Perhaps you could provide some additional details if you are still
interesred in finding a resolution to this. For item A, take us through the
symptoms that your machine is exhibiting to make you think your motboard has a
virus. For item b,what exactly do you mean? Overwriting your existing
instalation sounds like the right behavior and what you want to happen when you
are reinstalling.

Item c, as someone may have mentioned can be obtained with sudo su from a
terminal, but not a good idea if your still learning your way around...