220-802 · Question #658
Ann reports that upon booting up her workstation the screen says that no boot device is found. She also reports that she hears a faint clicking noise from the workstation. Which of the following is…
The correct answer is A. The hard drive has failed. A faint clicking sound from a workstation combined with a 'no boot device found' error is a classic symptom of a failing hard drive, as the clicking indicates the read/write heads are unable to seek correctly.
Question
Ann reports that upon booting up her workstation the screen says that no boot device is found. She also reports that she hears a faint clicking noise from the workstation. Which of the following is the MOST likely problem?
Options
- AThe hard drive has failed.
- BThe CMOS battery needs to be replaced.
- CThe CPU fan has failed.
- DThe sound card is incorrectly cabled.
How the community answered
(28 responses)- A89% (25)
- B7% (2)
- D4% (1)
Why each option
A faint clicking sound from a workstation combined with a 'no boot device found' error is a classic symptom of a failing hard drive, as the clicking indicates the read/write heads are unable to seek correctly.
The 'click of death' is a well-known hard drive failure symptom where the actuator arm repeatedly resets because it cannot find the correct track, producing a rhythmic clicking noise. When the drive fails in this way it becomes unreadable, causing the BIOS to report no bootable device. This combination of audible and visual symptoms strongly indicates physical HDD failure.
A failed CMOS battery causes incorrect date/time and may reset BIOS settings, but it does not produce a clicking noise or prevent a properly configured boot device from being detected.
A failed CPU fan would trigger a thermal warning or shutdown but would not generate a clicking noise or produce a 'no boot device' error.
A sound card cabling issue affects audio output only and has no relationship to the boot process or the detection of bootable drives.
Concept tested: Diagnosing hard drive failure symptoms
Source: https://www.comptia.org/certifications/a
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