A system administrator receives an alert about a potential hardware fault on an NVIDIA DGX...

When a DGX system exhibits high fan speeds and performance degradation, it is typically engaging inThermal Throttling. High-performance GPUs like the A100 or H100 will automatically reduce their clock speeds (and thus performance) if they exceed safe temperature thresholds. The first and most critical diagnostic step is to run nvidia-smi. This utility provides immediate, real-time telemetry on GPU temperatures, power draw, and "Clocks Throttle Reasons." By reviewing the output, an administrator can see if "Thermal" is listed as the reason for reduced clocks. This identifies whether the issue is environmental (blocked airflow/hot aisle temperature) or hardware-specific (a failed GPU thermal interface or a dead internal fan). Running more workloads (Option A) would exacerbate the heat, while a power drain (Option C) is a "last resort" that doesn't provide diagnostic data. nvidia-smi provides the evidentiary data needed to determine if an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) is required for the GPU tray.