Computer Repair in Kalamazoo

You’re working on that report that’s due in class tomorrow when suddenly – up pops a blue screen with an error message on it. Or you’re trying to finish up that spreadsheet with the numbers your boss needs for his meeting in the morning, when the computer just freezes up! Or you’re in the middle of a firefight in Fortnite when the computer screen goes black. Or you’re checking out a web site and pop-ups start appearing on your screen! What do you do now? Don’t panic…

It’s a well known secret in the I.T. industry that the first thing you always try in any of those situations is this: Turn it off, and on again. Sounds simple right? It is. It also solves a surprising number of minor issues with not only computers, but most devices (i.e. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, wifi routers, gaming consoles, etc.). So the question is, “Why does it work?”. We hope to demystify that for you in this post, and hopefully make you feel a little less anxious when you have something unexpected happen with your computer.

Why It Works
When you use your computer, it is running and managing several things simultaneously. A good analogy is – think of it as a pile of bricks. The pile represents the various resources that are available, such as memory. The operating system administers the pile of bricks (and other things) and distributes it to programs when needed. In order to run, a program must receive some bricks from the computer. It becomes the program’s responsibility to manage all of the bricks it uses. Ideally, the program would clean up the bricks and return them when finished, allowing the computer to redistribute the bricks to other programs as needed.

Theoretically, this loop could go on forever without issue. The problem is, some programs waste the shared resources. What most users don’t realize is that programs and the operating system itself leaves behind “clutter”, in the form of background processes that don’t need to run anymore, or programs that didn’t quite close all the way.

This “clutter” can hog your system resources, specifically your RAM. If too much gets “tied up”, you start to get problems; like a sluggish system, BSOD (blue screen of death), error messages, etc. When you power your computer off and back on, every single program and process ends as the power leaves your computer during the restart process. Once your computer starts back up, you have a clean slate basically and, typically a more responsive, smoother running computer!

The crew at Geek Easy Computers likes to provide these types of helpful tidbits to help make your everyday usage of your computer easier and simpler! We are always available for questions by phone, email, Facebook, Twitter, or our website. We want to make your technology easier!

Adonis Pointer is a photographer, a collector of vintage razors, and a certified technology geek! Adonis has been involved in computer technology since well, a LONG time! He has been involved in nearly every aspect of the industry from sales to repair to training to consulting. As the Social Media Manager he writes the majority of the posts on the Geek Easy Computers blog.