Which power anomaly generally causes interruption of service without damaging hardware?

Answer

undervoltage

Options - A. undervoltage - B. overvoltage - C. a lightning-induced surge - D. electromagnetic interference along the power line Why - A. Correct — most equipment tolerates a sustained reduction of about 20%, and deeper dips lasting more than a few milliseconds simply trigger shutdown. Service stops; silicon survives. - B. The reverse. A sufficient overvoltage destroys silicon components, processors and memory included. - C. Lightning is a cause of overvoltage, so this is the destructive case. - D. EMI produces logical errors rather than an interruption, and it is an emission problem rather than a voltage one. Undervoltage interrupts, overvoltage destroys. Learners assume both are equally destructive, and the assumption costs a mark every time.

Stallings & Brown 5e ch16 §16.1–16.6; NIST SP 800-116