Computer Hardware Question and Answer
Hardware question
Ø 1: 9 bit SIMMs have how many pins? A: 30
Ø 2: How many bits is the system data bus for a Pentium Processor? A: 64
Ø 3: How many bits is the data bus for a 486DX4 processor? A: 32
Ø 4: A serial data port on your PC would have how many pinouts? A: 9
Ø 5: How many wires does the standard IDE drive cable have? A: 40
Ø 6: How big is the conventional memory in a PC? A: 640K
Ø 7: How many bits is the system bus for a 386SX processor? A: 16
Ø 8: How many bits is the system bus for a 386DX processor? A: 32
Ø 9: What is the maximum length for a parallel cable? A: 15 ft.
Ø 10: What IRQ does the real time clock use? A: 8
Ø 11: What form of software can also be called firmware? A: System BIOS
Ø 12: What would you set your multimeter to if you wanted to detect an AC ripple? A: AC Voltage
Ø 13: After you install a new floppy drive and restart the system, the floppy drive light stays on constantly and you get an “FDD Controller Failure” POST error. What is the problem? A: Floppy cable on backwards
Ø 14: What type of port communicates information to a peripheral device one bit at a time? A: Serial port
Ø 15: Should you wear a grounding strap when servicing a CRT monitor? A: No
Ø 16: What are the 4 types of DC voltage usually produced by a power supply? A: +5V ,-5V ,+12V ,-12V
Ø 17: If your monitor just shows dots when you turn it on, what is most likely the problem? A: Bad Video RAM
Ø 18: You have 2 hard drives installed on your primary EIDE controller. You install a CD-ROM on your secondary EIDE controller. What jumper setting would you use for the CD-ROM? A: Master
Ø 19: What factor determines the amount of RAM a CPU can control? A: Width of the Address Bus
Ø 20: What would you use to clean a monitor screen? A: Anti-static spray
Ø 21: Missing slot covers on a PC can cause what problem? A: Overheating
Ø 22: A 15 pin, three row, female connector on the back of a PC would be used for? A: VGA/SVGA por
Ø 23: On a laser printer the primary corona does what?- Places a uniform negative charge on the photosensitive drum.
Ø 24: The correct AT command to tell a modem to hang up is? A: ATH
Ø 25: Using a portion of hard disk space to serve as RAM is called? A: Virtual Memory
Ø 26: The AT command to tell a modem to dial a number is? A: ATD{number}
Ø 27: How many pins does a Joystick or MIDI port connector have? A: 15
Ø 28: How can you tell that a PC has successfully completed its Power on Self Test (POST)? A: A single beep at startup
Ø 29: Locations in memory are referred to as? A: Addresses
Ø 30: On a laser printer, the laser beam performs what function? A: Changes the charge on the photosensitive drum
Ø 31: Which electrical component will hold a charge even when no voltage is being applied? A: Capacitor
Ø 32: What is the IDE CMOS/BIOS limit for the size of a hard drive? A: 528 million bytes or 504 MegaBytes
Ø 33: You can probably determine that a monitor is working, even though it is not connected to a PC, by performing what action? A: Turn up the brightness to see if the raster appears.
Ø 34: What purpose does the system ROM serve? A: Starts the system when the computer is turned on.
Ø 35: A SIMM stick has 9 DRAM chips. How many bits wide is it? A: 8 bits + parity
Ø 36: What is the difference between SRAM and DRAM?
Ø A: SRAM has built in switches and does not have to be refreshed.
Ø 37: What type of printers are considered impact printers? A: Dot Matrix and Daisy Wheel
Ø 38: How does a Pentium Pro processor differ from a Pentium processor? A: Pentium Pro has onboard L2 cache
Ø 39: What is the binary equivalent of decimal 3. A: 011
Ø 40: In order for a device to communicate with the CPU is must have? A: An I/O Address
Ø 41: The lower the SIMM access rate the ___________ the memory. A: Faster
Ø 42: Your PC is working perfectly, but you notice the power supply fan has stopped working. What should you do? A: Replace the power supply
Ø 43: What does DMA stand for? A: Direct Memory Address
Ø 44: Capacitance is measured in units called? A: Farads
Ø 45: The default memory address for the monochrome region of memory is? A: B0000 - B7FFF
Ø 46: What does PIO stand for? A: Programmed Input/Output
Ø 47: In serial communication, the setting 8,N,1 means? A: 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit
Ø 48: The 2 most important considerations when selecting a surge suppressor are? A: Clamping speed and Clamping voltage
Ø 49: Your sound card locks up your parallel port tape device when both are running. What is probably the problem? A: IRQ conflict
Ø 50: You apply a password to CMOS but later forget it. What should you do?
Ø A: Clear the CMOS by shorting the CMOS jumper.
Ø 51: What should you do before you attempt to discharge a CRT? A: Turn power off before removing power source.
Ø 52: High humidity can cause what type of problem?
Ø A: It can cause electrical current to bleed around the chips causing shorts.
Ø 53: When using an anti-static wrist strap, the best place to attach the grounding clip is? A: To the frame of the PC
Ø 54: On a laser printer, what moves the toner from the drum to the paper? A: Transfer Corona
Ø 55: The default I/O address for COM1 is? A: 3F8
Ø 56: ESD occurs between two objects that have? A: Different electrical potentials
Ø 57: How many pins does a serial port connector have? A: 9
Ø 58: What function does the power supply perform? A: Converts AC current into DC current.
