A system administrator is troubleshooting a custom rackmount workstation that suddenly powered off during a heavy compute task and now fails to complete the Power-On Self-Test (POST). When the power button is pressed, the chassis fans spin at maximum speed, no beep codes are produced by the internal speaker, and the motherboard diagnostic LEDs remain frozen at the CPU initialization stage. The power supply fan continues running smoothly. Which of the following diagnostic steps should the technician perform FIRST to isolate a potential power delivery failure or motherboard firmware lockup from a CPU defect? (Select TWO.)
- Measure the voltage output of the +12V EPS/CPU power cable supplying the motherboard using a multimeter or dedicated power supply tester.Answer
- Perform a hardware CMOS reset by clearing the RTC jumper or removing the coin-cell battery while AC power is completely disconnected.Answer
- CReplace the system's SODIMM memory modules with unbuffered ECC DIMM modules to correct dual-channel POST memory training failures.
- DBoot the system using a USB recovery drive to repair corrupted bootloader files on the system drive.
Answer
The correct actions are testing the +12V EPS/CPU power cable voltages and performing a hardware CMOS reset.
When a system fails POST and halts at CPU initialization, checking power delivery on the dedicated +12V EPS rail verifies that power is reaching the processor VRMs. Concurrently, clearing the CMOS resets any corrupted settings or invalid power management states stored in the BIOS/UEFI that prevent successful system initialization.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Isolating Pre-POST Hardware Failures (CPU, PSU EPS Rail, and CMOS State)
Estimated Time:2m 0s