Practice Questions

1. You just installed a maintenance kit to a laser printer. Which of the following steps should you take next?

A. You should restore the printer to factory settings.

B. You should print a test page.

C. You should refill the paper trays.

D. You should restart the printer.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 103

2. Which of the following is indicated by repetitive flashing lights on the keyboard during POST?

A. A software error

B. A hardware error

C. A password is required

D. An external peripheral error

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 103

3. Which of the following defines the protocols associated with the following TCP or UDP port numbers, in order?

21, 22, 25, 53, 443, 3389

A. FTP, Telnet, SMTP, DNS, HTTP, RDP

B. FTP, SSH, SMTP, DNS, HTTP, RDP

C. FTP, SSH, SMTP, POP3, HTTPS, RDP

D. FTP, SSH, SMTP, DNS, HTTPS, RDP

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 103

4. Which of the following multimeter settings should be used only when there is no electrical flow through the part being tested? (Select the two best answers.)

A. Continuity

B. Wattage

C. Voltage

D. Amps

E. Resistance

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 103

5. When a PC is first booted, which of the following tests the processor, RAM, video card, hard drive controllers, drives, and keyboard?

A. CMOS chip

B. BIOS setup

C. POST

D. Bootstrap loader

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 104

6. One of your customers needs to provide the following for corporate laptops:

User security

Charging ability

Access to LAN resources

Connect removable hardware

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 104

Which of the following would be the best solution for all requirements?

A. Port replicator

B. Thunderbolt

C. USB hub

D. Docking station

E. Cable lock

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 104

7. You have purchased a motherboard for your new audio workstation. You have opened the computer case and are ready to install. What are the first and last things you should do? (Select the two best answers.)

A. Select a motherboard.

B. Install the CPU.

C. Test the motherboard.

D. Put on an antistatic strap.

E. Connect the main power cable.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 104

8. Which of the following tools should be used to determine why a computer fails to boot?

A. Cable tester

B. Loopback plug

C. PSU tester

D. Tone and probe kit

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 104

9. Which type of cache memory is shared by all cores of a CPU?

A. L1

B. L2

C. L3

D. DRAM

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 104

10. Which technology calculates two independent sets of instructions simultaneously, simulating two CPUs?

A. Hyper-threading

B. HyperTransport

C. Turbo Boost

D. Multi-core

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 105

11. You are tasked with plugging a network patch cable into an inactive drop within a user’s cubicle. Which of the following tools enables you to find the correct network drop in the wiring closet so that you can make the port hot?

A. PSU tester

B. Multimeter

C. Cable tester

D. Tone and probe kit

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 105

12. You think that the power supply in your PC might be failing, causing issues with an SATA drive. You decide to test the SATA drive. Which of the following are the standard voltages of an SATA connection on an ATX power supply?

A. 3.3 V, 5 V, 12 V

B. –3.3 V, 5 V, –12 V

C. –5 V, 5 V, 12 V

D. 5 V and 12 V

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 105

13. Which of the following is defined as the movement of electric charge?

A. Voltage

B. Wattage

C. Amperage

D. Impedance

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 105

14. Which of the following should be used to clean a laser printer’s rubber rollers?

A. Soap and water

B. WD-40

C. Isopropyl alcohol

D. A moist cloth

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 106

15. A user’s laptop running Windows 7 has suddenly become very dim. Adjusting the brightness does not help the problem. The display’s images can be seen only by shining a flashlight directly at the screen. Which component should you consider replacing?

A. Digitizer

B. Inverter

C. Video card

D. LCD panel

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 106

16. A coworker at a satellite office reports that a new replacement shared workgroup printer has arrived. It is the same model as the old one. Your coworker replaced the old printer and connected all the cables to the new printer. Which of the following is the easiest way to ensure that all the client computers can connect to the new printer via IPP?

A. Name the new printer with the old printer name.

B. Allow the printer to acquire a DHCP address.

C. In DHCP, set a reservation by MAC address.

D. Have your coworker print the configuration page.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 106

17. Which of the following communications protocols is used to connect to websites over secure communications links?

A. SSH

B. SFTP

C. HTTPS

D. Kerberos

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 107

18. Which of the following protocols can be used to configure and monitor network printer device status?

A. SMTP

B. SNMP

C. TCP/IP

D. IPP

E. DNS

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 107

19. Which of the following symptoms would indicate to you that there is a power supply issue?

A. The CPU is overclocking.

B. The Wi-Fi range is reduced.

C. The hard drives fail frequently.

D. Your CD burner takes longer to write than usual.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 107

20. Which of the following custom PC configurations requires a powerful CPU and maximum RAM to run multiple operating systems at the same time?

A. Graphic/CAD/CAM design workstation

B. Audio/video editing workstation

C. Virtualization workstation

D. NAS

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 107

21. You need to install a device that can read groupings of parallel lines. Which of the following devices should be selected?

A. Biometric scanner

B. Image scanner

C. Barcode reader

D. Touchpad

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 108

22. You are building a new gaming PC and want to select a motherboard that supports the Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology so you can install two SLI video cards connected by a bridge. Which of the following expansion slots should the motherboard have for your two video cards?

A. Two PCIe version 2 slots

B. Two PCIe version 3 slots

C. A PCIe x1 slot and a PCIe x16 slot

D. A USB port and PCIe slot

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 108

23. Which of the following RAID arrays is fault tolerant and allows you to do striping with parity?

A. RAID 0

B. RAID 1

C. RAID 5

D. RAID 10

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 108

24. Which of the following are possible reasons that an optical mouse cursor erratically jumps around the screen? (Select the two best answers.)

A. It is using an incorrect mouse driver.

B. The mouse trackball needs to be removed and cleaned.

C. There’s a conflict with the keyboard.

D. It is on an uneven surface.

E. The mouse needs to be charged.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 108

25. Which of the following should be disabled to significantly conserve battery power of a laptop? (Select the two best answers.)

A. Cellular

B. Screen orientation

C. Volume

D. Touchpad

E. Bluetooth

F. Fingerprint reader

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 109

26. When you are dealing with a power issue, which of the following should be checked first?

A. Input devices

B. Network cabling

C. Wall outlet

D. Power supply

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 109

27. When a computer receives the IP address 169.254.127.1, which of the following has failed?

A. DHCP

B. DNS

C. WINS

D. APIPA

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 109

28. Emergency! Your boss forgot the password to the UEFI/BIOS on a computer. Which of the following methods helps you to reset the password?

A. Removing the RAM from the motherboard

B. Removing the CMOS battery from the motherboard

C. Removing the RAM jumper from the motherboard

D. Removing the main power connection from the motherboard

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 110

29. In a RAID 5 array of eight hard drives, how many can fail without losing the entire array?

A. Zero

B. One

C. Two

D. Five

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 110

30. A company laptop has a cracked display, and it is under warranty. Which of the following steps should be taken before shipping the laptop to the manufacturer for repair?

A. You should remove the LCD.

B. You should clean it thoroughly.

C. You should remove the hard drive.

D. You should remove the WLAN card.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 110

31. Which of the following are the Intel and AMD names for CPU virtualization? (Select the two best answers.)

A. VT-x

B. AMD-Vi

C. VT-d

D. AMD-V

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 110

32. At 16x speed, how much data can a Blu-ray drive read per second?

A. 50 GB

B. 576 Mb/s

C. 4.5 MB/s

D. 150 KB/s

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 111

33. Which of the following video connectors accepts digital and analog video signals only?

A. DVI-D

B. DVI-A

C. DVI-I

D. HDMI Type B

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 111

34. Which of the following can be described as a mobile device sharing its Internet connection with other Wi-Fi–capable devices?

A. USB tethering

B. Wi-Fi sharing

C. Internet passthrough

D. Mobile hotspot

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 111

35. Which of the printers would display an error that says: “replace filament”?

A. Laser

B. 3D

C. Inkjet

D. Thermal

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 111

36. Which of the following steps should be taken first when a printer fails to print very large documents but still prints smaller documents without a problem?

A. Check if the correct type of paper is being used.

B. Replace the communications cable.

C. Change the toner cartridges.

D. Add memory to the printer.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 111

37. You print an image to your printer, but the page shows a ghosted image. Which of the following could be the cause?

A. The drum needs replacing.

B. The printer is offline.

C. There’s an incorrect driver.

D. There’s a dirty primary corona wire.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 111

38. A coworker notices that the battery light on a laptop is flashing when the laptop is in a docking station. Which of the following steps should be performed first to fix the problem?

A. Replace the laptop battery.

B. Reinstall the operating system.

C. Reseat in the docking station.

D. Remove and reseat the battery.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 112

39. A tablet device is having trouble accessing the wireless network. Which of the following steps should be taken to troubleshoot the problem? (Select the three best answers.)

A. Power cycle the device.

B. Use GPRS instead.

C. Check if the SSID was correct.

D. Set up a static IP.

E. Forget the network and reconnect to it.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 112

40. Which of the following steps should be taken to connect a Bluetooth headset to a smartphone? (Select the two best answers.)