Ø 59: On a dot matrix printer, a good image on one side of the page and a poor image on the other side of the page would mean what? A: Platen out of alignment
Ø 60: A mouse begins to move erratically jumping around when moved. What is the problem? A: Dirty mouse
Ø 61: Which AT command is used to reset a modem? A: ATZ
Ø 62: What information is stored in CMOS or PRAM?
Ø A: Date and time. CPU and memory size characteristics. Floppy and hard disk configuration data.
Ø 63: The term "ESD" refers to? A: Electrostatic Discharge.
Ø 64: How do you dispose of a PC battery? A: Check the battery label information for special disposal procedures.
Ø 65: How can you limit the chance of AC line noise? A: Install the computer system on its own power circuit.
Ø 66: You suspect a virus has entered your computer. What will not be affected by the virus? A: CMOS or ROMBIOS
Ø 67: What will happen when shadowing is enabled in a computers BIOS?
Ø A: Instructions stored in various ROM chips are copied into extended memory.
Ø 68: What does an IRQ allow interface cards to do? A: Interrupt the CPU to request service.
Ø 69: Which ports use IRQ4? A: COM1 and COM3 70: What uses IRQ3? A: COM2 and COM4
Ø 71: What IRQ is assigned to the floppy disk controller? A: IRQ6
Ø 72: How can you tell if the CMOS backup battery is going bad? A: Computer will start losing the date and time. 73: How many intelligent devices can be daisy-chained together from a standard SCSI controller?
Ø A: Seven (8 if you include the adapter card)
Ø 74: If a SCSI card is controlling both external and internal devices where would the terminators need to be located? A: The terminating resistor must be disabled on the controller, and both the last internal and last external devices on the chain must be terminated.
Ø 75: What is the default resolution of a VGA monitor? A: 640x480
Ø 76: What does TSR stands for? A: Terminate and Stay Resident.
Ø 77: Which allows faster access; RAM, ROM, or virtual memory? A: RAM
Ø 78: When installing a high capacity hard disk drive on older machines, what might you have to upgrade?
Ø A: ROM System BIOS
Ø 79: What is parity error? A: Indicates a problem with data stored in memory (Bad RAM).
Ø 80: What type of a connector does a parallel cable have? A: DB25
Ø 81: A parallel printer cable has a DB25 connector on one end and a __connector on the other end.A: Centronics
Ø 82: Software or firmware embedded in chips on the circuit board which determines compatibility. - BIOS
Ø 83: The design of the ISA bus only allows for support of 16 MB of memory. If that is the case, how can a computer support 64MB of memory? A: By page swapping
Ø 84: Hard drives start out essentially blank. They need to have their sectors defined on each track. In addition, the sectors have to be marked so that data can later be found and retrieved. This process is called? A: Low level formatting
Ø 85: LPT2 uses what I/O address? A: 278
Ø 86: What are I/O addresses and what do they do? A: Communication ports between a device and the CPU.
Ø 87: An error detection technique consisting of a cyclic algorithm performed on each block or frame of data by both sending and receiving modems. A: Cyclic Redundancy Checking (CRC)
Ø 88: How many programs may reside in the HMA? A: Only One at a time.
Ø 89: This step of the Electrographic Printing process puts a uniform negative charge on the drum, erasing the electrical image of the previous page. A: Conditioning
Ø 90:Serial cables can be longer than parallel ones, with the maximum recommended length for a serial cable being? A: 50 ft. 91: This topology uses a hub instead of a single trunk cable. Individual workstations extend from the hub, each connected by its own cable. Signals are broadcast to all stations or passed from station to station. A: Star
Ø 92: How many transceivers can be integrated onto a Thicknet backbone? A: 100
Ø 93: Consider the following scenario: You are looking at a laser printer that prints perfectly formed letters that smear easily.Using what you know about the EP process, what assembly would you suspect? – Fuser
Ø 94: What was the first CPU to come with a built-in coprocessor? A: 486DX
Ø 95: DC2000, DAT, and QIC80 are all examples of what? A: Tape media
Ø 96: What type of motherboard has a soft power-on switch? A: ATX
Ø 97: What occurs during the writing part of the EP print process?
Ø A: An image of 0Vdc charge is ‘written’ to the drum with a laser
Ø 98: The first CPU to have a 64bit data path was? A: 586
Ø 99: What are the 6 steps of Laser Printer process? A: cleaning , charging ,writing ,developing ,transfer, fusing
Ø 100: Where do you terminate SCSI? A: At both ends
Ø 101: Which bus supports both 8 & 16 bit cards? A: ISA
Ø 102: What should the resistance of a good 15amp fuse be? A: 0
Ø 103: How do you disable bus mastering on a notebook? A: in CMOS
Ø 104: What would cause your IP address to change each time you log onto the network?
Ø A: A DHCP server has been installed.
Ø 105: Software embedded on motherboard is referred to as? A: firmware
Ø 106: What are the jumpers on a network card used to set? A: I/O address
Ø 107: You want to be sure your PC is connected to the network. What you should do? A: ping the server
Ø 108: Which is not a form of a network? A: NAN (National area Network:)
Ø 109: Which of the following is not a kind of virus? A: directory
Ø 110: What must never be connected to the same UPS the PC is using? A: laser printer
Ø 111: Which of the following is a type of parallel port? A: ECP
Ø 112: Which one of the following uses a DMA channel? A: Sound Card.
Ø 113: When you boot up your computer you get a “Fixed disk” error. What is the cause? A: Incorrect CMOS settings.
