Gates sees blue screen on death at CES

6 January 2005 14:48 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Bill Gates showed us today that you can be the richest man in the world and still have things go wrong.

During his seventh annual keynote speech at CES, the Microsoft chairman was happily promoting what he calls the “digital lifestyle” with a soon-to-be-released Nikon camera and a Media Centre PC. As he was doing so, the Windows Media Center PC he was using froze and wouldn't respond to Gates' pushing of the remote control.

Later in the 90-minute presentation, a product manager demonstrated the user-friendliness of a video game expected to hit retail due out later in the year; Forza Motor Sport. But instead of configuring a custom-designed race car, the computer monitor displayed the dreaded "blue screen of death" and warned, "out of system memory."

The errors prompted the celebrity host, America's NBC comedian Conan O'Brien, to comment, "Who's in charge of Microsoft, anyway?"

Gates, who was sitting next to O'Brien on a set staged to look like NBC's Late Night set, smiled and continued with his discussion.

Full tags

Hardware, Desktop PCs, Microsoft