COMPTIA A+

speckling of toner on the printouts

loose toner may be getting onto the paper. The inside of the printer would need to be cleaned using an approved toner vacuum.

In the charging stage

the imaging drum is conditioned by the primary charge roller (PCR). The PCR is a metal roller with a rubber coating powered by a high voltage power supply assembly.

Engineers need to share data between the team's laptop devices that are located in the same office space. The speed needs to be at least 50 Mbps. Which technology do the engineers use?

Wi-Fi

In the developing stage

the toner is fed evenly onto a magnetized developer roller from a hopper.

toner was not fused to the paper properly by having an output that smudges easily

then this would indicate that the fuser needs replacing.

A laptop technician in a large corporation needs to upgrade the hard drives on employee laptops. Currently, the laptops have standard 5400 rpm 500 Gb magnetic drives. The technician needs to know what physical drive size to order. What is the normal size for a laptop magnetic drive?

2.5 in. A 2.5-inch drive is the standard size for a laptop magnetic HDD. On laptops, it is also important to consider the depth of the drive, since those vary by manufacturer and model.

A technician builds a spare computer with an older motherboard and purchases a new modular power supply. What type of P1 motherboard connector will the power supply most likely provide?

20+4-pin Most modular power supply units (PSUs) have a 20+4-pin P1 adapter cable for compatibility with older motherboards with a 20-pin port. EXTRA: Internal USB 2 connections are made via 9-pin headers. The front panel audio interface also has a 9-pin connector for attaching to the motherboard. Motherboards with a 20-pin power port have been replaced with newer boards that have a 24-pin port. A PSU will usually have several Molex and/or SATA device power connectors and 4/6/8-pins used for motherboard peripherals such as the CPU and adapter cards.

A company plans on live streaming a company-wide meeting once a month. Engineers prepare network equipment to allow the traffic. Which protocol is normally used for such a task?

(UDP) - User Datagram Protocol

A manufacturing firm uses an older Windows NT computer to operate a unique piece of machinery. To support such a legacy system on the network, what common port settings are enabled for communications?

137-139 NETBIOS Ports 137-139 (UDP/TCP) are used for NETBIOS over TCP/IP communications. NETBIOS is used on a modern network to support networking features for legacy versions of Windows.

How many binary digits are found within a media access control (MAC) address?

48 A MAC address consists of 48 binary digits, making it 6 bytes in size. MAC addresses are represented in hexadecimal and each hex digit represents half a byte. A (MAC) address is a physical hardware address of a device EXTRA: An IP address is 32 binary digits. This address type is made up of four octets, each with 8 binary digits. A MAC address is typically represented as 12 digits of hexadecimal. Hex is a numbering system often used to represent network addresses of different types.

RAID 0

A RAID array in which every time data is written to disk, a portion (block) is written to each disk in turn, creating a "stripe" of data across the member disks. RAID 0 uses the total disk space in the array for storage, without protecting the data from drive failure. (2) Requires a minimum of two drives but can be configured with more. As this type of RAID provides no redundancy, there is no parity information available.

RAID 10

A combination of RaID 1 and RaID 0 that requires at least four disks to work as an array of drives and provides the best redundancy and performance. Is a nested RAID configuration that combines the features of two basic RAID implementations. It pairs a logical striped volume (RAID 0) configured with two mirrored arrays (RAID 1).

The main P1 motherboard power connector is...

A distinctive 24-pin connector or 20-pin for legacy motherboards that supplies the main power for the motherboard.

Multi-mode fiber (MMF)

A fiber optic cable used to transmit multiple signals at the same time. It cannot transmit signals as far as SMF can. Does not support such high signaling speeds or long distances as single-mode. MMF uses less expensive and less coherent LEDs or vertical cavity surface emitting lasers. Multi-mode fiber (MMF) has a larger core than single-mode fiber (62.5 or 50 microns) and is designed to carry a short wavelength infrared light.

