What does "burn in" mean?

[Rob]

Greetings to everyone,

I feel really dumb asking this but if I don't find out I'll feel dumber.
When discussing the issue of a new computer or building a new computer the
term "burn in" is mentioned quite often. Could someone please tell me what
"burn in" means and how do you do it?

Many thanks in advance, Rob.

 

[BigJIm]

just a test period for a motherboard usually 24 to 72 hours. If a board is
defective it will usually show up during this period but NOT always.

 

[w_tom]

Burn-in testing is not just a test period. Details
previously discussed in this and followup posts entitled
what's "burn-in"? starting 14 Mar 2004 in the newsgroup
alt.computer at
http://tinyurl.com/5us9a

 

[TJM]

It's a series of benchmarking tests that will stress a new system (motherboard,
memory, and CPU) to the max and see if it will handle extreme processing tasks.

Most overclockers use burn-in to test if their system will handle the faster
clock speed......

 

[Spajky]

It's a series of benchmarking tests that will stress a new system (motherboard,
memory, and CPU) to the max and see if it will handle extreme processing tasks.

Most overclockers use burn-in to test if their system will handle the faster
clock speed......

I did it even before that baking CPU in the pot on the stove;
/see my site under comp/burn_in after Updated link ...

 

[David Maynard]

Greetings to everyone,

I feel really dumb asking this but if I don't find out I'll feel dumber.
When discussing the issue of a new computer or building a new computer the
term "burn in" is mentioned quite often. Could someone please tell me what
"burn in" means and how do you do it?

Many thanks in advance, Rob.

Well, there's the 'real thing' and then what you probably 'heard'.

Here's a link to an industry book which deals with the 'real thing' and one
of the reviews summarizes it fairly well: "burn-in, that is the application
of elevated temperature to cause latent defects to fail at the
manufacturing plant rather than to have the unit fail during use by the
Customer."

And I'll bet that when you heard the term used nothing like this, again
from a review of the book, was mentioned: "First time users of burnin
technology will want to familiarize themselves with the statistics of
failure analysis before advancing onto a burn-in plan."

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0471102156/102-0955970-9794506?v=glance

What you probably heard is a colloquial, but incorrect, usage by amateur
computer enthusiasts who have the belief that processors, or other
components, 'run better' after being run at some unspecified, but 'hot',
temperature for some unspecified period of time. And while anecdotal
stories abound of how their particular processor 'overclocked better', or
some other kind of 'improvement', no one has been able to provide any
substantive, verifiable, theory as to why running things 'hot' would make
them any 'better'.

The industry term is a specific process based on failure mechanisms and
statistical analysis whereas the colloquial term is a matter of hope, as in
"run it for a while and maybe it will get better. Mine did."

And then there are some who incorrectly use the term in the context of
stability testing the system over a range of operating conditions. And,
when one isn't familiar with why manufacturers do "burn in," nor what it
is, running "CPUburn", or other stress programs, on the machine for a while
sort of sounds 'similar' even though the purpose is entirely different.

 

[Overlord]

Most new electronics, have a high initial failure rate.
Burning in involves setting up the system and then stressing all the components.
When you put the screws to it, those components that are already marginal will
fail and can be replaced early on as opposed to them occasionally rearing their
ugly heads later on with intermittent crashes, freezes, and the occasional blue
screen of death (that might be attributable to hardware as opposed to Windoze).
Many of the software to burn in systems tho is more specific to certain components.
For example it may stress out your CPU but do little related to memory access.
Or it may stress your CPU and video card but do little in the way of flogging your
hard drives. Generally it entails running different softwares that stress various
parts of your machine, ideally for several days running.

Greetings to everyone,

I feel really dumb asking this but if I don't find out I'll feel dumber.
When discussing the issue of a new computer or building a new computer the
term "burn in" is mentioned quite often. Could someone please tell me what
"burn in" means and how do you do it?

Many thanks in advance, Rob.

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[patrick]

Greetings to everyone,

I feel really dumb asking this but if I don't find out I'll feel dumber.
When discussing the issue of a new computer or building a new computer the
term "burn in" is mentioned quite often. Could someone please tell me what
"burn in" means and how do you do it?

Many thanks in advance, Rob.

David Maynard has it right.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0471102156/102-0955970-9794506?v=glance

I've been building, testing, and operating, computers since 1965, in
extreme environments. I ran Milspec systems in 90% humidity, in the
field, in aircraft, in ground vehicles, in damp underground locations,
for twenty years in the USAF, and made it work in temperatures of -80
(deployed to the Artic!) to the Sahara Desert (Oops, that might STILL be
classified!), predominantly deployed to tropical and sub-tropical
environments... after which I designed systems, and tested them,
burned-in, throughout our manfacturing to shipping processes.

Yes, components can 'cook off', and also, freeze, during shipping in a
container in a truck, on a loading dock, or, in the un-pressurized hold
of an aircraft! Temps span -40 degrees F up to 145 degrees F!
Humidity spans EXTRA DRY through SOAKING WET!

After all of that, the keyboard STILL has problems from LATTE spills!
No food or drink permitted near electronics... I have replaced over 20
boards for clients, at their expense, in the last three years, due to
SMOKE DAMAGE from heavy smokers, and, food spills!