Ø 114: What is do you need to connect to a networks resources? A: access rights 115: What is another name for twisted pair cable? A: 10baseT
Ø 116: What protocol do you use to transfer a file over the Internet? A: FTP
Ø 117: What is ATAPI? A: Mass storage hard drive
Ø 118: What must you have for a PCMCIA card to work? A: Software Enabler
Ø 119: What does LBA do on older PCs? A: Allows them to access drives over 504 MB.
Ø 120: What should you do before taking case off your computer? A: Unplug all cables.
Ø 121: What is the I/O address for the hard disk controller? A: 1F0h
Ø 122: What is the 34 pin connector used for on an I/O card? A: Floppy
Ø 123: When do you need to discharge a CRT? A: When you’re replacing an internal component
Ø 124: What is the I/O address for COM2? A: 2f8h
Ø 125: What is the I/O address for COM4? A: 2e8h
Ø 126: Which connector cannot be used for SCSI cabling? A: 15 pin Centronics
Ø 127: In Peer-to-peer networks which of the following statements is true? A: Each PC can access any other PCs data.
Ø 128: Which bus has up to a 16bit path? A: ISA
Ø 129: What sort of chip has 168 pins? A: DIMM
Ø 130: Which port can you plug an ISA card or device into? A: ISA, EISA, VL
Ø 131: The Pentium II chip has a cache size of? A: 512K, 256K
Ø 132: How many pins does a SVGA monitor cable have? A: 15
Ø 133: A series 300 error is a problem with the ______. A: Keyboard
Ø 134: At the end of a SCSI chain you should use a terminator. This terminator is actually what? A: a resistor
Ø 135: What does the acronym SCSI stands for? A: Small Computer Systems Interface
Ø 136: A label with the term “WARNING!” on it means what? A: A Potential for personal injury
Ø 137: A path of circuitry that connects the CPU to the expansion slots is called? A: A Bus
Ø 138: What type of measurement is used for CPU speed? A: MHz
Ø 139: When you begin to diagnose a computer problem, what is the best way to differentiate between a hardware and a software problem? A: Boot from a "clean boot" diskette.
Ø 140: Which is a feature of EIDE devices? A: ATAPI compliant
Ø 141: What data access width is used by Micro Channel Architecture (MCA)? A: 16 & 32 bit
Ø 142: Which system board has a 64-bit bus? A: PCI
Ø 143: On a hard disk, Tracks are divided into? A:9 Sectors each side
Ø 144: Which processor chip was the first with the ability to multitask? A: 386
Ø 145: Which type of 486 chip runs twice as fast internally? A: 486DX2
Ø 146: Which type of 486 chip runs at 33mhz on the system board and 99mhz internally? A: 486dx4
Ø 147: Which processor chip was the first to be considered fault tolerant? A: Pentium
Ø 148: Which peripheral port provides the FASTEST throughput to a laser printer? A: Parallel port
Ø 149: Which hardware component controls serial port communications? A: UART 16550
Ø 150: On a 16-bit ISA bus, IRQ2 us elevated to which higher level interrupt? A: 9
Ø 151: A part of a computer or other electronic device that can be readily replaced in the field on a service call, and does not require any soldering or other special equipment is called? A: Field Replaceable Unit (FRU)
Ø 152: What is thinnest PCMCIA card, measuring 3.5 mm in thickness? A: TYPE I
Ø 153: Which processor chip has a disabled math coprocessor on board? A: 486SX
Ø 154: What does the acronym RTS stand for? A: Request To Send
Ø 155: What computer chip holds the computer’s configuration information? A: CMOS
Ø 156: What does CMOS stand for? A: Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor.
Ø 157: Which processor uses Socket 7? A: Pentium
Ø 158: Which type of PCMCIA card supports Hard Drives? A: Type III
Ø 159-In the Binary numbering system, a (1) represents a jumper being shorted and a (0)represents a jumper being open.On a three-bit jumper block on a SCSI drive, how would an ID of logical 3 be set? 011
Ø 158: Which of the following statements is true? A: Each SCSI device must have its own ID
Ø 159: When connecting a ribbon cable to a connector, how do you know which direction to plug it in?
Ø A: The colored line in the cable goes to pin #1
Ø 160: Resistance is measured in? A: Ohms
Ø 161: What does the statement "Current Drive is no longer valid" mean? A: Your current drive is either a network drive that is no longer connected, or a disk drive with no disk in it.
Ø 162: How can you disable bus mastering for a PC card? A: BIOS on the card.
Ø 163: Which of the following items would require you to comply with EPA disposal guidelines? A: Battery
Ø 164: The ESD wrist strap is designed to protect PC Components or Service Technicians ? A: Both
Ø 165:. Which processor uses slot 1? A: Pentium II
Ø 166: What does the term BIOS stand for? A: Basic Input/Output System
Ø 167: Which part of the laser printer should not be exposed to sunlight? A: Photosensitive Drum
Ø 168: The stage of laser printing where the image is transferred from drum to paper is called? A: Transfer Stage
Ø 169: Which component of the laser printer must be vacuumed or replaced during preventive maintenance? A: Ozone filter
Ø 170: To prevent toner from sticking to a laser printer’s heat rollers you should apply? A: Oil
Ø 171: During preventive maintenance on a dot matrix printer, you should never lubricate? A: Print head pins
Ø 172: What 2 items would you use to clean plastic covers on printers? A: Mild, soapy water clean, lint free cloth
Ø 173: If you notice your dot matrix printer is starting to print faint, patchy and intermittent characters, what would probably fix the problem? A: Change the ribbon
Ø 174: ESD damage can be caused by? A: Placing an I/O Controller Card in a non-conductive plastic bag
Ø 175: What device prevents power interruptions? A: Battery backup units (UPS)
Ø 176: What is the best way to protect your computer during an electrical storm?
