This week’s question for Bwog comes from Daily Editor David Iscoe who wants to know if hitting an electronic device such as a computer is a good way to get it to work? David requests an engineer’s advice. Lucikly, webmaster Zach van Schouwen was on hand to answer David’s question.

“The master walks in to find the student flipping his machine on and off in an effort to solve a technical failure. The master shakes his head, and says “It is futile to power-cycle the machine in lieu of understanding the problem.” The master then flipped the machine on and off, causing it to work immediately. At that moment, the student became enlightened,” Zach explains. He then clarifies that the official term of computer repair geeks is “percussion maintenance” and that yes, hitting a computer—for example if a laptop’s wireless slides out of the motherboard—can quite possibly get it to work.

The idea is that hitting a computer can “dislodge the heads if they’ve become stuck on the platters, or otherwise misaligned,” says Phil Dotree of Associated Content. However, he warns that the risk of damaging your hard drive is high if you choose to slap your computer around a bit.

Ask Bwog thanks the always-helpful Zach van Schouwen and Phil Dotree of associatedcontent.com, whoever he may be.