Originally Posted by
bearisgray
Specifically, I was wondering what happens -
do connections break? does plastic melt? do components fall off? do the parts corrode somehow? does the programming "disappear" - and if it does, how does it disappear"
It all depends, so much can go with electronics...
You could have an overcurrent incident that "lets the smoke out" of a part. A diode can go bad (it happens), a soldering joint can become loose and lose the electrical connection, a little corrosion can cause the resistance to be too high. Dust could build up, and with exposure to moisture, oil, small metallic particles, etc, could become conductive between two parts of the circuit, shorting them together. They could also overheat, damaging the internal components.
Depending on how the memory is stored/used, it can become corrupted, overheating of a chip may damage the memory storage, electricity in the wrong spot could cause it to be erased. There could be an error in part of a loop that won't allow the rest of the program to run (often caused by Gremlins). Programs can be insane, and one little glitch can easily make everything crash.