Comptia A+ Basic Flashcards
What are the six steps of the troubleshooting theory?
- Identify the problem
- Establish theory of probable causes
- Test theory to determine cause
- Establish plan of action to resolve the problem and implement the solution
- Verify full system functionality, and implement preventive measures
- Document findings, actions, and outcomes
4 stages of computer process
Input
Output
Processing
Storage
PC component responsible for updating images on monitor.
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
What type of questions should you avoid when troubleshooting?
Accusatory questions
Should you use jargons when talking to a customer?
No
When the user is done describing the problem, what should you do?
Describe back what you understood about the problem.
When you are fixing a computer, should you backup the files?
Yes
What type of electricity is the power supply powered by?
Alternating Current (AC)
What type of electricity does the power supply power the PC with?
Direct Current (DC)
What part of the PC allows communication with others on the internet?
Network Interface Controller (NIC)
What does PC stand for?
Personal Computer
What is the part of the PC that’s usually under the desk that other peripherals connect to?
System Unit
All the storage and processing takes place where in the PC?
System Unit
What are the decices that connect to the System Unit called?
Peripherals
What is the peripheral that provides visual output called?
Monitor
What is the peripheral that provides input similar to a typewriter?
Keyboard
What is the peripheral that controls a pointer on the monitor screen for input?
Mouse
What is the peripheral that provides sound output?
Speakers
What is the peripheral that provides printed paper output?
Printer
What is the part that goes into a jack or port?
Plug
What are the names of the 2 parts that a plug connects to?
Jack, Port
What describes a port, jack or plug?
Connector
What are the 3 names for this port?
mini-DIN, PS/2, and DIN-6
What’s the most common general connector for the PC?
Universal Serial Bus (USB)
What are the 4 most common USB connection types?
A, B, mini-B, micro-B
What’s an example of a device that a USB B connector usually connects to?
A device like a camera
What are the names of the 2 USB connectors that are smaller than a USB B?
mini-B, micro-B
What is it called when you can plug-in and remove a connector and not have to restart the PC?
hot-swappable
A USB connector can connect a device to a PC but what else can it do?
Electrical power to the device
Which USB standard is called “Hi-Speed?”
USB 2.0
Which USB standard is called “SuperSpeed?”
USB 3.0
What is FireWire also known as?
IEEE 1394
What type of connector moves data very fast and is highly specailized?
FireWire
How many pins does a FireWire connector have for devices that require more speed and power?
6-wire connector, 9-wire connector
How many pins does a smaller FireWire connector have?
4-pin connector
What type of plug is that?
USB A
What type of plug is that?
USB B
What type of plug is that?
USB mini-B
What type of plug is that?
USB micro-B
What type of plug is that?
DB connector
Name this connector and what it’s used for.
RJ-11 jack is used for modems.
Name this connector and what it’s used for.
RJ-45 jack is used for network connection.
Name this connector and what it’s used for.
1/8-inch connector or mini-audio connector. Used for connecting an audio peripheral to a jack in the system unit.
What’s the most 1/8-inch connectors that modern PC’s have?
6 1/8-inch connectors
Name this connector and what it’s used for.
eSATA is used to connect external hard drives and optical drives to a PC.
What is the slot called inside a system unit that you can add devices?
Expansion Slot
What 2 port types do keyboards usually connect to?
mini-DIN and USB
What color are the mini-DIN keyboard ports usually?
Purple
What 2 port types do mouses usually connect to?
mini-DIN and USB
What color are the mini-DIN mouse ports usually?
Green
Name this connector and what it’s used for.
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is an older port used to connect a monitor to the system unit.
Name this connector and what it’s used for.
digital visual interface (DVI) is used to connect a monitor to the system unit.
Name this connector and what it’s used for.
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is used to carry audio and video
What color is a VGA port?
Blue
What color is a DVI port?
White
Name 2 HDMI ports usually found on cell phones to carry audio and video from the phone.
Mini-HDMI and Micro-HDMI
What’s this connector and what is it used for?
DisplayPort is used to carry audio and video
What’s the smaller version of DisplayPort?
mini DisplayPort
What’s this connector and what is it used for?
Thunderbolt is used to carry audio and video
What is special about the Thunderbolt connector?
You can daisy chain several monitors with the Thunderbolt connector.
What are groups of connected PCs that share information
Networks
What enables you to connect a PC to a network via a standard telephone line?
Modem
What’s this connector and what is it used for?
Parallel Port is used to connect a printer to the system unit.
What other connector options do printers have now?
USB, Ethernet, and wireless connectivity options
What is a pointing device with a stick to control motion and usually some buttons?
Joystick
What’s this connector and what is it used for?
Joystick/MIDI port is used to connect joysticks and instruments to the system unit.
What is both the internal framework of the PC and the external skin that protects the internal components from the environment?
System unit’s case
What is it called when you touch something that has an electric charge that differs from your body’s charge?
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)
Many techs wear a device called what that clips to the side of the system unit case?
Antistatic Wrist Strap
If you don’t have an antistatic wrist strap, what should you do to prevent an ESD?
Touch the power supply inside the case.
What performs all of the calculations that take place inside a PC?
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
What’s a big slab of copper or aluminum that helps draw heat away from the processor?
Heat Sink
What are 2 things that a CPU usually needs to keep cool?
Heatsink and fan
What are the 2 most common makes of CPU’s?
AMD and Intel
What stores programs and data currently being used by the CPU
Random access memory (RAM)
An average PC will have how much RAM?
1GB to 8GB
What is the most common type of RAM in PC’s today?
Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM)
What is a thin, flat piece of circuit board, that all other devices connect to?
Motherboard
What provides the necessary electrical power to make the PC operate?
Power Supply
What stores programs and data that are not currently being used by the CPU?
