Hello Nima,

There is a real problem with some of the members of this forum using a resistor and capacitor as a reset circuit. They will tell you to us a supervisor circuit. So a search and you will find tons of previous post explaining that alternative.

When you say you touch the crystal things appear to work or something like that. Has the circuit ever worked? Break things down to blocks (power supply, reset circuit, oscillator etc) and trouble shoot each one. Start with the power supply circuits first. Make sure they come on fast when power is applied and are at the proper voltage level (5VDC). If they have a slow rise time the reset circuit will hang and nothing will work. Put a switch across the capacitor and use that as a reset. It will tell you if the reset circuit is the problem. The crystal needs to be check out also. About all you can do for that is to swap out the crystal and two caps which go to ground (I hope you have those in your circuit).

I guess there are a lot of other things you can do but start with the basic and work from there.

Good luck.

Regards,

Charles Bannister