Ø A: Disconnect all external cables and power cords
Ø 177: Can a monitor hold a charge even after you have unplugged it? A: Yes
Ø 178: What should you do first when troubleshooting a faulty monitor?
Ø A: Check the connections to the power source and to the computer.
Ø 179: When you measure an unknown voltage source, you should always start the meter set on the _________ setting possible to prevent damage to the meter. A: Highest
Ø 180: How many Ohms should your meter register if you are testing a good circuit? A: 0
Ø 181: What is happening during the initial memory test at boot-up?
Ø A: The system is checking to see that contiguous memory is installed.
Ø 182: Your computer determines the amount of memory present, the date/time, and which communication ports and display adapters are installed during what phase? A: Power On Self Test (POST)
Ø 183: What is a common complication when adding a 1.6GB IDE hard drive to an older system?
Ø A: The System BIOS needs to be upgraded.
Ø 184: If your hard drive light is constantly blinking while you are using one of your applications, this could be a sign of what? A: That you need to add RAM
Ø 185: How can you best prevent ESD when working on a computer? A: Place components on an anti-static mat Wear a grounding wrist strap.
Ø 186: A grounding wrist strap contains what? A: A resistor
Ø 187: This symbol represents what?| _______|_______ __________ ___ A: A Ground
Ø 188: Which is both a 16 and 32 bit bus? A: EISA
Ø 189: The DC voltage on most circuit boards is? A: +5 volts
Ø 190: What type of controller will support both internal and external CD-ROMs? A: SCSI
Ø 192: How many pixels does a standard VGA display have in its native graphics mode? A: 640x480 pixels
Ø 193: When the files on your hard drive are not stored in consecutive clusters, it is said to be? A: Fragmented
Ø 194: What command would you type to fine out how much and what type of memory you have available? A: MEM
Ø 195: You just bought a new video card. What is an important question to answer before installing ?
Ø A: What are the available IRQ's
Ø 196: How long should you wait for the CRT to discharge before opening the case? A: 60 minutes or more.
Ø 197: What can be used to ensure your power supply is not interrupted? A: Uninterrupted Power Supply
Ø 198: When is the risk of ESD the greatest? A: During low humidity (Dry) and cold.temperatures.
Ø 199: A user calls and says his PC was working fine yesterday but he turned on this morning and he is getting an error that reads "Invalid System Disk". What could be the problem? A: Floppy in drive A:
Ø 200: What would it mean if you did not hear any beeps when you boot your computer? A: Bad or disconnected speaker.
Ø 201: What is the cheapest way to access the Internet? A: Dial Up access
Ø 202: If a monitor only displays blue or green, or combinations of blue and green, what is the problem?
Ø A: The RED electron gun is broken.
Ø 203: When you power up the monitor, it displays a “301” error code, what is the problem? A: Keyboard
Ø 204: What type of output device should never be hooked up to a switch box? A: Laser printer
Ø 205: Does it matter which lead of a voltmeter is connected to an AC circuit? A: No
Ø 206: Does shadowing normally occur in conventional or extended memory? A: Extended
Ø 207: What does Full Duplex mean? A: Simultaneous Transmit and Receive
Ø 208: Do PCI cards need IRQs?A: No. PCI cards don't use IRQs, they use "Interrupt Levels", numbered A,B,C &D.
Ø 209: If the output from the power supply drops from +12 Volts to +11.3 Volts, what should you do?
Ø A: Nothing, a slight power drop or increase is acceptable. 210: The resolution of a monitor will always ultimately be determined by what? A: The number of triads
Ø 211: What is the correct handshake signals used in serial data transfers?
Ø A: Data Terminal Ready and Data Set Ready (DTR/DSR)
Ø 212: How many DMA channels are on a 16-bit ISA system? A: 8
Ø 213: What is the maximum length for a narrow, slow, SCSI-2 chain? A: 20 ft.
Ø 214: What is the first step to be performed after installing a new blank hard drive? A: Partition the hard drive.
Ø 215: What product must you use to clean the rubber rollers on a printer? A: Denatured Alcohol
Ø 216: What type of connection ports do most modems have? A: RJ-11
Ø 217: In the AT type PCs, the system BIOS is most commonly located where in memory?
Ø A: The 64K just below address FFFFF.
Ø 218: In Inkjet technology, the droplets of ink are deflected towards the paper by what? A: Electrically charged plates
Ø 219: External modems are usually connected to which type of ports? A: Serial
Ø 220: What does EMI stand for? A: Electromagnetic Interference
Ø 221: If a laser printer keeps grabbing more than one sheet of paper at a time, the problem is most likely?
Ø A: Paper has picked up too much moisture.
Ø 222: What are the 3 types of modem transmission protocols? A: Xmodem , Ymodem , Zmodem
Ø 223: If the characters printed on a dot matrix appear chopped off at the top, what is the likely problem?
