[plug] offtopic: funny win98 bug

[Quintin Lette]

At the Windows 2000 LIVE event held by Microsoft, they were saying that
Windows 98 had an expected uptime of less than 3 DAYS, and NT was only
slightly better with 5ish... and people wonder why it took so long to find
the bug?

(if you see that Im writing from a windows machine - the dreaded outlook
whats more - its because i got a damn winmodem, and i cant get the linux
driver working, damnit)

-----Original Message-----
From: brad at muzak.iinet.net.au [mailto:brad at muzak.iinet.net.au]On Behalf
Of Brad Campbell
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2000 2:13 PM
To: plug at plug.linux.org.au
Subject: Re: [plug] offtopic: funny win98 bug


Bevan Broun wrote:
>
> Looks like win98 was never meant to stay up.
>
> Here's the edited README when you download the Win98 System Update
> -------
> This System Update includes features for networking,
> security and accessibility issues. It is part of the
> Windows® 98 Customer Service Pack.  The following
> updates are included the Windows 98 Customer Service
> Pack:
>
> Windows 98 System Update ....  This system update
> addresses the following issues: .......  Computer
> Hangs After 49.7 Days If your computer is left
> running for 49.7 days without restarting, your
> Windows 98 computer may stop responding (hang).
> This is caused by a problem with the timing
> algorithm in the Vtdapi.vxd file.
> ----------------------------------------

95 did the same thing..
I believe it was related to the millisecond uptime counter
overflowing. We stupidly installed some 95 machines in a mission
critical system (By no means my decision, I was just called in to
clean up the mess) and they bombed about every 50 days or so.
After 12 months of this, I finally persuaded them to bite the bullet
and put in a pair of NT4 workstations.. problem solved.

Mind you, this is the only time I ever saw Win95 go above 10 days
without crashing. Not that they were doing much.


--
Brad....
"The ultimate result is that some innovations that would
truly benefit consumers never occur for the sole reason
that they do not conincide with Microsoft's self-interest"
- Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson
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