Domain 1.0: PC Hardware
Which device should you use to protect against power outages? ❍ A. Multimeter ❍ B. UPS ❍ C. FedEx ❍ D. Surge protector
Answer: B. The UPS is the only item listed that protects the computer from power outages like blackouts and brownouts. A multimeter is used to test AC outlets and individual wires inside the computer. FedEx is a shipping company, not a computer acronym. A surge protector (or surge suppressor) is used to protect computer equipment from surges and spikes in power, but cannot protect against power outages
Which kind of socket incorporates "lands" to ensure connectivity to a CPU? ❍ A. PGA ❍ B. Chipset ❍ C. LGA ❍ D. Copper
Answer: C. LGA (Land Grid Array) is the type of socket that uses "lands" to connect the socket to the CPU. PGA sockets have pinholes that make for connectivity to the CPU's copper pins. The chipset is the combination of the northbridge and southbridge on the motherboard. LGA sockets are often a brass alloy or have gold contacts, and although copper might be a possibility for some sockets, it doesn't fit into the description of "lands" in the question. LGA is the best answer.
Roger informs you that none of the three SCSI drives can be seen on his SCSI chain. What should you check? ❍ A. Whether the host adapter is terminated and that the disks have consecutive IDs of 1, 2, and 3 ❍ B. Whether the SCSI adapter has an ID of 7 or 15, and whether all the disks are terminated and have consecutive IDs of 0, 1, and 2 ❍ C. Whether the host adapter has an ID of 0, and whether the disks are terminated with the same ID ❍ D. Whether the SCSI adapter has an ID of 7, and whether both ends of the chain are terminated, and that each disk has a unique ID
Answer: D. The adapter should use the ID 7. Both ends of the SCSI chain need to be terminated (some SCSI cards and devices auto-terminate). Each disk needs a unique ID. The particular ID you give the disks doesn't matter.
Which of the following are 64-bit CPUs? (Select all correct answers.) ❍ A. Core i5 ❍ B. Phenom II ❍ C. Pentium IV ❍ D. x64
Answers: A and B. Intel's Core i5 and AMD's Phenom II are both 64-bit CPUs. The Pentium IV is an older 32-bit CPU. x64 is the name given to 64-bit processor technology but is not an actual CPU.
What does a CAD/CAM workstation require? (Select the two best answers.) ❍ A. Powerful CPU ❍ B. HDMI output ❍ C. Surround sound ❍ D. High-end video
Answers: A and D. A computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing workstation requires a powerful CPU, high-end video, and as much RAM as possible. The CPU is especially important to run design applications such as AutoCAD. HDMI output is necessary on HTPCs. Surround sound is needed on HTPCs and perhaps gaming computers as well.
Which of the following could cause the POST to fail? (Select all correct answers.) ❍ A. CPU ❍ B. Power supply ❍ C. CD-ROM ❍ D. Memory ❍ E. Hard drive
Answers: A and D. The CPU and memory need to be installed properly for the POST to run (and to pass). The hard drive and CD-ROM might or might not be installed properly, but they are not necessary for the POST to complete. If the power supply is defective, the system will simply not boot and will not even get to the POST stage.
Which of the following are components you might find inside a PC? (Select all correct answers.) ❍ A. CPU ❍ B. Motherboard ❍ C. Keyboard ❍ D. Printer ❍ E. RAM ❍ F. Cable modem
Answers: A, B, and E. Common components inside a PC include the CPU, motherboard, and RAM, along with the power supply, adapter cards, and hard drives. Keyboards (and mice) are input devices that are located outside the PC. Printers (and displays) are output devices that are located outside the PC. A cable modem is an Internet communication device that is outside of the PC. Know the internal components of a PC!
Which of the following types of custom PCs requires an HDMI output? ❍ A. HTPC ❍ B. Gaming PC ❍ C. Virtualization workstation ❍ D. CAD/CAM workstation
Answer: A. A home theater PC (HTPC) requires a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) output on the video card so that it can connect properly to the HDMI port on a television. Sure, it's possible to connect via DVI with an adapter, or even by way of VGA, but the whole point of a true HTPC is that it has the best to offer when it comes to connections. Since most theater system TVs will have one or more HDMI inputs, the HTPC should have at least one HDMI output. Gaming PCs will usually have DVI connections to connect to desktop monitors, though they might have HDMI as well. Virtualization workstations don't rely on video cards as much as the other systems listed in the answers, so HDMI is not necessary. CAD/CAM workstations require a high-end video card, but the DVI (or multiple DVI) output is usually satisfactory.