Hyper-V

A is a type 1 hypervisor which can be activated and then used in Windows 10. This is not available in the Windows 10 Home edition.

A college campus is spread throughout an entire city. There is a plan to upgrade the connectivity to all buildings for increased speed. What type do engineers upgrade?

A metropolitan area network (MAN)

RAID 5

A technique that stripes data across three or more drives and uses parity checking, so that if one drive fails, the other drives can re-create the data stored on the failed drive. RAID 5 drives increase performance and provide fault tolerance. Windows calls these drives RAID-5 volumes. Requires a minimum of three drives but can be configured with more. When configuring RAID 5, an equal portion of each disk is used for parity.

Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3)

A protocol for retrieving e-mail messages from an e-mail server.

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)

A protocol used to retrieve email messages. IMAP is similar to POP3, but with some advanced features. The main difference between the two is that IMAP generally leaves the email on the mail server.

near-field communication (NFC)

A very short-range wireless connectivity technology designed for cell phones and credit cards. NFC allows for very short-range data transmission (up to about 20 cm/8 in.) to activate a receiver chip in a contactless reader.

Code division multiple access (CDMA)

A widely used digital cell phone technology that makes use of spread-spectrum modulation to spread the signal across a wide range of frequencies. Refers to a cellular device and means that the handset is directly managed by the provider and there is no removable SIM card.

A user states that a smartphone does not hold a charge for as long as it did in the past and seems to charge slowly. The change was noticed over the last few months. What could be the cause? (Select all that apply.)

Aging battery Aftermarket AC Adapter An aging battery would be the cause of charging issues, including the likelihood of a battery no longer holding a full charge. As batteries age, so does the charging lifetime. An aftermarket or third party mobile power supply may impact how well a battery is being charged, as it may not have the manufacturer's power specifications needed for proper charging of the device.

RAID 1

Also called mirroring, this RAID array type provides fault tolerance because all the data is written identically to the two drives in the mirrored set. (2) Is a mirrored drive configuration that uses two disks. A read operation may use either disk, however, a write operation is performed on both disks.

Mini-SATA (mSATA)

An SSD might be housed on a card with a Mini-SATA (mSATA) interface. These cards resemble Mini PCIe cards but are not physically compatible with Mini PCIe slots. mSATA uses the SATA bus, so the maximum transfer speed is 6 Gbps.

A company implements a new wireless Infrastructure. During the installation, an engineer adjusts the signal of all antennas for optimal performance. Which setting does the engineer use to measure dBi?

Antenna gain

A user complains about a faulty network connection on a laptop. A technician traces the Ethernet cable in the office to a direct connection in a 16-port smart switch. While investigating the switch's activity, it becomes apparent that port flapping is occurring. What does the tech troubleshoot as a possible cause? (Select all that apply.)

Bad cabling Faulty port Interference

A hard disk drive in a system experiences extended read and write times. What is likely the cause? (Select all that apply.)

Bad sectors Bad blocks EXTRA: Constant LED activity, often referred to as disk thrashing, can be a sign that there is not enough system RAM so that the disk is being used continually for paging (virtual memory). Data corruption is caused by a failing disk and will not cause extended read and write times

What specific issue may the help desk technician suspect is causing the problem of the mouse cursor moving on its own, as reported by the user, and that is related to adjusting the device settings to fit a specific user, device, or environment?

Calibration

A technician needs to troubleshoot problems. When problem-solving, what are the three items that define a problem? (Select all that apply.)

Cause Symptom Consequence Troubleshooting is problem-solving. It is important to realize that problems have causes, symptoms, and consequences. Knowing what issue the user or system is having helps define the symptoms of the problem. Identifying the symptom(s) allows one to properly assess a problem. EXTRA: Once the symptoms are defined, narrow down the cause. Identifying the cause of the problem is an important problem-solving step. This could be a faulty network interface card. Often, the consequence of the problem is that affected user(s) are unable to complete their work. Understanding the consequences of problems, allows the technician to prioritize problems. Though a fault can be a cause of a problem, it is not part of the problem-solving process.

