Most devices or appliances that we have at home are usually connected to the current and working as long as we have them on. These usually work fine most of the time, but from time to time we need to turn them off or restart them to get them working as they should. These two processes may seem the same, but the reality is that they do not do the same thing. We tell you how they differ from one another.
We are all more than used to turning a device off and on if it is not working properly. Most of them also include an option to restart, although this is not the same in all cases. As we will see later, routers, for example, have the option of doing a reset on the back that is used for much more than simply restarting our device, although as we say this is not the case for all devices.
Turning off a device, what does it imply?
As we say, turning a device off and on is one of the most common things we will do with our devices. This process is always much slower than restarting, since what we are doing with it is that our device, whatever it is, is completely turned off. If, for example, we carry out this action with a mobile phone, we will see how all its electronic components turn off, although some keep a small part of the memory for the alarm programs that we have.
The same thing happens when we do the same with a Smart TV or a router. To do this, all devices usually have buttons that are used to turn off the device completely. In the case of Smart TVs, we should not confuse the power off button on the remote, since what this usually does is suspend the television. You'll know your TV is asleep if you turn it back on normally and it's in the same place you left it (in a streaming app, for example).
When we turn on a device that is completely off, it takes a while for it to turn on. That's because you need to turn on all your components and get them to work, and you may even need to load an operating system in the case of a mobile or Smart TV. Thanks to this process, what we are doing is freeing up space in the memories of our devices and restarting processes that may be causing our device to not work as it should.
Reboot or reset is not the same
The first thing to note when it comes to restarting is that we must separate restart from reset. Some devices have buttons or shortcuts that we can use to factory reset a device. What this does is erase any type of configuration that we have created for our device, putting it back to the one it came from the factory. This is what happens when you restart your router by pressing and holding the reset button for a few seconds.
However, other devices do have buttons or functions to reset them. When we do this, the device does not turn off completely, as it will turn on right after we hit the restart button, leaving some components on in the process. In the same way that happens when we turn off and turn on the device again, all the processes that were being carried out are stopped, so it is a great way to fix any failure that our device has.
So what is the difference between shutting down and restarting? As you have seen a little above, if we talk about resetting the difference with turning off, it is quite clear. However, perhaps the difference between turning off or restarting our device is not so obvious. In essence, both processes are going to serve the same purpose, with the big difference that the restart is always faster than turning a device off and on again. Keep in mind that it may happen that the failure that leads us to restart occurs in one of the components that does not turn off with the restart, so a shutdown may be the solution to your problems in that case.
