PC self-healing over time?

Last night, while trying to use Windows 11's "game bar" to show a Frames-Per-Second read-out, it said I needed to first seek access via the User Account Control.

There was a "seek access" button, so I clicked it, and it began a re-start (or told me to re-start manually - I can't remember). After re-starting, it got as far as displaying the custom screen background image and then immediately went to an error screen. It declared some kind of memory management problem with "data in a non-paged area" (or something like that).

There were several options, including auto-repair (which failed) and using a recent restore point (also failed). Other options like re-installing Windows 11 looked too risky, but it went through 5 or 6 cycles of re-starting and error screen before I chose to close it down for the night.

Next morning, I was about to call the guys who built the PC and ask for help. I decided to start the PC one more time and take better notes on what the error screen said. Amazingly, it started and didn't crash. In fact, I'm using it now to write this post.

How can it be that simply leaving it overnight allowed the PC to heal itself?

My PC details are below in my forum signature.


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There can be a difference between "restart" and "turn off" then "turn on" - you'd think it would be the same, but (pre 11 winDOHz at least) there was some tom foolery with caches that was different. Even a key (I don't recall which) that if held during boot ensured the cache was cleared.

All of this to basically shave a few seconds off boot times. A poor decision in my opinion.
 
At least that explains it in rational terms, as opposed to what looked like super-natural magic to me. I'll remember the difference between re-start and off/on for future incidents. Thanks for that.
 
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