@Jeruba
“What I don’t understand is why it breaks when you don’t open it.”
Please excuse me if the following is TMTechinicalI:
Ultimately, software needs hardware to support it.
Here’s an image of a Nortel DMS 100 Server circuit card.
These server components provide material support for most of a processor’s software storage and activity.
These cards consist of numerous parts that eventually will physically degrade. This is because said parts are continually subjected to heat and electrical surges.
So it could be because of a transient hardware flaw.
I think sometimes the OS software will have a latent design flaw, that won’t present until it encounters a problem or situation that the developers didn’t anticipate.
I used to work for AT&T as a communications technician. I actually had the same question about 30 years ago, when a technical manager told me about a case where a peripheral unit failed, because the controlling software “went bad”.
I asked, “So the only trouble with the TUC was the software?”
I don’t remember whether he just answered “Yes”, and I didn’t ask why, or I did ask him and he didn’t know either.
I’d love it if Ben entered this thread and gave us a more authoritative explanation.