Ø A: Misaligned printhead
Ø 224: How many 72 pin SIMMs are needed to make a bank on a Pentium PC? A: 2
Ø 225: What is the most popular type of modem protocol? A: Zmodem
Ø 226: Will you ever find ISA slots on a laptop PC? A: No
Ø 227: What does the term MODEM stand for? A: Modulator Demodulator
Ø 228: What is the fasted type of expansion bus? A: PCI
Ø 229: Most Pentium CPUs run on what voltage? A: 3.3 Volts
Ø 230: You have just replaced the toner cartridge in a laser printer. The first few sheets come out smudged. What should you do to fix this? A: Run a few blank sheets trough until smudging stops.
Ø 231: What 2 types of ports can a mouse use? A: PS/2 Serial
Ø 232: How many logical drives can an EIDE hard disk be divided into? A: 24
Ø 233: A laser printer generates a totally black sheet. What could cause this? A: No power to the primary corona
Ø 234: The distance between two adjacent phosphors of the same color on the CRT screen is known as?A: Dot pitch
Ø 235: How often should you clean a CD-ROM laser? A: Never touch the laser in a CD-ROM
Ø 236: The decimal equivalent of the binary number 0111 is? A: 7
Ø 237: When you send print to your laser printer, the sheets come out blank. What is most likely the cause? A: No power to the transfer corona.
Ø 238: When testing household current, you should read how many volts between the neutral and the ground? A: 0
Ø 239: What IRQ does LPT2 use? A: 5
Ø 240: You boot a computer and get the message “No ROM basic, system halted”. What is the problem?
Ø A: There is no active partition
Ø 241: A bi-directional parallel cable is also known by what specification? A: IEEE 1284
Ø 242: If your monitor only shows a single line, what is probably the problem? A: Bad yoke coil
Ø 243: When cleaning the keys on a keyboard, you should use? A: All- purpose cleaner.
Ø 244: An error code 20 on an HP laser printer signifies what? A: Memory overflow
Ø 245: Improper installation of the floppy drive ribbon cable can cause permanent damage to your PC? A: False
Ø 246: What are the P8 and P9 connectors? A: They connect the power supply to the motherboard.
Ø 247: Transferring multiple bits of data over several conductors at one time is what type of communication? - Parallel
Ø 248: When a power cable and a printer cable get too close together, what might occur? A: EMI
Ø 249: Should you plug a laser printer into a UPS? A: No
Ø 250: What is the primary advantage of parallel communication over serial? A: Speed
Ø 251: Every VGA video card has what? A: RAM
Ø 252: Intermittent lockups and reboots are a sign of what? A: Bad power supply
Ø 253: Standard US household current is? A: 120 Volts AC, 60 Hz
Ø 254: What is the I/O address is used for COM3? A: 3E8
Ø 255: What is are the 3 types of networks? A: LAN WAN MAN
Ø 256: The base, emitter, and collector are all parts of what? A: Transistor
Ø 257: What type of electrical device allows current to only flow in one direction? A: Diode
Ø 258: What type of processor has built in math coprocessor and cache? A: Pentium
Ø 259: How often does Dynamic RAM (DRAM) need to be refreshed? A: Every 16 milliseconds
Ø 260: What is the electrical symbol for a resistor? A: A zig zag line /\/\/\/\
Ø 261: In an IDE hard drive the minimum storage unit is called a? A: Sector
Ø 262: What must be installed at the end of a SCSI chain? A: Terminating resistor
Ø 263: The acronym HDI stands for? A: Head to disk interference
Ø 264: With a dot matrix printer, light then dark print is most commonly caused by? A: Erratic ribbon advancement
Ø 265: Your client gets garbage characters when trying to print a document. Which of the questions listed below could you ask? (choose all that apply) A: Occurrence (how often)? Do you have a sample?
Ø What applications are being used? Where is the printer located?
Ø 266: Which of the following should be considered when storing laser printer paper? (choose all that apply) A: Location Temperature Humidity
Ø 267: Which bus type was introduced by IBM and was not accepted by the industry? A: MCA
Ø 268: What device takes advantage of EMF spooling? A: Printer
Ø 269: What device can you use to prevent power surges to your computer? A: Surge Suppressor
Ø 270: What is the purpose of the Modem? A: Turns digital signals into analog signals and vice versa.
Ø 271: The major difference between ESD and EMI is? A: EMI is recoverable, ESD is not.
Ø 272: You are testing a household electrical outlet. If you test the ground & neutral wires, you should get what reading? A: 0
Ø 273: Unused memory in the reserved area is called? A: UMB (Upper Memory Blocks)
Ø 274: The 384K of memory region between 640K and 1MB is called? A: Upper or Reserved Memory
Ø 275: Which of the following is not internet related? A: X.400
Ø 276: What is the purpose of a Thermal Fuse? A: In case the low voltage power supply overheats.
Ø 277: You get a call from a user complaining that his computer consistently locks up after only 5 minutes of operation. What is the possible cause? A: Faulty power supply
Ø 278: What types of Cache memory are available on a Pentium Pro CPU? A: L1 & L2
Ø 279: The EIDE specification allows a maximum of how many hard drives? A: 4
Ø 280: The most common size of floppy drive in use today is? A: 3 ½ “, 1.44 MB
Ø 281: Floppy drive letters are determined by? A: Position of the drive on the floppy cable.
