system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does a computer turn itself on when it's off during a restart cycle?
gpt
The CMOS battery has nothing to do with it. The other response is from someone with a little knowledge but not enough...! The CMOS battery just keeps the BIOS settings from being wiped, which includes the system date and time, when you power off.

A "soft" reboot doesn't power everything down. A "hard" reboot does, and you would have to press the power button to turn it back on. It isn't really any more complex than that, you are just issuing a soft reboot when you restart your computer through software, and it never actually powers off the computer.