It’s a well-known trope, and you’d be forgiven for rolling your eyes when an engineer asks you the classic question, “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
But have you ever wondered why this is usually the first suggestion you’ll hear for almost every tech problem?
We asked Service Desk Engineer Elliot to share his tech insights....
PCs can be compared to any other piece of machinery, although the gears and pistons are swapped for chips, cables, and capacitors.
Whilst your PC is running, it takes all the files it needs to keep itself running from your storage drive and copies them to its memory, or RAM.
Over time, this memory can become “clogged” with leftover files from programmes that are no longer running. Shuffling all these files around keeps your PC busy, and the more you give it to work with, the more likely it is to make a mistake and produce an error – it needs a rest!
When your PC reboots, it empties its memory and moves anything important back onto your storage drive, giving it a fresh start when you next turn it on.
The pre-flight checklist
There are also certain tasks that your PC will typically only run through by itself when first powering up, like a pre-flight checklist – tasks such as ensuring it can properly access the network it’s connected to and anything else on it, such as printers or shared folders.
Rebooting allows the PC to go over its checklist again and catch anything it might have missed.
Lastly, just like any other machine, PCs need a bit of maintenance from time to time – not by changing their oil, but by checking for and installing any available updates, or “patches”. It’s always easier to run and apply this maintenance when the PC isn’t in use, and all the files aren’t moving around, so updates will typically need a reboot to fully apply.
It might even happen that one of the updates waiting to be installed will fix the exact problem you’re having! Staying on top of updates is important, as being behind on major fixes can invalidate your security certifications, like Cyber Essentials, or your cyber-insurance.
Remote monitoring and management
Thankfully, you don’t need to remember to turn off your PC before you leave every day - our Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tools are installed as standard for all our Service Desk Agreement clients, so we can automatically keep your devices updated, secure, and running at their best.
How can we help?
Please reach out to our Partner Consultants if you’d like to hear more about our automatic patch management and how it can be tailored around how your business operates.
