Microsoft engineer speedruns Raspberry Pi magic smoke in five minutes
- Reference: 1770220732
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/02/04/microsoft_manager_pi_smoke/
- Source link:
Steve Syfuhs, a Principal Engineering Manager at the Windows behemoth, managed to release the [1]magic smoke from a Raspberry Pi 5 in five minutes, he says.
Outside his day job dealing with authentication, Syfuhs is not averse to a bit of tinkering. He's not alone. Microsoft has more than its fair share of curious people, keen to poke hardware to see what it does.
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The Raspberry Pi 5 is a small and inexpensive ( [3]less so recently ) computer. One feature is its General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) interface, a 40-pin header to which HATs (Hardware Attached on Top) and other devices can be connected.
[4]
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In addition to official add-ons such as the recent [6]AI HAT+ 2 , enthusiasts can put the pins to work for all manner of purposes.
[7]Let them eat Pi: RAM shortage bumps Raspberry prices as much as $60
[8]Hacker taps Raspberry Pi to turn Wi-Fi signals into wall art
[9]Raspberry Pi flashes new branded USB drives that promise speedy performance
[10]Raspberry Pi 5 gets LLM smarts with AI HAT+ 2
While this hack has destroyed an embarrassing number of Pi computers thanks to some spectacularly ham-fisted soldering, Syfuhs took the destruction to the next level.
In a series of posts on Bluesky, he documented the perils of accidentally fitting a HAT backward. The pins aren't keyed, so it's a relatively easy (if silly) thing to do. Worse, the HAT was powered, sending electricity where it didn't belong. The result was magical smoke and the smell of burning.
The problem is that the Pi doesn't really have much in the way of protection against user error. Use the wrong pin, and there's every chance a short circuit could result. Or, in the case of Syfuhs, a puff of smoke and instant regret.
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Recent price rises mean that a 4 GB Pi 5 can now be had for around $85 - so it's a slightly more expensive lesson to learn. It is, however, a useful reminder to be careful when attaching that HAT. Nobody wants a visit from the magical smoke fairy. ®
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[1] https://bsky.app/profile/syfuhs.net/post/3mdy7yxgbak27
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aYN7NshTaLxIF_PVcqsaFgAAA0M&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/02/raspberry_pi_ram_shortage_price_hike/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aYN7NshTaLxIF_PVcqsaFgAAA0M&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aYN7NshTaLxIF_PVcqsaFgAAA0M&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/15/pi_5_ai_hat_2/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/02/raspberry_pi_ram_shortage_price_hike/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/23/raspberry_pi_wifi_wall_art/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/22/raspberry_pi_usb_drive/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/15/pi_5_ai_hat_2/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aYN7NshTaLxIF_PVcqsaFgAAA0M&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
He posted this?
First off, the connector doesn't need keying. You align the hat board over the main board.
Second, it should be obvious you don't connect powered equipment unless it's specifically denoted as hotplug. The Pi is definitely not, and there are warnings to not do that.
Third, he did something this hamfisted and posted to the known universe about it? I'd look around with a guilty look and pray nobody saw me.
Re: He posted this?
At Microsoft, they have no shame about breaking things.
Re: He posted this?
Downvoted, because knowledge is never a waste of time.
--> for the time and trouble.
Re: He posted this?
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want!
Confirmed
That this is the type of person who has been designing Windws OSes since I imagine at least Windows 95.
Maybe it's the special quality embodied in the phrase "what's this for" supported by the dev having no idea what it says in the f*cking manual........
No wonder Windows OSes always seem to have been built using a similar methodology.
ALF
Keying...
Keying connectors doesn't always work.
My former boss managed to force a DIMM into the keyed slot the wrong way round. The magic smoke was quickly forthcoming as soon as he turned the computer back on, fortunately it was only the memory that died.
His comment, "I thought it was a bit tight!"
It was AI that did it.
This particular RPi noticed itself being too close to MS so it decided by some AI algorithm that the only way to escape was to selfdestruct.
The Raspberry Pi didn’t “lack protection”. It committed the unforgivable sin of assuming the user understood orientation, pin-outs, and the idea that electricity is not a vibe but a thing that goes places.
Somewhere along the way we replaced basic electronic literacy with abstractions, guardrails, and the comforting lie that hardware should be as forgiving as software. So when a board presents 40 bare pins and asks for a shred of spatial reasoning, the result is panic, smoke, and a Bluesky thread.
It’s an education gap meeting live power. The Pi behaved like electronics always have. The surprise seems to be that anyone expected otherwise.
The real issue isn’t that the pins aren’t keyed. It’s that we now treat knowing which way round something goes as an optional skill, right up until the smell of burning epoxy reintroduces it.
What makes it truly funny is not the mistake, but the expectation that the world should apologise for it. A £50 board in a cardigan is apparently supposed to compensate for the slow erosion of first principles. When it doesn’t, we don’t question the gap in understanding. We write a post about safety.
Tips hat to speedy reminder.