Wes Davis is a weekend editor who covers the current in tech and home entertainment. He has actually composed news, evaluations, and more as a tech reporter given that 2020.
Long time Brink readers may remember the uncommon story of how the video for a Janet Jackson tune, “Rhythm Nation,” might trigger specific Windows laptop computers to crash simply by being around when it’s playing. Now, in a article identified by PCWorldMicrosoft worker Raymond Chen has actually exposed that a filter produced to handle the issue remained till “a minimum of Windows 7.”
For those not familiar: in 2022, Chen composed a set of posts passing on a Microsoft associate’s story about how an unnamed “significant computer system producer” needed to develop a customized filter for audio playback after discovering that specific frequencies in the video resonated with its laptop computers’ hard disks. Unfiltered, the resonance might “interrupt the hard disk’s appropriate operation enough time for it to lead to the os crashing.” The problem even got its own entry in the NIST National Vulnerability Databasewhich states it impacted 5,400 rpm disk drives for particular devices “in around 2005 and later on.”
Chen, who states he wondered the length of time the filter in location, composes today that he has actually considering that discovered that after Microsoft presented a brand-new guideline for Windows 7 stating that users should have the ability to disable all audio processing on their computer systems, a hardware supplier requested for an exception. Chen composes:
The supplier looked for an exception to this guideline on the premises that disabling their APO might lead to physical damage to the computer system. If it were possible to disable their APO, word would get out that “You can get much heavier bass if you go through these actions,” and of course you desire more bass? I imply, who does not desire more bass? Individuals would uncheck the box and delight in richer bass for a while, and then at some point in the future, the computer system would crash inexplicably or (even worse) produce inaccurate outcomes.
Is that guideline still in location to this day? When a commenter asked a concern along those lines listed below Chen’s post, Chen responded“All I understand is that it existed in the Windows 7 period. I do not understand if it’s still there.”
Regardless, the market has actually carried on from spinning disk hard disks; whether a contemporary computer system has the guideline in location or not, opportunities are excellent that it’s safe to listen to “Rhythm Nation” around it, nowadays. Here it is:
