220-802 · Question #991
A user has called in a helpdesk ticket about their monitor not powering on but their PC does. Which of the following would be the FIRST thing the technician would check?
The correct answer is A. Power cable. When a monitor does not power on at all, the very first physical check must be the power cable, as a loose or disconnected power cable is the simplest and most common reason a monitor shows no sign of life.
Question
A user has called in a helpdesk ticket about their monitor not powering on but their PC does. Which of the following would be the FIRST thing the technician would check?
Options
- APower cable
- BPower settings
- CVideo cable
- DVideo settings
How the community answered
(27 responses)- A93% (25)
- B4% (1)
- C4% (1)
Why each option
When a monitor does not power on at all, the very first physical check must be the power cable, as a loose or disconnected power cable is the simplest and most common reason a monitor shows no sign of life.
A monitor that will not power on - showing no standby light or display at all - has failed at the most fundamental level: receiving power. The power cable connection to both the monitor and the wall outlet must be confirmed first before any other diagnostic step. This follows the principle of checking the most basic and easily reversible causes first, which is consistent with CompTIA's troubleshooting best practices.
Power settings control sleep or display timeout behavior in the OS; they would not prevent the monitor from receiving power or showing a standby indicator.
The video cable carries the display signal from the PC to the monitor; a missing or damaged video cable would cause no image but the monitor would still power on and show a 'no signal' message.
Video settings are software configurations that affect output resolution or refresh rate and cannot prevent a monitor from powering on.
Concept tested: Basic hardware troubleshooting - power verification first
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