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220-1201 Practice Question: During a hardware upgrade, you install a new…
During a hardware upgrade, you install a new high-end graphics card and connect a 144Hz gaming monitor via DisplayPort. The monitor is set to 144Hz in Windows, but the screen occasionally goes black for a few seconds during gameplay. What is the most likely cause?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The monitor's refresh rate is set too high for the cable.
Intermittent black screens at high refresh rates often indicate that the DisplayPort cable does not meet the required bandwidth for 144Hz at the monitor's resolution. This can also be caused by power supply issues or driver problems, but cable bandwidth is a common culprit.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The graphics card is overheating.
Why it's wrong here
When a graphics card overheats, its internal thermal protection mechanisms typically activate, leading to severe performance throttling, noticeable frame rate drops, or a complete system crash or shutdown to prevent hardware damage. Brief, intermittent black screens that recover quickly are generally not characteristic of an overheating GPU, which would instead exhibit more persistent and severe performance degradation or system instability.
- ✓
The monitor's refresh rate is set too high for the cable.
Why this is correct
High refresh rates, especially when combined with high resolutions, demand substantial bandwidth from the display cable to transmit the video signal without corruption. If the installed DisplayPort or HDMI cable is not certified for the required bandwidth, or is of lower quality, it may struggle to maintain signal integrity at 144Hz, leading to intermittent signal loss and brief black screens. Upgrading to a certified high-speed cable designed for the specific resolution and refresh rate is crucial for stable operation.
- ✗
The power supply unit is insufficient.
Why it's wrong here
An insufficient Power Supply Unit (PSU) would typically manifest as system-wide instability, particularly under heavy load when the new high-end graphics card draws maximum power. This usually results in spontaneous system shutdowns, reboots, or application crashes affecting the entire computer, rather than just intermittent display signal loss on the monitor while the rest of the system remains operational. A PSU issue would impact the whole system's power delivery.
- ✗
The monitor's firmware is outdated.
Why it's wrong here
Outdated monitor firmware is an uncommon cause for intermittent display issues and typically results in persistent, reproducible problems such as incorrect color profiles, input detection failures, or specific feature malfunctions. Intermittent black screens that appear only at high refresh rates are highly unlikely to be resolved by a firmware update, as this symptom strongly suggests a bandwidth or signal integrity problem with the cable or the graphics card's output, rather than a software bug within the monitor itself.
Go deeper
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Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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