Patent ID: 7461303

Claim:
A computer system comprising: a voltage regulator module failure detector that includes: a voltage comparator having: a first input, the first input receiving an output from a voltage regulator module (VRM) that supplies regulated power to a computer component, a second input, the second input receiving a threshold voltage, the threshold voltage being a boundary of an operational output voltage of the VRM, and an output, the output transmitting a result of a comparison of the output from the VRM with the threshold voltage, wherein the result is transmitted only when the output from the VRM is outside the threshold voltage; a counter coupled to the output of the voltage comparator, wherein the counter counts the number of times that the output from the VRM is outside the threshold voltage; an event comparator coupled to the counter, the event comparator comparing a count in the counter with a pre-determined event threshold, wherein a VRM error is posted by the event comparator when the count in the counter exceeds the pre-determined event threshold; and a combinational logic having a first input of the posted VRM error and a second input of the computer component failure, wherein in response to the posted VRM error and computer component failure both being input contemporaneously into the combinational logic, the combinational logic outputs a message instructing a replacement of the VRM.