TL;DR
A Windows developer recounted a support-era incident in which playing Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” video caused some laptops to crash. Engineers traced the problem to an audio frequency that excited a resonant mode in 5400 rpm laptop hard drives and patched the audio pipeline with a filter to remove the offending tones.
What happened
In a blog post, Raymond Chen described an episode from Windows XP product support in which a major PC maker found that playing the music video for Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” caused some laptop models to fail. The behavior extended beyond a single vendor: competitors’ machines could be affected, and in one reported configuration playing the video on one unit made an idle laptop nearby crash as well. Investigation linked the failures to the audio: the recording contained a tone that matched a natural resonant frequency of the 5400 rpm laptop hard drives in use at the time. To prevent further incidents, the manufacturer inserted a custom audio filter into the playback pipeline that detected and removed the problematic frequencies. The author noted other anecdotes of media triggering crashes and expressed concern that such a workaround might persist long after the original drives were retired.
Why it matters
- Sound can interact with hardware mechanically; certain tones may excite resonant modes and cause failures.
- A media file can trigger problems across nearby devices, not only the unit that plays it, creating surprising cross-device effects.
- Vendors may apply software mitigations that alter media playback to protect hardware, which has user-experience and preservation implications.
- Workarounds applied for legacy hardware can remain in products long after the original vulnerability is obsolete, potentially causing confusion or degraded behavior.
Key facts
- Source: Raymond Chen’s Old New Thing blog post (August 16, 2022) describing a Windows XP-era support story.
- Affected content: the music video for Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation,” per the account.
- Observed effect: certain laptop models crashed when the video was played; some competitors’ laptops were also affected.
- Unexpected cross-effect: playing the video on one laptop reportedly caused a nearby laptop to crash even if it wasn’t playing media.
- Root cause identified: the recording contained a frequency that matched a natural resonant frequency of a class of 5400 rpm laptop hard drives used by multiple manufacturers.
- Mitigation: the manufacturer added a custom filter to the audio playback pipeline to detect and remove the offending frequencies.
- The author highlighted related anecdotes (including a game that crashed a prototype PC) and raised a caution about lingering legacy fixes.
- Chen referenced historical resonance discussions in passing; he also acknowledged follow-up commentary and debate in the blog’s comments.
What to watch next
- Whether current laptop and drive designs still include damping or hardware changes that would prevent similar resonance issues: not confirmed in the source.
- If legacy audio filters remain in modern builds and whether they continue to affect playback for reasons tied to retired hardware: not confirmed in the source.
- The broader risk that specially crafted audio might be used to induce failures in poorly damped devices: not confirmed in the source.
Quick glossary
- Resonant frequency: A natural frequency at which an object or system tends to oscillate with larger amplitude when exposed to a matching external vibration.
- 5400 rpm hard drive: A class of spinning-disk hard drives with platters that rotate at 5,400 revolutions per minute, common in many laptops and consumer devices.
- Audio pipeline filter: A software or hardware component in the media playback chain that can detect and modify or remove specified audio frequencies.
- Denial-of-service (DoS): Any condition that renders a device or service unavailable or unusable, whether accidental or deliberate.
Reader FAQ
Did Janet Jackson intentionally cause laptop crashes?
Not confirmed in the source.
Which laptops were affected?
The account refers to certain models from a major manufacturer and some competitors; specific model numbers are not provided in the source.
What fix did the manufacturer apply?
They added a custom audio filter in the playback pipeline to detect and remove the problematic frequencies.
Are modern laptops still vulnerable to this kind of audio-triggered crash?
Not confirmed in the source.
A colleague of mine shared a story from Windows XP product support. A major computer manufacturer discovered that playing the music video for Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” would crash certain…
Sources
- Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)
- How a Janet Jackson song crashed laptops for 9 years
- Discover: The song that crashed computers!
- Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation' would still be crashing …
Related posts
- PNG displays differently in Chrome than in desktop image viewers
- Immutable ostree-based Arch Linux image modeled on Fedora Silverblue
- NMH BASIC: tiny 1990s BASIC interpreter, implementations and quirks