I leave my computer on 24/7. Every so often though, things become “corrupted” (I’m told) and my PC acts wonky. I restart it and all is well again. Cool.
My cell phone is also on 24/7. I have noticed that sometimes it acts strangely; poor signal quality in a room of my house where I usually get excellent signal quality for example. I turn the phone off, then on, and all is well.
Is there an explanation? Also, I just heard about calling *228 to update phone service. My coworkers say they do this all the time and cannot understand how my phone can function since I’ve never done it. :eek:
Cell phones operate on software and sometimes need to be rebooted, although the programs are usually quite reliable. Many cellphones allow additional games (software) and programs to be downloaded that can also corrupt the system if they are not written perfectly.
I sometimes have to reboot other appliances which are really computers in disguise such as my personal video recorder.
You shouldn’t have to reboot neither the computer or your phone to make them work as expected. I never “rebooted” my cell phone, and my Windows XP installation from 2002 is rebooted a couple of times a year at most, due to security updates or something like that, never because of “corruption” or anything not working as expected. Windows is a real fine operating system if you know how to work with it.
However, I know from my professional life that a lot of Windows installations need a reboot once and again (for numerous reasons), and some cell phones too (especially QTeks or HTCs in my experience); as well as a few projectors and just about everything related to something that reminds you or IT. - Why? - Would probably take a book to explain for each and every item.
The “corruption” explanation you heard, is something the IT department made up to not having to answer questions. They don’t know and they don’t care, because caring about this would cost time (money), and they have higher priorities on their desk right now (I hope).
*228 is only for Verizon networks. It does mysterious things that do not seem to be all that important, because as you noticed your phone functions fine. I believe that it updates a list of nearby cell towers. Having this information in the phone allows it to work a little better.
Just yesterday, I needed to power-cycle my cellphone as it had decided that downtown Oakland had no signal strength at all. Soon as it was back up, what a surprise, five bars. Who knows what happened to confuse it?
Our oven with its electronic controls has needed a reboot or two. Yeah, the oven. All it takes is one unexpected input, or a transient bit of powerline noise to befuddle things if they’ve not been designed to gracefully accept every possibe (not just every likely) input condition. eg: What happens if someone presses Bake, Broil, Off and Timer Start at the same time? What happens if someone presses and holds Bake, Off, Timer Start, then momentarily presses Broil? If the firmware can’t comprehend it, does the oven turn on the flame full strength, or does it fail safely, shut off and go blank? (They at least got this part right!)
IIRC, my Dish PVR runs on some flavor of Linux. Now and then, it gets sufficiently addled that it forgets that its purpose in life is to decode a digital data stream that comes in on this cable, and put out video and sound on that cable. Not often, but when it goes bonkers, well, it’s bonkers, and a power cycle sets things right.
I have had problems where my cell did not act properly (would not couple to my bluetooth) and rebooting did not fix.
Removing the battery and then reinserting it fixed the problem.
And now you know the difference between a warm boot/restart and a power cycle for a phone. (Or really pretty much anything else, since most equipment these days does not actually turn off with the power switch - it just goes to standby.)
Only sure way to cycle stuff these days is to unplug it, or pop out the battery.
