When asking someone how to fix a problem on the computer, the first answer is always: "Have you tried to reboot true"> Actually rebooting or "soft-reset" of any electronic device, including computer and smartphone, can actually solve many problems . But why shutting down a device and turning it back on or restarting a program fixes so many problems?
And this isn't just a solution for Windows computers, but it does apply to all types of computing devices, including cellphones, wireless routers, iPads, Android smartphones, Playstations and everything else.
The same advice also applies to programs: if Firefox becomes slow and consumes too much memory, try closing it and reopening it
To explain why turning off and restarting the computer solves many problems, on the HowToGeek website the blue screen of death error that often appeared in Windows is taken as an example.
The blue screen is caused by a low level error, probably a problem with a driver or a hardware malfunction.
Windows reaches a state that does not know how to recover, therefore, for safety, it stops everything and shows a blue screen in which it collects information on the problem, before automatically restarting the computer.
Restarting corrects the error which may no longer occur.
Today Windows has become better at dealing with errors and while Windows XP, in case of a graphics card error, crashes, Windows 7 and 8 freeze the desktop for a moment and reload it after a few moments, without restarting the computer.
Behind the scenes, Windows just restarts the video card driver that caused the malfunction.
Why doesn't Windows fix the problem instead of simply restarting operations?
The answer is that Windows can't really do it, not because it's a poor system but because it's the code itself that has encountered a problem and has stopped working entirely, so there is no way to continue.
With the reboot, however, the code can be reloaded from scratch and the same problem may no longer occur.
While some problems require a shutdown and restart of the computer, others are fixable without a restart and we have seen it in other guide articles:
- If Windows is slow or freezes, how to unlock it?
In these cases, an abnormal program may be using 99% of the CPU and draining computer resources.
The task manager is the most immediate solution, where to locate that program and terminate it forcibly.
Without knowing about the existence of the task manager, the problem could be solved by restarting the computer.
- A program goes slow and uses too much memory.
Closing that program solves the problem because the occupied memory frees itself immediately.
When you restart it, it will start from a clean state with no memory buildup.
- To solve Internet or Wi-Fi problems, first of all, it is better to reset the router and see if it resolves.
This is a common solution for all connection problems.
In all cases, the restart will block any software code, therefore, even the one that is in an anomalous state will be wiped out.
When you turn on your computer or smartphone or some program again, it will work properly again, unless the error resides in the computer's permanent memory, i.e. the disk.
In these cases, restarting the computer does not resolve anything because the error is loaded from the beginning (for example a virus), so to solve or search for the cause of the error or you have to do what in the world of mobile phones is called " reset ", erase the entire disk and reinstall the operating system from scratch.
Reinstalling Windows wipes out all the data on your computer's hard drive and restores it to its clean state.
This is sometimes the simplest solution, as long as you had a backup of your important data that would otherwise be lost.
READ ALSO: Should you turn off your PC or mobile phone at night?
