Microsoft suffers Computex blues

by Parm Mann on 31 May 2010, 14:43

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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Taiwan's annual Computex trade show is always choc full of the latest and greatest from the technology world, but it's also an opportunity for companies to slip up under the media's watchful eye.

We've had some classics in recent years, but the 2010 award for "things we wish we hadn't shown" has to go to Microsoft for being caught taking a dump with one of the largest blue screens of death we've ever seen.

It's a gag that never seems to tire, but in Microsoft's defense the show doesn't officially start until tomorrow and the software giant's booth is clearly still being worked on.

The BSOD pictured is technically categorised as 0x0000009F and tends to occur when a system fails to resume from standby due to an erroneous driver.

The good news, if you can call it that, is that a quick Google search suggests Microsoft isn't the only one to have suffered from this particular error.


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HEXUS Forums :: 15 Comments

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Posted by 12GaugeShotty - Mon 31 May 2010 14:46
As you pointed out, bad drivers strike again. That's not Microsoft's fault. Well, they should have made sure not to use anything from nVIDIA for their demonstrations as nVIDIA drivers cause the most BSODs.
Posted by Tattysnuc - Mon 31 May 2010 19:06
I never got the significance of the BSOD and why they are NOT within microsofts control. I'm playing devils advocate here, but surely they demonstrate that the OS does not handle the driver well enough. I mean, these are Microsoft certified drivers… Where's the value that MS is adding by certifying these?

Just a random thought that crossed my mind when reading this….
Posted by danielkza - Mon 31 May 2010 23:03
Tattysnuc
I never got the significance of the BSOD and why they are NOT within microsofts control. I'm playing devils advocate here, but surely they demonstrate that the OS does not handle the driver well enough. I mean, these are Microsoft certified drivers… Where's the value that MS is adding by certifying these?

Just a random thought that crossed my mind when reading this….
Just a note: kernel-mode drivers need full privileges to do their job. There is no good way to police them without slowing everything down. Certification has it's limits: you can't reasonably expect MSFT to check the source for every single driver out there looking for bugs.
Posted by TheAnimus - Mon 31 May 2010 23:11
In fairness there are projects like Singularity the micro-kernel.

The idea that you have to be in ring 0, in a low level language for a device driver is really rather antiquated!
Posted by 12GaugeShotty - Tue 01 Jun 2010 00:14
Tattysnuc
I never got the significance of the BSOD and why they are NOT within microsofts control. I'm playing devils advocate here, but surely they demonstrate that the OS does not handle the driver well enough. I mean, these are Microsoft certified drivers… Where's the value that MS is adding by certifying these?

Just a random thought that crossed my mind when reading this….

Microsoft doesn't make drivers. So it has nothing to do with the OS “handling the driver well enough”. It's poor coding from the hardware manufacturer that causes the problem. If you understood that at all, which is seems you do not, then you would know that.

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