A technician is troubleshooting a desktop PC. When the power button is pressed, the fan momentarily spins and the PC does not boot. Which of the following components is MOST likely the problem?

The correct answer is D. Power supply. A fan that spins briefly and then stops - with the system failing to POST or boot - is a hallmark symptom of a failing or underpowered power supply (PSU). The PSU delivers just enough charge to spin the fan for a moment but cannot sustain the stable voltage rails required for…

Hardware and network troubleshooting

Question

Options

ACPU
BCMOS battery
CRAM
DPower supply

How the community answered

(40 responses)

A
3% (1)
B
15% (6)
C
5% (2)
D
78% (31)

Explanation

A fan that spins briefly and then stops - with the system failing to POST or boot - is a hallmark symptom of a failing or underpowered power supply (PSU). The PSU delivers just enough charge to spin the fan for a moment but cannot sustain the stable voltage rails required for the motherboard, CPU, and RAM to initialize. A faulty CPU would more commonly result in no POST but might not cause such an abrupt stop. A bad CMOS battery affects BIOS settings but would not typically prevent booting entirely. Faulty RAM can cause boot failures (often with beep codes) but would still usually allow the fans to continue spinning while the system attempts to POST.

Topics

#power supply failure#boot failure#PC troubleshooting#desktop hardware

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