Tech head managed to empty cache in a daze (6)
I believe the answer is:
trance
'a daze' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'tech head managed to empty cache' is the wordplay.
'head' indicates taking the first letters.
'managed' becomes 'ran' (I've seen this before).
'to empty' means to remove the middle letters.
'cache' with its middle removed is 'ce'.
The initial letter of 'tech' is 't'.
't'+'ran'+'ce'='TRANCE'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for trance that I've seen before include "State of abstraction" , "Sleep-like, half-conscious state" , "Canter into one of these at a seance" , "Semi-conscious state" , "Dream state" .)