A. Pair the device to the phone.

B. Install Bluetooth drivers.

C. Enter a passcode.

D. Disable Wi-Fi.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 112

41. A computer’s CPU overheats and shuts down the system intermittently. Which of the following steps should be taken to fix the problem? (Select the two best answers.)

A. Check if the heat sink is secure.

B. Check the BIOS temperature threshold.

C. Check if the fan is connected.

D. Check if the RAM needs to be reseated.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 112

42. A burning smell comes from the computer. Which of the following is the most likely source?

A. Thermal compound

B. Keyboard

C. Power supply

D. AC outlet

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 113

43. A user recently purchased a new wireless 802.11ac router. After connecting a laptop with an 802.11ac wireless adapter to the wireless network, he notices that the signal strength on the laptop is poor and only connects at 54 Mbps. The user moved the laptop next to the WAP but is still experiencing the same issue. Which of the following is most likely the cause?

A. The cable modem is faulty.

B. The laptop is connecting to the incorrect wireless network.

C. The router’s wireless card drivers are faulty.

D. The wireless antennas on the router need to be replaced.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 113

44. Which of the following disk arrays provide for fault tolerance? (Select the two best answers.)

A. Spanned volume

B. RAID 0

C. RAID 1

D. RAID 5

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 113

45. You have been tasked with upgrading a desktop computer’s internal storage to allow for storage room for backups, videos, and photos. This storage solution should be large enough to avoid scaling it again in the next 6 months. Which of the following is the appropriate solution?

A. 500 TB SAN

B. 50 GB NAS

C. 3 TB HDD

D. 512 GB SSD

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 114

46. Which of the following terminates a coaxial cable?

A. F connector

B. DB-9

C. RJ11

D. RJ45

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 114

47. Mary’s printer is printing hundreds of pages, and she can’t get it to stop. She has tried to delete the job by double-clicking the printer and deleting the print job. Which of the following steps represents the best way to stop the printer?

A. Clearing the print spooler

B. Unplugging the printer

C. Resetting the printer

D. Turning off the printer

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 114

48. You are troubleshooting a coworker’s computer. When you ping the loopback address, you receive no response. Which of the following is the most likely cause of this problem?

A. The LAN is unresponsive.

B. The DHCP server is down.

C. The Ethernet cable needs to be replaced.

D. The TCP/IP protocol is not functioning.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 114

49. Which of the following steps should be performed when troubleshooting a Bluetooth connection that is malfunctioning? (Select the two best answers.)

A. Verify that WLAN is enabled.

B. Check whether you are in range.

C. Unpair the devices.

D. Turn Bluetooth off and on.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 115

50. A customer brings in a computer that doesn’t display anything when it is turned on. You verify that the computer and monitor are receiving power and that the monitor is securely connected to the computer’s only video port. Which of the following is the most likely cause of this problem? (Select all that apply.)

A. Motherboard

B. RAM

C. Hard drive

D. DVD-ROM

E. CPU

F. Power supply

G. Video card

H. SATA data cable

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 115

51. While troubleshooting a network problem, you discover that one set of LED lights on a switch is blinking rapidly even when all other nodes are disconnected. Which of the following is the most likely cause of this problem? (Select the two best answers.)

A. A switch that is not plugged into a server

B. A defective hard drive in the computer

C. A defective network card in the computer

D. An unplugged server

E. A defective port on the network switch

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 115

52. A user with an Android phone is attempting to get email to work properly. The user can send email but cannot receive it. The user is required to connect to a secure IMAP server, as well as an SMTP server that uses SSL. To fix the problem, which port should you configure?

A. 25

B. 110

C. 143

D. 443

E. 993

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 116

53. You are called to a school lab to fix a computer. The computer supposedly worked fine the day before, but now it does not power on. The computer is plugged into a power strip with another computer. The other computer works fine. Which of the following is the most likely cause of this problem? (Select the two best answers.)

A. The power cable is unplugged from the computer.

B. The power strip is overloaded.

C. The monitor is unplugged.

D. The voltage switch on the power supply is set incorrectly.

E. The power strip is unplugged.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 116

54. Tracy cannot connect to the network and asks you to help. Which of the following steps should be performed first?

A. Replace the NIC.

B. Reconfigure TCP/IP.

C. Check for a link light on the NIC.

D. Install the latest NIC drivers.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 116

55. You have been tasked with setting up a Wi-Fi thermostat for a customer. The customer has concerns about IoT devices getting hacked and possibly acting as a gateway to other devices and computers on the network. Which are the best ways to address the customer’s concern? (Select the two best answers.)

A. Upgrade the customer’s router to the latest firmware version.

B. Disable wireless access to the thermostat to make it unhackable.

C. Upgrade the customer’s wireless network to WPA.

D. Separate the IoT thermostat by placing it in a DMZ.

E. Use the latest encryption standard on the wireless network and set a strong password.

F. Enable two-factor authentication for the IoT device’s cloud account.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 116

56. Your coworker’s iPad is having trouble connecting to email. Which of the following steps should be performed to troubleshoot this problem? (Select the three best answers.)

A. Verify Internet access.

B. Check for Bluetooth connectivity.

C. Check port numbers.

D. Make sure that GPS is enabled.

E. Verify username/password.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 117

57. You just installed Microsoft Windows to a computer with three internal SATA hard drives and one external USB hard drive. SATA hard drive 1 contains the operating system. SATA hard drive 2 contains the user profiles. SATA hard drive 3 and the external USB flash drive are empty. Where should you place the page file to maximize performance?

A. External USB flash drive

B. Internal SATA hard drive 1

C. Internal SATA hard drive 2

D. Internal SATA hard drive 3

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 117

58. One of your customers is having difficulty with two network connections in the accounting office. The accounting office is adjacent to the building’s mechanical room. Network cables run from the accounting office, through the drop ceiling of the mechanical room, and into the server room next door. Which of the following solutions should be recommended to the customer?

A. UTP

B. Plenum-rated cable

C. T568B

D. Fiber optic

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 117

59. A customer reports that a computer is very loud and occasionally turns itself off. The computer is located under a desk directly on top of the carpet. Which of the following steps should be performed to remedy this situation? (Select the two best answers.)

A. Remove the computer from the floor.

B. Install a new hard drive.

C. Replace the power cord.

D. Wipe down the computer with a cloth.

E. Clean the inside of the computer.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 117

60. Michelle’s laptop powers on only when the AC adapter is connected to it. Which of the following is the most likely cause of this problem?

A. Bad transformer

B. Bad AC port on the laptop

C. Bad battery

D. Bad CMOS battery

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 118

61. A user reports that a laser printer is printing poorly. You observe that the pages have wrinkles and random patterns of missing print. Which of the following is the most likely cause of this problem?

A. The fuser needs to be replaced.

B. The toner cartridge is defective.

C. The corona wire is frayed.

D. There is high humidity in the room.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 118

62. A user asks you to explain a message that comes up on the computer display before the operating system boots. The message states that the UEFI/BIOS logged a chassis intrusion. Which of the following would be your explanation to the user?

A. The optical drive tray is open.

B. The CPU is loose.

C. A malicious individual has hacked the system.

D. The computer case has been opened.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 118

63. Jim attempts to plug a scanner into the front USB port of a Windows computer, but the scanner does not power on. Which of the following solutions should be recommended to Jim?

A. Use a different USB cable.

B. Run Windows Update on the computer.

C. Upgrade the computer’s drivers.

D. Use the onboard USB ports.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 118

64. One of your coworkers just installed a newer, more powerful video card in a customer’s computer. The computer powers down before it completes the boot process. Before the installation, the computer worked normally. Which of the following is the most likely cause of this problem?

A. The video card is not compatible with the CPU.

B. The monitor cannot display the higher resolution of the new video card.

C. The computer’s RAM needs to be upgraded.

D. The power supply is not providing enough wattage for the new video card.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 119

65. One of the users at your organization will be attending several day-long conferences and wants to make sure a mobile device will have enough power for the events. There will be a lack of AC outlet availability, and the user needs to continuously use the mobile device throughout the event. The user also needs to access the mobile device’s USB port to access flash drives and access the Internet to get updates. What should you recommend to the user?

A. Purchase a built-in battery case.

B. Use a wireless charging pad.

C. Bring extra charging cords.

D. Put the mobile device into airplane mode.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 119

66. You want your computer to boot off the network and have the capability to be brought out of sleep mode over the network. Which two technologies should be implemented in the BIOS?

A. WAP and WPA2

B. WDS and Magic Packet

C. PXE and WOL

D. Symantec Ghost and Unattend.xml

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 119

67. A customer tells you that a networked printer is not printing documents. You successfully ping the printer’s IP address. Which of the following is the most likely cause of this problem? (Select the two best answers.)

