Let’s start this lesson with a picture I found along my journeys:
This image is a screen capture of one of my favorite shows, The IT Crowd. While the concept of turning a machine off and on again is very exaggerated in the show, it’s not without a STRONG basis in reality.
Here’s another image to illustrate the point:
This graph is pretty accurate. Turning off your computer and turning it back on again solves probably a good 90% of the issues out there. Why? Because it resets the memory (RAM, if you want to be specific)
Funny thing: helpdesk analyst and desktop technicians all FREQUENTLY field calls where we ask the user if they have rebooted. And the answer is very commonly “yes”, or “of course”. But something you say later on gives us pause for thought. Maybe it’s the tone in your voice. Maybe it’s something you said. Or maybe we just like to verify.
So a lot of people just say they rebooted because they think that’s what we want to hear. While, yes, we want to hear that – it’s because we want you to have actually tried that. And guess what? It’s ridiculously easy to tell if you have or not:
See that part I circled? I used a single command to find that detail. In this example, I haven’t rebooted since 8/20/2012, at 19:10 (that’s 7:10pm). I haven’t rebooted in over two weeks. Maybe it’s time I should, eh?
So if you told us you rebooted, and we find out you haven’t, we now have to distrust everything else you say to us from then on out. We’re also prone to asking you questions that you’d already answered, just to verify the answers.
So PLEASE reboot your PC if you’re having trouble BEFORE calling Tech Support. Even Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, agrees:
(originally posted at www.dilbert.com)
I can think of only one case where you should NOT reboot to resolve – when you changed or deleted a file and need to get it changed back. In that case, if you are unsure of what to do – FULL STOP. Don’t reboot, don’t save anything, don’t close anything. Call Tech Support, and we’ll guide you through recovery procedures or restoration procedures.
Note that the more you do after the file was changed/deleted, the more likely it is that the file is gone forever.
Questions? Comments? Feedback? Please comment below or email me at jackrockblc+blog@gmail.com.
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