History Main / ExplosiveOverclocking

** There's actually a couple more ways to overclock your weapons in ''Mass Effect'', including installing a larger barrel in the gun. But the explosive rounds will make ''everything'' overheat almost instantly. Even the NewGamePlus ultimate sniper rifle will overload after its second shot with the explosive rounds.
** On the other hand, it finally means you have something close to Shepard's CutscenePowerToTheMax Pistol Of [[DoomyDoomsofDoom Doom]]. Just pick your shots carefully.
** [[RobotBuddy Legion]] claims that overclocking is the Geth equivalent of performance-enhancing drugs, boosting capability at the risk of long-term damage. He does however note synthetics can repair overclocking damage far more easily than organics can recuperate from performance-enhancing drugs.
* All Mechs in the ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' game series have reactors that heat up as their capacity is used. If you overheat them a safety system will automatically shut them down, cooling them much faster than usual but disabling your Mech; after a few seconds, when the temperature is back to normal levels, the Mech powers up again and lets you keep going about your business. If you haven't been blown up yet, that is; as this usually happens in the middle of combat, a shutdown usually leaves you unable to move or attack right in front of your enemy, often with preditcably messy results. Which is why there's the option to override the shutdown procedure, and keep using the Mech -- if nothing else to turn tail and run like hell -- even as the reactor redlines. Overuse this option at your own risk, as severe abuse results in your Mech spontaneously blowing up from the inside.

** ''VideoGame/{{Battletech}}'' allows you to redline your heat, but if you go over the "safe" heat level, it results in the 'Mech taking internal damage (meaning you will ''at least'' require some time in the repair bay after the mission, and worst case, a weak component could explode or the 'Mech could blow up, if the center torso is sufficiently damaged). If heat is maxed out, the 'Mech shuts down entirely, losing any defensive or evasion bonuses and allowing other pilots to make Called Shots on it, the same as if it was knocked down. Higher Guts ratings for pilots will result in a higher "safe" heat level, though the max will remain the same, and Gladiators (pilots that take the Master Guts skill) can use "Vent Coolant", which apparently expels a load of hot coolant to immediately reduce heat, but resulting in heat accumulation over the next three rounds (the ability is not lore-friendly, for what it's worth).

* Overclocking the ARS in ''VideoGame/{{Vanquish}}'' by removing its limiters can have unpleasant effects on the user. In-game, if Sam takes too much fire from enemy troops, he passes out, and the suit's attempts to repair and compensate for the damage result in its engine overloading and exploding. [[spoiler: Naturally, the final boss is too fast and requires the limiters to be removed so that Sam can match him, though it's strongly implied that this could straight up kill him if it's run for too long, and he does seem to have some difficulty recovering afterwards.]]

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', surprisingly for comics about {{mad scientist}}s, doesn't use this frequently, but Agatha was shown [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050905 skipping warm-up mode]] and go for full power while reactivating decrepit machinery, with expectable (and desired) results.
** There's also the Smoke Knights' "Movit" potions. Movit #6 is the most potent one that your average schmuck can safely use; even Smoke Knights, whose training includes conditioning to be able to utilize the potions, tread carefully with the higher numbers. Zola (spoiler warning: not formally a Smoke Knight, but all family members have some level of the training) somehow managed to steal a vial of Movit #11, the most potent one period; it gives her a massive energy boost, but Violetta explicitly says that it'll kill her in short order as her body burns up from within. Later on, rather than outright poisoning Zola, Violetta chooses to inject her with ''more'' Movit #11 -- which at that point is more lethal to her than any poison.

* ''Webcomic/SpaceKid'' The titular Space Kid's strength-enhancing 'exo-suit' can be turned up to Overdrive to give him super-strength -- but doing so causes the suit to instantly overheat and burst into flames within seconds.

** 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.