Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:2426 comp.os.msdos.programmer:1590 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu!hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu From: smsmith@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Steve Smith) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.os.msdos.programmer Subject: Wild claims about copy protection--true? Message-ID: <5946@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu> Date: 22 Oct 90 00:34:40 GMT Sender: news@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Distribution: na Organization: The Ohio State University (IRCC) Lines: 18 Originator: smsmith@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu I had a conversation/argument with a guy last night who claimed he had fried a monitor and several hard disks when he was trying to bypass the copy protection on floppy disks at various times. According to him, software companies PURPOSEFULLY WRITE code into their copy protection which, if tampered with, would make your hard drive attempt to read non-existent sectors or send abnormal frequencies to your monitor in order to fry/lock them up. I've certainly HUNG a computer many times while tinkering, but it has always been my fault. Has anybody heard of such a thing? And IS there even a way to write codes which could do either of these destructive things? (And could one accidentally destroy hardware by tinkering with programs--even when it's their own fault?) It sure sounds bizarre to me. S. "Stevie" Smith \ + / ,,@ ircc.ohio-state. \ + / {7%*@,..":27g)-=,#*:.#,/6&1*.4-,l@#9:-) " edu> \ + / BTW, WYSInaWYG \ + / --witty.saying.ARC