Ø 282: The ROM chip located on the motherboard stores? A: System BIOS
Ø 283: How many bytes are stored in a hard drive sector? A: 512
Ø 284: What is a common connector for a serial port? A: DB9
Ø 285: Which device can protect against power sags? A: UPS
Ø 286: A customer calls and says that his monitor light is on but he has no display. His PC apparently seems to boot OK and is running. What is the first thing you would do? A: Check the monitor adjustment controls
Ø 287: What tool would you use to properly discharge the CRT ? A: High voltage probe
Ø 288: The video BIOS is normally located at what memory address? A: C0000 - C7FFF
Ø 289: What would you use to clean the printhead on a dot-matrix printer ? A: Denatured Alcohol
Ø 290: What size is the FAT for a floppy drive? A: 12-bit
Ø 291: What is the most common way to access the CMOS Setup program? A: Press DEL key at boot-up
Ø 292: How much memory could the 8086 processor address? A: 1 MB
Ø 293: An old IBM PC gives you a POST error code of 1701. What does this point to? A: Hard Drive Controller
Ø 294: Where are the Upper memory blocks located? A: Reserved Memory
Ø 295: What is the one thing that all Viruses’ try to do? A: Copy itself
Ø 296: When servicing a dot matrix printer, which component gets very hot ? A: Printhead
Ø 297: What action will enable more applications to run simultaneously? A: Add RAM
Ø 298: What DMA channel does a floppy drive use? A: 2
Ø 299: The monitor power LED is 'on' but the monitor screen is completely dark. The least likely cause of the problem is: A: System RAM problem
Ø 300: How may standard levels of interrupts are provided on the 8-bit ISA bus (XT-class computer)? A: 8
Ø 301: What specifies your hard disk configuration? A: ROM BIOS
Ø 302: After doing a low-level format, what would be the next step in configuring the hard drive in a system? A: Partition hard disk
Ø 303: After displaying the directory of a floppy disk, a different floppy is inserted into the drive. The contents of the original floppy continues to display regardless of the director requests on the other floppies placed in the drive. You remove the drive in question and install it into your test system, and it does not exhibit the problem. You should next replace the what? A: Floppy drive ribbon cable
Ø 304: During the boot process, a system first counts memory from where? A: System board
Ø 305: A customer attached an external drive to his notebook computer but the computer is not recognizing it. What should be considered? A: The cables are attached firmly?
Ø The external drive has been pre-loaded with the appropriate software? The external drive was attached before the computer was on? The external drive is turned on?
Ø 306: Suppose that you have a "solid" failure, and the maintenance package identifies several possible field replaceable units (FRUs) that will resolve the problem. What should you do after turning the power off?
Ø A: Replace the indicated parts, one at a time in the recommended sequence, until the problem is resolved; return unused FRUs to stock.
Ø 307: When considering replacement of a PC's power supply, one should be concerned about? (choose two) A: Voltage and ampere rating Size and shape, on/off switch placement, and wattage
Ø 308: Which components could cause a blank screen? A: Power supply Video card CPU RAM
Ø 309: A keyboard locks up intermittently even when replaced with a new keyboard. What is the LEAST likely cause of the problem? A: A second bad keyboard
Ø 310: What questions could be asked to determine if a problem is software or hardware related? (choose all that apply) A: Does the computer BEEP during the boot phase?
Ø Did peripheral devices initialize, i.e. printers? Will hardware components pass diagnostics?
Ø 311: Which of the following would be a logical first step in trouble shooting a PC?
Ø A: Define the circumstances of the problem
Ø 312: During the normal PC boot process, what is activated first? A: ROM BIOS
Ø 313: What is the first thing you could do to check for damage to a printer after receiving it?
Ø A: Unbox it and examine it for physical damage.
Ø 314: When measuring AC (Alternating Current) with a multimeter, is it important to maintain the proper polarity. A: False
Ø 315: Which FRU can be considered both an input and output device? A: SCSI Host adapter
Ø 316: HIMEM.SYS gives you any kind of error during startup. This usually means what? A: Bad RAM
Ø 317: Memory addresses located in the first 640K of memory are known as? A: Conventional Memory
Ø 318: Extended memory is also called? A: XMS
Ø 319: Which driver allows you to access HMA? A: HIMEM.SYS
Ø 320: How many pins does a narrow SCSI-2 cable have? A: 50/68/80
Ø 321: What are the 3 basic components of hard drive geometry? A: Cylinders Heads Sectors/Track
Ø 322: When not in use, it is very important to keep 5 1/4 diskettes where? A: In their protective sleeves
Ø 323: How many Megabytes is a 2 x 32 SIMM? A: 8 (2 X 32 = 64/8)
Ø 324: What device uses IRQ15? A: Secondary Hard Drive Controller
Ø 325: The TWO primary performance restraints for mass storage devices are? A: Disk Access speed Rate of transfer
Ø 326: If you have a device using IRQ2, then you should not have any other device using which other IRQ?- IRQ9
Ø 327: How large is the reserved memory area? A: 384K
Ø 328: System software stored on non-volatile memory chips (ROM) is called? A: Firmware
Ø 329: In a 16-bit environment, what is the most clusters a partition can have? A: 64K
Ø 330: What is the 8042 chip used for? A: Keyboard controller
Ø 331: If you replace the battery and the date & time clock is still malfunctioning, then you probably have what type of problem? A: Bad motherboard
Ø 332: What is the maximum number of floppy drives you can have on any one PC? A: 2
Ø 333: When configuring a new network interface card for installation, what would be a valid I/O address?A: 360
Ø 334: Can you use a standard multimeter for measuring a monitors high voltage output? A: No
Ø 335: Should a Computer technician attempt to open a power supply in order to repair it? A: No
Ø 336: When do you need to use Line Conditioners? A: When you have severe power problems.
