# Student Fails To Hack Into Computer, Sets It On Fire Instead

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-fails-to-hack-into-computer-sets-it-on-fire-instead/719249>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 4, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-fails-to-hack-into-computer-sets-it-on-fire-instead/719249 "2015-05-04T15:39:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 19

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**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-fails-to-hack-into-computer-sets-it-on-fire-instead/719249/19 "2015-05-05T03:22:16Z")

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I once worked with mainframes that could be powered-down accidentally with a user-mode instruction. I Googled for it just now, getting a single hit: 😉

> [@Need math problem to crash 80's CPUs](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-math-problem-to-crash-80s-cpus/631443/8):
>
> …  
> (I have some boring stories of real incidents from a previous lifetime. For example, when early 370/165’s were retrofitted to support the MVCL instruction, some couldn’t handle the [del]activity[/del] higher storage-access rate and their power supplies crowbarred off!)

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