ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) — We use our smartphones nearly every minute every day and, while they’re mostly dependable, sometimes they stop responding.

The screen either goes black or gets frozen. Then, no matter what you do, it won’t turn on or off.

You can go to your wireless carrier, stand in line and someone in tech support presses a few buttons and everything’s fine again.

What did they do? It’s a little trick called a forced restart and you can do it to your smartphone too.

On an iPhone, press and release the volume up button. Then, press and quickly release the volume down button. After that, press and hold the side button. Don’t let go until the Apple logo appears on the screen.

On iPhone 7 and earlier, press and hold the volume down and on/off buttons simultaneously. The phone should restart and work fine.

If the Apple logo stays frozen on the screen try the forced restart again. If you still see a frozen screen, connect it to a computer and, using iTunes, update the phone to the latest iOS.

On Android devices, it depends on the phone. Try force restarting the phone by pressing and holding the power and volume down keys for more than 7 seconds. For some Android devices, you’ll need to hold down the power button for about 30 seconds.

If that doesn’t work on Android phones, you can also remove the battery to reset it but it’s not for the faint of heart.

If things still don’t work, contact support or take the phone to your wireless carrier. It’s a good idea to restart your phone every now and then, whether you’re having problems with it or not. You might find the smartphone works a lot better, faster, after a good restart or a forced restart.

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