A reset button is a momentary tactile switch wired to the hardware reset pin of a processor or logic board. Pressing it pulls the reset line high or low, clearing volatile registers and forcing the system clock to restart the boot sequence. It provides a hard hardware interrupt when software freezes, bypassing the operating system entirely.
Heard on the job
Hold the reset button down while applying power to force the board into bootloader mode.
Related terms
Hard-reset
To force a device to restart by physically interrupting its power supply or triggering a dedicated hardware reset line.
Watchdog
A hardware timer that automatically resets a system if software hangs.
Interrupt
A hardware or software signal that forces a processor to pause its current task and execute a specific routine.