A user's workstation experiences unexplained intermittent shutdowns throughout the work day. The user has not reported any recent changes to the system or environment. As a technician, what is the most likely hardware component to begin troubleshooting this problem based on the symptom described?
The power supply unit (PSU) is the most likely culprit for intermittent shutdowns when there have been no reported changes or symptoms related to software or overheating. The PSU could be failing to provide consistent power due to faults within the unit itself or due to inconsistencies in the incoming power from the power source — such as sags, surges or brownouts. Temperature-related issues, like CPU or overall system overheating, can cause similar problems but are typically accompanied by other symptoms such as performance throttling or error messages related to heat. Other components such as the motherboard or RAM usually exhibit different signs of failure, like POST beeps or memory errors, not typically causing the system to shutdown intermittently without other warnings.
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What are some symptoms of a failing Power Supply Unit (PSU)?
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How can I test if the PSU is the issue?
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Why would overheating components not usually cause intermittent shutdowns like a PSU issue?