A technician troubleshoots a motherboard issue. What the tech discovers is chip creep with a serial ATA (SATA) connector. What is the cause? (Select all that apply.)

Changing temperature Dust and dirt

Which type of virtualization refers to any solution designed to run on ordinary desktops or workstations?

Client-side virtualization

What service provides on-demand resources like server instances, file storage, databases, or applications over a network?

Cloud computing

Systems administrators deploy a virtualization solution that separates host resources for each instance at the operating system level. Which solution is running?

Container With a container, resource separation occurs at the OS level. The OS defines isolated containers for each user instance to run in. Each container is allocated CPU and memory resources, but the processes run through the native OS kernel.

When upgrading the RAM on multiple standardized laptops, what is the most important factor to consider to ensure compatibility with the existing hardware?

DDR version

A user contacts a printer technician to report that every print job sent to a laser printer has lines of toner in the same location on every page that is printed. What does the technician suggest may need cleaning or replacing?

Drum Marks that appear in the same place (referred to as repetitive defects) are often due to dirty feed rollers or a damaged or dirty photosensitive drum.

In an organic LED (OLED) display, or technically an advanced matrix OLED (AMOLED)

Each pixel is generated by a separate LED. This is not a TFT display.

After identifying the problem with a user's computer and collecting detailed information from the user about the problem, a technician believes they know the cause. However, when testing this theory, the technician discovers they were wrong and may not be capable of resolving the issue. What are some appropriate troubleshooting steps for the technician to try next? (Select all that apply.)

Escalate. Develop a new theory.

A security team at a company discovers that malware is rapidly moving from one virtual machine to another in a live environment. What security issue is occurring?+

Escape

A support technician helps a user identify a problem with a newly installed application. The user states the application was working the day before. What does the technician do next?

Establish a theory of probable cause.

An engineer troubleshooting a network connection identifies a port flapping problem. What should the engineer investigate as a possible cause? (Select all that apply.)

Ethernet cable NIC port Switch port

While troubleshooting a user's computer that has no power, the technician eliminated these possible causes: power supply, cabling, wall socket, and connection issue. Therefore, which of the following could be the problem?

Faulty motherboard Given all of the potential causes that were discounted by the technician, a faulty motherboard is the only available option that would cause a computer to have no power.

A technician installs memory into a computer that supports a multi-channel configuration. A 4GB module is placed in bank A1 and a 16GB module is placed in bank B1. A diagnostic tool reports that 12GB is useable, but not as multi-channel. What mode does the system use in making all of the memory available?

Flex In flex mode, memory that is of equal value within each channel can work as dual-channel while the remainder of the memory will work in single-channel mode.

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

Guarantees connection-oriented forwarding of packets. TCP can identify and recover from lost or out-of-order packets which are not ideal for audio and video communications.

An employee at an organization requests a laptop upgrade. The request is for a laptop that is extremely lightweight. There is also a requirement for the fastest speeds possible in order to demo the company's software to potential clients. With these requirements in mind, which drive type should the laptop have?

M.2 An M.2 SSD usually interfaces with the PCI Express bus, allowing much higher bus speeds than SATA. M.2 adapters can be different lengths.

Lines in dot matrix printer output

Indicate a stuck pin in the print head. Pins are used with a dot matrix printer.

A local area network (LAN)

Is a group of computers connected by cabling and one or more network switches that are all installed at a single geographical location such as within a single building.

Software-defined networking (SDN)

Is a model for the rapid provisioning and de-provisioning of cloud-based servers and networks.

Software as a service (SaaS)

Is a model of provisioning software applications. Rather than purchasing software licenses for a given number of seats, a business would access software hosted on a supplier's servers on a pay-as-you-go arrangement.

VMWare ESXi

Is a type 1 hypervisor that is designed for bare-metal install in a server environment.

Parallels Workstation

Is a type 2 hypervisor for the macOS that does not run on Windows.