A. The printer is low on toner.

B. The network cable is unplugged.

C. The printer is out of paper.

D. The gateway address on the printer is incorrect.

E. The spooler is not functioning.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 119

68. A customer has a home office. Which of the following technologies would benefit from the use of QoS?

A. SSID

B. Instant messaging

C. Email

D. VoIP

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 120

69. A PC’s monitor has no display after a power failure. The LED light on the monitor is on. Which of the following steps should be performed first?

A. Power cycle the PC.

B. Power cycle the peripherals.

C. Power cycle the UPS.

D. Power cycle the breaker switches.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 120

70. Which of the following should be checked when a laptop fails to turn on? (Select the four best answers.)

A. Power LED

B. Sound port

C. AC adapter

D. Inverter

E. Hibernate mode

F. Function key

G. Power button

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 120

71. A computer just had a memory upgrade installed. After the computer is booted, it does not recognize the new memory, even though it is listed as being compatible on the manufacturer’s website. Which of the following steps should be performed to resolve the issue?

A. UEFI/BIOS update

B. Adjust jumper settings

C. OS Update

D. New CMOS battery

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 120

72. A computer has a RAID 1 array. SATA Drive 0 failed, and now the computer will not boot. Which of the following steps would most likely fix the problem by allowing the computer to boot again?

A. Replace SATA Drive 1.

B. Mark SATA Drive 1 as active.

C. Replace SATA Drive 0.

D. Replace the array’s controller.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 121

73. You are troubleshooting what you believe to be a power issue. Which of the following should be tested first?

A. Power supply

B. 24-pin power connector

C. IEC cable

D. AC outlet

E. Circuit breaker

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 121

74. A CAD/CAM workstation running AutoCAD is displaying rotating 3D images very slowly. The customer needs the images to rotate quickly and smoothly. Which of the following should be upgraded on the computer? (Select the best answer.)

A. CPU

B. RAM

C. Video card

D. Hard drive

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 121

75. Which of the following devices is used to implement network security for an IT environment?

A. Managed switch

B. Repeater

C. Gateway

D. Firewall

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 122

76. Your end users work with a web-based calendar app. Which of the following cloud-based technologies are they using?

A. SaaS

B. IaaS

C. PaaS

D. DaaS

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 122

77. You are now a manager of a technical services team. One of your technicians notices that a printer is jamming just above the printer tray. Which of the following steps should the technician first perform to resolve the issue?

A. Clean the feeder rollers.

B. Clean the pickup rollers.

C. Replace the fuser.

D. Replace the drum.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 123

78. You configured a customer’s router to automatically assign only five IP addresses in an attempt to make the network more secure. Now you notice that the wireless printer is intermittently losing connections when there are multiple users on the wireless network. Which of the following steps represents the best solution?

A. Increasing the wireless router IP lease times

B. Installing another access point

C. Configuring the printer to use a static IP address

D. Configuring the printer for DHCP

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 123

79. Which of the following steps can be performed to ensure that all external traffic to your website is directed through a firewall to the right computer?

A. Configure port forwarding.

B. List in the exceptions the IP address of the local website.

C. Configure NAT.

D. Configure all interior traffic appropriately.

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 123

80. You are troubleshooting an Internet connectivity issue. Several laptop users cannot connect to any websites. Users with PCs do not have any trouble. Which of the following devices is most likely causing the problem?

A. Router

B. Cable modem

C. WAP

D. Encryption mismatch

E. Firewall

F. UTM

Quick Answer: 102

Detailed Answer: 124

Quick-Check Answer Key

1. B

2. B

3. D

4. A, E

5. C

6. D

7. C, D

8. C

9. C

10. A

11. D

12. A

13. C

14. D

15. B

16. C

17. C

18. B

19. C

20. C

21. C

22. B

23. C

24. A, D

25. A, E

26. C

27. A

28. B

29. B

30. C

31. A, D

32. B

33. C

34. D

35. B

36. D

37. A

38. C

39. A, C, E

40. A, C

41. A, C

42. C

43. B

44. C, D

45. C

46. A

47. A

48. D

49. B, D

50. A, B, E, G

51. C, E

52. E

53. A, D

54. C

55. D, E

56. A, C, E

57. D

58. D

59. A, E

60. C

61. A

62. D

63. D

64. D

65. B

66. C

67. C, E

68. D

69. A

70. A, C, E, G

71. A

72. B

73. C

74. C

75. D

76. A

77. B

78. C

79. A

80. C

Answers and Explanations

1. Answer: B

Explanation: Print a test page after doing preventative maintenance to a laser printer.

Incorrect answers: Normally, when you maintain a laser printer, you power it down and unplug it before any work begins. So, you do not need to restart the printer; when you finish, you simply start it. You also do not need to restore a printer to factory settings unless it fails. Your preventative maintenance will hopefully stave off that dark day. The paper trays probably still have paper in them, and regardless, part of preventative maintenance is to fill the trays. Printing the test page should be last.

2. Answer: B

Explanation: Most likely, repetitive flashing lights on a keyboard indicate the presence of a hardware error, probably internal to the computer. If nothing comes up on the display, and all you have to go by are flashing lights on the keyboard, you can probably ascertain that the POST has failed and that the problem lies within the big four (as I like to call them): CPU, RAM, video, or motherboard.

Incorrect answers: Software errors can’t occur until the operating system attempts to boot, and without the POST finishing successfully, that won’t happen. Passwords are required when you see a repetitive flashing light on the screen, not on the keyboard—and even then, only if you are attempting to access the BIOS (or UEFI) or if someone configured a user password in the BIOS. External peripherals don’t need to post properly for the computer to boot to the OS. Even the keyboard isn’t necessary. The POST is more interested in the guts of the computer, especially the big four and the hard drive.

3. Answer: D

Explanation: The port numbers 21, 22, 25, 53, 443, and 3389 correspond to the protocols FTP, SSH, SMTP, DNS, HTTPS, and RDP.

Incorrect answers: The Telnet protocol uses port 23. Telnet is deprecated, insecure, and outdated; plus, it isn’t even installed or enabled on newer versions of operating systems. Use SSH in its place for a more secure connection. HTTP uses port 80. POP3 uses port 110. Know your port numbers!

4. Answers: A and E

Explanation: Of the listed answers, continuity and resistance are the settings that you should use when there is no electrical flow through the part being tested, and you want to be sure that there is no electrical flow when doing these tests. Examples of continuity or resistance tests include testing a fuse’s impedance (measured in ohms) and testing a network cable for continuity. In each example, you don’t want any electricity flowing through the device or line. It would give erratic results and could possibly cause damage to your testing equipment and even you.

Incorrect answers: When testing for watts, volts, and amps, you need to have electricity flowing through the item you want to test.

5. Answer: C

Explanation: The power-on self-test (POST) checks the CPU, memory, video card, and so on when the computer first boots and displays any error messages if any errors occur.

Incorrect answers: BIOS setup (or UEFI setup) is the program you can access to configure the system. The BIOS itself is more than just the setup program that you can access, and the POST is a part of that BIOS. The CMOS chip retains settings that the BIOS records during the POST. The bootstrap loader is within the ROM chip as well. When the computer is turned on, it automatically reads the hard drive boot sector to continue the process of booting the operating system.

6. Answer: D

Explanation: A docking station meets the needs of all the requirements including security (often with a Kensington security lock), charging, accessing the LAN, and connecting hardware.

Incorrect answers: A port replicator is similar to a docking station, but it doesn’t have as much functionality; it is generally used to connect peripherals such as keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Thunderbolt is an expansion bus and external port used for data transfer and displays. A USB hub allows for connecting removable hardware but doesn’t meet the other needs. A cable lock is a good idea for securing laptops, but it meets only one of the requirements—security.

7. Answers: C and D

Explanation: The first thing you should do is put on your antistatic strap. The last thing you should do is test the motherboard. Always remember to test!

Incorrect answers: You already selected the motherboard. Technically, installing the CPU isn’t really part of the motherboard installation process, but you can’t really test the motherboard without it. Either way, the CPU would be installed before testing. Cables need to be connected during the installation and prior to testing. But anything that deals with power or circuit boards should not be touched unless you are wearing an antistatic strap.

8. Answer: C

Explanation: Use a power supply unit (PSU) tester to determine why a computer fails to boot. One of the culprits could be a faulty power supply.

Incorrect answers: A cable tester checks network cables only to see if they are wired correctly and have continuity. Loopback plugs are used to test network cards and serial ports. The tone and probe kit is used to test phone lines and network connections for continuity. So, the rest of the answers are all tools that are used externally from the computer, whereas the PSU tester is the only one used inside the computer.

9. Answer: C

Explanation: L3 cache is shared by all of the cores of the CPU.

Incorrect answers: L1 cache is built into the CPU. L2 cache is built onto the CPU; it is also known as on-die. DRAM is the memory modules you install into the slots in the motherboard. DRAM is not cache memory. Some people consider DRAM to be L4 cache, but there is an actual CPU cache known as L4 used by Xeon and other high-end processors.

10. Answer: A

Explanation: Hyper-threading (for example, Intel HT) calculates two independent sets of instructions simultaneously, simulating two CPUs.

