Is this hardware failure or virus attack?

[phuile]

My friend's computer suddenly failed in the midst of him looking at a
website. When we tried to get into check the CMOS settings, all the
words appeared garbled. For example, "boot" is spelt "bont" or "Drive"
becomes "Frive" etc. At first, we suspect something is attacking CMOS.
But someone advise us that it may be a hardware failure - maybe a
failing computer.

Also, we can only start the machine on Safe Mode. If he attempts to
start it up in normal mode, the screen freeze and shows a large blue
and a large red block.

Can someone tell us whether this looks like a hardware failure or a
virus attack? We'd just like to get it fixed.

Thanks a million.

 

[Bob I]

That's a hardware issue. I've seen it occasionally on older motherboards.