A 1.8-inch drive

Is commonly an mSATA SSD drive, not an HDD.

The wall port

Is the port that connects the device to the local switch. It is uncommon for the wall port to have a physical issue that would cause no or intermittent connectivity.

Server-side virtualization

Is the process of deploying a server as a virtual machine. The server virtual machine (VM) can then be accessed from multiple clients for a given purpose.

A 3.5-inch drive

Is the standard size for a desktop magnetic HDD. This drive configuration is too large for most laptops to utilize internally. Laptop drives are commonly 2.5 inches.

A systems administrator is wanting to use a process in which the TCP/IP protocol is used to query and update an X.500 directory. What can be used to accomplish this task?

LDAP The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a TCP/IP protocol used to query and update an X.500 directory. LDAP uses TCP and UDP port 389 by default.

Port 389

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) LDAP is used to query information about network users and other network resources.

A remote facility cannot utilize a wired internet connection for a short period. When relying on a wireless solution, the company uses a technology that must be provisioned with a motor so it can periodically realign with the array. Which internet access technology is in use?

Low Earth orbital satellite internet access

Non-volatile storage devices hold data when the system is powered off. These devices are also referred to as mass storage. What are the three types of technologies that mass storage devices use? (Select all that apply.)

Magnetic Optical Solid-state

High availability (HA)

Means that the service experiences very little downtime. For example, a service with 99.999% availability experiences only 5 minutes and 15 seconds annual downtime.

dual-channel memory

Memory controller with two pathways through the bus to the CPU so that 128 bits of data can be transferred per transaction.

single-channel memory

Memory with one 64-bit bus between the CPU, memory controller and RAM.

A technician troubleshoots wired connectivity issues with a device. What should the technician check first to resolve a no connectivity issue?

Patch cable When troubleshooting connectivity on a wired network, the first thing the technician should check is the patch cable. Ensure that the RJ45 connectors are solidly connected to the cable, there are no obvious wear bends or breaks, and that it is properly connected to the device and the wall jack. What is a patch cable used for? A patch cable connects two electronic or optical devices to each other for signal routing. This is usually for network applications, to "patch" a signal from one hub, switch, or router to another hub, switch, or router.

Single-mode fiber cables

Support data rates up to 10 Gbps or better and cable runs many kilometers, depending on the optics and cable quality.

The Internet Protocol (IP)

Provides packet addressing and routing within a network of networks. A PC, laptop, mobile device, or server that can communicate on an IP network uses addressing and routing.

A data scientist needs to run complex algorithms and machine learning programs that require a significant amount of computing power. The scientist tells the company's IT pro that their current computer is too slow and their data is backed up daily. What RAID configuration would be best for the data scientist where they don't need redundancy?

RAID 0 Since the data scientist needs speed and computing power and is not concerned about data loss, RAID 0 is the best option. RAID 0 uses striping and spreads data across all disks in the array, sacrificing redundancy for speed. EXTRA: RAID 1 uses mirroring with two disks. If one disk fails, the other takes over. RAID 5 uses striping with distributed parity, meaning all information is spread across all disks in the array so that if one disk fails, data can be reconstructed from the remaining disks. RAID 10 uses logical striping with two mirrored arrays. This configuration offers solid fault tolerance since a disk in each mirror can fail and the volume will still be available.

A computer has three disk drives. Which of the following RAID configurations will most likely be used with such a setup? (Select all that apply.)

RAID 0 RAID 5 RAID 0 requires two or more disk drives. It works with as many disks as the computer can accommodate. It is a striping configuration where data is spread across the disks. RAID 5 needs at least 3 disks but can be configured with more, depending on the system's capacity. RAID 5 is a striping configuration with parity.

An engineer configures 6 disks in a workstation to be part of a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) volume where one-sixth of the space on each disk will be used for parity. Which RAID type does the engineer implement?

RAID 5

Port 3389

RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)

A company considers moving its infrastructure to the cloud. Management emphasizes the need to handle changes in resource usage in real-time. Which feature fulfills this need?