Which of the following ports would you most likely connect a printer to? ❍ A. USB ❍ B. LPT ❍ C. FireWire ❍ D. eSATA
Answer: A. A printer would most likely be connected to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port. LPT is an older parallel port that is less commonly used. Though there are FireWire printers, they are much rarer than USB printers. eSATA is normally used for external hard drives or external optical drives. Printers can also connect to the network directly if they have an RJ45 port.
How should you hold RAM when installing it? ❍ A. By the edges ❍ B. By the front and back ❍ C. With tweezers ❍ D. With an IC puller
Answer: A. Hold RAM by the edges to avoid contact with the pins, chips, and circuitry. Touching the front and back is not advised because it will require touching the chips on the RAM module. Tools are not needed, and if they are used, metallic could be damaging to the module. Plastic tweezers are used to remove screws that fell into tough-to-reach places in the case. The IC puller is a tool that removes older integrated circuits and is not used often today.
If you have a flat-panel monitor, what type of technology is most likely being used? (Select the best answer.) ❍ A. LCD ❍ B. CRT ❍ C. RGB ❍ D. DVI
Answer: A. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) is most commonly the type of technology that a flat-panel monitor uses, though there is also light-emitting diode (LED)-backlit LCD, Plasma, and Organic LED (OLED). Cathode ray tube (CRT) is an older type of tube technology resulting in a much bulkier monitor. RGB simply stands for red, green, blue (the three primary colors of a CRT monitor). DVI is short for Digital Visual Interface, a port you would find on a video card.
What is the delay in the RAM's response to a request from the memory controller called? ❍ A. Latency ❍ B. Standard deviation ❍ C. Fetch interval ❍ D. Lag
Answer: A. Memory latency or CAS (Column Address Strobe) latency happens when a memory controller tries to access data from a memory module. It is a slight delay (usually measured in nanoseconds) while the memory module responds to the memory controller. The memory controller (also known as the northbridge) has a specific speed at which it operates. If the CPU asks the chip for too much information at once, this might increase latency time while the memory controller works.
Which of the following is the proper boot sequence of a PC? ❍ A. CPU, POST, boot loader, operating system ❍ B. Boot loader, operating system, CPU, RAM ❍ C. POST, CPU, boot loader, operating system ❍ D. CPU, RAM, boot loader, operating system
Answer: A. The CPU must be installed correctly for the POST to begin. After the POST is successful, the boot loader then runs (for example, BOOTMGR for Windows 7/Vista or NTLDR for Windows XP), and then the operating system comes up. That is, if there are no boot loader errors. The CPU is crucial; if installed incorrectly, the system will not POST, making it more difficult to troubleshoot.
A Compact Disc you use is rated at a speed of 48X. What does the X refer to? ❍ A. 150 KB/s ❍ B. 1.32 MB/s ❍ C. 133 MB/s ❍ D. 4.5 MB/s
Answer: A. The X in CD technology is equal to 150 KB/s. A 1X drive can read or write 150 KB/s, a 2X drive can read or write 300 KB/s, and so on. A typical speed for today's CD-ROM drives is 48X. This comes to 7.2 MB/s total. 1.32 MB/s is the 1X speed of a DVD. 133 MB/s is the maximum data transfer rate of an Ultra ATA-7 connection (IDE hard drive). 4.5 MB/s is the 1X speed of a Blu-ray disc.
To which type of expansion slot would you install an x16 card? ❍ A. PCI ❍ B. PCIe ❍ C. AGP ❍ D. PCI-X
Answer: B. PCI Express (PCIe) slots accept x1, x4, and x16 cards (pronounced "by sixteen"). PCIe is by far the most common expansion slot for video cards (which are usually x16). PCI is an older expansion bus that can accept video cards but, unlike PCIe, they have no particular designation. AGP works with video cards, but the cards are normally numbered as 1x, 2x, 4x, and 8x (pronounced "eight x"). PCI-X is used mostly in servers, for example, with network adapters
What type of adapter card is normally plugged into a PCIe x16 adapter card slot? ❍ A. Modem ❍ B. Video ❍ C. NIC ❍ D. Sound
Answer: B. The PCI Express (PCIe) x16 expansion slot is used primarily for video. Modems, network interface cards (NICs), and sound cards will connect to either PCIe x1 or plain PCI slots.
