You've
no doubt heard the "unplug it and plug it back in" advice when trying
to fix a problem with an appliance, or maybe you do it on your own when things
don't go as intended or normal, and oddly enough, it really solves the problem
and many more. Others after so many failed attempts that you wonder how easy it
was to get it done. Here you will wonder inside: Did this have to be done just
in order to solve the problem?! What exactly happens when the power is turned off
and back on, what is the secret of its magical effect, what are the negative
damages, and the cases in which it is prohibited to use this solution? We will
explain all of this in detail in the following lines.
In
the beginning, let's get acquainted with the devices that can work with this
method (disconnecting and reconnecting the electricity current) in solving
their problems and malfunctions. There are routers and any device that helps
connect the Internet to your smart devices, as well as smart screens and smart
home devices that work with the Internet.
In
general, the consumer electrical appliances that we use frequently in our daily
lives are well compatible with this method and can actually solve many of their
problems by turning off the electricity. These devices draw their power from
the so-called firmware, which will not be affected when the device is unplugged
and plugged back in. To be clear, let's find out what exactly happens when you
unplug these devices and plug them back in.
Reconnecting the power resynchronizes the components of the device
Unplugging
some electrical devices, such as routers, from the mains, usually solves most
problems that can occur because they contain small computers inside that power
them. Unplugging and plugging it back in will force the microcomputer to
restart, which in turn will eliminate any temporary failure of the
microcomputer's running software. The software intended here is an operating system
like Windows, but in this case, it is called “Firmware”, which is software code
that works in conjunction with the rest of the hardware components installed on
the motherboard of this device.
Sometimes,
something malfunctions in this firmware code, whether suddenly or because you
changed certain settings in the device, which disables some hardware
components, so things do not go as they are, and you notice that the device is
displaying error messages, slow in responding to commands, or hanging a lot,
And so on. In this case, the restart process, which is by unplugging the device
and plugging it back in, will clear the device's memory and force it to reload
the software again and then start it from scratch. In short, rebooting here
resynchronizes the device's internal hardware components with the firmware.
However, this is only a temporary solution!
Unplugging
and reconnecting the device can often fix the problem, but don't be fooled as
this is only a temporary solution and the underlying issue that caused the
device to malfunction or hang in the first place has definitely not been
resolved yet. Simply put, the restart process can be considered a “painkiller”
but permanently solving the problem requires several steps on the part of the
user, meaning that in some cases you may have to reinstall or update the
firmware on that device in order to solve the malfunction in order to work
efficiently Then. We have already explained how this is done for SSDs and
routers as well as for computers by updating the BIOS piece.
But
if the problem is related to a malfunction in the hardware components
themselves, due to an overload, excessive electrical power, or due to high
heat, here restarting the device may cause those components to work again but
with less efficiency before they lose their ability to work permanently.
Therefore, the process of disconnecting and reconnecting the electricity supply
temporarily solved the problem, and you have to go to a specialized maintenance
center to solve the problem from its roots or replace it with a new one, so we
advise in this case to contact the specialized technician of the manufacturer.
You don't need to always turn off the power
If
the electrical device in which the problem is found has a power switch or power
button, it must be slowed down a bit, as it must be used first to lock and
restart the device again, which may suffice and solve the problem successfully
before completely disconnecting the power to the device.
However,
this method may not work in many cases, because many modern devices have a
power switch that does not turn off the device completely, meaning cutting off
the power to the components, but rather pressing it causes the device to go
into a temporary sleep mode, which we do not want in any way. However, since it
won't shut down all the internal components, we won't be able to perform a
proper reboot as we would like.
If
the device was originally damaged and not working properly, unplugging it and
plugging it back in can never solve the problems. Therefore, it must be
realized that it needs actual repair by sending it to a specialized maintenance
technician in order to have it fully checked and replace the damaged internal
parts if any.
This solution should not be used in some cases
It
is not recommended to use the unplug and reconnect solution on certain
electrical devices such as laptops or desktops because these devices load their
software from a rewritable source such as a hard disk drive or SSD which is
used to store temporary settings of the computer while it is running. If you
turn off the power to the computer while it is working, it may interrupt the
writing process to the volume and destroy all the files and data on your device
which certainly no user wants.
But
this principle should not be generalized to all computer malfunctions because
sometimes the device is completely frozen and does not respond to any commands
at all and there is no other way to fix it, at that time it is okay to unplug
it and then turn it back on again. Some unpleasant things may happen such as
losing some data but there is no other choice but to unplug the power cable or
press and hold the power button.
There
are also certain types of sensitive medical and scientific equipment from which
the electricity should never be turned off in any way so that no one is injured
or life is endangered. In general, an unplugging and reconnecting solution may
work, but before implementing it you must make sure that the device is really
not responding to any commands and that there is no other solution than to pull
the power cable.
In
conclusion: disconnecting the electrical devices that have some problems from
the power and reconnecting them again may seem a very primitive solution, but
what matters in any solution or way to get rid of any problem is the final
result, I do not hide from you that this really solves a lot of problems,
especially with Routers and laptops. But do not rely on it completely because
there are some faults that require more than that to fix and it may even lead
to maintenance or replacement, so you alone can decide when to use that method
or not, but it was necessary to explain that method and give you a detailed
look at it.