Are you really restarting?

Are you really restarting? | Tech Tips Article by PcCG

Please read, many people are not doing this (even though they think they are). Instead of “turning it off and back on” to try and fix issues, choose “reboot/restart” instead.

At least twice a week we get calls from clients that simply require a reboot. We know for many it’s frustrating to hear “reboot your computer”. The problem is, many people think they are rebooting their system when they are really just putting it to sleep. People tell us they have restarted the computer, but then when we remote in and check the "up time" the computer hasn't been rebooted in 20+ days!

Sleep mode SAVES the current state of everything in your computer. Therefore nothing gets “refreshed”, which is the goal of restarting the system. Windows and other operating systems can be tricky, as hitting the power button (both physically or in windows) may just be putting the system to sleep.

Our advice is instead of turning off your computer, reboot/restart it. This way we can ensure the operating system has ACTUALLY gone through a fresh boot-up process and restart the problematic applications.


In general it's a good advice to just restart your computer once every couple of weeks regardless of if you are having issues or not, just to keep everything fresh and running well.

Sleep mode is great for speed. It allows the computer to turn off and back on nearly instantaneously. It does NOT however refresh any applications running. Therefore if you are having an issue with the system, choosing restart will ensure you’ve properly covered that step, and possibly save you some hard-earned cash!