220-1201 Practice Question: A customer complains that their PC randomly shuts…

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

• ✗

  Replace the power supply

  Why it's wrong here

  While a failing Power Supply Unit (PSU) can indeed cause random shutdowns due to insufficient or unstable power delivery, the specific symptom of a "warm case" combined with "random shutdowns" strongly suggests a thermal issue. PSUs typically fail by causing immediate power loss, system instability, or failure to boot, rather than a gradual shutdown after the system has been running and generating heat under load. Replacing it without first diagnosing temperature would be premature.

• ✗

  Update the graphics driver

  Why it's wrong here

  Graphics driver issues often manifest as application crashes, "blue screens of death" (BSODs), graphical artifacts, or system freezes, particularly during graphically intensive tasks. However, they are less likely to cause a complete system shutdown, especially one that is consistently triggered after a period of operation under load and accompanied by a warm case, which points away from software and towards hardware thermal protection.

• ✓

  Check CPU and GPU temperatures

  Why this is correct

  The description of "random shutdowns" combined with a "warm case" strongly indicates that the system is overheating, causing the CPU or GPU to reach critical temperatures. Modern processors and graphics cards have built-in thermal protection mechanisms that will automatically shut down the system to prevent permanent hardware damage. Monitoring these temperatures with diagnostic software like HWMonitor or SpeedFan is the essential first step to confirm overheating before attempting any hardware replacement.

• ✗

  Run a memory diagnostic

  Why it's wrong here

  Memory (RAM) errors commonly lead to system instability, application crashes, data corruption, or "blue screen of death" (BSOD) errors with specific stop codes related to memory management. While severe memory issues can cause system reboots, they rarely result in a complete shutdown that is consistently linked to the system being under load and exhibiting a warm case, which are classic symptoms of thermal throttling or overheating.

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