I bought a side by side Whirlpool fridge/freezer July of last year. It was water and ice available through the door.

Today it started acting funny. The freezer was not coming on and the ice started melting. I could hear and see water dripping on the bottom of the fridge into what appeared to be some sort of internal drain.

I turned it to its coldest setting and it still would not turn on.

So I pulled it out from the wall and unplugged it. When I plugged it back in it came right on and started acting normally again.

Any idea what is wrong with it?

"Whirlpool fridge/freezer, only a year old and having problems. any idea on what is wrong?"

Yep. All of the brands are made in the same factory in China.    TT

It might have just been going through a defrost cycle when you unplugged it. Some fridges have a timer that periodically shuts off the compressor and turns on one or two small strip heaters to melt frost. The resulting water runs down a small tube on the back of the fridge, where it is deposited in a metal pan (usually underneath the fridge).  Over a period of time, the water in the pan gradually evaporates.

should have consulted with DrFrige before buying

A Subzero lasted 5 years without any problems, it got expensive after that

 

If you've got a lot in the freezer it can somehow stop up one of the lines and cause the ice maker/freezer to stop working since the line gets frozen, then people turn their temperature higher thinking that may have been the problem, which freezes the line even more, which can then cause the pump to burn up. I have no idea how having a packed freezer causes all this, it's just what some of the whirlpool techs have told us about when they do house calls. Ymmv

ETA- we've only had this problem with side-by-sides. I hate them.

You caught the fridge in a def cycle. Your fridge uses an adaptive def board that will send it into def every 8-92 hours depending on the time it takes for the bimetal to open.