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IHOP_007 t1_jdi8pmo wrote

There are two types of memory volatile and non-volatile. Volatile means that it gets erased if it loses power and non-volatile means it stays if it loses power.

When your computer loads a program it loads it into volatile memory as it's a lot faster to access and make changes to. However, because it's making changes to it, it might do something weird that causes the program to mess up to either that specific program or something else that interacts with it.

By "turning it off and on again" you reset all of the volatile memory and reset it to its initial state, before it caused that issue for itself.

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WeirdSysAdmin t1_jdiotok wrote

Adding to this, RAM in desktop computer is typically NOT error correcting. That is usually something we only put in server hardware due to cost.

Error correcting RAM basically has an extra storage chip on it that continually checks for memory corruption.

RAM is actually insanely sensitive to environmental changes. Something like an electrical fluctuation can cause values stored in RAM to change. This can even be caused by planetary scale things like solar flares or little things like temperature changes.

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fede142857 t1_jdiw0cv wrote

> Something like an electrical fluctuation can cause values stored in RAM to change. This can even be caused by planetary scale things like solar flares or little things like temperature changes.

Relevant article I read years ago from Oracle Linux Blog: Attack of the Cosmic Rays!

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SirWigglesVonWoogly t1_jdj2qge wrote

The fact that computers work consistently when bits are about the size of atoms is absolutely incomprehensible to me.

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Boagster t1_jdje9ff wrote

I've been a computer geek my whole life - like, I learned the alphabet using the keyboard of my family's 1989 Dell and a passion for them just continued to grow from there.

Not only can I not fathom that they work consistently, I can't fathom how we ever figured out how to get semiconductors to perform logic equations. I've probably spent days worth of time trying to wrap my head around it and I just can't.

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GoldenAura16 t1_jdjk4zc wrote

It drives me crazy that I can understand the HOW, but not the WHY of the thing. As an engineer I love knowing the how and the why, but with computers its just....static and frustration.

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Boagster t1_jdjkem3 wrote

See, there's your problem. You mixed static with your computer.

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GoldenAura16 t1_jdjkijk wrote

I thought I was mixing computer with my static....this explains everything!

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Saporificpug t1_jdjzxim wrote

It's also worth mentioning that on newer versions of Windows, "shut down" does not reset your memory. You actually want to "restart". Because of Window's fast boot, it creates a snapshot and reloads it into memory when shutting down. Where as restarting refreshes it.

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