Switch off and wait for x seconds before switching back on

[Mule]

I've been having problems with my router/modem lately and having called Virgins tech support I noticed that the recorded message tells you to switch off the router and wait for 2 minutes before switching it back on again. Even when you get through to an actual person they still insist that you wait a set period of time before switching back on.

Now, in my time on this earth, I've switched a lot of electrical items on and off, I'd say I'm quite proficient in it. However, I don't think I've ever encountered a problem that has been fixed by waiting an extended period of time after an item has clearly powered down before restoring power.

So what is this all about? Is it a load of bollocks?

[beansontoast]

They really are shit, aren't they?

I phoned up to activate a replacement modem & he was insisting I should unplug the modem & all cables - I said no fucking way because it would make no difference if the leads were out & anyway it was behind the telly. I just switched it off at the plug.

I spoke to him with the total disrespect that only an arsehole deserves, I was pretty nasty but when I first got through to him he was slurping a drink.

They're just reading through a procedure rather than thinking things through.

[Over Carl]

It does sometimes happen.

I've overclocked my pc and once in a blue moon it struggles to boot. Pull the power for 30 secs and it boots fine.

Just last week friday I was chatting to my boss at work when my pc blue screened. It got stuck in a loop and kept bluescreening after that. I puulled the plug and turned it on again to kill any residual power. Left if off for 30 secs and it's been fine since.

At work for the cad guys we have iiyama 26" screens, every now and then they will not turn on. Only cure is to disconnect ALL cables (power and sources and sound), off for 30 secs then restore power.

[Sanj[UK]]

Also if work has been carriered out at your local exchange/ap the necessary servers might not have refreshed their arp table (or idle disconnect/timeout) so a reboot would be needed to restore your connection

[stimpy]

I had a really flakey old ADSL modem that crashed often. A simple reboot refused to sort it and I had to leave it off for at least 2 minutes before it would work again.

Starting it befoe 2 minutes would cause it to behave erratically. Pinging it would result in 50-75% packet loss and high ping rates (800ms+) over a wired LAN.

My theory is by powering and leaving off let's the capacitors discharge. Just wild speculation but maybe someone with more knowledge could confirm or disprove this?

[flanflinger]

one of my mates showed some of the comments that where on the system after I had a rant at one of our Asian friends for being a total noob and not knowing his arse from his elbow and what the fuck was he doing on second line tech support lol. What had happened was Virgin were doing repair work in the street and cut my T.V and Internet off.. this was done out of hours and I was not there.. when I returned home I had no connection for a week.

My mate was the engineer who come out to re-wire my home back to the cabinet. He showed me the notes.

"This customer is very rude and has a filthy mouth, he needs to take time out, if it was up to me I would keep him disconnected".

Cheeky cunt I thought... I had been offline for a week.

[Brydo666]

Worked for blueyonder broadband support a few years back, happened on many occasions that people would call through with connection issues and upon bringing up their account the modem had an uptime of 3 months.

My experience there showed that even putting a message on with simple instructions, nobody listens to it and wants to speak to someone anyways. Wasn't a bad thing for us working there as it's an easy fix - but waiting to come through was a waste of time for those calling.

[4me2]

I had a really flakey old ADSL modem that crashed often. A simple reboot refused to sort it and I had to leave it off for at least 2 minutes before it would work again.

Starting it befoe 2 minutes would cause it to behave erratically. Pinging it would result in 50-75% packet loss and high ping rates (800ms+) over a wired LAN.

My theory is by powering and leaving off let's the capacitors discharge. Just wild speculation but maybe someone with more knowledge could confirm or disprove this?

I tend to agree with your theory as I have to frequently remove batteries from handheld PC's/Scanners to clear them when they start playing silly buggers.

[Zoots]

My PC from new has had a problem with re-booting. If you attempt to re-start it without shutting it down first, it will not start for me at ALL. I need to shut down, pull the power cable and leave it for a couple of mins, then it'll boot first time. Even rebooting my Vermin hub I'll wait 10 seconds before I switch on again - nothing wrong with a moment's hesitance to let any residual filter away first.

But mostly, the call centres are reading through a script designed for nobheads who don't know their arse from their elbow in the most part.

[satzzz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpmLr...layer_embedded

[Brydo666]

If you attempt to re-start it without shutting it down first, it will not start for me at ALL.

How do you turn it off, without shutting it down?

[flanflinger]

Worked for blueyonder broadband support a few years back, .

Same here.. used work in the Albert Dock years ago... fave words of first line tech support was "Book a tech".

[Brydo666]

Same here.. used work in the Albert Dock years ago... fave words of first line tech support was "Book a tech".

If in doubt, tech out.

[flanflinger]

not being funny but when I was there thats all anyone ever did... it was back in the days of 90 calls in the que and all that... and they wanted your calls to last no longer than 3 minutes... and that is impossible when you have to speak to some people as they truely are single celled organisms... proper pond life!!!... thick as shit!.