During overnight maintenance, a systems administrator discovers that one of the organization's VMware ESXi 7.0 hosts has suddenly become unresponsive. Opening the KVM console reveals a purple screen that displays:
Machine Check Exception on PCPU5 in world 0:idle
System has encountered a Hardware Error - please contact the hardware vendor
Cache Hierarchy: Level 0 Data Cache Read Error
According to CompTIA's troubleshooting methodology for hardware failures, on which component should the technician focus initial diagnostics and possible replacement to permanently correct this fault?
The purple screen indicates that ESXi halted because of an unrecoverable Machine Check Exception. An MCE is generated by the processor's built-in Machine-Check Architecture when it detects a severe hardware fault. The message "Cache Hierarchy: Level 0 Data Cache Read Error" identifies a failure inside the CPU's own cache subsystem, so the most probable root cause is a defective processor. Best practice is to capture the screen, collect logs, and escalate to the hardware vendor to test or replace the CPU. Memory modules, array-controller batteries, and network adapters do not trigger CPU cache MCEs and therefore are unlikely causes in this scenario.
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What is a Machine Check Exception (MCE)?
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What is the significance of the 'Cache Hierarchy' error mentioned in the purple screen?
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What steps should a technician follow after seeing a purple screen error in VMware ESXi?