[vox-tech] Is it possible to damage a wireless card with just software?

[ME]

> My wireless card was working fine this morning under Linux, and then it
> stopped working altogether; it won't even pick up a signal under
> Windows.
>
> Is it possible that I might have damaged the card itself while messing
> around with it in Linux?

Yes.

Is this risk Linux specific? : No.

(I read your other post, but am responding anyway.)

It is a good question.

Back in "the-day" it was often trivial to damage hardware with software.
Such things are becoming increasingly difficult. Many bits of hardware
sold to consumers are designed to be more tolerant to driver issues. Part
of this is due to standards that seem to be shared among vendors.

Some examples:
1) Physical control of your Apple ][e , 5.25" drive to alter its
performance and use to the point you make it smoke and catch fire.
(Required work, but was possible,)
2) Ask your monitor to display images with HSync/VSync beyond their
capability. (Now almost all monitors detect out-of-range signal requests
and will not try to display them, but instead show the user a red light or
other feedback to let the user know that decision was not a good idea.
3) Use software control with your AMD CPU to remove any throttling of
speed due to overheating... and then let it overheat.

As for this and wireless PCMCIA cards, I expect the risk is very low
(Linux or Windows.)