SEARCH
Office Supply partners
Subscribe to our blog feed
Post a testimonial on Yelp!
Join us on Twitter
CWSD is a proud member of:
D&B PowerProfiles online business directory
CWSD supports:
Would you be interested in affiliating with us, cross-linking or advertising to the community together? Send us an email or call the store. We are always looking for opportunities to reach out to new customers. Let's help each other.
Power Cycling Hardware
Posted in: Tips & Tricks, blog by CW on 12 July 2010
When I worked on help desks we frequently advised people to power cycle their hardware and see if that corrected the particular problem they were experiencing. We offered that advice so often that some folks accused us of using that as “busy work”, a tactic to get people off the phone and out of our hair.
That wasn’t, and isn’t, the case. Power cycling performs a vital function. It clears out errors and corruption that can occur in volatile memory, memory which requires power in order to store data. Once power is shut off to volatile memory the data it is storing is lost.
Examples of volatile memory configurations
Most single-function devices like printers, routers and modems have volatile memory chips. This short-term memory stores information relating to start-up errors, cartridge status and machine readiness.
When a device is power cycled it clears out all the data in volatile memory; a power cycle is similar to a reboot of the operating system.
Occasionally a print job sent by the computer becomes corrupted en route and once stored in the printer’s volatile memory refuses to allow another print job to be completed. The first step in fixing this issue is to open Printers and Faxes in the Control Panel (Windows XP, Vista, 7), select your printer and choose the option that deletes or clears the print queue. All too often this accomplishes nothing.
The next step would be to power cycle the printer. This should clear all the pending print jobs from memory and return the printer to a ready-to-print status.
A power cycle can be accomplished in two ways. You can simply turn the device off with its power switch, wait 15-30 seconds, then turn its power back on. This works in most devices that do not have internal batteries. The more effective way to power cycle any device is to first turn off the power with its switch then unplug the device from its supply of electricity. This cuts off all power to the device so that even things like computers, TVs and some printers that have an internal battery will shut completely down. Wait up to a minute before plugging the device back in and powering it up.
Just as most computer experts will suggest the occasional full reboot of your computer, the occasional power cycle of your electronic devices that run on A/C can help performance and clear out problems with the memory.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Why a Computer Unexpectedly Reboots at Startup (brighthub.com)
- Tracking down a network problem affecting HP P2055 Printers – Suggestions? (edugeek.net)
- A Visual Interpretation of How a CPU Works (brighthub.com)
- Network Printer Issue (edugeek.net)
You must be logged in to post a comment.