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Can somebody tell me what a cold start is?

roberttitusroberttitus
edited September 2010 in General Chat
I was looking up ways to keep my laptop running as long as possible... & they said one of the main killers of a laptop is a cold start. So naturally I looked it up (they only place that actually seemed to talk about it in a computer sense was unfortunately wikipedia) & it was so damn technical that I could barely understand a word of it.

Can somebody PLEASE put it into layman's terms?

Comments

  • GaryCXJkGaryCXJk
    edited September 2010
    Hard reboot
    A hard reboot (also known as a cold reboot, cold boot or cold start) is when power to a computer is cycled (turned off and then on) or a special reset signal to the processor is triggered. This restarts the computer without first performing any shut-down procedure. (With many operating systems, especially those using disk caches, after a hard reboot the filesystem may be in an "unclean" state, and an automatic scan of on-disk filesystem structures will be done before normal operation can begin.) It may be caused by power failure, be done by accident, or be done deliberately as a last resort to forcibly retrieve the system from instances of a system freeze, critical error or virus-inflicted DoS attack. It can also be used by intruders to access cryptographic keys from RAM, in which case it is called a cold boot attack.[19] The attack relies on the data remanence property of DRAM and SRAM to retrieve memory contents which remain readable in the seconds to minutes after power has been removed.[19]
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting

    In short, shutting down your PC without properly shutting down your PC will kill your PC.

    In essence, don't use the off-button. Use the shutdown procedure of your OS (Operating System, like Windows, Mac OS or Linux).
  • FalancaFalanca
    edited September 2010
    Well, it's technically used for the situations where a machine tries to run a procedure (either hardware or software based, it doesn't even have to be computer-related) when its components are not prepared yet, causing an imbalancedly timed turn of events that may cause various problems.

    It also sounds like a case of an insufficient start of a sexual confrontation, but I'm not the one for slangs.
  • roberttitusroberttitus
    edited September 2010
    So basically never turn on the PC directly after turning it off?
  • GaryCXJkGaryCXJk
    edited September 2010
    Or, never turn your PC off without actually shutting it down.

    E.g. don't ever touch the power button. Unless it's on your keyboard. UNDER THE FREAKING DELETE BUTTON.
  • roberttitusroberttitus
    edited September 2010
    GaryCXJk wrote: »
    Or, never turn your PC off without actually shutting it down.

    E.g. don't ever touch the power button. Unless it's on your keyboard. UNDER THE FREAKING DELETE BUTTON.

    Okay... good then because I NEVER use the power button to turn the Laptop off. Thanks for your help guys :D
  • Javi-Wan KenobiJavi-Wan Kenobi
    edited September 2010
    GaryCXJk wrote: »
    Or, never turn your PC off without actually shutting it down.

    E.g. don't ever touch the power button. Unless it's on your keyboard. UNDER THE FREAKING DELETE BUTTON.
    Is yours like this? It's a really ackward design...
  • GaryCXJkGaryCXJk
    edited September 2010
    Yes. There were times I nearly wanted to throw my keyboard out of the window, but here in the Netherlands, you can get fined for that. Throwing junk out of your window.
  • AvistewAvistew
    edited September 2010
    Mine is right over it, but pressing it asks me if I want to shut off the computer, hibernate, etc.
    I do unplug it when it freezes, though. Which happens often.
  • FalancaFalanca
    edited September 2010
    GaryCXJk wrote: »
    Yes. There were times I nearly wanted to throw my keyboard out of the window, but here in the Netherlands, you can get fined for that. Throwing junk out of your window.

    I had a friend living there. Sometimes he was talking about how much of a hellhole where he lives is, and I wasn't able to believe how similar it was to my country. Today I finally found a difference.

    I'm able to throw my bloody handkerchieves or whatever out of window simply because where I live is simply one large dumpster.
  • GuruGuru214GuruGuru214
    edited September 2010
    Yeah, when I hit the power button, it just causes Windows to go through its normal shutdown procedure. Now holding it for five seconds...well, my computer has a tendency to lock up every once in a while (and it's almost always because the graphics driver triggered a bluescreen), so I have to force it to shut down every once in a while. Mostly whenever I'm trying to play a Bioshock game.
  • Steve2000Steve2000
    edited September 2010
    If you have Windows 7 or Vista (not sure about XP or Mac OS) you can go to the control panel and set what you want your physical power button to do. Options include, sleep, hibernate, shutdown, restart, or even nothing. So to those couple of people who just said they accidentally hit the button, just set it in the settings to do nothing. Then the only way to make the power button do anything is to hold it down for 5 seconds, which you would never do by accident.

    EDIT: This is an option in XP too!
  • GaryCXJkGaryCXJk
    edited September 2010
    Windows XP. Enough said. Also, is an old keyboard, so yeah.
  • Steve2000Steve2000
    edited September 2010
    GaryCXJk wrote: »
    Windows XP. Enough said. Also, is an old keyboard, so yeah.

    I just looked it up: Windows XP can do this trick too. Click Start and open the Control Panel. In Category View, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click Power Options. In the Power Options Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab. Under Power Buttons you will have the choices I mentioned above.

    (From this website)

    Though with an old keyboard - no promises.
  • FriarFriar
    edited September 2010
    Avistew wrote: »
    Mine is right over it, but pressing it asks me if I want to shut off the computer, hibernate, etc.
    I do unplug it when it freezes, though. Which happens often.
    I just leave mine out in the sun for a bit when it freezes. That usually does the trick!:D

    Sorry, that was terrible. I apologise.
  • GaryCXJkGaryCXJk
    edited September 2010
    Steve2000 wrote: »
    I just looked it up: Windows XP can do this trick too. Click Start and open the Control Panel. In Category View, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click Power Options. In the Power Options Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab. Under Power Buttons you will have the choices I mentioned above.

    (From this website)

    Though with an old keyboard - no promises.

    Yeah, but what if I still want to use the physical buttons themselves? I used this before, but then I couldn't use the regular on-off buttons anymore.
  • BlooglspashBlooglspash
    edited September 2010
    Friar wrote: »
    I just leave mine out in the sun for a bit when it freezes. That usually does the trick!:D

    I really wish I could find a good image of Brain hitting Pinky on the head.
  • [TTG] Yare[TTG] Yare Telltale Alumni
    edited September 2010
    The power button on modern computers is a software switch -perfectly safe to press as the default behavior of modern OSs when they receive this signal is to go into hibernation.

    Holding this button for 5 seconds will force a hardware switch.
  • FriarFriar
    edited September 2010
    Blooglspash wrote: »
    I really wish I could find a good image of Brain hitting Pinky on the head.
    Here we go. Courtesy of Youtube.
    pinkybrain.png
  • Chyron8472Chyron8472
    edited September 2010
    by "kill" your computer, you do mean corrupt the software, right?

    I can see how shutting your computer off without going through the OS's shutdown procedure could cause software glitches, but that's different from actually bricking the hardware.

    Forcing a hardware shutdown won't brick your machine unless you do so during a BIOS flash update. Besides turning the machine off during a BIOS update (which you don't sound tech savvy enough to attempt,) the worst that would happen is it would contribute to you at some point running a fresh install of your OS to easily clear out bugs and glitches, but that doesn't mean that you'd get BSOD'd right away.

    Really. A forced hardware shutdown does have the potential to cause software problems, but your machine is not going to die from it.
  • SHODANFreemanSHODANFreeman
    edited September 2010
    One time the power went out while I was on my PC, and I had to do a repair installation of Windows because it wouldn't boot anymore. Good times.
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