History Main / ExplosiveOverclocking

** TheMovie showed us that ''Trans-Am itself'' can be overclocked but doing so will detonate the GN Drive. It gets used several times against the [[TheAssimilator ELS]]; most importantly, [[spoiler:[[ArtificialHuman Tieria Erde]]'s Raphael Gundam, [[CharClone Graham Aker]]'s Brave Commander Test Type, and [[TheResenter Andrei Smirnov]]'s GN-XIV]] all check out this way.

** Come ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' Goku reveals that he's been working on trying to combine Kaio Ken with Super Saiyan Blue. It's an unperfected technique that he gives only a 15% change of success to. What does failure mean? His body would literally explode in LudicrousGibs from the extreme strain. Naturally, it works out just fine.

* In the final storyline of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', Nicole uses her Overclocked form to battle the virus Phage and pushes it so far that it destroys the Red Ring powering her and her computer. Thankfully, Nicole bailed into the computer systems of the Sky Patrol and, had the series not been cancelled, would have had Sally and Tails getting said computer fixed.

* This is how Frenzy dies fighting the Swarm in ''ComicBook/TransformersGeneration2''. Since the Swarm is basically a GrayGoo entity, some of the [[EnemyMine Autobot-Decepticon alliance]] tactical think-tank believe it can be damaged by sonic energy. Frenzy is loaded with disruptive sonic emitters. Wheeljack has a generator the size of a barn. They hook up the former to the latter, and while it succeeds in repelling the Swarm for a brief while, after a short period of time the sheer amount of power being forced into Frenzy's sonic emitters is too much, and a violent harmonic resonance ensues. The generator explodes, Frenzy literally shakes himself to pieces, and the Swarm continues its attack. Frenzy, being a loud and murderous little violence-gremlin of a Decepticon, [[GoOutWithASmile is perfectly happy dying this way]].

[[quoteright:250:[[TabletopGame/YuGiOh https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/453.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:So that's where the Series/MythBusters put that [[MadeOfExplodium monitor]].]]

* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIVWhiteHole White Hole]]", the crew develops a technique which increases Holly's intelligence by several orders of magnitude, but they discover that this has reduced her lifespan to three minutes. To be exact, they had intended to restore Holly's (the titular ship's AI) IQ to its original 6000 as Holly had gained a form of "computer senility" due to being in continuous use for 3,000,000 years. (And having no one to interact with during that time.) Kryten had theorized that the procedure may result in Holly being smarter than previously but increasing its IQ to 12,000 rather than 6,000 or a bit higher was far beyond their expectations.

* In ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', Legasov's testimony reveals that the night shift of the titular power plant did this [[AchievementsInIgnorance by mistake]]. In order to stop the reactor from choking on xenon, they removed almost all the control rods (at Dyatlov's insistance), causing a power spike far beyond what the reactor was designed to put out. The final reading before the core detonated was ''33,000 watts'', and it was almost certainly far beyond that--it was just the highest number the panel could register. By some estimates, Reactor 4 briefly produced enough wattage to satisfy
the entire planet, and then it exploded.

* In ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', Legasov's testimony reveals that the night shift of the titular power plant did this [[AchievementsInIgnorance by mistake]]. In order to stop the reactor from choking on xenon, they removed almost all the control rods (at Dyatlov's insistance), causing a power spike far beyond what the reactor was designed to put out. The final reading before the core detonated was ''33,000 watts'', and it was almost certainly far beyond that--it was just the highest number the panel could register. By some estimates, Reactor 4 briefly produced enough wattage to satisfy the entire planet, and then it exploded.

** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Carpathia RMS Carpathia]] overclocked her boilers while racing to the rescue of the stricken Titanic. Her maximum speed was theoretically 15.5 knots but she had not had an engine overhaul in years, meaning that her boilers and reciprocating engines had a much lower maximum pressure and therefore speed (14 knots) because of years of stress. By closing off every governor valve and shutting down hot water and electrical service to most of the ship, every ounce of available steam was diverted to the engines, pushing the slow Carpathia to a speed of 17.5 knots (20.1 miles per hour/32.4 kilometers per hour). Though she didn't arrive before Titanic sank, she shaved an hour off her arrival time on the scene and undoubtedly saved lives. The chief engineer was said to have put his hat over the steam pressure gauge to obscure just how dangerously they were pushing the engines. We do not know how narrowly the Carpathia avoided a literal explosive overclocking- a steam explosion that would have caused mass casualties and at best left the Carpathia dead in the water - but she severely damaged her boilers and the ship never exceeded 12 knots in service again. This may have later contributed to her being chased down and sunk by a German U-boat during World War I.

** The [[RMS Carpathia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Carpathia]] overclocked its boilers while racing to the rescue of the stricken Titanic. Her maximum speed was theoretically 15.5 knots but she had not had an engine overhaul in years, meaning that her boilers and reciprocating engines had a much lower maximum pressure and therefore speed (14 knots) because of years of stress. By closing off every governor valve and shutting down hot water and electrical service to most of the ship, every ounce of available steam was diverted to the engines, pushing the slow Carpathia to a speed of 17.5 knots (20.1 miles per hour/32.4 kilometers per hour). Though she didn't arrive before Titanic sank, she shaved an hour off her arrival time on the scene and undoubtedly saved lives. The chief engineer was said to have put his hat over the steam pressure gauge to obscure just how dangerously they were pushing the engines. We do not know how narrowly the Carpathia avoided a literal explosive overclocking- a steam explosion that would have caused mass casualties and at best left the Carpathia dead in the water - but she severely damaged her boilers and the ship never exceeded 12 knots in service again. This may have later contributed to her being chased down and sunk by a German U-boat during World War I.

** The [[RMS Carpathia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Carpathia)] overclocked its boilers while racing to the rescue of the stricken Titanic. Her maximum speed was theoretically 15.5 knots but she had not had an engine overhaul in years, meaning that her boilers and reciprocating engines had a much lower maximum pressure and therefore speed (14 knots) because of years of stress. By closing off every governor valve and shutting down hot water and electrical service to most of the ship, every ounce of available steam was diverted to the engines, pushing the slow Carpathia to a speed of 17.5 knots (20.1 miles per hour/32.4 kilometers per hour). Though she didn't arrive before Titanic sank, she shaved an hour off her arrival time on the scene and undoubtedly saved lives. The chief engineer was said to have put his hat over the steam pressure gauge to obscure just how dangerously they were pushing the engines. We do not know how narrowly the Carpathia avoided a literal explosive overclocking- a steam explosion that would have caused mass casualties and at best left the Carpathia dead in the water - but she severely damaged her boilers and the ship never exceeded 12 knots in service again. This may have later contributed to her being chased down and sunk by a German U-boat during World War I.

* While probably not creating a higher risk of explosion than normal, a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mig_25 MiG-25's]] engines could be convinced to propel the plane to Mach 3.2, which is and was comfortably higher than any combat plane field save for the YF-12. The downside? This would bypass the fuel pumps, resulting in the loss of any throttle control, and would also more than likely start expelling important bits of engine, rendering it an "OhCrap" contingency rather than a viable tactic. It was, however, sufficient to convince NATO that the Soviets had produced some sort of superpowered fighter jet, rather than a really heavy plane with really big engines.

It's even possible to do it by accident: give a computer a sufficiently hard math problem, and it will grind out an answer just before it overheats and expires from the effort. Also, being overclocked causes a system to work at increased efficiency and then stop dead.