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My Fitbit won the prize for being the only hardware/software to blue screen my Windows computer in at least a decade. It actually took me a few hours to figure
by arafa 10y ago
My Fitbit won the prize for being the only hardware/software to blue screen my Windows computer in at least a decade. It actually took me a few hours to figure out what was happening because I never suspected simply plugging in that device could do it. Sure enough, after 5 minutes or less it would hard crash my computer. I promptly gave it away and will never buy another one. I read some Amazon reviews where people talked about being on their 8th Fitbit and decided they have a real problem.
- Analemma_ 10y agoIsn't that more a Windows problem? An OS should never crash entirely because a device was plugged in. Fitbit probably should've caught that in testing though.
- nradov 10y agoIt also could be a defect in the host computer's USB controller. Sometimes those issues have to be fixed in firmware; the OS isn't necessarily to blame.
- overgryphon 10y agoDevice drivers run in kernel mode and can bugcheck the machine. Microsoft can certainly provide tooling and help device driver writers write reliable drivers, but the device is still responsible for it's driver.
- planteen 10y agoYeah exactly I've had Linux drivers cause kernel panics a number of times.
- Analemma_ 10y agoMy understanding is that Windows supports user-mode drivers and Microsoft strongly encourages not writing kernel-mode drivers unless absolutely necessary. If Fitbit did that anyway though then it's definitely their fault.
- bostand 10y agoThat's really odd, I haven't seen a blue screen for ages and even then it was a hardware problem (faulty RAM).
- vadym909 10y agoTry buying an RAM upgraded Lenovo from Amazon. I saw the reviews and didn't believe it because I never had a problem w Lenovo's from Office Depot. Bad idea.