Tech Tip #1

From the Desk of Ted Stevens, CEO

We have had a number of support calls in the last few months that actually required only a little TLC by rebooting their computer and giving it enough time to update Microsoft operating system patches and updates, especially laptops.  They should be rebooted every day to restore their full hardware and operating resources.  I know that sounds too easy to be of any real help, but let me tell you about working with a Force5 user just yesterday….

I got a panic call from a surveyor, his Force5 would not do a print preview or make a PDF file.  Force5 just locked up when he tried to get it to print preview.  So I asked him a few questions before I tried to connect to his computer remotely.

1. When was the last time it was working perfectly?  This survey?
2. When was the last time you rebooted your computer?
3. What version of Windows are you running?  Windows 10, Windows 7, etc.?

He said he was using a desktop computer with two monitors and it was rebooted earlier that morning. I was able to ascertain that he was on Windows 10.  I told him (even though he rebooted already today) “let’s do a complete shut down and then a re-start”. The proper way to shut down Windows 10 so that it lets loose of all your computers resources (like memory) and closes all background utilities running, is to go to the shutdown menu and then hold down the “shift” key while you click on “shut down”  NOT restart, but “shut down”.

Let the computer start its shut down procedures and if it starts to download updates before shutting down, then let it complete it’s tasks, shut down and turn off the power.  Leave it off for about 30 seconds then turn the power back on.   When the computer starts up and goes through its process of restarting Windows, let it go all the way through without clicking on anything.  It may have to activate some updates or apply patches, it may need to restart a couple of times depending on how long it has been since you let it do updates.  In this customers case, it took about fifteen or twenty minutes to restart a couple of times and get all updates and patches installed.  I had him wait until the spinning circle (cursor) had stopped spinning and nothing else was loading or giving messages.   Then I had him restart one more time, not do a “shut down”, but do a restart with “Shift” key.   When it restarted, he remarked as to how quickly the computer was responding and he opened Force5 again.  It opened fast and loaded his survey right where he left it and he was able to print preview and make a PDF file to deliver his survey.

Quick Summary of Tip: This should be done a lot more than you think.  You should do a hard shut-down of your computer every week, especially Windows 10 computers. Hold the “Shift” key down and “select shut down” to clear out its little digital brain.  If you have a laptop do it every few days, as they don’t have the resource tolerance that desktops usually do.

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