Hardware failure

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The hardware failure is in contrast to bug the name for the failure of hardware of an electronic data processing system . These can be caused by errors in design or manufacture, but also by subsequent changes or improper handling. The most common source is incorrect installation, directly followed by subsequent changes such as overclocking . While manufacturing and design errors are usually irreversible and can only be corrected with the subsequent product, hardware errors as a result of subsequent changes, provided that no physical damage has occurred to hardware components, can be reversed by reversing the changes.

One of the most famous design flaws is the Pentium FDIV bug : a Pentium- branded processor gave incorrect results on floating-point divisions, causing a huge public stir, but not having any other spectacular impact.

An increasingly common cause of hardware failure arises from the downsizing of hardware structures. Even small manufacturing deviations can lead to both immediate and gradual hardware errors. For example, normal operation can already lead to permanent changes ( aging ) of the hardware due to temperature changes or electromigration (see SNDS ) , which can trigger hardware errors if certain tolerance limits are exceeded. Factors such as insufficient cooling or overclocking can greatly accelerate these processes.

Hardware errors usually mean that the programs running on the hardware and the system do not behave as specified. In such a case, it is initially not known whether there is a hardware or software error. If a hardware error cannot be ruled out, software that is as error-free and easy to use as possible is required to locate it, which can preferably be started completely from a removable medium (floppy disk, CD-ROM, USB stick).

Since hardware faults can never be ruled out, fault-tolerant systems are used in safety-relevant areas .

The most common hardware errors that can occur both ex works and later during operation include defective sectors on hard drives and defective storage areas in memory modules that are usually used as main memory (RAM). Because of the frequency of these hardware errors, there are simple diagnostic programs for both cases that can also be started from removable media.

Hardware errors are often difficult to distinguish from driver problems due to similar symptoms .

Hardware errors should not be confused with so-called soft errors , which cause the same symptoms as hardware errors, but are not due to defective hardware, but rather to random events such as B. cosmic rays .