As far as I know, every PC has a reset button. Therefore, I should have one on mine. The problem, though, is that I (in my compu-illiterateness) have no idea if the one I think it is is, in fact, it. I have gone through the manual things, but they don’t say where it is. There is a small button beneath the main power button on the tower with a broken circle icon thing next to it. I don’t want to push it for fear of nuclear explosion. Is this the reset button?
Most likely. Modern PCs will only have two buttons (other than eject buttons on drives, and the like), so whatever isn’t the power button is almost certainly the reset button. Try it and see:)
Any some of the very new machines, there is no seperate reset button, it is combined with the power button. But, as FDISK says, if you have a second button and it is not the power button, it is almost certainly the reset button.
To test it, I would try it very early during the boot process before the OS even starts to load. Though the OS’s handle getting dumped without warning pretty well, it is preferrable not to reset a booted machine without going through the shut down process first.
DO NOT TOUCH THAT BUTTON!
You don’t want to know why. Just. Don’t. Do. It. Mmmmkay?
Phew. That was close.
I presume Princhester, you’re joking?
The worst the mysterious button could be is a switch to change the current from what you’re using to another standard. If the button slides up and down into two positions without springing back, it might be this. DON’T TRY THIS WHEN THE COMPUTER’S ON. And LEAVE THE SWITCH IN THE ORIGINAL POSITION when you do turn it on.
If the button depresses, on the other hand, it’s almost certainly a reset switch, and as scotth says, the time to test it is just a few seconds after turning the power on. After that, you can use it when you need (when the computer screen is frozen and won’t respond to a normal restart from the menu).
The reset switch is handy, because it causes less computer wear-and-tear than the power switch does.
It’s possible for a reset switch to fail (mine has, twice). If that’s the case, don’t worry about it.
i have no clue why Princhester said that. Unless he was joking. i have never seen a 120v/220v switch on the front of any computer’s cabinet. this is normally at the back of the SMPS (Power Supply).
A button above or below your power button, smaller than your power button, and on the front of your cabinet is almost certainly the reset button. Some cabinets additionally have a Sleep button.
Pressing these buttons do not generally cause any damage, but it is still advisable, as the others have mentioned, to press the button a few seconds after your comp starts booting up. if, when you press the suspected reset button, your comp restarts and the keyboard flashes all 3 of the Num lock/Caps lock/Scroll lock LEDs it is without doubt the reset switch.
However, if your comp does nothing when you press this button, it could still possibly be your reset switch which hasn’t been connected correctly to your motherboard. Identifying the exact model of your motherboard and connecting the reset switch cable, as shown in motherboard manual diagram, to your motherboard will solve this.
if, not satisfied with all this, you still wish to have a reset option on your computer, use a screw driver to short the correct two pins on the motherboard. this is a dangerous procedure if done with the wrong two pins… so forget about it.
I think Princhester was worried about the magic switch:
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/A-Story-About-Magic.html
[whoooosh]
Actually on the newer computers theres only one button
What you do is just tap to shut down windows now and hold the button to turn it off
Theyed perfer you reset/restart the computer through windows these days supposedly
Funny story when I got my computer windows wouldnt shut down due to some compaq software conflict And i didnt know how to turn it off So i called customer service he said "oh you have the one button model "
He says for a hard shut down hold down the button for 5 seconds and it shuts off and said to shut down windows clickc once wait for the ok screen to come up and then click again to turn it off
He could ofmade me feel really stupid (which i did anyways ) but didnt