Tech Tip Tuesday: Just Reboot It!

How many times have you made a support call for a computer or electronic device only to be faced with the question, “Did you reboot/reset it?” For a lot of people this is annoying. Especially when it fixes the problem. Lol. However, it is typically the first and most basic of all troubleshooting steps because of what it does. It truly isn't just intended to annoy or frustrate the user. There are many benefits to a reboot and if done on a regular basis, it may make your day go smoother.

Any electronic device has a basic operating system coded into the chips in its circuitry to control what the device does with the electricity flowing through its parts. This operating system sets up the communication between the parts in a very specific order. Add to that a secondary operating system like Windows, Apple or Android and you have an even larger set of specific instructions intended to set up your device to be ready for whatever you want to do with it. This can even apply to applications running on an OS like Word or iTunes. The problem is, nothing in electronics is perfect every time, forever. Parts degrade or malfunction, electricity surges, programing code conflicts, drivers crash, memory leaks, CPU overload, overheating, had a bad morning, not enough sleep, didn't hold your mouth right, etc. You don't really need to know or understand all of that. All you really need to know is that a reboot resets your device to a clean and ready state. Whatever the errors were should be fixed and realigned. If not, there are likely other bigger problems which require further investigation.

There is, however, a risk to consider with a reboot. If you are in the middle of something and have not saved it, a reboot may cause you to lose your work. Some applications have auto save and can recover what you were doing but if you're working on something important, it's always a good idea to save regularly. Unfortunately if your whole system crashes you may not be able to do this. That always makes for a bad day.

So as a regular practice recommendation, while it's not necessary to reboot your computer every night, doing so at least once per week will help to keep your system functioning at its best. Consider it a good night's sleep for your computer that only takes a few minutes. And the next time you're having some issues with your computer, phone, tablet, etc. Try a reboot/reset first. That way when you call support, the first thing you can say is, “I already tried a reboot!”

Author Info: Beatitudes Campus

At the foundation of beatitudes Campus is the vision of church of the Beatitudes pastors and congregation members to create a better alternative for older adults than the nursing homes of the early 1960s. The type of community they imagined was the first of its kind in Arizona. Beatitudes Campus is proud to continue the legacy of our founders, by being a leader in the field of aging services for over 50 years.