Incorrect answers: HyperTransport is a high-speed link between various devices such as the CPU and northbridge on AMD systems. Turbo Boost is a basic form of overclocking that Intel allows with many of its processors. Multi-core is the technology in which a CPU physically contains two or more processor cores. Many CPU designs combine multi-core technology with hyper-threading to allow for even more processing.

11. Answer: D

Explanation: The tone and probe kit allows you to find the network drop in the wiring closet. Here’s how this works: you take the tone generator portion of the tone and probe kit and connect it via RJ45 to the network port in the user’s cubicle. Then you switch it on so that it creates tone. Then you go to the wiring closet (or network room or server room) and use the probe (an inductive amplifier) to find the tone. You do this by pressing the probe against each of the cables. This is an excellent method when there are dozens, or hundreds, of cables in the wiring closet. When you find the right cable, plug it into the patch panel or directly to a network switch. When you return to the user’s cubicle, the RJ45 jack should be hot, meaning it can be used to send and receive data.

Incorrect answers: A PSU tester tests the power supply of a computer. A multimeter can test any wire’s voltage or AC outlets. Cable tester is somewhat of a vague term, but it usually means either a network patch cable tester or a LAN tester, which checks the individual wires of longer network cable runs.

12. Answer: A

Explanation: SATA power connections have 3.3, 5, and 12 volt wires.

Incorrect answers: There are no negative voltage wires on SATA power connections. Molex power connections use 5 V and 12 V only, but SATA includes the 3.3 volt line. In this scenario, you should test the SATA power connector and the main power connector from the power supply with your trusty PSU tester. (Most PSU testers have an SATA power port in addition to the main 24-pin power port.)

13. Answer: C

Explanation: Amperage can be defined as electric current or the movement of electric charge. It is measured in amps (A). You should know your circuits in your office. The more you know, the less chance of overloading them. For example, a standard 15 amp circuit might be able to handle three or four computers and monitors. But a 20 amp circuit can handle a computer or two more than that. Circuit breakers, electrical cable, and outlets all must comply with a certain number of amps. If you connect a power strip or surge protector, make sure that it is specified to work with your circuit’s amp rating.

Incorrect answers: Voltage is a representation of potential energy, measured in volts (V). Wattage is electric power, the rate of electric energy in a circuit, measured in watts (W). Impedance is the amount of resistance to electricity, measured in ohms (Ω).

14. Answer: D

Explanation: Use a simple moist cloth, not too wet; you don’t want to get any liquid inside the printer.

Incorrect answers: Soap and water can be used to clean the outside of a computer case. WD-40 can cause damage in the long run. Alcohol is too strong.

15. Answer: B

Explanation: Chances are that the inverter has failed and needs to be replaced. Most of today’s laptops do not have this problem because they are LED-backlit, instead of using a CCFL, and therefore don’t need an inverter. You can guess that this is an older laptop because it is running Windows 7 (which consequently should be updated). Because you can see the image with a flashlight, you know that the video card is working and that the display is okay. It’s just that the backlight is not receiving any power from the inverter, which is used to convert DC voltage inside the laptop to AC voltage for use by the backlight.

Incorrect answers: Chances are the laptop does not use a digitizer (or touchscreen) because of its age. Regardless, the failure of a digitizer would simply stop touchscreen functionality; it wouldn’t affect the brightness of the display. On a laptop such as this, there is a high probability that the video card is embedded, and not user-replaceable—unless the whole motherboard was replaced, and at that point you might as well replace the entire laptop. As mentioned, you know the LCD display works because the image can be seen dimly when shining a flashlight on it. (You could also turn off the lights and look carefully at the display to verify whether or not it is working.)

16. Answer: C

Explanation: In DHCP, set a reservation by MAC address. In this scenario, the clients are most likely connecting to the printer by IP address. The Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) can be used in this manner. By default, the moment the new printer is connected to the network, it acquires an IP address from the DHCP server—a new IP address, different from the one used by the old printer. This causes the clients to fail when attempting to connect, and print, to the new printer. To prevent this problem, you go to the router (or other DHCP device) and configure a MAC address reservation. The MAC address of the printer (which might be on a label or can be accessed from the onscreen display) can be plugged into the DHCP server and reserved to a specific IP address. Of course, a better option would be to simply configure the printer to use a static IP address.

Incorrect answers: Renaming the printer with the old name doesn’t help because the client computers are most likely connecting by IP, not by name. Printing the configuration page is great and might help you to figure out what the problem could be, but it doesn’t actually solve the problem!

17. Answer: C

Explanation: Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is used to make secure connections to websites. It uses the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols to encrypt the connection and make it safe for logins, purchases, and so on. HTTPS relies on port 443.

Incorrect answers: SSH stands for Secure Shell; it is used to make secure remote connections between computers for the purposes of command execution and remote control, and it replaces the deprecated Telnet protocol. It uses port 22. SFTP is the SSH File Transfer Protocol, a more secure version of FTP that is built on SSH. Kerberos is a network authentication protocol used by various systems, including Microsoft domains. It uses port 88.

18. Answer: B

Explanation: The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) can be used to monitor remote computers and printers. This requires the installation of SNMP on the appropriate hosts.

Incorrect answers: SMTP is the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, which deals with the sending of email. TCP/IP is the entire suite of protocols that you use when you connect to an IP network. IPP is the Internet Printing Protocol, which allows hosts to print documents to a remote printer without the need for UNC paths. DNS is the Domain Name System, which resolves domain names to their corresponding IP addresses.

19. Answer: C

Explanation: An indication of a power supply issue is frequent failure of hard drives. If the power supply fails to provide clean power to the 3.3 V, 5 V, and 12 V lines to the hard drives, they will fail frequently. These are often the first devices to fail when a power supply starts having intermittent problems. You should test this with a power supply tester or multimeter.

Incorrect answers: If the power supply fails, the CPU would not overclock—quite the reverse, it might lose power and turn off the computer altogether. Overclocking is controlled in the BIOS, and there are thresholds in place to stop the CPU from overclocking too far. The wireless adapter would either work or not work. Reduced range could be due to obstruction or distance from the wireless access point (WAP). If the CD burner takes longer to write data than usual, the reason could be that the system is busy doing other tasks, or perhaps the burn rate setting was lowered.

20. Answer: C

Explanation: Virtualization workstations require powerful CPUs with multiple cores—as many cores as possible, as well as maximized RAM. This allows the system to run virtualization software that can house multiple virtual machines (VMs), each with its own OS that can run simultaneously. While it is helpful for any computer to have a powerful CPU, such as a gaming PC or a design PC, the virtualization workstation requires it the most—in addition to as much RAM as possible.

Incorrect answers: The other custom PCs are not as reliant on CPUs. Graphic design workstations are more reliant on high-end video, RAM, and SSDs. Audio/video editing workstations rely most on specialized audio and video cards, dual monitors, and fast hard drives. Network-attached storage (NAS) devices rely on RAID arrays, a good network adapter, and sometimes increased RAM.

21. Answer: C

Explanation: You should select a barcode reader. This tool reads barcodes such as UPC barcodes that have groupings of parallel lines of varying widths.

Incorrect answers: A biometric scanner authenticates individuals by scanning physical characteristics such as fingerprints. There are many types of image scanners; multifunction printers have these and allow you to scan in photos or make copies of documents. The touchpad is a device that takes the place of a mouse. It is often used in laptops but can be purchased as an external peripheral for PCs as well.

22. Answer: B

Explanation: The best answer is two PCI Express (PCIe) version 3 slots (that is, version 3 minimum). For SLI to work properly, you need two identical PCIe slots. SLI is an NVIDIA technology; AMD CrossFire (CF) is a similar technology.

Incorrect answers: Version 2 PCIe slots are probably too slow for the type of video cards that are installed in an SLI configuration—unless it is an older motherboard—so version 3 PCIe (or higher) becomes necessary. The technology cannot span different expansion slots. Video cards are normally placed into x16 slots only, not x1 slots. USB is not an expansion slot at all; it is a port, as mentioned, and does not work together with PCIe in an SLI configuration.

23. Answer: C

Explanation: RAID 5 is fault tolerant and allows for striping with parity (given you have three drives minimum to dedicate to the array). It’s the parity information that makes it fault tolerant.

Incorrect answers: RAID 0 is simply striping of data. It is not fault tolerant, meaning that it cannot re-create data after a failure or continue to function after a failure. RAID 1 is mirroring; it requires two drives and is fault tolerant. (An advanced version of RAID 1 is called disk duplexing, when each hard drive in the mirror is connected to its own hard drive controller.) RAID 10 is a stripe of mirrors. It requires four drives and is fault tolerant. It stripes the mirrors but does not stripe with parity.

24. Answers: A and D

Explanation: The mouse can move erratically due to an incorrect driver or an uneven surface. Remember to visit the website for the manufacturer of the device to get the latest and greatest driver. That should fix the problem. But optical mice are very sensitive and need to be on an even, flat surface. Also, it helps if that surface is nonreflective.

