Actuall, I remember...
That there was a virus (on Apple systems IIRC) that would do exactly that. Worked on early hardware that did not have appropriate safeguards to keep the refresh rate from vaulting into the stratosphere.
It did damage monitors at that time, tho....
jb4
"We continue to live in a world where all our know-how is locked into binary files in an unknown format. If our documents are our corporate memory, Microsoft still has us all condemned to Alzheimer's."
Simon Phipps, SUN Microsystems