What part of the computer checks all your components during boot? ❍ A. CMOS ❍ B. POST ❍ C. BIOS ❍ D. EEPROM
Answer: B. The POST (Power-On Self-Test) is part of the Basic Input Output System (BIOS). It runs a self-check of the computer system during boot and stores many of the parameters of the components within the CMOS. EEPROM is a type of ROM chip on which the BIOS might reside. BIOS is known as firmware.
How many pins are inside a SATA data connector? ❍ A. 15 ❍ B. 7 ❍ C. 24 ❍ D. 127
Answer: B. The SATA data connector has 7 pins. The SATA power connector has 15 pins. ATX 12V 2.0 and higher power connections have 24 pins. 127 is the maximum amount of USB devices you can connect to the computer.
A computer has 1024 MB of RAM. It has 128 MB of shared video memory. How much RAM is available to the operating system? ❍ A. 512 MB ❍ B. 896 MB ❍ C. 448 MB ❍ D. 1024 MB
Answer: B. The amount of shared video memory is subtracted from the total RAM. So, if a computer has 1024 MB RAM (1 GB) and the video controller is sharing 128 MB of that RAM, the remainder for the rest of the system is 896 MB. This is common with motherboards that have integrated video cards and laptops
Which of the following CPU cooling methods is the most common? ❍ A. Heat sink ❍ B. Heat sink and fan ❍ C. Liquid cooling ❍ D. Liquid nitrogen
Answer: B. The most common CPU cooling method is the heat sink and fan combination. The heat sink helps the heat to disperse away from the CPU, while the fan blows the heat down and through the fins; it is helped in escaping the case by the power supply exhaust fan and possibly additional case fans. Heat sink and fan combinations are known as active cooling. The heat sink by itself is called passive cooling. It requires no power but is not enough to cool most desktop PCs. Liquid cooling is a more extreme method used in custom PCs such as gaming computers and possibly audio/video workstations and virtualization machines. It uses a coolant similar to the way an automobile does. Liquid nitrogen would be plain foolish and is not a legitimate answer.
You need to install the fastest hard drive possible. Which port should you connect it to? ❍ A. USB ❍ B. SATA ❍ C. IDE ❍ D. eSATA
Answer: B. You should connect the hard drive to a SATA port. SATA revision 3.0 offers 6.0 Gb/s data transfer resulting in a maximum throughput of 600 MB/s. USB 3.0 comes in a close second at 5.0 Gbps (480 MB/s). However, SATA will usually still be the preferred choice because it has less latency and is internal to the computer. IDE is the predecessor to SATA and has a maximum transfer rate of 133 MB/s. As of early 2012, eSATA is limited to 3.0 Gb/s (300 MB/s). Unless you specifically are required to use an external drive, internal SATA is the way to go.
A customer complains that he gets a headache when he's viewing his display for more than an hour. What should you do? ❍ A. Raise the resolution to a higher setting ❍ B. Install an antiglare filter ❍ C. Dim the lights near the customer's desk ❍ D. Upgrade the video connector from DVI to VGA
Answer: B. You should install an antiglare filter on the monitor. By reducing glare, a person's eyes react better to the display and so the customer can use the computer longer without getting a headache. Raising the resolution would make the problem worse. Lowering the resolution might help, but it is only a temporary solution, and not a good one at that. Dimming the lights will decrease glare, but studies prove that a person will develop eye strain and headaches quicker when reading a backlit screen in a dark room. Video Graphics Array (VGA) is not an upgrade from DVI—quite the reverse. Besides, changing the video connector probably won't help the problem. The only ways to fix the problem are to: install an antiglare filter; upgrade the monitor to a bigger size and consider positioning it differently, for example, farther away; and recommending that the user take breaks every 30 minutes or so.
3. You would normally plug speakers into what type of port? ❍ A. Parallel ❍ B. DVI ❍ C. 1/8-inch TRS ❍ D. 1/4-inch TRS
Answer: C. 1/8" TRS jacks (also known as mini-jacks) are the most common for speaker connections. Speakers normally plug into a sound card or motherboard. Parallel ports are older connectors normally used for printers or scanners. DVI (Digital Visual Interface) is a type of video port. The larger 1/4" TRS connections are for instrument cables or full-size stereo connections.
