At the COMDEX exhibition 27 years ago, when Microsoft demonstrated the upcoming Windows 98 operating system to a global audience, it staged one of the most famous "rollover" events in the history of technology.When the demonstrator plugged in the USB device, the system crashed instantly and a classic blue screen of death appeared. Chris Capossela, who was a Microsoft executive at the time, was at a loss on the spot, while Bill Gates resolved the embarrassment with a humorous "This is probably why Windows 98 has not been officially released yet."
According to Raymond Chen's latest blog post, after this incident, Microsoft headquarters renovated the studio and added a Demo room next to the live broadcast room.
It is also strictly stipulated that all equipment used for demonstrations must be set up and tested before being delivered to speakers to prevent such "fatal oversights" from happening again.
Previously, Raymond Chen also revealed the real reason behind this global live broadcast accident. One of the speech sessions Bill Gates planned at the time was to demonstrate the revolutionary USB plug-and-play feature of Windows 98. However, at that time, the USB code of Windows 98 was still in the testing stage and the protocol specifications had not yet been officially released.
In order to ensure that the demonstration was foolproof, the development team used a specific scanner in the laboratory for repeated testing and confirmed that its operation was safe and feasible.
But the team responsible for the keynote speech made a fatal mistake. Instead of using the rigorously tested scanner, they temporarily went to a local computer store and purchased a brand new device for demonstration.
It was this new, untested scanner that caused disaster. When the new scanner negotiated USB power with the system, it reported that it was a USB bus-powered device (which means it promised that the power consumption would not exceed the 500mW limit). But in reality, the power required by the device far exceeds the 500mW limit.
This false report triggered a previously untested error condition that ultimately caused Windows 98's USB subsystem to crash, terminating the demo with a blue screen.
Neither Gates and Chris Capossela on the stage, nor the development team off the stage, immediately noticed that this was the root cause of the system crash. It was not until the development team brought the scanner back to the laboratory for investigation that they finally found the crux of the problem.