Incorrect answers: Optical mice don’t have a trackball. Older ball mice had these, and they had to be cleaned to fix this problem. The mouse should not conflict with the keyboard. Every USB device gets its own resources; this is taken care of by the USB controller. Finally, if the mouse needs to be charged or needs new batteries, it should simply stop working.

25. Answers: A and E

Explanation: Two ways to conserve power on a laptop are to disable cellular and Bluetooth. Some laptops might have cellular adapters, which can be quite a drain on the device. In fact, any wireless connections, including Wi-Fi, can use a lot of power. Don’t forget to use airplane mode to shut off all wireless connections when they are not necessary. Other ways to save battery power include reducing the brightness of the display, setting the display to turn off after a short period of inactivity, disabling GPS, and disabling any other power-hungry apps. The list goes on!

Incorrect answers: Playing music or sounds at high volume for long periods of time could drain the battery, but that is unlikely. For the average laptop user, video uses more power than audio. The orientation of the screen is unlikely to change enough to significantly affect the battery. The touchpad is a low-power device; it is designed that way on purpose because it is built into the laptop. A fingerprint reader is used only when a person logs in to the system. Because of that infrequent use, it doesn’t affect the battery much. However, excessive USB-based devices can put a strain on the battery, so be ready to disable or remove them.

26. Answer: C

Explanation: You should check the wall outlet first if you are dealing with a power issue. Because power comes from the AC outlet, it should be foremost on your mind.

Incorrect answers: If you already deduced that the wall outlet is not causing a problem, check the power supply next. Input devices don’t often cause a power issue unless they are active devices, meaning they plug into an AC outlet. But once again, you should unplug them and check the AC outlet where they are plugged in. Phone and network cabling can carry power surges and spikes, especially if they are not installed or grounded properly. However, it is less likely that the power issue emanates from a networking or telecommunications cable. After checking the wall outlet and power supply, unplug them from the computer when troubleshooting power issues.

27. Answer: A

Explanation: If a computer is attempting to obtain an IP address automatically and it receives the IP address 169.254.127.1, or any other IP address starting with 169.254, DHCP has failed either at the client or the server. When this happens, Windows automatically assigns an APIPA address. The computer will be able to communicate only with other computers on the 169.254 network, which is pretty worthless if that is not your main network number. What went wrong? The problem could be one of several things. Perhaps the DHCP client service on the client computer needs to be restarted. Or maybe the computer is not connected to the right network. It could even be a problem with the server: lack of IP addresses, the DHCP service failed, the DHCP server is down, and so on. Get your problem-solving hat on and start troubleshooting!

Incorrect answers: DNS deals with resolving domain names to IP addresses; it doesn’t affect DHCP address assignment. The Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) is an older Microsoft service that resolves NetBIOS names to IP addresses; like DNS, it doesn’t affect DHCP. Both DNS and WINS could fail and a computer could still obtain an IP address from a DHCP server. If APIPA failed, the computer wouldn’t be able to get an address on the 169.254 network. If DHCP and APIPA were both to fail, the client computer would effectively have an IP address of 0.0.0.0. (or nothing would be listed in the ipconfig screen), placing the computer in the Twilight Zone.

28. Answer: B

Explanation: Remove the CMOS battery from the motherboard. Normally, this trick resets any variable settings in the UEFI/BIOS, such as the password and time/date. Some older systems also have a BIOS configuration jumper that must be moved to another position in addition to removing the battery.

Incorrect answers: Removing the RAM doesn’t do anything. When the computer is turned off, RAM contents are emptied. Today’s motherboards usually don’t have RAM jumpers. Removing the main power connection from the motherboard will have no effect if the computer was already turned off and unplugged. By the way, RAM and power connections should not be removed unless the power has been shut off and the AC cable has been unplugged.

29. Answer: B

Explanation: One hard drive can fail in a RAID 5 array, and the array can rebuild that drive’s data from the remaining drives. However, if a second drive fails, the array is toast. The reason is that the array requires the parity information from all the other drives.

Incorrect answers: If you had a RAID 6 array (which includes another parity stripe), you could lose as many as two drives and still continue to function. Regardless, be sure to have a backup plan in place.

30. Answer: C

Explanation: Remove the hard drive before releasing a computer to a third party. There could very well be confidential company data on the drive. Store the drive in a locking cabinet. Don’t worry; the manufacturer of the laptop has plenty of hard drives it can use to test the laptop!

Incorrect answers: You don’t need to remove the LCD or WLAN card because they do not contain confidential information. Also, if the laptop is under warranty, you should not remove the display yourself; instead, send it to the manufacturer for repair and set up a temporary laptop for the user in question. Finally, you could clean it if you want, but do you really have time for that?

31. Answers: A and D

Explanation: Intel CPU virtualization is named VT-x. AMD CPU virtualization is named AMD-V. However, on newer systems within the UEFI/BIOS, it might simply be called “Virtualization.”

Incorrect answers: AMD-Vi is the name for AMD chipset virtualization. VT-d is the name for Intel chipset virtualization.

32. Answer: B

Explanation: At 16x speed, 576 Mb/s is the answer. The default 1x speed of Blu-ray allows a data rate of 36 Mb/s (4.5 MB/s).

Incorrect answers: The maximum storage capacity of a standard size dual-layer Blu-ray disc is 50 GB. The 1x data rate of a CD-ROM drive is 150 KB/s.

33. Answer: C

Explanation: DVI-I accepts analog and digital video signals. All DVI ports are video only; they do not support audio.

Incorrect answers: DVI-D is digital only, as you may guess from the D, and DVI-A is analog only. HDMI can accept video and audio signals. HDMI type B is known as double bandwidth; it supports higher resolutions than type A.

34. Answer: D

Explanation: A mobile hotspot, when enabled, allows a mobile device to share its Internet connection with other Wi-Fi–capable devices. This might also be referred to as “Wi-Fi tethering.”

Incorrect answers: In USB tethering, a mobile device shares its Internet connection with a PC or laptop via USB. The term Wi-Fi sharing is not typically used. For Internet passthrough, a mobile device connects to a PC via USB, making use of the PC’s Internet connection—basically the reverse of USB tethering.

35. Answer: B

Explanation: Three-dimensional (3D) printers use filaments (often made of plastic) to build three-dimensional objects.

Incorrect answers: Laser printers use toner cartridges. Inkjet printers use ink cartridges. Thermal printers use specially coated paper that is super-heated.

36. Answer: D

Explanation: Add memory to the printer. Large documents, especially ones with graphics, require more memory to print. A printer’s memory can be upgraded in a similar manner to a PC’s.

Incorrect answers: The paper doesn’t have an effect on large documents, but it could be an issue if the entry rollers are grabbing more than one piece of paper at a time; that would indicate that the pound size of the paper is too thin. If the communications cable were faulty, no pages would print at all; you would probably get a message on the printer’s display warning of a bad connection. If a toner cartridge began to fail, you would see white lines, smearing, or faded ink.

37. Answer: A

Explanation: A ghosted image or one that seems to repeat usually means the drum (or the entire toner cartridge including the drum) needs to be replaced.

Incorrect answers: If the printer is offline, you cannot print to the printer. An incorrect driver often results in a garbage printout (garbled characters) that is quite unreadable (unless you know garbage printout language). A dirty primary corona wire often results in lines or smearing.

38. Answer: C

Explanation: You should first attempt reseating the laptop in the docking station; the laptop probably doesn’t have a sturdy connection, resulting in a blinking battery light telling you that the laptop is not charging properly (or at all).

Incorrect answers: Do this before you attempt to reseat or replace the battery. This is a hardware issue; the operating system does not have an effect on the blinking battery light.

39. Answers: A, C, and E

Explanation: You can try power cycling the device, checking if the SSID was correct, and forgetting the network and then reconnecting to it. You should also check whether the device is within range of the wireless access point, whether the device supports the necessary encryption, and whether Internet passthrough or other Internet sharing technologies are conflicting. Furthermore, you can power cycle the Wi-Fi program, check if any Wi-Fi sleep is enabled, and try enabling best Wi-Fi performance if the device offers it.

Incorrect answers: Using the cellular GPRS connection is not a valid option when troubleshooting the Wi-Fi connection. Setting up a static IP on a mobile device is usually not a good idea and not necessary; in fact, this is one of the things you should check in the Advanced settings of the device. A static IP applied to the Wi-Fi adapter could prevent the device from connecting to all wireless networks except the one that uses that IP network number.

40. Answers: A and C

Explanation: To connect a Bluetooth headset to a smartphone, you must pair the device to the phone; then, if necessary, you enter a passcode into the phone to use the device.

Incorrect answers: Drivers are usually not necessary; most mobile devices have Bluetooth installed and usually recognize devices automatically. If not, you might have to update Bluetooth on the device or update the device’s OS. Disabling Wi-Fi is not necessary; however, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth have been known to have conflicts, and sometimes one must be disabled to use the other.

