The H.A.C.K.E.R. Project

If you have ever listened to any shows, movies, or podcasts that talk about technology, you have likely heard the word “uptime” at least once; “this device has high uptime”, or “what’s it’s uptime?”, or perhaps “uptime is only a day, so far”. Uptime, as the name implies, is the amount of time a system, computer, or other piece of technology spends “up”, or online/operational. For example, if your laptop has been up and running for 4 days, that device has an uptime of 4 days.

Generally speaking, certain devices- like smart phones, laptops, or computers- may start to malfunction or not work as expected once their uptime gets too high. Imagine you decide to stay up all night, and not sleep at all. At first, the effects might be negligible; you might still be able to function without one night’s sleep, although you might make a few mistakes or be a bit grumpy. After the second night of no sleep, you are more likely to make more mistakes or forget things during the day; with each passing day of no sleep, your chance at forgetting something, making a mistake, or even falling asleep without meaning to increases.

The same can be said for computers, laptops, and phones. The higher a device’s uptime gets, the more likely you are to encounter issues when using it. Applications might not load properly, the device may start running slowly, or certain software will just outright crash whenever you try to use it. This is why it is important to allow your computer time to rest every now and again to reset its uptime.

How to Reset My Computer’s Uptime

Simply powering off your computer, as one would assume, is not always enough to set your uptime back to 0 days, 0 hours, and 0 minutes. This is because many modern devices have built in features that still technically run- and as a result keep the system running- even when the device is powered off. These features serve to make the computer power on and load a lot faster; instead of needing to start everything back up, the computer can instead “pick up where it left off”. This is why you may notice your device taking a lot longer to power on whenever you have not used it for a while, but power on much faster after a few days of use. While these features are extremely useful, they also result in a device’s uptime continuing to grow higher even when the device is powered off.

Instead of powering off your device to reset your uptime, you should restart it instead. Restarting the device causes everything- including the above-mentioned features- to be shut down for a few moments before the computer reboots and begins to power back on. Since the device is, for a brief moment, fully shut down, its uptime will be reset to 0, just as if it went to bed for the night and woke up refreshed the next morning. On most devices, the option to restart is normally in the same menu as the “shut down” option. Not only will restarting your device reset its uptime, but it may also prompt your device to install any updates it had been waiting to install, which can also improve efficiency.

Usually, an uptime of a couple of days does not cause any harm except for a few applications loading a little slower at times. As a result, it is best to restart your computer at the end of every week. Including a restart as part of your end of the week ritual (whether you are at work, at school, or at home) can help make your device run smoother and decrease the likelihood of encountering errors.

How to Check My Device’s Uptime

Knowing how to check your uptime is great foundational knowledge when it comes to troubleshooting a device.

To find your uptime on a computer running Windows, click on the Windows icon on your task bar or press the Windows key on your keyboard. This will open up the start menu. Search for “Task Manager” in the search bar on the start menu, and open the Task Manager application. You may have to then select the “More Details” option to get a more detailed view. You will then want to click on the Performance menu on the sidebar of the Task Manager; this will look like a heart rate monitor. Once this menu opens, click on the CPU option. The uptime of your device will be at the bottom of this screen, labeled “Up time”.

To find your uptime on a Macbook or a device running MacOS, click on the Apple icon at the top of the screen. Press and hold on the option key, and then click “System Information”. This will open up a menu of a lot of details about your Macbook. On the left sidebar of this menu, find and click on the word “Software”. This will open up some basic details about the Macbook’s software. One of these details will be “Time since boot”, which will showcase the uptime of your device.

Finally, to find your uptime through a terminal, simply use the “uptime” command. This will output the current uptime of your device to the terminal window. You can also find the uptime of a Macbook with this method.