Could the chip's "stuck state" be due to either a hardware or software cause?
Yes. It could be either one alone, or perhaps even a combination of both.
There may also be other things that contribute, such as thermal effects. For example, if a chip works fine when it's cold (room temperature), but it then starts misbehaving when it gets warmer. After reaching that thermal threshold, it then takes a power-cycle (down then up) to get it to start behaving again, at least for a while.
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I have several Windows 7 touch screen terminals that I manage for work
On 2 occasions, I have had touch screens become unresponsive
A restart would not fix it
and a shut down did not fix it
BUT a shut down and the power cord disconnected would (found the trick on the interwebs somewhere)
I found that interesting
There's a "trickle power" voltage coming from most power supplies these days. It only turns off when the mains power is removed. Turning off the power switch doesn't remove trickle power.
Sometimes this symptom means that a battery in the computer is too low, and the non-volatile parameter storage is getting corrupted. Replacing the battery may solve the problem. Not always, but it's worth looking at.
Those aren't the only possibilities, but without knowing what the actual electronic circuitry is, it's a fair guess.