Ø 337: Do Surge Suppressors offer really good protection for computer equipment? A: No
Ø 338: If you check a good 4 amp fuse with the ohmmeter set at 20 what reading would you get? A: 0.0
Ø 339: How much memory did the 8086 and 8088 computers have? A: 640k
Ø 340: How much memory could a 80286 computer address? A: 16MB
Ø 341: How would you clean a floppy drive? A: Denatured alcohol
Ø 342: What code is entered on the FAT table to designate the last cluster a file uses? A: FFFF
Ø 343: What code is entered on the FAT table to designate a bad cluster? A: FFF7
Ø 344: You have a old PC with a MFM hard drive which boots occasionally for no reason. How would you fix this? A: Back it up and then perform a low-level format.
Ø 345: What SCSI feature allows multiple devices to be chained together? A: All devices have unique IDs.
Ø 346: Which type drives get logical letter assignment first, SCSI or IDE? A: IDE
Ø 347: How much memory could a 386 or above computer address? A: 4GB
Ø 348: If you have a laser printer connected to your PC, which one would you turn on first? A: Laser printer
Ø 349: If your monitor is making a high pitched noise, what might the problem be? A: Bad video controller
Ø 350: At what location on the hard drive will you find Master boot record? A: Cylinder 0, Head 0, Sector 1
Ø 351: A customer complains his printer doesn't work but the light is on. What is the first thing you should do to correct the problem? A: Make sure the printer is on-line.
Ø 352: Toner particles have what type of charge? A: Negative
Ø 353: You are testing a household electrical outlet. If you test hot & neutral wires, you should get what reading? A: 110-120v
Ø 353: You are testing a household electrical outlet. If you test hot & ground wires, you should get what reading? A: 110-120v
Ø 354: Which will cause more damage to your computer system components, EMI or ESD? A: ESD
Ø 355: Which components in your PC is most susceptible to ESD damage- CMOS ,RAM ,I/O controller cards
Ø 356: Which COM port does the mouse usually use? A: COM1
Ø 357: After replacing a motherboard, what should you do with the adapter cards?
Ø A: Put them all back in their original slots.
Ø 358: Why would you never want to test computer circuits with a standard Ohmmeter?
Ø A: Ohmmeters provide their own current which may damage internal components.
Ø 359: Which type of fire extinguisher would you use to fight a computer or electrical fire? A: Class C
Ø 360: What do you set your Volt-Ohm meter to in order to test a fuse? A: Ohms
Ø 361: Which is the easiest component to environmentally recycle? A: Toner Cartridge
Ø 362: Which part of the computer is most likely to be effected by EMI? A: CMOS
Ø 363: If the digital multimeter is set for DC, Ohm and 20k, what will it read while measuring a good 2 amp fuse?A:0.00
Ø 364: What does this symbol represent? A: SCSI Port
Ø 365: What is not typically considered a FRU? A: System Chassis
Ø 366: What PC part would require you to follow EPA guidelines when you dispose of it? A: CMOS battery
Ø 367: What do you use to discharge the CRT? A: resistor
368: When replacing a power supply in a computer, how do the black wires connect to the mother board? A: They face each other on the insides of the plugs.
368: When replacing a power supply in a computer, how do the black wires connect to the mother board? A: They face each other on the insides of the plugs.
Ø 369: If your monitor has random dots on it, the problem most likely is with the? A: Video Card
Ø 370: Which of the following devices can send and receive information from other devices? (Choose 2) A: Serial Port , Parallel port
Ø 371: What causes “Soft” memory errors? A: Random program events
Ø 372: What causes “Hard” memory errors? A: Bad SIMM or Short in circuit
Ø 373: How many electron guns does a color monitor use? A: 3 374: What is the best ground source for a conductive work bench? A: AC Outlet
Ø 375: The Keyboard uses what IRQ? A: IRQ1
Ø 376: On a wall outlet, which side is neutral? A: The longer slot
Ø 377: The SCSI boot drive must be have which ID? A: 0
Ø 378: The binary address of the SCSI host adapter is usually? A: 0111
Ø 379: How much data can a 5” CD store? A: 650MB
Ø 380: A PC with a 486DX2 processor runs internally at 50Mhz. What speed would its external logic be running? A: 25Mhz
Ø 381: Which device provides the fastest access to large video files? A: SCSI hard drives
Ø 382: When connecting two external SCSI hard disks to a computer, where can you connect the second hard drive? A: Any open SCSI port on the computer An open SCSI port on the first hard drive
Ø 383: When installing a SCSI CD-ROM drive, you must set the CD-ROM SCSI adapter to what? A: An unused SCSI address.
Ø 384: Which device provides the fastest data access time? A: RAM
Ø 385: What does the CPU do? (choose all that apply) A: Executes program instructions , Performs math functions, Controls input/output o perations
Ø 386: What specification covers PC hard cards? A: PCMCIA
Ø 387: Which would you have to upgrade to install an EIDE drive? A: Controller boar
Ø 388: Which peripheral port provides the FASTEST throughput to laser printers? A: Parallel
Ø 389: A 25-pin female connector on the back of your computer will typically be? A: Parallel Port
Ø 390: COM1 is typically represented by which of port? A: 9 pin male / searial port
Ø 391: A 14.4 modem should transmit at _____ bits per second. A: 14,400-15,000
Ø 392: A modem could be attached to which port? A: ASYNC port
Ø 393: A customer has one printer on LPT1 and wants to add another printer. To which port could it be connected? A: COM1 LPT2 COM2
Ø 394: What is a type of preventive maintenance used on a hard drive? A: Disk check diagnostics
Ø 395: Which should you use for cleaning Mylar-protected LCD screens? A: Alcohol-impregnated wipes
Ø 396: It is most important to keep hard drives and diskettes away from? (choose two)
Ø A: Magnetic devices Temperature extremes
Ø 397: What questions would you ask to determine if the display is working?
