I have loved technology most of my adult life, and there have been times when it just has not returned the same feelings. I am sure you can relate to this. You sit at your computer, after you have poured yourself your favorite beverage of choice and tap your mouse or keyboard for your screen to come up.
Nothing comes up. A black screen. What?
You tap your keyboard a little harder and you see the computer’s “circle of thinking” spinning, again on a black screen. The computer thinks and thinks. The screen comes up, but there are no icons and it is painfully slow. What??
Your coffee or tea is cold now, and if you had a cold drink, the ice has watered it down. So, you decide to freshen up your drink while your computer decides on what it is going to do.
You return, and there on your computer screen is a bluescreen with a sad face. What is going on??
I have called support during these times when I did not know what to do, and they politely start with the same question. “Have you tried rebooting?” I restart my computer, and with an exclamation of happiness that I have my computer back, I say thank you and hang up.
Restarting has been the miracle cure since computers have come into existence, and I have always wondered why. What is going on when technology creates this frustration, and a simple restart of the computer can fix it?
May I present an analogy?
Imagine with me that you are carrying a bucket and it is empty. It is easy to carry a bucket empty. Now if you filled it halfway with water and tried to carry that bucket, it would require some attention, but it is doable. Now fill the bucket all the way to the brim and attempt to carry it. Sometimes, no matter how careful we try to carry a full bucket of water, it will slosh out and we will lose some of that water. A bucket’s purpose is to carry water, not lose water. We need to empty the bucket to at least halfway so that is easier to carry, and then we have less chance of losing water.
Computers have a component called Random Access Memory, or Ram (our bucket). RAM’s job is to hold and maintain electronic commands and information (our water). When the RAM is asked to deal with more information than it can hold, there is an actual memory leak (our water sloshing out of the bucket). That memory leak slows the computer down and can also create a blue screen. When we restart, the RAM clears (the bucket is emptied) and the computing process is reset to fulfill your needs after that simple fix.
Whether it is a simple fix or something more involved, Compass Computer Group is here to walk the journey with you and help. Compass believes one’s computer experience should be hot coffee, cold drinks and NO bluescreens.
