{
  "id": 19115558,
  "title": "Dev error bricked 600 PCs, caused $1M CD-ROM write-off",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/09/dev-error-bricked-600-pcs-caused-1m-cd-rom-write-off-19115558",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-11-09T07:36:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Register",
    "slug": "the-register",
    "url": "https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/11/09/dev-error-bricked-600-pcs-caused-1m-cd-rom-write-off/5308039"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "On Monday, The Register shared a tale from a reader known as Oriel, who once worked for a small business accounting software vendor. In the days when software was shipped on CD-ROMs, Oriel's team was tasked with getting the yearly update ready for the holiday. However, the update caused issues for some PCs running Windows 95 or ME, resulting in the company needing to replace over 600 machines. The vendor offered to replace the affected PCs, which amounted to $1 million worth of damaged property.",
  "summary": "One lucky engineer scored a free dinner during the frantic fix, the rest got to explain their mistake",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}