Ø A: Is there a video cursor or action on the screen? Did the computer beep or chime? Is there high voltage static on the screen? Is the video display brightness and contrast turned up?
Ø 398: Which monitor would provide the highest level of performance? A: VGA
Ø 399: A multimeter can be use to perform tests on which of the following? (choose all that apply)
A: To test a capacitor Testing diodes Testing transistors
A: To test a capacitor Testing diodes Testing transistors
Ø 400: In order for a modem to accept data, which of the following signals must be present? (choose all that apply) A: Carrier detect Receive data
Ø 401: What part of the PC performs the POST? A: ROM BIOS
Ø 402: What error code identifies a floppy drive problem? A: 601
Ø 403: Can EMI affect the display on a monitor? A: YES
Ø 404: In a laser printer which component will not cause a paper jam? A: Scanner unit
Ø 405: What resistance in Ohms should be displayed when testing a speaker in a computer? A: 0
Ø 406: On an AT computer, which IRQ could not be used for a network card? A: 1
Ø 407: DMA is managed with a controller chip on the system board. How many channels can a single controller chip manage? A: 4
Ø 408: On a floppy cable, the connector with the twist will be come which drive letter? A: A
Ø 409: You have a printer on LPT1, you want to install another printer. To which port should it be connected? A: LPT2
Ø 410: On a leased line installation a known good external modem shows no carrier detect light. What is most likely the problem? A: Phone line
Ø 411: To clean the plastic case of a PC you would use? A: Damp cloth All purpose cleaner
Ø 412: Which processor chip was introduced in 1984 and has 130,000 transistors? A: 80286
Ø 413: The_____ chip is found in most AT class computers. A: 80286
Ø 414: Which was the first processor chip to have onboard cache? A: 486
Ø 415: What type of bus is used in laptops? A: PCMCIA
Ø 416: To avoid ESD when working on a PC, you should? (choose two)
Ø A: Assure that you and the PC are at the same electrical charge level Use anti-static spray liberally
Ø 417: ESD potential decreases with the use of what? A: A wrist strap
Ø 418: ESD would cause the most damage to which component? A: Expansion board 419: One of the major components of a PC is the Central Processing Unit (CPU) which can be best described as: A: The area where all of the processing takes place.
Ø 420: Which type of system board is the MOST likely will be best if you want maximum performance and future compatibility? A: PCI
Ø 421: What REQUIRES an anti-static bag for transport? A: I/O controller
Ø 422: Which was the first interface to embed the controller within the drive housing? A: IDE
Ø 423: Which type of interface can exchange data without the use of microprocessor? A: SCSI
Ø 424: The host adapter of a SCSI interface is usually set to what ID? A: 7
Ø 425: How many pins do Dot matrix printers commonly use? A: 9 or 24
Ø 426: How does a thermal printer produce images? A: With heat and special thermal paper
Ø 427: Using paper that is to coarse in a laser printer can cause what problem? A: Premature wear to the paper path
Ø 428: Which bus type can reach a peak transfer rate of 33Mbps? A: EISA
Ø 429: What type of expansion bus does an AT bus support? A: 8 and 16 bit slots
Ø 430: What is the highest binary number that can be referenced on a three position jumper block? A: 7 (0111)
Ø 431: What is the problem with an interlaced monitor? A: It can flicker and cause eye strain.
Ø 432: In a normal text mode a monitor can display? A: 80 columns by 25 lines.
Ø 433: The resolution for the CGA standard monitor is? A: 320x200-4 colors
Ø 434: The resolution for the VGA standard monitor is? A: 640x480-16 colors
Ø 435: The resolution for the SVGA standard monitor is? A: 800x600-16 colors
Ø 436: The resolution for the XGA standard monitor is? A: 640x480-65,536 colors
Ø 437: Of the two types of keyboards Capacitive and Switch, which is more prone to failure? A: Switch
Ø 438: When referring to keyboards, what does debouncing mean? A: Cleans up electrical noise.
Ø 439: A mode of data transmission characterized by regular time periods and no start or stop bits is called? A:Synchronous
Ø 440: Which serial data transmission mode is faster, synchronous or asynchronous? A: Synchronous
Ø 441: Does a byte equal one character or one word? A: One character.
Ø 442: You have two modems connected over a phone line and one modem is dropping characters. What is the most likely problem ? A: The modem is not configured correctly.
Ø 443: Which prong on the AC plug is the Phase side? A: The shorter one
Ø 444: A Power Supply is rated in? A: Watts
Ø 445: The fusing unit of a laser printer uses what 2 elements to bond the image to the paper? A: Heat and Pressure
Ø 446: Why should you change an ink jet cartridge instead of refilling it?
Ø A:With a new cartridge you are also replacing the jets
Ø 447: You have a printing resolution of 200dpi. What does that mean? A: 200 dots per inch
Ø 448: The transfer corona wire in a laser printer has what type of charge? A: Positive
Ø 449: A printwire can be found in what type of printer? A: Dot Matrix
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