Rapid elasticity Rapid elasticity refers to the system's ability to handle changes to demand in real-time. A system will not experience loss of service or performance if demand suddenly doubles.

A personal area network (PAN)

Refers to using wireless connectivity to connect to devices at a range of a few meters.

Port 161

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) SNMP is used to query status information from network devices.

The office laser printer starts printing pages that smudge easily. The IT specialist is proficient in the common printing defects of laser printers and knows what is causing the problem. What will the IT specialist do to fix the problem?

Replace the fuser. The IT specialist will replace the fuser because smudging print indicates that the toner is not fusing to the paper. EXTRA: Ink nozzles spray ink onto paper and are part of an inkjet printer. Blocked ink nozzles cause lines to run through printed pages. A transfer belt applies a charge to the paper so that it attracts toner from the photoconductor. A misaligned transfer belt causes a cast or shadow-like effect on printouts. The platen is part of a dot matrix printer. It adjusts the gap between paper and the print head to accommodate different paper types. The incorrect adjustment could cause smudging.

In a cloud environment, resources are often shared.

Shared resources Pooling of shared resources means that the hardware making up the cloud provider's data center is not dedicated or reserved to a single customer account.

An engineer plans a fiber cable implementation between two campus buildings about 50 meters apart. Due to the distance between the locations, the engineer selects single-mode fiber. What specifications does the engineer need to consider with this decision?

Small core, long distances, long wavelength Single-mode fiber (SMF) has a small core (8-10 microns) and is designed to carry a long wavelength over long distances.

Chip creep

Socketed chips working their way out of sockets over time due to heating/cooling.

1.8" form factor

Some laptops use a 1.8" HDD. HDDs are much slower (usually 5400 rpm models) than SSD.

A wide area network (WAN)

Spans multiple geographic locations. One example of a WAN is the internet.

Container virtualization

Specialized version of Type II Hypervisor; allows services/applications to run within their own isolated cells/containers; don't have full OS but use kernel of host

Error correcting code (ECC) RAM

System memory (RAM) with built-in error correction security. It is more expensive than normal memory and requires motherboard support. It is typically only used in servers. Is used for workstations and servers that require a high level of reliability.

Scalability means

That the costs involved are linear. For example, if the number of users doubles in a system, the costs to maintain the same level of service would also double.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

The Internet standard protocol for transferring e-mail messages from one computer to another.

80 mm PCI express bus

The M.2 SSD adaptors interface directly with the PCI express bus. The most popular length is 80 mm.

In application virtualization,

The client computer will either stream an application from the server for local processing or access an application hosted on a server. Software technology that encapsulates application software from the underlying operating system on which it is executed.

An engineer configures a workstation for development testing by using virtualization. The engineer chooses to use a type 1 hypervisor. Which statements describe the environment? (Select all that apply.)

The hypervisor is bare-metal. The hypervisor is installed on and manages hardware directly. A bare metal virtual platform means that a type 1 hypervisor is installed directly onto the computer and manages access to the host hardware without going through a host OS. When a hypervisor is installed directly on the hardware of a host system, it is a type 1 hypervisor. This type has direct access to hardware on the host. EXTRA: A hypervisor application that is installed onto a host OS itself is known as a type 2 hypervisor. VMWare Workstation and Parallels are examples. In a guest OS (or host-based) system, a hypervisor is installed within the operating system of the physical host machine.

A printer technician troubleshoots a laser printer and determines that the exposing stage of the print job is the issue with print jobs printing incorrectly. What does the technician suspect is happening?

The imaging drum is not properly losing its charge. In the exposing stage, as the laser receives the image information, it fires a short pulse of light for each dot in the raster to neutralize the charge that was applied by the PCR. In this stage, the imaging drum loses its charge when functioning properly.

With a dual-channel memory controller

There are two 64-bit pathways through the bus to the CPU.

