they are partially absorbed.
![:(](http://reboot.pro/public/style_emoticons/default/sad.png)
jaclaz