quote:

Originally posted by 45 Cal:
I like the advice this forum gives,my problem with the power flickering...

Unless you have one already install, a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) might mitigate some of your computer power problems.

PC

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
“If I’m ever on life support unplug me. Then plug me back in. See if that works.”

Oh, this is rich.

Give it a 'bounce'.

When I read the title, I basically heard Roy's voice in my head. I love "The IT Crowd." Here's a montage of Roy's IT skills.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by architect:

I'm accustomed to systems running for years, or even decades with no reboots required other than for major system upgrades, hardware changes, and the like.

My introduction to software design was with telephone Central Office switching systems, in the 1960s. The design goal for these systems was a total cumulative down-time not to exceed two hours during a 40 year service life. Because this was my introduction to software design, I was really surprised when I encountered other stuff that was nowhere near this anal about error handling.

My recollection is that there was a programming language used for central office digital switches that had little or no use elsewhere. I don’t recall its name. I’ve been searching the web but can’t find it. Maybe a Bell System proprietary language?

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
Personally, I never turn off my desktop machine. It hibernates when not in use, so its always just a click to wake it up.

I never turn mine off, either, except during an extended power outage. But I also do not hibernate or sleep my computer. Both are disabled on my Mac mini. With the drives and all solid state, I do not see any advantage to sleeping, and there are occasional problems reported with drives connected to a dock or via USB not re-mounting. I do put my monitor in "energy saver" mode either manually, or automatically after 5 minutes. That just blanks the screen and it uses almost zero power.
 
I do reboot my mini no less often than once a week, when I boot from an external drive for running backups.

The windows machine I run at work has been set to never sleep. I hate sleep and hibernation. I had swapped the drive to Solid State when I first started. I restart that thing every night before I leave. That way it’s fresh and good to go each morning.

The Windows operating system and apps for it are known to have 'memory leaks'.
When memory gets fragmented enough, things start to go downhill and strange things start happening.

At that point restarting it (turning it off and on) really is the solution.

Windows machines must be restarted every so often; how frequent that is depends on the app software used and how much the leaky apps are used.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by architect:

I'm accustomed to systems running for years, or even decades with no reboots required other than for major system upgrades, hardware changes, and the like.

My introduction to software design was with telephone Central Office switching systems, in the 1960s. The design goal for these systems was a total cumulative down-time not to exceed two hours during a 40 year service life. Because this was my introduction to software design, I was really surprised when I encountered other stuff that was nowhere near this anal about error handling.

My recollection is that there was a programming language used for central office digital switches that had little or no use elsewhere. I don’t recall its name. I’ve been searching the web but can’t find it. Maybe a Bell System proprietary language?

IIRC, it is Stored Program Control and was the software that enabled 'digital switching' in the 50's and 60's. I do not recall the background language but we do have software programming that is this robust even today. (you do not want a pacemaker to crash) or for transportation etc. (Ada programming language).

It is always in degrees of need. The more important? the more robust, and change is VERY slow and deliberate. Most API's now are programmed in interpretative languages (like Python) so they can meld with 'AGILE business models' and facilitates fast changes.

Supporting change is probably the biggest reason that we have so many different languages, (you guys learned Ruby yet?) C++ is a great compromise but it is not the most stable, and my CS friends mock Python yet here we are . . . teaching Python

Many years ago when I was the trainer for our Help Desk, that was the first lesson in my class. Reboot, then if problem still exists, start to troubleshoot. Reboot fixes so many issues.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
Personally, I never turn off my desktop machine. It hibernates when not in use, so its always just a click to wake it up.

Same here!

Windows troubleshooting says: "Get help from a friend"

quote:

Originally posted by sse:
Windows troubleshooting says: "Get help from a friend"

Windows tech support:
 

For a Work laptop I shut down daily. Home rigs, sleep mode daily and shut down once a week.

quote:

I couldn’t figure it out and called my oldest son, who has two masters degrees in computer science.
He said to turn it off and back on, and indeed that fixed the problem.

Two masters degrees to learn all of that, LOL.