A technician is troubleshooting an old desktop system that randomly shows a Windows BSOD or powers off unexpectedly. All system temperatures are within normal limits. Which of the following should the

The correct answer is A. Visually inspect the motherboard capacitors.. Option A is correct. On old desktop systems, bulging, leaking, or failed capacitors on the motherboard are a well-known cause of random crashes, BSODs, and unexpected power-offs. This is especially common in systems from the mid-2000s affected by the 'capacitor plague.' Since tem

Hardware and network troubleshooting

Question

A technician is troubleshooting an old desktop system that randomly shows a Windows BSOD or powers off unexpectedly. All system temperatures are within normal limits. Which of the following should the technician do NEXT?

Options

AVisually inspect the motherboard capacitors.
BVerify all case fans are operational.
CCheck that the BIOS version supports the installed CPU.
DCompare the software requirements with the installed RAM.

How the community answered

(35 responses)

A
83% (29)
B
6% (2)
C
9% (3)
D
3% (1)

Explanation

Option A is correct. On old desktop systems, bulging, leaking, or failed capacitors on the motherboard are a well-known cause of random crashes, BSODs, and unexpected power-offs. This is especially common in systems from the mid-2000s affected by the 'capacitor plague.' Since temperatures are normal, thermal issues are ruled out, making capacitor failure the most logical hardware suspect. Option B (case fans) is less relevant since temperatures are confirmed normal. Option C (BIOS/CPU compatibility) would typically cause consistent failure rather than random crashes. Option D (RAM vs. software requirements) is a software-level check and less likely than a visible hardware defect on an old machine.

Topics

#Hardware Troubleshooting#Motherboard Components#System Instability#Desktop Systems

Community Discussion

No community discussion yet for this question.

Full 220-1101 Practice