Which of the following uses a 24-pin main motherboard power connector? ❍ A. ATX ❍ B. ATX 12V 1.3 ❍ C. ATX 12V 2.0 ❍ D. ATX 5V 2.0
Answer: C. ATX 12V 2.0 (and higher) combined the 20-pin and 4-pin connectors used in ATX 12V 1.3 into one 24-pin connector. ATX is simply the name of the form factor; there are many types of ATX. There is no ATX 5V. Although ATX sends 12-volt and 5-volt signals, it is known as ATX 12v.
Which kind of current does a typical desktop PC draw from a wall outlet? ❍ A. Direct current ❍ B. Neutral current ❍ C. Alternating current ❍ D. Draw current
Answer: C. Alternating current (AC) is the standard in the United States; your computer should be connected to a 120V AC outlet. Other countries might use 230V AC connections. Direct current (DC) works inside the computer. The power supply converts between the two! In this respect, the power supply is an inverter. Neutral current and draw current are not terms you will see on the CompTIA exams.
What type of power connector is used for an x16 video card? ❍ A. Molex 4-pin ❍ B. Mini 4-pin ❍ C. PCIe 6-pin ❍ D. P1 24-pin
Answer: C. An x16 card is a PCI Express card. It requires one or two PCIe 6-pin power connectors (or an 8-pin connector). Molex 4-pin power connectors are used by IDE hard drives. Mini 4-pin connectors (also known as Berg) are used by floppy drives. P1 24-pin power is the main power connection that the motherboard gets from the power supply.
What is the minimum number of hard drives necessary to implement RAID 5? ❍ A. 2 ❍ B. 5 ❍ C. 3 ❍ D. 4
Answer: C. Because RAID 5 uses striping with parity, a third disk is needed. You can have more than three disks as well. Two disks are enough for plain RAID 0 striping and is the exact number you need for RAID 1 mirroring. Four disks are required by RAID 6 and RAID 10.
Which kind of form factor is commonly found in HTPCs? ❍ A. ATX ❍ B. Pico-ITX ❍ C. microATX ❍ D. Nano-ITX
Answer: C. Home theater PCs (HTPCs) commonly use the microATX form factor. The Mini-ITX form factor is also used for HTPCs. Less commonly used is the ATX form factor due to its large size. Pico-ITX and Nano-ITX are used in handheld computers and are much smaller.
Which expansion bus uses lanes to transfer data? ❍ A. PCI ❍ B. PCI-X ❍ C. PCIe ❍ D. IDE
Answer: C. PCIe (PCI Express) uses serial lanes to send and receive data. That means one bit at a time per lane. PCI, PCI-X, and IDE are parallel technologies, which means 8 bits at a time or multiples of 8. IDE stands for Integrated Device Electronics, the predecessor to SATA hard drive technology
Which of the following has the fastest data throughput? ❍ A. CD-ROM ❍ B. Hard drive ❍ C. RAM ❍ D. USB
Answer: C. RAM is much faster than the rest of the options listed. For instance, if you have PC3-8500 DDR3 RAM (aka DDR3-800), your peak transfer rate is 6,400 MB/s. The rest of the following devices are listed in descending order: hard drive (typically 133, 150, 300, or 600 MB/s), USB (typically 60 or 480 MB/s), and CD-ROM (typically 7.5 MB/s).
2. Which device stores data over the long term? ❍ A. CPU ❍ B. RAM ❍ C. Hard drive ❍ D. Video card
Answer: C. The hard drive stores data over the long term. The hard drive stores the OS and data in a nonvolatile fashion, meaning it won't be erased when the computer is turned off. The CPU calculates data and sends it to RAM for temporary storage; the RAM (which is volatile) is cleared when the computer is turned off. The video card stores temporary video data within its onboard memory, but this, like RAM, is volatile and is cleared when the computer is turned off.
Tim installs a new CPU in a computer. After a few hours, the processor starts to overheat. Which of the following might be the cause? ❍ A. The CPU is not locked down. ❍ B. The CPU is not properly seated. ❍ C. Thermal compound was not applied. ❍ D. The CPU is not compatible with the motherboard
Answer: C. Without the thermal compound applied, the processor might overheat after a few hours. If the CPU is not locked down, or is not properly seated, the PC will simply fail to boot. If the CPU is not compatible with the motherboard, either it will not fit the socket or the PC will not boot.
