How Rebound! Works

How Rebound! works

Detecting system crashes

The Rebound! hardware monitors your system by periodically communicating with the Rebound! software. Every few seconds, the software resets a "system 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 Rebound! 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. To do this, it sends a "command-control-powerkey" signal, just as if you'd typed it on a keyboard.

Detecting application crashes

Rebound! includes two types of application crash detection. The first will detect any crash which causes an "application has unexpectedly quit" message to appear. To do this, the Rebound! software watches as applications are opened and quit. If one quits abnormally, the Rebound! software will notice and can respond as you specify in the "Application Crashes" panel.

The second type of application crash detection monitors applications which include Rebound! support. This lets Rebound! respond to failures which don't necessarily cause the application to quit.

This type of detection works in a similar manner as the system timers described above. An application with Rebound! support periodically resets an "application timer" in the Rebound! software. If the application fails, its application timer will count down to zero. When it reaches zero, the Rebound! software will respond.

Tip: You can see the application timers working in the "application status" section of the Rebound! control panel.

A list of applications which support application timers can be found on our web site, or check with your application's developer to see if they support Rebound!