6

I have a windows laptop and I have to restart it everyday to get the sound working. Because for some reason the sound only works if I boot it up and then restart. Can restarting it 1/2 times a day be bad?

2
  • 2
    What is the sound coming out of that you are having trouble with, headphones or speakers? If applicable, does inserting and re-inserting the audio device without the reboot also not allow the audio to work? What's the make and model of machine you are using? The only reason you are restarting so often is to get the audio to work so maybe focus on trying to get that resolved then the rebooting it a non-issue. If they are built to be rebooted, then rebooting will not hurt anything as long as it's not a forceful reboot. Rebooting refresh volatile memory anyway so that can be a good thing at times Sep 23, 2020 at 13:10
  • 2
    I would not post a question asking if restarting twice a day is bad, but instead ask how to fix your audio not working problem. I suspect that you may be using a display that is connected over HDMI and that it becomes your primary audio source. If you click the speaker in the bottom right, make sure it is set to your computer's soundcard, not the monitor. If this seems to happen every day at startup, you can go to device manager and disable the HDMI audio device to stop this from becoming a problem unless you plan to use speakers with your monitor.
    – LPChip
    Sep 23, 2020 at 14:16

3 Answers 3

5

Restarting a Laptop or a Desktop computer is not normally bad for a computer. Numerous persons (myself included) will shut off a Laptop computer each night. Not bad to do.

Because for some reason the sound only works if I boot it up and then restart.

Get the Driver Update app from the Manufacturer of the Laptop. Update all drivers - BIOS first, then all drivers and ensure you get the Audio and Power drivers plus all others.

Then run Windows Updates to get Windows up to date.

Restart and test the laptop.

0

No, it will not do any harm.

Restarting your computer one or two times per day will not make any difference. However if you restart a lot, such as 10 times within just a few minutes, the electric capacitors can wear a little faster, but it's incredibly unlikely anything significant will occur. You don't have to worry, since you are restarting only a few times per day.

BTW I think restarting is not an effective solution to fix your audio. You can get the latest audio drivers from the manufacturer and update other drivers, like Chipset, BIOS, or video drivers.

6
  • 8
    "if you restart a lot such 10 times in within a few minutes, the electric capacitors can wear little faster" - do you have any source for this?
    – gronostaj
    Sep 23, 2020 at 13:56
  • 5
    -1 restarting does not wear the capacitors.
    – LPChip
    Sep 23, 2020 at 14:14
  • @gronostaj I read it somewhere long ago, couldn't remember the source.
    – Wasif
    Sep 23, 2020 at 14:25
  • 4
    Capacitors "wearing" out is only likely to be an issue when they are overloaded, when they go from uncharged to high voltage (i.e. computer is actually off and being powered on) or over time as the dielectric dries out which would happen irrespective of a reboot. A reboot itself is a minor change in PSU load (everything stays on) and is going to have essentially no measurable effect on capacitors. If you had an ancient machine with physical toggle power switch you could potentially toggle power fast enough to cause damage, but likely something other than capacitors would die first.
    – Mokubai
    Sep 23, 2020 at 14:49
  • 5
    Due to various modern PSU features such as soft-start, being controlled by microelectronics (on your motherboard) rather than physical switch, and having a four-second delay from the BIOS before hard power off you are incredibly unlikely to be able to do anything that could cause the kind of damage you allude to.
    – Mokubai
    Sep 23, 2020 at 14:51
0

although restart will do not any harm to your computer, but I think as the issue is caused by sound driver, we might need to troubleshoot the sound driver for getting a better using experience. Such as, Update system to download and install the latest package. I don't know your system version, but for Windows 10, please go to Settings\update & security\Windows Update to check for update. Go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting\Hardware and Sound, and run playing audio as administrator to fix this issue automatically.

Go to computer device manufacturer website to download and install the latest sound driver.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .