Many airlines have IFE failures, from individual screens to entire aircraft. I do wonder how much testing is really done though. The statement over the PA for passengers not to touch their screens during a re-boot sounds like the entire system is a bit flaky and not robust enough to deal with the demand put on it. As someone who works in IT, these seem to be the core issues to me.

What can be done? Better testing, including stress testing (hook up 400 screens and get everyone to request the same film at the same time for example). Implement more robust procedures so that a reset is more likely to succeed.

To be honest, I always take my iPad, but will watch the IFE if there are films on there that I haven't seen before. The IFE will still be my first port of call.