History Main / HaveYouTriedRebooting

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* In ''WesternAnimation/WeLostOurHuman," [[spoiler:the climax of each playthrough has Ham and/or Pud attempting this with ''the universe''. How well it works depends on what choices you make in the story, and on how many playthroughs you've undergone]].

* The very first episode of ''{{Series/Leverage}}'' has the crew sabotage a receptionist's computer and send in Elliot disguised as an IT tech. He asks the receptionist if she tried rebooting and Hardison (listening over the radio) proudly tells the others that he taught Elliot to do that.

** One of the criticisms with modern-day computers as compared to the ones he grew up with like the UsefulNotes/Commodore64 evokes this when he describes how tech support back then was genuinely helpful and came from actual trained experts, while tech support today is incredibly unhelpful and comes from an untrained temp worker who can barely speak English and whose "help" is limited to more or less telling you to try rebooting, updating, and uninstalling software that didn't come with the computer.

* ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella:'' As it turns out, there's a difference between rebooting, and ''really rebooting''.

* It also applies to the problems experienced during network operations. At the lightest you can expect the little refresh button to solve your connection problems or something failing to load (just don't do it during transmission of sensitive information like transaction or if it's warned) and at the heaviest one may need to turn off and turn on the networking hardware to refresh how the hardware receive networked information.

Whenever technology misbehaves, restarting or power cycling it usually solves the problem. This is TruthInTelevision, as explained [[http://www.howtogeek.com/173760/htg-explains-why-does-rebooting-a-computer-fix-so-many-problems/ here]].

-->-- '''Roy''', ''Series/TheITCrowd''

--->'''Roy:''' [[CatchPhrase Hello, IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again?]]... OK, well, the button on the side. Is it glowing?... Yeah, you need to turn it on.... Err, the ''button'' turns it on.... Yeah, you do know how a button works, don't you? No, not on clothes.\\

** It becomes a RunningGag for the show and a CatchPhrase for Roy. One episode has Roy lampshade how it's become a catchphrase and he makes a bet with Jen not to say it the rest of the day.

-> Hello, IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again?

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': This is the last step in resetting the command codes, which was needed after [[spoiler:the station seceded from the Earth Alliance]]. Unexpectedly, this ''caused'' a minor problem in the form of the activation of a long-forgotten, and completely obnoxious, personality program,[[note]]voiced by Creator/HarlanEllison, in one of the show's more delightful {{truth in television}} moments[[/note]] which they had to spend the rest of the episode disabling. Special mention goes to Garibaldi getting so fed up with it he shoots the speaker in the elevator.

** Hilariously, a simple system restore was the solution to a ship-threatening alien program in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Contagion". In the future, we apparently won't remember the purpose of protected backup archives. It took Data doing the same thing as a natural function of his programming (his creator Soong was CrazyPrepared like that) to remind Geordi.

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
*** When the Doctor starts running into increasingly serious failures and memory issues from having been running actively for ''much'' longer than his programmers anticipated[[note]]as an ''Emergency'' Medical Hologram, the intent was that he would supplement or fill in for the actual medical crew in an emergency, but Voyager's pilot episode strands it years away from replacement crew and with the entire medical team dead, so the EMH ends up having to serve as Voyager's de-facto Chief Medical Officer[[/note]], rebooting him is one of the solutions proposed. The problem isn't that it wouldn't work, but rather that it would work ''too well'' -- it would reset him to factory default and wipe out all the CharacterDevelopment he's gotten since first initialisation.

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', In the Episode "Solitudes", Carter reboots the Beta Gate's DHD to try and get a connection, which fails, to her dismay. However, this causes a seismic vibration, which ultimately leads to her and Jack O'Neill being rescued by the SGC.

* In one episode of ''Series/RobocopTheSeries'', this was done as part of a series of emergency repairs on the title character. This was not done casually, as shutting down his robotic parts had the potential to damage his organic parts, thus hypothetically killing Alex Murphy to repair [=RoboCop=].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

'''Dogbert:''' ''[thinks]'': My average call time is improving.

* In ''Film/JurassicPark'' after the computer system locks out the operators, it is suggested they try restarting it entirely. It's worth noting in that film it actually ''works'', but it inadvertently trips the breaker switches, meaning that they had to flip the switches back on before the restart could proceed. And those switches are in a bunker on the other side of the complex. Outside. [[FromBadToWorse Where the dinosaurs are now running loose.]]
** It also turns off the electric fence around the raptor cage, [[ItCanThink which they're smart enough to notice]].

* ''Film/Alien40thAnniversaryShorts''. In "Specimen", the botanical lab detects a biological contamination (a facehugger) and goes into LockDown with [[TrappedWithMonsterPlot Julie trapped inside]]. Dev reboots the system to unlock it, [[DarknessEqualsDeath turning off all the lights]].

* In ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Wraith Squadron]]'', Kell's instructions to fix Donos's R2 unit, Shiner, basically consist of inserting a RestrainingBolt into Shiner and using it merely as a switch, to turn him off and back on. This broke the programming loop Shiner was stuck in due to an ion-and-EMP mine that everyone had run into earlier.

-->-- '''Roy''', Series/TheITCrowd

-> [[CatchPhrase Hello, IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again?]]

* Various [[GameBreakingBug Game-Breaking Bugs]] that freeze a game or otherwise cause problems can be overcome by restarting the system you're playing it on. Just keep in mind that this may set you back by rolling back unsaved progress.

->'''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

* The Blues in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' have apparently used this technique a few times.