What does it mean to "power cycle" a device?

Question

What does it mean to "power cycle" a device?

Answer 1

Turn it off and turn it back on.

Answer 2

Power cycling is the act of turning a piece of equipment, usually a computer, off and then on again. Reasons for power cycling include having an electronic device reinitialize its configuration or recover from an unresponsive state of its mission critical functionality, such as in a crash or hang situation.

Answer 3

Power cycling an electronic device is a technical way of saying "resetting" it. When you power cycle a device, you turn it off and then turn it back on again. Pretty high-tech, huh? Usually, you should let the device sit for a couple seconds after turning it off to make sure the memory in the device is fully cleared before turning it back on.

Any electronic device can be power cycled, but the term is frequently used with cable modems, DSL modems, and routers. This is because small internal errors in these devices can prevent them from functioning correctly. Resetting them typically fixes the errors and allows them to work correctly again.

Answer 4

They are both right.  An added caveat, though, is to wait a minute or two before plugging it back in.  The device will try to save it settings in memory for a short period of time, you want to give it time to give up on that ( a minute or two).