Can code damage hardware?

Can random code damage your hardware when run in Real Mode? If yes, give some examples how. What happens when the ACPI tables are overwritten? Is it possible to disable the CPU fan through code, and have the CPU overheat and break, or does the BIOS have moron-proof failsafes incase someone would do that?

>>28
Why does a single-purpose machine controller even need a scheduler and multitasking?
You have never programmed microcontrollers, have you?

Of course it needs scheduling and multitasking, because it performs a hell of a lot asynchronous tasks: sending control data, reading responses, reading user input, displaying whatever information it displays (most probably with the entire display stack driven by the single chip, so asynchronous on several levels), maybe even dumping logs somewhere (which means two more asynchronous processes).

Of course you can also write an ad hoc, buggy reimplementation of half of a multitasking system yourself.