eli5 Why does turning your device on and off often solve a technical issue?
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Modern computers do a *lot*. Between the hardware components, operating system, and applications running on a computer, there are a ton of little conversations happening all the time. Each layer of the conversation has its own requirements, and not everything knows what everything else needs. This is by design, and frequently true whether we’re talking about a desktop computer or a thermostat.
When you turn your computer on, it has done a difficult-to-overstate amount of verification and work to faciliate your ability to sign in. Once you’re signed in, even more work happens because most people like to use computers for more than just space heaters. The really impressive part is that so much of this is effecitvely hidden from you, the user.
Imagine playing Jenga with a tower that had millions of pieces that move around constantly – some you care about, others you don’t. In this game, so many pieces have already moved by the time you put your hand on your first piece that it doesn’t even look like a tower anymore.
Computers have been Jenga towers for a ***LONG*** time, and they’ve gotten ***VERY*** good at recognizing when they’re about to be unstable, to the point that they can endure many pieces being out of place and everything will continue to run fine. They can be smart enough to not allow you to even think about pulling a particular piece, as it will certainly cause a [computer] crash.
Even while you’re playing your particular pieces, others are still moving without (and because of) your actions. Some peices (like device drivers) are so critical that they will insist on re-building the tower every time they get moved.
Eventually, moving pieces around gets difficult – they take longer to move, don’t slide in and out as easily as when you started, and may not even fit in areas they’re supposed to. That’s when you can either carry on until the tower falls (crash) or demand it rebuild itself (reboot), so that you can resume moving your desired pieces around easily and without frustration.
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