eli5 Why does turning your device on and off often solve a technical issue?

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eli5 Why does turning your device on and off often solve a technical issue?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I don’t know if I’m right but I’ve once heard that turning off your internet router can let the components inside it cool down, so maybe its the same for other devices

Anonymous 0 Comments

Devices were made to be started from turned off.

When a device is working it status can change, data can change, etc. Those changes can stop it from working.

When you turn it off it resets it to the default and when you turn it back on it works because it works using its defaults.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Sometimes a computer’s operating system can get cluttered and confused with instructions with a bunch of different programs running. When you turn it off, it clears all active programs and processes from it’s memory which lets it start with a fresh slate.

Think of the computer’s memory like your desk. If you take a bunch of books and open them ont he desk and take papers and binders and writing utensils and scatter them throughout the desk it can become too cluttered to work and find things efficiently. It might help a little if you put some books and binders away but that can still leave behind loose pieces of papers and other items that don’t have a permanent place. Turning off the computer clears everything off the desk and makes it clear to work on again.

Anonymous 0 Comments

it ultimately comes down to most devices being ultimately some form of computer running a specific set of software.

the longer it runs the more likely it is some non critical call fails but the device can recover.

so events like moryleaks, stack fails and such while minor on their own if your device is running ,,lets say for a few months they add up and eventually bog down the whole thing.

shutting it down and back on clear all this and lets the system start pristine.

Anonymous 0 Comments

When devices turn on, they enter a state that’s valid and has been configured by the manufacturer. Eg. an mp3 player would want to start to play the first song in the playlist.

As they operate, a device can enter into a state that’s invalid due to bugs, or bad user input. Eg. going with the example above, the mp3 player would want to play song #57 on the playlist, but there are only 56 songs.

Restarting the device will mean that the device will exit the bad state, and return to the valid initial state.

Anonymous 0 Comments

After an update, the software may change registry or other environmental settings. A reboot will allow for those changes to take place

Anonymous 0 Comments

Errors and bugs are often not immediately catastrophic. So the program and computer can move on, but the error or bug might stick around and cause problems later on. A restart clears the whole system and lets it begin with a clean slate again.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Information is stored in 1 and 0.

1 means “on” and 0 means “off.”

This can vary to be “signal or no signal,” “charge or no charge,” “true or false” or similar variations on “on” and “off.”

Long strings if these make up information. (10011101 as an example of an 8-bit byte.)

Sometimes, a computer fails to put a 1 or a 0 where it belongs. Many times, these can self correct.

Sometimes, they don’t. The more.of this garbage data that accumulates, the worse a computer can run as it can sometimes run into things like “I need this address for 10011100 but it already has 10100011 in it! Is anyone using this value at this address? No? Cool. Let me clear and use that!” And various other slowdowns.

When you restart, you’re basically clearing all of the ones and zeroes that might be a little out if place from operating and re-reads and realigns all the ones and zeroes to their starting positions. Much like starting with a clean kitchen makes for easier cooking rather than having to clean dishes and surfaces as you go before cooking, you’ve given the computer a fully cleaned and organized kitchen to tear apart whilst cooking once more!

Anonymous 0 Comments

It makes sense when you consider what turning on means for the state of the device. Almost all electronics have a default startup sequence which places them in a very specific and organized state, which is thoroughly tested and stable.

During operation, as devices change states, they can build up things in memory (and for devices which run applications, those applications enter states of their own, which can conflict between applications, etc) and in the absence of tools to return devices to a clean state, restarting will correctly guarantee a stable state of operation.

Anonymous 0 Comments

A simple way I have heard it explained is to think of it as communication between two people A calls B and B responds and this is repeated. Then, for some unknown reason A accidently calls C and then waits for B to respond and it doesn’t happen. A keeps calling C and waiting for B to respond and the system crashes.

So, you turn it off and it severs the connection between A and C (and A and B). Then when you turn it back on again, A boot up tells A to call B and wait for a reply. So A initiates a call to B and B replies and all works fine.

The on/off sequence basically starts it over – it does not correct the reason why A suddenly called C but in most instances it is not a “problem” it is just a glitch and does not repeat.