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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Customer:''' Hi, my computer won't boot.
'''Tech Support:''' Have you tried rebooting it?
'''Customer:''' Umm... I can't do that because it doesn't boot in the first place.
'''Tech Support:''' Sir, if you want me to help you we're going to have to do this my way.
|Anecdotal call between a customer and tech support.}}
{{quote|''A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power off and on.
''[Tom] Knight, seeing what the student was doing, spoke sternly: "You cannot fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no understanding of what is going wrong."
''Knight turned the machine off and on.
''The machine worked.''
|[http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html AI Koan] from the [[Jargon File]]}}
Whenever technology misbehaves, restarting or power cycling it usually solves the problem.
See also [[Cut the Juice]], the slightly more direct approach.
{{examples
== Computing Culture ==
* Referenced in the ''[[Jargon File]]'' with the [[Ice Cream Koan]] quoted above.
== [[Film]] ==
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== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'': Done along with resetting the command codes as a precaution after the station {{spoiler|seceded from the Earth Alliance}}. Unexpectedly, this ''caused'' a minor problem in the form of the activation of the station's dormant ([[Remember the New Guy?|and long-forgotten]]) AI. The station's dormant, long-forgotten, and ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* Hilariously, a simple system restore was the solution to a ship-threatening alien program in ''[[Star Trek:
** Ridiculously, this was the solution to another ship-threatening problem in ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]''. When Klingons sabotage the computer running the warp core, Trip restarts it to restore the computer to default settings. The ridiculous part is that the ship was stuck in '''MAXIMUM WARP''' at the time, and they were restarting the ''ENGINE''.
* Likewise, in [[Stargate Atlantis
** Actually it was the equivalent of several reformatting attempts as all systems data was erased and replaced with backups in an attempt to erase the virus.
== [[Machinima]] ==
* The Blues in ''[[
{{quote|
'''Doc:''' Reboot her?
'''Tucker:
'''Doc:''' I don't think that'll work.
'''Church:
'''Tucker:
'''Church:
'''Caboose:''' It was dark and I got to hold my breath. I'm pretty sure there was no side-effects. }}
== [[
* [http://xkcd.com/806/ This ''xkcd'' comic.]▼
* ''[[Ben 10 Ultimate Alien]]'': In the episode "Fused", Ben gets stuck as an Ampfibian and Kevin uses a machine to reboot the Ultimatrix.▼
* The "turning it off and on again" variant is used in [http://superredundant.com/?comic=779-hotline this] ''[[League Of Super Redundant Heroes]]'' strip.
* ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'': When the internet stops and plunges the world into chaos, Kyle travels to the center of the internet, where he finds that it's a giant router. He simply unplugs it and plugs it back in, and the internet is up and running again.▼
* ''[[Re Boot]]'' used this as a [[Deus Ex Machina]]. The User restarting his computer restores Mainframe after a system crash.▼
==
▲* ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]]'': In the episode "Fused", Ben gets stuck as an Ampfibian and Kevin uses a machine to reboot the Ultimatrix.
▲* [http://xkcd.com/806/ This xkcd comic.]
▲* ''[[
▲* ''[[
== [[Real Life]] ==
* As demonstrated in the quote above, the first step in troubleshooting any computer problem is to restart the computer.
** This also applies to cable boxes, phones, and modems.
* Apollo 12 came very close to an abort when it was hit twice by [[Lightning Can Do Anything|lightning]] during launch, which resulted in the telemetry failure of the Command Module's computer entirely, giving both all three astronauts aboard and Mission Control blank screens.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Magical Computer]]
[[Category:Have You Tried Rebooting?]]
[[Category:
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