HomeJanet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation' caused select Windows laptops to crash for years
Longtime readers of The Verge may remember the peculiar incident in which Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" music video could crash certain Windows laptops simply by being played nearby. Now, in a blog post highlighted by PCWorld, Microsoft employee Raymond Chen has disclosed that a filter designed to address this issue remained in place until "at least Windows 7."
For the uninitiated: back in 2022, Chen authored two posts recounting a story from a Microsoft colleague. An unnamed "major computer manufacturer" had to develop a custom audio filter after discovering that certain frequencies in the video caused resonance with their laptops' hard drives. Without filtering, this resonance could "disrupt hard drive operation long enough to cause a system crash." The issue was serious enough to earn an entry in the NIST National Vulnerability Database, noting it impacted certain 5,400rpm hard drives "around 2005 and later."
Chen, expressing curiosity about how long the filter remained active, writes this week that he later learned a hardware vendor requested an exception after Microsoft implemented a new Windows 7 rule requiring users to be able to disable all audio processing. According to Chen:
The vendor sought an exception, arguing that disabling their Audio Processing Object (APO) could cause physical computer damage. If users could disable the APO, rumors would spread that "You can get deeper bass by following these steps"—and who doesn't want more bass? People would uncheck the box, enjoy enhanced bass temporarily, but eventually face mysterious crashes or (worse) inaccurate results.
Is this rule still enforced today? When a commenter inquired, Chen responded, "All I know is that it existed during the Windows 7 era. I don't know if it's still active."
Regardless, the industry has largely transitioned away from spinning hard drives. Whether modern computers still have the rule or not, it's likely safe to play "Rhythm Nation" around them today. So, here it is:
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Wait, so Janet Jackson's 90s hit was basically a hardware exploit? 🤯 That's wild. I remember my old laptop acting up, but I never thought a music video was the culprit. Makes you wonder what other 'bugs' are just features in disguise. Thanks for the nostalgia trip!
Longtime readers of The Verge may remember the peculiar incident in which Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" music video could crash certain Windows laptops simply by being played nearby. Now, in a blog post highlighted by PCWorld, Microsoft employee Raymond Chen has disclosed that a filter designed to address this issue remained in place until "at least Windows 7."
For the uninitiated: back in 2022, Chen authored two posts recounting a story from a Microsoft colleague. An unnamed "major computer manufacturer" had to develop a custom audio filter after discovering that certain frequencies in the video caused resonance with their laptops' hard drives. Without filtering, this resonance could "disrupt hard drive operation long enough to cause a system crash." The issue was serious enough to earn an entry in the NIST National Vulnerability Database, noting it impacted certain 5,400rpm hard drives "around 2005 and later."
Chen, expressing curiosity about how long the filter remained active, writes this week that he later learned a hardware vendor requested an exception after Microsoft implemented a new Windows 7 rule requiring users to be able to disable all audio processing. According to Chen:
The vendor sought an exception, arguing that disabling their Audio Processing Object (APO) could cause physical computer damage. If users could disable the APO, rumors would spread that "You can get deeper bass by following these steps"—and who doesn't want more bass? People would uncheck the box, enjoy enhanced bass temporarily, but eventually face mysterious crashes or (worse) inaccurate results.
Is this rule still enforced today? When a commenter inquired, Chen responded, "All I know is that it existed during the Windows 7 era. I don't know if it's still active."
Regardless, the industry has largely transitioned away from spinning hard drives. Whether modern computers still have the rule or not, it's likely safe to play "Rhythm Nation" around them today. So, here it is:
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Wait, so Janet Jackson's 90s hit was basically a hardware exploit? 🤯 That's wild. I remember my old laptop acting up, but I never thought a music video was the culprit. Makes you wonder what other 'bugs' are just features in disguise. Thanks for the nostalgia trip!
