alt.certification.a-plus

Author

Rebooting

Demonopolis

2003-03-20, 11:23 am

While at work yesterday me another manager and the Store manager were
walking around and we stopped to use the computer. The mouse was acting very
jumpy and erratic and some programs were not closing. The store manager told
us to rest the computer so I pushed the button on the front of the computer
that said RESET and the computer proceeded to reboot itself. The store
manager had a fit and started lecturing that I was damaging store equipment.
For the next 10 minutes he ranted about how that was a bad thing to do.

My question is if your not supposed to reboot computers like that then why
is the button there? I asked him and he said I was borderlining on
insubordination and I should keep my mouth shut. So I ask you all what's the
reason and if I was in the wrong for pushing the button please explain to me
why so I have a logical reason not to push it again.

Jim Taylor

2003-03-20, 11:23 am

Because rebooting without a proper shutdown can lead to a loss of data among
other problems. That button is only there for cases where the machine is
locked up and you cannot perform a normal shutdown....

"Demonopolis" <demonopolis@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:zHmea.123$TW2.150137@news1.news.adelphia.net...
> While at work yesterday me another manager and the Store manager were
> walking around and we stopped to use the computer. The mouse was acting
very
> jumpy and erratic and some programs were not closing. The store manager
told
> us to rest the computer so I pushed the button on the front of the
computer
> that said RESET and the computer proceeded to reboot itself. The store
> manager had a fit and started lecturing that I was damaging store
equipment.
> For the next 10 minutes he ranted about how that was a bad thing to do.
>
> My question is if your not supposed to reboot computers like that then why
> is the button there? I asked him and he said I was borderlining on
> insubordination and I should keep my mouth shut. So I ask you all what's
the
> reason and if I was in the wrong for pushing the button please explain to
me
> why so I have a logical reason not to push it again.
>
>

lee

2003-03-22, 7:23 pm

On Thu, 20 Mar 2003 17:20:45 GMT, "Jim Taylor"
<quiksilver.ac@verizon.net> wrote:
IMHO,
Loss of data would only occur if there was an active application that
had not saved a *modified* file prior to shut down.
(Word pocessors, etc.)

Otherwise, no problem to system files, codecs, etc.

If you get a prompt saying that Windows failed to shut down properly
and it wants to boot to safe mode - - just choose - (1) Normal.

My wife routinely shuts down Win2KPro with the power switch.
(arghhhh !)

Her Micro$oft Office2K suite automaticaly saves open files every few
minutes anyway so she got lazy.

If you lost system files on evey Power Outage or BrownOut it might be
a different story.

(Exceptions - program installs that are incomplete, system upgrades
that fail to complete, etc. and in most cases they return error
dialogs to reinstall.)

>Because rebooting without a proper shutdown can lead to a loss of data among
>other problems. That button is only there for cases where the machine is
>locked up and you cannot perform a normal shutdown....

SNIP
>> My question is if your not supposed to reboot computers like that then why
>> is the button there?

SNIP

Jim Nugent

2003-03-22, 8:23 pm

"Demonopolis" <demonopolis@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:zHmea.123$TW2.150137@news1.news.adelphia.net...
> While at work yesterday me another manager and the Store manager were
> walking around and we stopped to use the computer. The mouse was acting
very
> jumpy and erratic and some programs were not closing. The store manager
told
> us to rest the computer so I pushed the button on the front of the
computer

I presume you meant to say "reset" the computer. If that was the case, you
did exactly what you were told to do. Did he really use that word?

> that said RESET and the computer proceeded to reboot itself. The store
> manager had a fit and started lecturing that I was damaging store
equipment.

A bit of an exaggeration. It can screw up Windows, but it usually repairs
itself. If it was Windows 9x, chances are it will freeze often enough or
blue screen, requiring a true "RESET." If it's Windows 2000/XP running NTFS
it is pretty robust. That doesn't mean that it's a good way to turn off your
computer, only that the "damage" may have been a bit exaggerated, especially
for a store demo computer without serious work on it.

> For the next 10 minutes he ranted about how that was a bad thing to do.

Resetting a computer is sort of a bad thing to do, as opposed to
"restarting" or "rebooting" it. This is done by selecting Start->Shut
Down->Restart.

> My question is if your not supposed to reboot computers like that then why
> is the button there?

The button is is for an emergency situation where your computer is frozen
and does not respond to the mouse or keystrokes. It is similar to turning
the machin off, then on again without stressing the poser supply. Not all
computers have them. And the ones that do generally have them recessed so
that you can't easily hit them by accident. If your computer is frozen and
there is no reset button, you have to turn it off and then back on. Hint: A
quick way to see whether a computer is really frozen is to hit the num lock
key and see whether the LED indicator goes on or off. If it doesn't, you're
"wedged" in programmer-speak.

The problem with using it (as opposed to a proper shut down or restart) is
that Windows generally does not write data out to the hard disk as soon as a
program does "write operation," but may hold it in a buffer and write it
later when it is not so busy. When you do a proper shutdown (or restart)
this data is "flushed" to the disk. If dont shut it down properly, some data
may be lost. Unless you are working on something serious in, say, a
spreadsheet or wordprocessor, the damage is not terribly severe and windows
can generally recover.

That being said, in your case, the machine was still responding, but was
flaky if I understand you correctly, so it would have been much better to
restart it using the Start button. (Hint: If the mouse is not working you
can press the Windows key if you have one or press "Alt" and "S" together.
The Startup menu will appear and you can use the arrow keys to select
"Shutdown" and then "Restart the computer."

So your manager was correct. However his choice of words was poor. I think
that if a manager (especially one as touchy as yours seems to be) told me
to "reset" a computer I just might take him literally and push the button.

> I asked him and he said I was borderlining on
> insubordination and I should keep my mouth shut.

Without knowing your tone, attitude, exactly what you said, or past history,
it's hard to judge. Given only the information provided, your manager went
way over the top. But he's your manager, so the proper response to an
authority figure is to suck it up. That's life.

>So I ask you all what's the
> reason and if I was in the wrong for pushing the button please explain to
me
> why so I have a logical reason not to push it again.

I think that was a reasonable question, but one that might better have been
asked later after things had cooled down. Sometimes YOU need to learn how to
"manage" a hot-headed manager.
--
Jim
"Remember, an amateur built the Ark; professionals built the Titanic."

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