41. Answers: A and C

Explanation: You should make sure that the heat sink is secure and that the fan is connected. Either of these issues could cause the CPU to overheat. Also, make sure that thermal compound was applied to the heat sink. If you didn’t log in writing somewhere that you did this, you will have to take the heat sink off and inspect it. It’s a good idea to log when you apply thermal compound because if you remove the heat sink, you will need to reapply thermal compound before reinstalling it.

Incorrect answers: The BIOS temperature threshold is what tripped, causing the system to shut down. You could increase the threshold, which would fix the problem temporarily but could cause permanent damage to the CPU. The threshold is there to protect the CPU; therefore, “Check the BIOS temperature threshold” is not the best answer. If the RAM needed to be reseated, you might get one of several errors or beeps, but the system should not automatically shut down.

42. Answer: C

Explanation: The power supply is the most likely source of a burning smell. If it is a very slight smell, the power supply could be brand new. New power supplies have a “burn-in” period of 24–48 working hours. However, you should be very careful with this. If the power supply is about to fail, or if it does fail, it could burn up the motor that drives the fan. This situation could be an electrical and/or fire hazard. So, to be safe, you should remove the power supply and test it in your lab, or call the manufacturer for a replacement.

Incorrect answers: It is possible but unlikely that the thermal compound would cause a burning smell; however, if this were to occur, it would be much less noticeable and more chemical in nature. The keyboard should not present a burning smell no matter how fast you type on it. The AC outlet could possibly be the cause of a burning smell, and that would be very bad news. In that case, disconnect devices from that outlet, turn off the circuit breaker immediately, and call an electrician. However, the AC outlet is not part of the computer.

43. Answer: B

Explanation: The laptop is probably connecting to a different wireless network, either in the home next door or an adjacent business—one without encryption, it would seem. Based on the speed—54 Mbps—you could safely assume that the connection being made is to either an 802.11g or an 802.11a network. The best course of action is to verify the SSID name of the 802.11ac router, forget the current wireless network, and connect to the new network. You might find that in some cases a laptop connects at a slower speed (such as 802.11g), even though faster speeds (such as 802.11n and 802.11ac) are available. The reason could be due to the configuration of the WAP or the wireless adapter on the laptop. That’s not one of the listed answers and is not the case here because of the poor signal strength mentioned in the scenario.

Incorrect answers: The cable modem isn’t a part of the equation in this scenario. You are only interested in connecting to the wireless network to start. A router (wireless access point) doesn’t have a wireless card such as the ones in a PC or laptop. Also, you don’t know whether the device is faulty yet because the laptop never connected to it. The same goes for the wireless antennas.

44. Answer: C and D

Explanation: RAID 1 (mirroring) provides fault tolerance by copying information to two drives. RAID 5 (striping with parity) provides fault tolerance by keeping a compressed copy of the data (in the form of parity) on each of the disks other than where the original data is stored.

Incorrect answers: RAID 0 is striping only, and a spanned volume is one that stores data on two or more drives, but as whole files, not as stripes of data.

45. Answer: C

Explanation: The best of the listed answers is 3 TB HDD, meaning a 3 terabyte magnetic-based hard disk drive. It can be installed internally to the computer, is relatively inexpensive, and offers a good storage size that probably won’t be exceeded in the next 6 months (although anything can happen!).

Incorrect answers: A 500 TB storage-area network (SAN) is an entire network of storage devices that exists outside the desktop computer. Also, for a typical PC, it is way bigger than you need. A 50 GB network-attached storage (NAS) device also exists outside the desktop computer. In addition, the storage size is quite limited. A 512 GB SSD is a possibility, but it doesn’t have as much space as the 3 TB HDD, and it will be more expensive per megabyte. A good rule of thumb is to use SSDs for the OS, apps, and working projects. Then use an HDD for backup and long-term storage. Keep in mind that this does not take into account any fault tolerance.

46. Answer: A

Explanation: The F connector (also known as F-type) is commonly used to terminate coaxial cable that is used for television or cable Internet. Generally, it is used to terminate RG-6 cable but might also be seen with RG-59 cable, which has a thinner conductor and therefore isn’t used as much. Note: RG-59 cable may also be terminated with BNC connectors for professional video applications.

Incorrect answers: The DB-9 connector (more accurately named the DE-9) is used for serial connections between computers. RJ11 plugs are used with telephone lines. RJ45 plugs are commonly found as the terminators of patch cables in twisted-pair networks.

47. Answer: A

Explanation: Clear the printer spooler. You do this by stopping the Print Spooler service in Computer Management (or in the Command Prompt by entering net stop spooler) and then deleting the files in the path C:WindowsSystem32SpoolPrinters.

Incorrect answers: Try not to turn off or unplug the printer unless absolutely necessary. Resetting the printer is somewhat vague but would most likely result in a need for printer reconfiguration.

48. Answer: D

Explanation: Pinging the loopback address should return results even if you are not physically connected to the network. This trick deals with the computer internally and doesn’t even need a LAN. You can ping the local computer with the commands ping loopback and ping localhost; however, the best option is to ping the actual IPv4 loopback IP address by typing ping 127.0.0.1 (or ping ::1 for IPv6). This removes any possible name resolution that might occur in Windows. Note that name resolution happens whenever you connect to a system by name (such as computerA, workstationB, and so on); the name must ultimately be translated to its corresponding IP address. So, to avoid any name resolution issues, we computer techs like to go right to the source and ping the IP address directly. This way, we can troubleshoot whether or not the TCP/IP protocol suite is functioning properly, without being concerned with any other services and name resolution getting in the way. It’s a good general practice for connecting to systems directly.

Incorrect answers: Pinging the loopback address doesn’t make use of the network, so the LAN, DHCP servers, and the Ethernet cable do not play into the scenario.

49. Answers: B and D

Explanation: Check if you are within range; the range of Bluetooth devices is limited; for example, Class 2 devices are limited to 10 meters. Also try power cycling the Bluetooth program by turning Bluetooth off and on. In addition to those correct answers, you can try charging the device, restarting the device, working with a known good Bluetooth device, attempting to forget the device, and reconnecting it.

Incorrect answers: WLAN is a separate wireless technology from Bluetooth, so it should not have any bearing on how Bluetooth functions. If devices are paired within Bluetooth, they should work; unpairing and re-pairing should not have any effect.

50. Answers: A, B, E, and G

Explanation: If the computer is receiving power, everything is hooked up properly, and there is no display, you need to consider the big four: motherboard, CPU, video card, and RAM. These are the four components of the computer that could cause a no-display issue. The most common is the video card. Check whether it is seated properly into the expansion slot. You should also check whether that card works in one of your test systems. Next, check whether the RAM and then the CPU are properly installed and compatible. Finally, check the motherboard, if necessary. Of course, at the beginning of this process, you should inquire of the customer when this computer failed and if anything was recently modified on the system. Doing so might help you troubleshoot the problem. You would question the user during step 1 of the CompTIA A+ troubleshooting process: Identify the problem.

Incorrect answers: The hard drive won’t even be accessed if the system’s RAM, motherboard, or CPU fails because the system won’t even POST. There will be little to no activity on the hard drive LED. If the video card failed, the system might still boot, but without video, and you would see some hard drive LED activity. However, some systems will not boot; lack of video will cause the system to stop at POST. The DVD-ROM drive won’t cause a no-display issue because it is a secondary device. The power supply is not the cause of the problem in this case. The scenario said that the computer was receiving power. If the power supply failed, nothing would happen when you press the computer’s power-on button. If the SATA data cable were disconnected (and that was the only problem), you would get video; the system would POST (and most likely record a hard drive error); and then when the system attempted to boot to the hard drive, you would get a “missing OS” error or a similar message.

51. Answers: C and E

Explanation: If only one computer is connected to the switch, there shouldn’t be much activity. Rapidly blinking LED lights might lead you to believe that the computer’s network card (NIC) or the port on the switch is faulty. The problem could be that the person is sending a lot of data to himself while you are testing the network, but that would be strange and rare.

Incorrect answers: Switches are not plugged into servers; however, they facilitate network connections between many computers. A defective hard drive would cause some kind of boot failure. The server doesn’t have anything to do with this scenario.

52. Answer: E

Explanation: What should have been port 993 was probably configured incorrectly if the person can send but not receive email. To securely send email over Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), use port 993.

Incorrect answers: The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) uses port 25 by default to send mail but will use port 587 (or 465) if SSL or TLS security is implemented. Port 110 is the POP3 email port. POP3 also is used to receive email, but not in this question’s scenario. IMAP can receive email on port 143, but it is not considered secure. Port 443 is commonly used by HTTPS. Configuring email on mobile devices such as Android phones can be a little more difficult, as compared to PCs. Be sure to work with mobile devices and go through the steps of setting up email on both Android and iOS.

53. Answers: A and D

Explanation: Check the basics first! Make sure the power cable isn’t disconnected from the computer, and verify that the voltage switch on the power supply is in the correct position (if the PSU is not auto-switching). Kids like to play tricks on lab computers!

