A systems administrator is troubleshooting a rackmount server that fails to boot. The power LED is solid green, and the internal fans are spinning at high speed, but there is no video output to the connected monitor. The server emits a repeating pattern of one long beep followed by two short beeps. According to standard POST codes, what is the MOST likely cause of this issue?
The correct answer is a video adapter failure. The pattern of one long beep followed by two short beeps is a common POST code used by many BIOS manufacturers (such as Award and IBM) to indicate a video-related error. This could mean the video card is not properly seated, is faulty, or the onboard video controller has failed.
An improperly seated memory module is a common cause of POST failure but typically generates a different beep code, such as a series of repeating short beeps or a single continuous tone.
A CPU that is not detected would also cause a POST failure but would have its own distinct beep code, which varies by BIOS manufacturer.
A corrupted operating system bootloader is incorrect because this type of error occurs after the POST has successfully completed and the system attempts to load the OS from a storage device. The presence of POST beep codes indicates the failure is at the hardware level, before the OS is involved.