I think it is a comment on the tendency of human minds to model complex systems as simple ones and therefore stick strongly to a few remedies whether they are sensible or not—ancestrally “whack it with a club” but in the case of computers, “reboot it”, “run the virus scanner” and “defrag it”. Admittedly, for old computers that relied on vacuum tubes whose connections would sometimes work loose, “whack it with a club” did, in fact, occasionally work.
Admittedly, for old computers that relied on vacuum tubes whose connections would sometimes work loose, “whack it with a club” did, in fact, occasionally work.
Occasionally for more modern computers, too! This can happen when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air get adsorbed by circuit board contacts, where the VOCs react to form frictional polymers. Then...
Sometimes an apparently faulty circuit board starts to work again when it is unplugged and plugged back in again. Engineers call this a “no-problem-found” job. Frictional polymers are bound loosely to the boards, so a smart tap can be enough to clear the problem, in the same way that a thump to an errant TV or video often fixes the fault.
I think it is a comment on the tendency of human minds to model complex systems as simple ones and therefore stick strongly to a few remedies whether they are sensible or not—ancestrally “whack it with a club” but in the case of computers, “reboot it”, “run the virus scanner” and “defrag it”. Admittedly, for old computers that relied on vacuum tubes whose connections would sometimes work loose, “whack it with a club” did, in fact, occasionally work.
Admittedly, rebooting works surprisingly often (especially on Windows).
And don’t we all know it…
For those unable to risk whacking, ‘disassemble and reseat all cables’ also works. Did it yesterday.
Occasionally for more modern computers, too! This can happen when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air get adsorbed by circuit board contacts, where the VOCs react to form frictional polymers. Then...
(From a 1997 New Scientist article (PDF).)
Although the majority of problems encountered at my school’s IT desk can be solved by rebooting the ones that can’t are a pain to fix.