Microsoft tested Windows 98 with the “USB Cart of Death” that destroyed PCs in seconds: this is how it worked

The truth is that this story is quite curious, since many years ago Microsoft came up with a peculiar method to test the compatibility of Windows 98 with the then very new USB devices. How they did it? With an invention that earned the curious name of “USB Cart of Death”.

Consider a repurposed office cart loaded with more than 60 USB devices, ranging from keyboards and mice to printers and peripherals of all kinds. The goal behind all this was test Windows 98’s ability to deal with the chaos of connecting all these devices at once.

This experiment, led by Windows developer Raymond Chen, sought to ensure that this operating system could handle these new USB devices that were beginning to gain popularity in the Windows 98 era.

Chen recalls in an interview how this It became a nightmare for developers. When connecting the cart to a test machine, Windows 98, in many cases, succumbed to the famous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). “You plugged that plug into the test machine and the whole USB infrastructure went crazy,” he explains. “Because the usual result was a blue screen,” the cart got its nickname: USB Cart of Death, he adds.

The USB Cart of Death played a vital role in Microsoft’s software development

But this cart wasn’t just a horror tool for developers. It also played a very important role in the evolution of Windows USB support.. Chen reveals that, in addition to keeping engineers in check, the cart was sometimes used to prepare computers “ready for debugging.”

To help you understand better, “debugging” is a critical phase in the development of software where developers look for and fix any problems or bugs that may affect performance.

Connecting the cart to the testing machines randomly created all kinds of really chaotic situations. This allowed developers to observe how the operating system reacted to overloading USB devices and how it handled potential errors that arose..

After these tests, the developers were “debug ready”, meaning they could resolve problems identified during testing and work on solutions to improve Windows 98 with USB devices.

As a result, the USB Death Cart was not only feared, but was also a valuable tool for continuous improvement of the operating system.