Incorrect answers: A standard power strip should not overload with just two computers connected to it, but if it does, press the reset switch on the power strip. The monitor being unplugged could be a separate problem, but it won’t prevent the computer from powering on. If the second computer works fine, that tells you the power strip is plugged in.

54. Answer: C

Explanation: Start with the physical! Check for a link light on the NIC first. This light tells you whether there is physical connectivity.

Incorrect answers: Then, if necessary, you can, in order, test the patch cable, reconfigure TCP/IP, install drivers (from the manufacturer’s website, mind you), and, finally, replace the NIC.

55. Answers: D and E

Explanation: Start securing the IoT device by separating it (and other IoT devices). Do this by moving it to a DMZ or a guest network (or both). Also, use the latest encryption standards for the wireless network—meaning WPA2 or higher and AES.

Incorrect answers: You should definitely upgrade the router to the latest firmware, but that is not the best answer listed because it does not directly affect the IoT device. More importantly, update the IoT device’s firmware—often! Disabling wireless access would render the thermostat nonfunctional. Upgrading to WPA is not enough. Newer versions of WPA are available. Two-factor authentication (if it is even available) would be good security, but that is something that concerns the account that accesses the thermostat. And that is only if the thermostat can be controlled over the cloud. You don’t know that based on the information in the scenario. If this feature does exist, you should secure the login as much as possible, but the device itself can still be accessed via Wi-Fi.

56. Answers: A, C, and E

Explanation: First, make sure that the iPad has a connection to the Internet. Then check that the email settings, including port numbers, server names, username/ password, and any security settings, were entered properly.

Incorrect answers: Bluetooth can be off while email is being used. GPS tracks where a mobile device is located, and it too can be turned off when accessing email.

57. Answer: D

Explanation: Use Internal SATA hard drive 3 for the page file. By separating the page file from the operating system and the user profiles, you maximize performance of the system.

Incorrect answers: If the page file were on either of the other SATA drives, the constant accessing of the page file would slow down the OS performance or would slow down the access of user files. SATA hard drive 3 is a better option than the external USB flash drive for a variety of reasons: it is probably faster; it has less latency; and in general, internal drives perform more efficiently than external drives.

58. Answer: D

Explanation: Of the listed answers, you should recommend fiber-optic cables. Another option would be shielded twisted pair (STP). Furthermore, you could rerun the cables through a metal conduit or reroute the cables around the mechanical room. Chances are, in this scenario, the mechanical room’s contents are causing interference on the network cables. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) can be prevented with STP or fiber-optic cables.

Incorrect answers: UTP is unshielded twisted pair, and because it is the most common, it is probably what the customer is using currently. Plenum-rated cable is used in areas where sprinklers cannot get to. It has a coating that makes it burn much more slowly. T568B is the most common network cabling wiring standard.

59. Answers: A and E

Explanation: First, remove the computer from the floor. Second, take the computer outside, clean it by removing the biggest dust bunnies (which you will undoubtedly find), and use compressed air and an antistatic vacuum. That should fix the noise problem; there is probably a lot of dust and dirt in one or more of the fans. Also, remember to wear a dust mask when dealing with dusty computers. In addition, a clogged CPU fan can cause the CPU to overheat, resulting in the computer turning itself off.

Incorrect answers: A new hard drive isn’t necessary unless you find that it is malfunctioning. The power cord most likely isn’t the problem here, but you could always swap it with another one to be sure. Wiping down the outside of a computer with a cloth won’t do much to fix the situation, and you wouldn’t wipe down the inside of the computer. On a slightly different topic, static electricity could be generated when a person touches the power button of the computer. Combine this with the computer lying on a carpet, and it could cause the computer to short out and shut down. So, it’s best to keep the computer off the floor for a variety of reasons.

60. Answer: C

Explanation: If the laptop gets power when plugged in but doesn’t work when disconnected from AC power, the battery must be dead or defective.

Incorrect answers: A bad transformer means that the AC adapter would need to be replaced. That and a bad AC port would cause the laptop to fail when plugged into the AC adapter, but it should work fine on battery power (until the battery fully discharges, that is). A bad CMOS battery causes the time, date, and passwords to be reset in the BIOS.

61. Answer: A

Explanation: The wrinkled pages are the number-one indicator that the fuser needs to be replaced. Random patterns of missing print further indicate that the fuser is not working properly. If you note that toner is not being fused to the paper, that is the last clue. The fuser usually needs to be replaced every 200,000 pages or so on a laser printer.

Incorrect answers: If the toner cartridge were defective, either you would get blank printouts or you would see lines or smears, but there wouldn’t be page wrinkles. If the transfer corona wire were defective, it might result in blank paper. Damage to the primary corona wire can also result in black lines or smearing. High humidity could cause the separation pads or rollers to fail.

62. Answer: D

Explanation: A chassis intrusion means that the computer case has been opened. Some UEFI/BIOS programs have the capability to detect this. This is a security feature that informs the user of a possible breach. As a PC technician, you should check the computer inside and out for any possible tampering.

Incorrect answers: The UEFI/BIOS program will not detect if the optical drive is open. If the CPU were loose, the computer would not boot, and there would be nothing to display. It is possible that a malicious individual has hacked, or attempted to hack, the system. However, this is not necessarily the case, although you should check just to make sure.

63. Answer: D

Explanation: Tell the customer to use the onboard ports. This means the ports that are integrated directly to the motherboard on the back of the computer. This tip is a quick, temporary fix, but it should work because they are hardwired to the board. The front USB plugs are part of the computer case; they probably were never connected to the motherboard properly. You should also check whether the USB scanner needs to be plugged into an AC outlet.

Incorrect answers: If the back USB ports don’t work, you could try a different USB cable. Software shouldn’t affect the USB device getting power. If it has a proper USB connection, it should power up. But, after that, if Windows doesn’t recognize it, try updating drivers and Windows.

64. Answer: D

Explanation: Today’s video cards can be very powerful and might require a more powerful power supply than is in the computer currently.

Incorrect answers: Video cards need to be compatible with the motherboard, not necessarily with the CPU. If the monitor could not display the higher resolution, the operating system would still boot, but you would probably see garbled information on the screen. Because a video card comes with its own RAM, the computer’s RAM usually does not need to be upgraded.

65. Answer: B

Explanation: Of the listed answers, the best option is to use a wireless charging pad for the mobile device. It can be charged before each event and can work as a good portable solution.

Incorrect answers: A built-in battery case usually has to connect to the device’s USB port (or Lightning port), which—if there is no passthrough capability—might stop the user from working with flash drives. (It’s also better to use something that is already available as opposed to purchasing something new—from a monetary standpoint.) It doesn’t matter how many charging cords you have. If AC wall outlets are not accessible, you will have to charge during the event in another way. Putting the device into airplane mode would stop it from accessing the Internet, which is a requirement.

66. Answer: C

Explanation: To configure the BIOS to boot off the network, you have to enable the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) network adapter. To allow the computer to be brought out of sleep mode by another system on the network, you need to configure Wake-on-LAN (WOL) in the BIOS.

Incorrect answers: WAP stands for wireless access point; WPA2 is the Wi-Fi Protected Access version 2 encryption used on a WAP. WDS stands for Windows Deployment Services and is used on Windows Server to deploy installations of Windows to remote computers. A Magic Packet is a special packet sent to a computer to wake it up, but it is configured in Windows. Symantec Ghost is used to create or install images of operating systems. Unattend.xml is the answer file created for unattended installations of Windows over the network.

67. Answers: C and E

Explanation: The printer could simply be out of paper, or the spooler could be malfunctioning. If the printer is out of paper, fill all trays and suggest that the user check the trays every couple of days or so. If the spooler is not functioning, you should restart the spooler service in the Services console window or in the Command Prompt with the net stop spooler and net start spooler commands.

Incorrect answers: If the printer were low on toner, you would get weak print or completely blank pages. If the network cable were unplugged, you wouldn’t be able to ping the printer. Printers don’t always use gateway addresses, but if this one did, it wouldn’t affect your ability to connect to it (as long as it was on the LAN). The gateway address is used so that the printer can communicate with computers beyond the LAN.

68. Answer: D

Explanation: Voice over IP (VoIP) is a streaming telephony application. Streaming applications such as VoIP and online games can benefit from QoS. QoS stands for quality of service, which is the capability to provide different priorities to different applications (or computers). It guarantees network bandwidth for real-time streaming of the media applications such as VoIP.

Incorrect answers: The SSID is the name or identifier of a wireless network. Instant messaging and email are not streaming applications; therefore, they would not benefit from the use of QoS.

69. Answer: A

Explanation: If a power failure occurs, try power cycling the PC. In this scenario it could be that power went out for five minutes. When power returned, the monitor was still on (thus, the LED) but the computer remained off (thus, nothing on the display). Really, in this case, you are just turning on the computer.

