Did You Try Restarting?
Tuesday, July 6, 2004Why is it, when you have computer problems (like I had at work here yesterday when my computer wouldn’t boot up past the spinning starburst under the Apple logo) everyone’s first question is, “Did you try restarting?”
I called the IT department. “Did you try restarting?” Sigh.
While waiting for someone from the IT department to show up, people would see that my computer wasn’t working. “Did you try restarting?” they asked.
Christ. Even the people who know very little about computers always try restarting. Why? Because it’s all they know how to do. In fact, it’s why they ask if you’ve restarted, too. It’s just how they troubleshoot.
No one ever says, “Did you try zapping the P-RAM?” or “Did you try starting from a CD?” or even “Did you try temporarily booting into 9 to delete that 900-Meg AfterEffects animation you’ve left lying around that’s screwing up your startup drive, and then doing a clean install of OS X?”
Okay, okay, my fault for not properly backing up my work and clearing the hard drive from junk. But still… yes I tried restarting, thank-you very much.
Oh, and while waiting for IT to show up, I finished my book, so I hopped across the street to pick up a new one. I chose Eats, Shoots & Leaves, the book for people like me who cringe at a misused comma or an ill-placed apostrophe (or foot-mark, for that matter).
Scroll down to the reviews on Amazon’s page. Apparently Greg from Frisco, Texas has a problem with the audio-book version. Greg, what exactly were you expecting from an audio-book that relies on the visual? When read aloud, the differences between there, their, and they’re must be truly self-evident.
Zombie Claire says:
It’s like how when I can’t see something on your page and I’m all complaining about it, people go: “Did you try refresh???” and I’m all: “I totally refreshed, ok I am not an idiot”, then they look at you like they are thinking: ‘She doesn’t know how to work the computer box at all and it’s a sad sad sight.’
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Ana says:
Read Eats Shoots and Leaves, loved it! Laughed hysterically, shed a few tears… absolutely brilliant! However, using ellipses now becomes disturbing and semi-colons give me hives.
Shouldn’t have read this book while in the middle of writing my own. I keep back-tracking and writing the same sentence over and over and over until it makes perfect punctuational sense. Hmm… still not sure…
paperfingers says:
Apparently, the book, itself, is full of grammatical errors. See the New Yorker review:
http://tinyurl.com/2jok6
kevin says:
trying getting new software from the IT dept.
angela says:
I know that “restarting” nightmare all too well. Apparently some people think restarting can solve just about anything.
D says:
One of the engineers referred to restarting as “give ‘er a birthday.” It makes it more fun if you call it that.
kevin says:
i brought my bike in to the shop because the front hub was making grinding noises, the head mechanic spins the back tire and says “is that the noise you are hearing?”
Ryan says:
Even this is common.
“
Did you try restarting?
Yes!
Try and restart it again.
“
As if their presence is required to validate the failure of the restart. Or that their presence is require for a SUCCESSFUL restart, cus’, y’know, when they restart everything works fine.
erinn says:
let’s not forget the reverse to this situation. We all understand that WE collectively know what we are talking about. However there are still people that are opporating machines that should require them to licensed.
For example… Yesterday a guy who rents space in my office (he’s a writer), asked me to help him with his computer. Apparently he was having difficulty opening a Word document. (To which I must add that there were no tricks to opening this file. Pretty standard) The kicker is that after I showed him once, he came back to me later in the day and asked me to do it again. :|
erinn says:
Note to self: READ things before you post them online!
“opporate”??? Now who needs a license?
Robot Johnny says:
Yes, but Erinn, if you worked in my office I’d be asking you to come by my desk all the time… “opening a Word document\” may just be the excuse I would need…
Fink says:
Smoooooooooooth…
Ryan says:
H4WT!!
erinn says:
so could that mean that the guy that can’t seem to figure out how to use the stapler, may also have an ulterior motive??
things are getting clear now
Robot Johnny says:
Now that you mention it, I can’t seem to figure out my stapler either…
John Peterman says:
Speaking as a tech, rebooting a machine is a good way to determine whether a computer problem is persistent (in that it is able to be reproduced) or simply a fluke. A reboot isn’t magical panacea, but due to non-standard configurations and software which makes the computer’s state constantly fluctuate it’s a good place to start in deciding whether said problem is actually a problem or not.