Detecting system crashes

The Kick-off! hardware monitors your system by periodically communicating with the Kick-off! software. Every few seconds, the software resets a "watchdog timer" in the hardware, which then counts down each second. As long as the system is running normally, the software will keep resetting this timer, and it will never reach zero.

If the system crashes, the Kick-off! software will stop running, and won't be able to reset the system timer. When the timer reaches zero, the hardware will attempt to restart the computer.

Kick-off! restarts the computer by first switching off its power outlet to turn the computer off. A few seconds later, it turns its power outlet back on.

Note

• You can see the system timer working by watching the blinking status light on the Kick-off! unit. Periodically the blinking stops, showing the software resetting the system timer.

 

	How Kick-off! works