A technician is troubleshooting a PC that emits a high-pitched whining noise under load. The noise is coming from the power supply area. The system is stable and temperatures are normal. What is the most likely cause?
A technician is selecting a power supply for a workstation that will run 24/7 in a dusty environment. The PSU will be installed in a case with limited airflow. Which PSU feature is most important to prioritize for long-term reliability in this scenario?
A technician is replacing a power supply in an office desktop. The new PSU has a 24-pin main connector, but the motherboard has a 20-pin socket. What should the technician do?
A technician is troubleshooting a PC that shuts down randomly after a few minutes of use. The technician measures the +12V rail with a multimeter and gets 11.2V. The +5V rail reads 4.9V, and the +3.3V rail reads 3.2V. What is the most likely diagnosis?
A technician is upgrading a server's power supply to support additional drives. The current PSU is a 750W unit with a single +12V rail rated at 62A. The new drives will add 5A to the +12V load. The total calculated +12V load is 58A. Is the current PSU adequate?
A small business has several PCs that intermittently reboot or fail to start. The building's electrical system is old, and the technician suspects power quality issues. Which device should the technician recommend installing to protect the computers?
A technician is building a new workstation for video editing and needs to ensure the power supply can handle dual GPUs and multiple hard drives. Which specification is most critical to check when selecting a PSU?
A technician is installing a new power supply in a high-end gaming PC. The PSU has two +12V rails rated at 20A each. The GPU requires a single +12V rail with at least 30A. What potential issue could arise?
A user reports that their computer does not power on at all. The technician verifies the power cord is connected and the wall outlet works. When the PSU is turned on, no fans spin and no LEDs light up. What should the technician check first?
A customer reports that their desktop PC randomly shuts down when playing a graphically intensive game. The system has a 500W power supply, a high-end GPU, and a CPU with a 125W TDP. What is the most likely cause of the shutdowns?
A technician is troubleshooting a PC that powers on for a few seconds then shuts off. The technician removes the 24-pin connector and jumps the green wire to a black wire; the PSU fan spins and stays on. What does this indicate?
A desktop PC fails to power on. The technician measures the voltage on the 24-pin motherboard connector and finds that the purple wire (5VSB) reads 4.9V, but the green wire (PS_ON) reads 0V when the power button is pressed. What does this indicate?
A technician is installing a power supply in a new build. The case has a bottom-mounted PSU bay with a dust filter. The technician notices that the PSU fan faces downward. Is this correct?
A user reports that their computer emits a loud, high-pitched whine when under load, but is silent at idle. The system is stable. What is the most likely cause?
A customer wants to install a modular power supply in their PC but notes that the included cables have different pin shapes on the PSU end. What should the technician advise?
A technician is diagnosing a PC that will not power on. The multimeter shows 0V on all pins of the 24-pin connector when the PSU is plugged in and the power switch is on. What is the most likely cause?
A technician is replacing a power supply in a server that has been experiencing random lockups. The old PSU is an 80+ Bronze rated 650W unit. The technician selects an 80+ Gold rated 650W unit from the same brand. What is the primary benefit of this upgrade?
A customer reports that their desktop PC randomly shuts down when playing graphics-intensive games, but runs fine during web browsing. The power supply is a 450W unit. What is the most likely cause of the issue?
A technician is upgrading a workstation by adding a second high-end GPU. The current power supply has a single +12V rail rated at 40A and two 6+2 pin PCIe power cables. What is the most important factor to check before proceeding?
A technician is building a new PC for a video editing workstation. The selected components include an Intel i9-13900K, an NVIDIA RTX 4080, 64GB DDR5 RAM, three NVMe SSDs, and six case fans. What is the minimum recommended power supply wattage for this build?
A technician is troubleshooting a PC that powers on but does not display anything on the monitor. The fans spin, and the keyboard lights flash briefly. The power supply fan is spinning. What is the most efficient next step to isolate the issue?
A client wants to install a new power supply in a custom PC that uses a mini-ITX motherboard inside a compact case. The current PSU is a standard ATX unit, but the client wants to reduce clutter and improve airflow. Which form factor should you recommend?
A customer reports that their desktop computer randomly shuts down after a few minutes of gaming, but it runs fine during light tasks. You suspect the power supply is failing. Which tool should you use to confirm the power supply's output voltages are within ATX specification?
You are building a new gaming PC and have installed a 750W 80+ Gold power supply. After connecting all components, the system powers on for a second then immediately shuts down. What is the most likely cause?
A server in a data center has redundant power supplies (1+1 configuration). One PSU's status LED is amber, and the other is green. The server continues to run normally. What action should be taken?
A client wants to upgrade their workstation with a high-end GPU that requires two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Their current power supply has only one 6+2 pin PCIe cable. What is the best solution to safely power the new GPU?
You are troubleshooting a workstation that randomly reboots when running 3D rendering software. The CPU and GPU temperatures are normal. You have already replaced the RAM and tested the hard drive. What component is most likely the root cause?
A user complains that their PC emits a high-pitched whining noise when under load, and the noise stops when the system is idle. The noise is not coming from the case fans or CPU cooler. What component is most likely failing?
During a routine hardware upgrade, you need to replace a power supply in a desktop that has a non-modular PSU. After disconnecting all cables, you notice the old PSU has a 20+4 pin main connector, but the new PSU has a 24-pin main connector. The motherboard has a 24-pin socket. What should you do?
A small office has several desktop PCs that intermittently fail to power on in the morning. The issue is more common on humid days. After checking the wall outlets, you find they are properly grounded. What is the most likely cause?
More Power Supply questions available in the full practice test.