It's not uncommon to be plodding along in any given computer program when disaster strikes. For whatever reason, the program locks up and ultimately crashes completely - maybe even taking down the entire system in the process. But have you ever wondered why that is the case or what caused the issue?

Dr. Steve Bagley from Computerphile recently published a YouTube video that shines some light on what's happening behind the scenes.

In the clip, he uses an Atari Falcon from the early '90s for the simple fact that it can really only run one program at a time. This makes it easier to crash a program and see what went wrong versus using a modern, more complex computer.

The video covers everything from basic and "bad" software crashes to hardware faults and even cosmic rays!

Found is a TechSpot feature where we share clever, funny or otherwise interesting stuff from around the web.