NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs has his rules and I have mine. If you’ve downloaded your free copy of our Vacation Survival Kit (click on the name to view/download), you will find my Rule #1. Here it is:

Whenever something strange happens to our computers, the very first thing to try is: turn the computer off, wait two minutes and restart it.

In other words, reboot your computer.

This week in Remote, we’ve had several people log in to us or call us with very strange problems. For instance, one person could not open their email program – Microsoft Outlook. After they logged in, we couldn’t open it, either. So, we rebooted the computer and after it came back from restarting, Outlook opened without any problems.

Rule #1 doesn’t just apply to computers. Yesterday, Joyce was getting ready to make dinner but the oven would not start. She had pushed the temperature and that set correctly. However, when she pushed the “Start” button, nothing happened. I tried it, same thing. So I said to her, “Let’s reboot the stove!” I went to the breaker box, turned off the stove for a minute then turned it back on. Presto! The Start button worked. Why? Because the oven is run by a computing device!

Conclusion: Next time things go amiss with a computing device – this includes, computers, tablets, smartphones, modems, TVs and, yes, even stoves – try rebooting. If rebooting doesn’t fix the issue, follow Rule #1 and actually turn off the equipment. (Be sure to leave it off for several minutes before restarting.) If that doesn’t fix the problem, call us!