why do you warm boot instead of cold boot when a system error occurs?

a warm boot simply means that your system is restarting without complete power shut down. you have more then likely done this your self a number of times after you have installed a program that requiers you to restart your computer to finish installation. a cold boot means turning the computer completely off <powering down the system> you may do this if you are not going to use your computer for a number of days or there is a very bad electical storm and you do not have a UPS <Uninterupted Power Supply> Windows uses a warm boot by defalt because it will not power down your system unless you have told it to or there is a problem such as your CPU over heating and then it isnt Windows that shuts your system down but your BIOs. i hope i have helped in this matter; and btw <By The Way> Welcome to Flexbeta

I think the answer he was looking for is...

A warm boot just restarts windows and allows drivers and such to reload or start up for the first time as windows has directed.

A cold boot wipes everything from temporary memory like RAM to ensure a completely fresh start with current confiiguration. It would also reinitialize any hardware devices.