To prevent damage to a computer, the computer should be connected to what? ❍ A. A power strip ❍ B. A power inverter ❍ C. An AC to DC converter ❍ D. A UPS
Answer: D. A UPS (uninterruptible power supply) protects computer equipment against surges, spikes, sags, brownouts, and blackouts. Power strips, unlike surge protectors, do not protect against surges. Power inverters are effectively AC to DC converters; the power supply acts as a power inverter
Which of the following is not a video port? ❍ A. DVI ❍ B. HDMI ❍ C. DisplayPort ❍ D. CNR
Answer: D. CNR is not a video port. It stands for Communications and Networking Riser; an adapter card slot used by audio and telephony equipment. DVI is the Digital Visual Interface, the most common output on PC video cards. HDMI is the High- Definition Multimedia Interface, common in home theaters and HTPCs. DisplayPort is another video standard used by some PCs. It is designed to replace DVI but is still not as common as DVI as of 2012.
A user's time and date keeps resetting to January 1, 2000. What is the most likely cause? ❍ A. The BIOS needs to be updated. ❍ B. Windows needs to be updated. ❍ C. The Windows Date and Time Properties window needs to be modified. ❍ D. The lithium battery needs to be replaced.
Answer: D. If the time and date keep resetting to a time such as January 1, 2000, chances are that the lithium battery needs to be replaced. Updating the BIOS will allow the BIOS to "see" new devices and communicate with them better but will not fix the time issue. Updating windows will not fix this problem but should be done often to keep the computer secure. Other time synchronization problems can be fixed in the clock settings within the Notification Area. Windows client computers should be configured to synchronize to a time server.
Which of the following components could cause the POST to beep several times and fail during boot? ❍ A. Sound card ❍ B. Power supply ❍ C. Hard drive ❍ D. RAM
Answer: D. RAM is one of the big four (RAM, CPU, motherboard, and video) that can cause the POST to fail. Different RAM errors can cause the POST to make a different series of beeps. Consult your motherboard documentation for more information about the different beep codes. The sound card does not have an effect on the POST. If the power supply has a problem, either the computer will not boot at all (and not even enter POST) or it will have intermittent problems—for example, shutting down unpredictably. Hard drive problems will result in a variety of errors. While the POST will complete in these cases, the operating system will not boot.
What is the maximum data transfer rate of SATA revision 3.0? ❍ A. 1.5 Gb/s ❍ B. 150 MB/s ❍ C. 3.0 Gb/s ❍ D. 6.0 Gb/s
Answer: D. SATA revision 3.0 can transfer a maximum of 6.0 Gb/s (6 gigabits per second, note the lowercase b). This allows a peak throughput of 600 MB/s (600 megabytes per second, note the uppercase B). 1.5 Gb/s is the data transfer rate of SATA revision 1.0. It's maximum throughput is 150 MB/s. 3.0 Gb/s is the data transfer rate of SATA revision 2.0. It has a peak throughput of 300 MB/s.
Which type of adapter card accepts broadcast programming? ❍ A. FireWire card ❍ B. Video capture card ❍ C. Network interface card ❍ D. TV tuner
Answer: D. The TV tuner card accepts television broadcast programming. It will usually have cable-in and antenna-in RG-6 ports. FireWire cards allow a computer to connect to FireWire devices such as hard drives and audio devices. Video capture cards are used to record video from a camera, VCR, or close-circuit television system. A network interface cards is also known as a NIC, or network adapter; it makes the connection to the Ethernet network for a PC.
Which of the following are output devices? (Select the three best answers.) ❍ A. Speakers ❍ B. Keyboard ❍ C. Mouse ❍ D. Printer ❍ E. Display ❍ F. Stylus
Answers: A, D, and E. Speakers, printers, and displays are output devices. A speaker outputs sound. A printer outputs paper with text and graphics. A display (or monitor) displays video. Keyboards, mice, and styli are input devices. A stylus is used on mobile devices that incorporate touchscreens. It is a pen-like device used to manipulate the display, similar to a mouse. However, many mobile devices now allow a person to simply use a finger and tap on the screen.
You need to store 4 GB of data to an optical disc (without using compression). Which of the following will meet your requirements? (Select the two best answers.) ❍ A. CD-ROM ❍ B. DVD-RW ❍ C. CD-RW ❍ D. BD-R
Answers: B and D. A rewritable DVD-RW and a writeable Blu-ray (BD-R) meet the requirements. DVDs can store between 4.7 and 17 GB of data. Standard Blu-ray discs can store between 25 and 50 GB of data. No CD (without compression) can store more than 1 GB of data; typical CD storage is 750 MB.