Incorrect answers: Peripherals should have no bearing on this scenario unless they also plug in. If you power cycle the PC and there is still nothing on the display, try disconnecting the peripherals from the PC, disconnecting the AC power (if the PC has that), and rebooting the PC. If the monitor has an LED light, you know it is getting power, so the UPS does not need to be power cycled. However, if there was a five-minute power loss and the UPS didn’t keep the PC running, you should check the UPS battery. Turning the breaker switches for the circuit on and off is always fun but would simply cut power to the AC outlets temporarily.

70. Answers: A, C, E, and G

Explanation: Check the power LED on the laptop first and see what it is doing. It could be that the user simply wasn’t pressing the power button. If it blinks slowly once in a while, the laptop might be in a sleep state. Then check the power light on the AC adapter. Make sure the AC adapter is getting power; if it is, check whether it is the right adapter. Check whether the system is in hibernate mode by pressing and holding the power button. Finally, the power button might be faulty, so make sure it isn’t loose. If no AC adapter is available, you should also check whether the battery is connected properly and charged. Make sure the user keeps the AC adapter on hand at all times.

Incorrect answers: Audio, the inverter, and the function keys usually do not cause booting failure. They should not affect whether you can turn on the laptop.

71. Answer: A

Explanation: You should update the UEFI/BIOS. If it hasn’t been updated in a while, it probably won’t recognize newer memory modules.

Incorrect answers: Most of today’s motherboards don’t have jumper settings for RAM. In fact, the only jumper you often find is the BIOS configuration jumper, which needs to be configured only if a person forgot a password. The BIOS will have a problem recognizing the RAM far before the OS starts up; no OS updates are required to make RAM recognizable to the system. If the computer needed a new CMOS battery, you would know because the time in the BIOS would reset to an earlier date.

72. Answer: B

Explanation: You would mark SATA Drive 1 as active. If you cannot access Disk Management, you would have to do it by booting the system with WinRE (System Recovery Options); accessing the Command Prompt; executing the diskpart command; and typing the commands select disk 1, select partition 1, and active. A RAID 1 array is a mirroring array with two drives. The second drive keeps an exact copy of the first drive in real time. If Drive 1 doesn’t take over automatically when Drive 0 fails, you will have to set it to active. Remember that a partition with an operating system must be set to active; otherwise, the computer will not be able to boot to the partition.

Incorrect answers: Replacing Drive 1 is not necessary because it did not fail. Replacing Drive 0 is inevitable if you want to re-create the mirror but not necessary if you just want to get the system to boot for now. Replacing the array’s controller is most likely not necessary. You should try replacing the drive first. It is possible (though unlikely) that the drive and the controller failed at the same time, but always start with the most likely culprit (and never change out more than one device at a time).

73. Answer: C

Explanation: Check the IEC cable first if you sense that there is a power issue. That is the power cable for the computer; make sure it is connected to the computer and to the AC outlet.

Incorrect answers: Afterward, if the cable is not the issue, you could check the AC wall outlet. Use a receptacle tester or your trusty multimeter to make sure the AC outlet is wired properly and supplying the correct voltage. If that is fine, you can check the power supply and the 24-pin power connector. Check the circuit breaker only if the power has been cut to an area of the building and only if you have access to the electrical panels.

74. Answer: C

Explanation: The video card should be your first stop on the upgrade express train. Images that do not display properly are usually due to a subpar video card. CAD/CAM workstations require a powerful video card.

Incorrect answers: Though not as much, the CPU will also play into this, especially when rendering images, so that is the second thing you should check. Use third-party benchmarking tools, or view the Windows Experience Index (Windows 7) or WinSAT (Windows 8 and higher) details to find out what has the lowest score and go from there. The video card is most likely the lowest. See the following note for more information about WinSAT. CAD/CAM workstations often require video cards that can cost a thousand dollars or more. Always read the directions carefully and set up proper ESD prevention techniques prior to installing a card this expensive. RAM is important, but not as important to the CAD/CAM workstation as the video card (especially based on the question’s scenario). Generally, as long as the computer has enough RAM to run Windows and the AutoCAD software, it should be okay. The hard drive doesn’t play much of a factor while the CAD software is running, but for storing and accessing files, an SSD (or M.2) drive is recommended.

CPUScore:      8.6
D3DScore:      9.9
DiskScore:     8.2
GraphicsScore: 6.5
MemoryScore:   8.6

75. Answer: D

Explanation: A firewall is used to implement security for the computer network—for example, access control lists (ACLs) that allow or deny incoming and outgoing traffic.

Incorrect answers: A managed switch connects computers and servers on the network and can be configured from a remote workstation (usually by logging in to the switch via a browser). A repeater is a physical device that amplifies a network signal so that it can travel farther. The gateway device is usually a router; it acts as the doorway to the Internet or other networks for the computer on the LAN.

76. Answer: A

Explanation: This is an example of software as a service (SaaS). Google, Microsoft, Apple, and other companies offer this service to end users and business users.

Incorrect answers: Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offers computer networking, storage, load balancing, routing, and VM hosting. Platform as a service (PaaS) provides various software solutions to organizations, especially the capability to develop and test applications. DaaS can stand for either data as a service or desktop as a service. Data as a service is similar to SaaS in that products are provided on demand, but it is more data-oriented as opposed to app-oriented. In desktop as a service, a cloud provider hosts the back end of a virtual desktop, also known as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

77. Answer: B

Explanation: The technician should clean the pickup rollers. If they are dirty or oily, they could cause a paper jam directly behind or above the paper tray.

Incorrect answers: The feeder rollers would cause a jam further in the printer. A fuser issue would cause a jam up toward the end of the printing path. The drum (or toner cartridge) will usually not cause a paper jam, but in the rare case, simply replace the toner cartridge.

78. Answer: C

Explanation: If the wireless printer is losing connections when multiple users are on the network, the reason is probably that there aren’t enough automatically assigned IP addresses to go around. You should configure the printer to use a static IP address instead of receiving one dynamically from the router. This address will be permanent and should fix the problem. Often, companies insist that printers (as well as routers, switches, and servers) always get a static address to avoid problems of this sort.

Incorrect answers: Increasing the IP lease times might work; it might not. When multiple users attempt to get on the wireless network, someone is going to lose out; it might be a person at a laptop, or it might be the printer or other device. Therefore, this is not a permanent solution. Another access point might increase your wireless coverage, but it will do nothing for your IP issue. The whole problem here is that the printer was configured for DHCP; it was obtaining its IP address automatically from the DHCP server within the router. When it is changed to static, it doesn’t have to compete for the five dynamically assigned IPs.

79. Answer: A

Explanation: In this scenario, your organization is running a web server on the LAN. Your job is to make sure that all clients outside your network on the Internet that are attempting to access the web server can do so. You must configure port forwarding for this to work. The HTTPS requests, or whatever port the clients use to access the web server (perhaps 443, but not necessarily), should be forwarded to the IP address and port of the web server on your network.

Incorrect answers: Exceptions are meant to allow certain computers access in or out of the firewall, but this would give the external clients too much access. You should streamline this configuration so that the external traffic is all directed to your web server, and port forwarding is the best way to do this. NAT, which stands for Network Address Translation, is used to match up the private IP address numbers of your internal computers to the external public IPs they attempt to connect to; it protects the private IP identity of the internal computers. However, it’s actually not the interior traffic you are concerned with. Instead, you are concerned with the external traffic trying to get into your network and visit your web server, and the web server only.

80. Answer: C

Explanation: The wireless access point is most likely the problem. Perhaps it was turned off or disabled or lost its connection to the network. This WAP failure causes the laptops to fail when attempting to connect to websites, and furthermore, the laptops won’t have any Internet connection whatsoever. There are a lot of possibilities for why a client computer cannot connect to a WAP, but if several wireless clients cannot make the connection, you can usually assume that the problem is not at the client side and instead is at the central connecting device, in this case the WAP. Laptops often connect wirelessly because they are mobile devices, whereas PCs often connect in a wired fashion because they are stationary and don’t necessarily need a wireless connection.

Incorrect answers: If the PCs can connect to the Internet fine (as the question states), you can probably rule out the router, cable modem, firewall, and UTM device. That is, unless of course, one of the devices was configured with some kind of rule stating that the laptops can’t connect to websites. This is unlikely but is a possibility if the network has a firewall or UTM. UTM stands for unified threat management; UTM devices combine the functionality of firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and proxy servers, among other things. UTMs and next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) are designed to integrate a variety of threat defenses into one device. An encryption mismatch is always possible when it comes to wireless connections. Perhaps the WAP is configured for WPA2 and AES, but a laptop is configured with WPA or TKIP, or both. That mismatch would cause the laptop to fail to connect to the wireless network, and ultimately, the Internet. However, for several laptops to fail due to encryption mismatches, they would all have to be configured improperly, which again is unlikely, and at which point someone would be held accountable for the mistake. Don’t let this happen to you! Verify your configurations after you have made them; always test! Testing and troubleshooting are huge parts of the real IT world and the A+ exams, so be sure you study them and practice them intensely.