I am baffled once again; can malware stay in a computer even with the hard drive replaced?
 

I have a computer that completely froze up. I had to unplug it to shut it off. This computer never shut off even after many months of just sitting in a corner. Recently I took it to Best Buy to have the hard drive replaced. I have the computer back but it is still stuck " on " as it is plug in and therefore still completely useless. I thought it best to seek advice here at LQ. Can malware completely freeze up a computer even after the hard drive has been replaced? Thanks!

Not saying this is what happened to you, but yes, that's possible.
Other places can contain data & software, or rather firmware. The BIOS can be hacked. CPUs can contain a whole separate OS, completely invisible to you (sometimes Minix-based iirc), though I'm not sure that's hackable.

Why do you think the computer never shut off even after being unplugged for months? How is that possible? What makes you think it's stuck on now?

Wow, that must be where it is then. Can the BIOS be removed and replaced?

When the computer gets power from the electrical outlet the blue button on top lights up indicating that the computer is on.

It's not uncommon for computers to have a light indicating they are receiving power, but are not actually operating, especially notebook computers.

Is the light an icon or a dot? (If the latter, does it have an embossed icon next to it?) What does the icon look like?

My Dell's power button lights up for a couple of seconds when electrical power is first applied. It also goes through a PSU diagnostic test and the button light color displays yellow if bad.

Does the computer boot at all?

I suspect a hardware error versus BIOS malware. Somethin in power on switch circuit could be bad.

It is just not possible for the computer to be on when there is no power connected. As for now, the blue light may only mean that power is connected, not that it's on. Try using the power button and see if it comes on.

The blue button is the " power button ". The blue light is not supposed to come on until I depress it to turn on the computer. The computer stays in the " on " position whether it has power or not. I am terribly sorry that you are unable to understand what I am describing here.

I'm sorry that you are unable to understand what I am saying. Please, humor me, and press the power button for a couple of seconds.

Will I need to replace the whole motherboard to get a new BIOS?

No thank you, sir. That computer is in the closet until I can get the BIOS replaced.

Could just be a bad switch/button...in fact I’d think that to be more likely than a BIOS problem.
Plugging it in and pressing and holding the power button for several seconds would be how to test that.

I’m presuming you went to Best Buy and asked them to install a new herd drive instead of asking them to troubleshoot the power-always-on problem. Suggest you take it back to Best Buy. We can’t really help much more if you’re not going to answer our questions (Does the computer boot?) or try our suggestions.

https://superuser.com/questions/2946...restart-itself

I agree, the above link describes how it works and it is probably a hardware problem

For what it's worth, most computer include a small button battery, usually a CR2032, referred to as a CMOS battery, to support certain memory while power is off or disconnected. That's how computers remember the date/time while powered down.

Whether that relates to this issue or not, I do not know, but just sayin'.