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Fact or Fiction: Did an iconic Janet Jackson song cause older laptops to crash?

Posted at 9:48 PM, Aug 22, 2022
and last updated 2022-08-23 00:48:16-04

(KGTV) - A wild story going around claims an iconic Janet Jackson song made laptops crash.

It's actually true.

Microsoft's chief engineer says older Windows XP laptops used to crash when they played the music video of Rhythm Nation.

The song produced specific sound waves that vibrated at the same frequency as those from the hard drive, which caused the laptops to crash.

It's a phenomenon known as vibration resonance.

Microsoft solved the problem by adding a custom filter that detected and removed the offending frequencies during audio playback.