A shared printer handles a lot of print jobs for a medium-sized company. As of late, all users are complaining about the print jobs having a speckled output. What does a printer maintenance technician find to be the problem?

Toner is loose in the printer. The speckling of toner on output is likely caused by loose toner that may be getting onto the paper. Cleaning the inside of the printer using an approved toner vacuum is helpful.

Address space

Total amount of memory addresses that an address bus can contain. Is the amount of memory locations the CPU can keep track of. A 32-bit CPU can access a 4GB address space, whereas a 64-bit CPU commonly uses a 48-bit address bus, allowing up to 256 Tb of memory.

2.5" form factor

Traditional laptop HDDs are usually found with a 2.5" form factor. These drives are typically found in budget and heavier laptops.

A user complains about the quality of the display on a laptop. The user mentions that the laptop has been in use since the company started many years ago. IT determines that the display uses a very early thin film transistor (TFT) technology and will replace the laptop. Which TFT technology does the display use?

Twisted nematic In an early TFT implementation, twisted nematic (TN) crystals twist or untwist in response to the voltage level. This is the earliest type of TFT technology that can be in budget displays.

A new computer experiences a malfunction with a touch input device. A support engineer disassembles the computer to diagnose the problem. While troubleshooting, which component would the technician find as a 9-pin header on the motherboard?

USB port

When troubleshooting internet connectivity issues on a wired network, the first step is to make sure the patch cables are working and physically connected to the network ports. If that is not the problem, what is the next troubleshooting step?

Use a loopback tool to test for bad ports.

In-plane switching (IPS) displays

Use crystals that rotate rather than twist. The main benefit is to deliver better color reproduction at a wider range of viewing angles. Most IPS panels support 178/178 degree horizontal and vertical viewing angles.

Vertical alignment displays

Use crystals that tilt rather than twist or rotate. This technology supports wide color gamut and the best contrast ratio performance.

A developer asks the IT department if virtualization would be possible to test software in a sandboxed environment. The developer's workstation runs Windows 10, the central processing unit (CPU) has virtualization technology enabled, and has plenty of resources for virtual machines. Which Type 2 hypervisor does the IT staff install?

VMWare Workstation VMWare Workstation would be the best choice of the available options. VMWare workstation is a type 2 hypervisor that would easily install in the Windows 10 operating system and provide the features the developer requires.

If there is not enough system Random Access Memory (RAM), the memory space can be extended by using disk storage as a page file or swap space. What is this combination of addressable memory called?

Virtual RAM

A computer technician replaces the power supply in a desktop system. To do this, the technician needs to know the output of the current power supply unit (PSU). What is the PSU output capability measured as?

Wattage rating The PSU's output capability is measured as its wattage rating. Power is measured in watts (W), calculated for electrical components as voltage multiplied by current (V*I). EXTRA: The voltage coming into a PSU is the input voltage. Though it is important to assess the power distribution for its output voltages, it is not how the PSU output capability is measured. Power is the rate at which things generate or use energy. Power is measured in watts (W), calculated for electrical components as voltage multiplied by current (V*I). The efficiency is calculated as wattage drawn from the power grid divided by the wattage the PSU is rated at. This is not, however, how the PSU output capability is measured.

As an alternative to static configuration, a host can receive its IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS server addresses from a _____________

dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server.

During the processing stage

the OS driver encodes the page in a page description language and sends it to the print device for processing.

A PC tech plugs a x4 PCIe adapter card into a x8 socket. What speed would the card be capable of running? (Select all that apply.)

x1 x4 Each PCIe adapter card supports a specific number of lanes. Ideally, the card should be plugged into a port that supports the same number. Often a card will only work at x1 if in a mismatched port. If insufficient slots are available, a card will fit in any port with an equal or greater number of lanes. The card may work at x4. EXTRA: A card may be plugged into a port with a greater number of lanes. This is called up-plugging. The card, however, will not work at x16. Additionally, a card may be plugged into a x8 port, which has a larger number of lanes, but will not work either.