The most annoying problem your computer might pose is a malfunction; especially when you’re in the middle of an urgent task. Turning it off and on again has been the common solution — technically known as rebooting. The concept of a “reboot” comes from the expression “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.” Getting your working gear properly suited up seems very efficient, and that’s what computers do rebooting.
Related media: Why Does Rebooting So Many Problems?
How Do I Fix A Malfunction?
Your computer has a tiny component within the physical program of the hardware built into it, known as the “Bootloader.” When the computer is switched on, this program gets control and loads, or boots another, much larger, program which serves as the Operating System (OS) for the computer. You’re aware of such system running on your device right now, such as iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and the rest.
The OS does for the computer what the government does for the state. It’s responsible for executing program, organizing and allocation data resources, fetching information, and running calculations. It technically controls what the computer can do and can’t do. Just as the government having a hard task running the state, so as it is with the OS running your computer — such as the government failing to cut down taxes at the end of a fiscal year seems like your computer failing to run Fortnite. That’s boring.
Whenever the computer has loads of program to run or execute, or a series of programs gets executed in a sequence that the software engineers weren’t expecting — then that program gets “stuck” in memory. Computer scientists usually discuss this as a “deadly embrace,” it occurs when a program ‘A’ is waiting for another program ‘B’ to do something, and program ‘B’ is waiting for program ‘A’ to do something, and as a result causing both to get stuck.
Additionally, as a program runs, they fetch and retrieve resources such as the computer’s Random Access Memory (RAM), and over time, the arrangement of these resources gradually become messed up in memory and difficult to manage, just like the government having a hard time trying to find the root cause of an economic recession.
In other words, its like trying to remember what you learnt in a physics class while you’re in the middle of a calculus mid-semester test. Yes, its that terrifying for your computer, too.
Reboot Your Device And Start Afresh
In recent times, most OS are very adaptive at detecting and deleting stuck processes, and also work very hard to keep things running smoothly, but sometimes a computer can reach a state where the best thing to do is start again from scratch. Rebooting may be a temporary solution for problems caused by hardware that is becoming unreliable, particularly if systems crash and when components get hot — a reboot removes every program and then restarts afresh.
If you recall from your computer classes, there are two kinds of reboot, which are often called “warm” and “cold.” You perform a cold reboot when you turn the computer off and on again, whereas a warm reboot just reloads the OS. Sometimes a warm reboot might solve your malfunction, but in some case, your hardware can get itself into a “nasty mess” where it’s no longer responding to any signals, you might need to reach for the power switch.
Its just like the government facing an economic meltdown, and the only solution is a government shutdown. That’s politically terrible than a computer malfunction. However, one malfunction a reboot can’t resolve is a malicious software such as viruses. These pesky bits of program insert themselves into the boot process and show up again the next time the computer starts up. The only way to get rid of these pesky invaders is to scan your system, find them, and delete them.
Refreshing Up Is The Best Option
Nowadays, the need for reboots is decreasing over time. The main reason is because computers now recommend an update of an app instead of a reboot, which intend does not fix all malware in the OS. This is because it’s not easy for the OS to update sections of itself while it’s running — seems like trying to repair an airplane in flight.
Oftentimes, computer systems never reboots and your malware persist over time unless a reinstallation of the OS is done, just as the government never cares about the demand of the people unless there is another general election to change the government.
“I’m always looking for the easiest way to solve a problem, and rebooting a computer is a good thing to try first, before looking for more complicated reasons why a system is running poorly.”
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Written by: Nana Kwadwo, Fri, Jan 25, 2019.
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