In old PCs, what was the function of the "Turbo" button?

Made the computer run faster

Made the computer run slower

Reboot the computer to its original speed

The button actually did nothing

Choose your answer and the correct choice will be revealed.

Correct Answer: Made the computer run slower

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A grand price fixing scheme that took place between 1998-2002 involved over a dozen makers, of what PC component?

A little background and more context about this trivia

A long, long time ago, personal computers used to have a "Turbo" button alongside the Power and Reset buttons. The "turbo" button was a feature commonly found on PCs during the 1980s and early 1990s, after the release of the original Intel 8086 processor that operated at 4.77 MHz. At the time, many software titles (and in particular games) were developed with a specific machine in mind and were tied to the specific clock frequency of the CPU to function.

When faster processors came out, the software ran too fast, so the "Turbo" button was introduced to slow down the PC as a compatibility layer, so these programs could run normally. Some computers supported keyboard combinations Ctrl-Alt-+ / Ctrl-Alt-- for switching turbo mode on and off.

Oftentimes computer cases also had a small LED display showing the CPU's clock frequency in MHz or showing "HI" or "LO" to indicate the mode the CPU was running at.

The "Turbo" button was very common in 286 and 386 PC clones, less common in 486 PCs and almost extinct by the time Pentium processors went mainstream in the late 90s.