220-1102 Question 599
Single answerRandom rebootsA user reports that a Windows 11 laptop randomly reboots several times a day. The reboots happen both when the user is actively working and when the laptop is idle. There is no blue screen shown. You verify that Windows Update recently installed a new video driver. Which action should the technician take FIRST to most effectively identify whether the reboots are being triggered by a system crash rather than a power issue?
- A
Disable automatic restart on system failure and review Event Viewer for critical errors
- B
Replace the laptop battery and AC adapter because unexpected reboots are usually caused by unstable power
- C
Run Disk Cleanup and remove temporary files to reduce system load
- D
Reinstall Microsoft Office because application corruption can force Windows to reboot
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best first step is to determine whether the laptop is actually crashing and then automatically restarting, or whether it is losing power unexpectedly. In Windows, the "Automatically restart" setting under Startup and Recovery can hide blue-screen stop errors by rebooting the device immediately after a crash. Disabling that setting and checking Event Viewer, especially System logs for critical events such as Kernel-Power and bug check entries, helps narrow the cause. This aligns with standard troubleshooting best practices: identify recent changes, gather evidence, and avoid replacing components before confirming the failure domain. Because the scenario mentions a recently installed video driver, a crash caused by a faulty or incompatible driver is a realistic possibility. Microsoft documentation for Windows troubleshooting commonly points technicians to Startup and Recovery settings, dump behavior, and Event Viewer when diagnosing unexpected restarts.
- A. Correct.
Correct. By default, Windows can automatically restart after a system failure, which can make crashes appear to be random reboots with no visible blue screen. Disabling automatic restart allows the technician to see whether a stop error appears, and Event Viewer can help confirm whether the reboot followed a bug check, driver fault, or other critical system event. Since a new video driver was recently installed, checking for crash evidence is the most appropriate first diagnostic step.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Power problems can cause random reboots, but immediately replacing hardware is not the best first step when there is a recent driver change and no evidence yet that the battery or adapter is faulty. A technician should first gather data to distinguish between a system crash and a hardware power interruption before swapping parts.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Disk Cleanup can free storage space and improve performance in some cases, but temporary files do not commonly cause spontaneous system restarts. This option does not address the key troubleshooting goal of determining whether the reboot is due to a crash, driver issue, or power problem.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Microsoft Office does not control system-level restart behavior, and application corruption would be more likely to cause application crashes rather than a full operating system reboot. This distractor reflects a common mistake of focusing on installed software unrelated to kernel-level failures.