Hard Drive
What device enables a computer to read one or more types of optical discs?
Optical Drives
What are the 3 main optical disk types?
CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disk
To prolong the life of your PC, you must do what?
inspect and clean it regularly
Regular cleaning of the PC will prevent what 2 things?
ESD and Overheating
What 2 types of fire extenguishers are good for putting out electrical fires?
ABC and C
What are 2 ways you should dispose of computer batteries?
Take them to a recycling center or to the manufacture
What are 2 ways you should dispose CRT monitors?
Take them to a commercial recycler or contact your city’s hazardous waste management department.
What are 3 ways you should dispose of ink cartridges?
Refill them yourself, take them to a commercial toner recycler and use your manufacturers recycling program.
How should you dispose of Chemical Solvents and Cans?
Dispose of these through your city’s hazardous waste program.
All batteries, chemicals, and other hazardous materials come with what that documents any safety warnings about the product, safe methods of transportation, and safe disposal requirements?
Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)
What do batteries often contain?
Lithium, mercury and nickel-cadmium
Shock that causes a computer component to immediately fail?
Catastrophic ESD
What shock is caused by build up of dust that creates an electrical charge?
Hidden ESD
What type of shock occures when a computer component is shocked at low levels multiple times?
Degradation
What provides a work surface that dissipates ESD?
Portable antistatic mat
What dissipates ESD that you stand on?
Antistatic Floor Mat
What is a bag that helps dissipate any ESD?
Antistatic Bag
What processes data and is the primary processing component of the CPU?
Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
What are memory circuits located inside the CPU that hold data before and after processing called?
Registers
What part of the CPU handles complex calculations for applications that require it, such as graphics programs and 3-D games
Floating-Point Unit (FPU)
What type of memory in a CPU doesn’t need to be refreshed and is much faster than DRAM?
Static RAM (SRAM)
What is the SRAM memory in the CPU called?
Cache
What memory is the first and fastest and is built into the CPU?
Level 1 (L1) cache
What memory is the second cache that is usually built into the CPU?
Level 2 (L2) cache
What data bus transfers data between the CPU and L2 cache when the L2 cache is outside the CPU?
Backside bus
The ceramic casing that holds the CPU is called what?
The Package
The silicon wafer that has all the transistors inside the CPU is called what?
The Die
The components that are incorporated into the silicon die in the CPU such as L2 cache is called what?
On-Die
Which cache is usually shared by all cores in the CPU?
L3 cache
Each core in a CPU usually has its own what type of caches?
L1 cache and L2 cache
What type of RAM is fast, inexpensive and must be refreshed?
Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (SDRAM)
What type of RAM is very fast, expensive and doesn’t need to be refreshed?
Static Random-Access Memory (SRAM)
What is the term used about an address bus that defines the maximum amount of RAM a CPU can theoretically address?
Address Space
What’s the maximum amount of RAM a 32-bit address bus can address?
4GB
What refers to the discrete series of steps that the CPU follows to process commands?
Pipeline
What tells you how many calculation cycles a CPU can execute per second?
CPU clock speed
One calculation cycle per second is equal to what?
1 hertz (Hz)
What is equivalent to 1 million Hz?
megahertz (MHz)
What is equivalent to 1 billion Hz?
gigahertz (GHz)
What’s a quartz crystal circuit that oscillates at a fixed frequency when fed current and sets the motherboard’s clock speed?
System Crystal
Today’s CPUs actually report to the motherboard through a function called what?
CPUID (CPU identifier)
All current CPUs come in a square package called what?
Pin Grid Array (PGA)
What PGA uses flat pads instead of pins?
Land Grid Array (LGA)
What PGA (Pin Grid Array) uses tiny balls instead of pins?
Ball Grid Array (BGA)
What is a socket, ball or pad that requires very little force for the installation of a CPU called?
Zero Insertion Force (ZIF)
What is Intel’s brand name for its implementation of simultaneous multithreading, which is a way of executing multiple threads simultaneously on a single processor core?
Hyper-Threading
CPUs with more than one processor core are known as what?
Multicore CPUs
What are CPUs that are meant to function in laptops called?
Mobile Processors
What is it called when modern CPUs reduce their processing cycles and lower their clock speeds when they reach a certain temperature?
Throttling
Intel and AMD have built-in support for running more than one operating system at a time called what?
Virtualization
What is the chip called inside the CPU that is used to optimize the flow of data in and out of the CPU?
Integrated Memory Controller (IMC)
What GPU was integrated into Intels many Core i3/i5/i7 processors?
Intel HD Graphics
The key to a successful CPU installation is making sure what two things are compatible?
Processor and Motherboard
What type of RAM sticks comes in either 30-pin or 72-pin layouts and hasn’t been manufactured in the past decade?
Single inline memory modules (SIMMs)
What type of RAM has 168, 184, or 240 pins, are 64-bits wide and have a capacity of up to 32 GB?
Dual inline memory modules (DIMMs)
What type of RAM comes in 200-pin packages and is used in laptops?
SO-DIMM
What type of RAM comes in capacities of up to 512 MB?
Rambus inline memory module (RIMM)
What does RIMMs usually have to dissipate heat?
heat spreader
What is a RAM package, or group of RAM packages, that provides enough data for the CPU’s data bus
Memory Bank
What is it called when the CPU accesses each RAM module seperately?
Single Channel
What is it called when the CPU accesses RAM modules in pairs?
Dual-Channel
What is it called when the CPU accesses RAM modules three at a time?
Triple-Channel
DRAM needs to be refreshed every few nanoseconds (ns). This interval is called what?
Wait State
What type of RAM runs independently to the system clock speed?
Asynchronous RAM
SDRAM transfers data in high-speed bursts and is measured in what?
Megahertz
SDRAM uses what size DIMM?
168-pin