Reboots during a rescue disk scan

Is it possible that malware can cause reboots during a rescue disk scan? I've been fighting off a malware infection for the last few days, and then today the machine started rebooting, or failing to boot. I assumed it was the malware, and so ran the f-secure bootable scan cd, but the machine would reboot before the program was able to scan. I assume it's impossible for malware to do this (when booted from a cd), but am asking to be sure.

 

Thanks in advance for any thoughts...