5.2. Common Hardware Failures

💡 First Principle: Hardware fails in recognizable patterns. Each component has characteristic failure signatures — the specific combination of symptoms you observe narrows the probable cause before you run a single diagnostic. Learning to read hardware failure signatures is a core professional skill.

The exam presents hardware failure scenarios with a set of symptoms and asks for the most likely cause and/or the correct diagnostic approach. The answer requires matching symptom patterns to failure modes.