how long till motherboards start locking people machines?
how long till motherboards start locking people machines?
I mean any major issue on the motherboard that could be harmful and couldn<|pad|> to fix. There was no way to update it, and this would be the only option for manufacturers—either locking your PC or making it useless. All of this would be handled through the tools you download, which automatically install updates afterward. But what truly stops manufacturers from doing this if something similar ever surfaces would be a strong reason not to proceed.
This is an interesting concern. But I can only see this happening if the danger is physical, like in a vehicle. Manufacturers aren't going to brick your motherboard in order to protect you from things that could happen on a computer. Maybe once virtual and augmented reality start implementing physical touch that could strike back at you physically and cause you physical harm, then if there were a problem they might do something like that. But last I checked, my computer couldn't bite me on purpose.
I can't think of any reason why a manufacturer would completely brick your product instead of just contacting you and telling you to RMA it. Nothing that a computer component does has such immediate danger that the only option is to prevent the consumer from using it altogether. Even fire hazards like that NZXT case weren't immediately dangerous - the concern was the danger they posed over time, or if used in a particular way. The other issue with totally bricking something to protect an end-user is that it could lead to lawsuits from people who need to use their computer, but now can't, and the main reason a company would do this in the first place would be to avoid lawsuits, which makes it counterproductive. I could imagine a manufacturer doing something to mitigate the risk, like in the case of the burning AMD boards, they could send an update that limited the voltages and power draw to low values in an effort to prevent a failure, and lock out EXPO/XMP at the same time. That way, the product is technically still operating within spec, and is usable. This could be accompanied by a notification to contact the manufacturer for a replacement. However, even that seems unlikely to me compared to just contacting the customer.