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
What type of RAM has to be installed in pairs and ran at 800MHz?
Rambus DRAM (RDRAM)
What is the device called that had to populate all the slots that weren’t being used by a RDRAM package?
Continuity RIMM (CRIMM)
What type of RAM operates by performing data operations on both the rising and falling edge of the clock signal, effectively doubling it?
DDR
What succeeded the DDR standard for RAM?
DDR2
DDR2 uses what size DIMM?
240-pin
What succeeded the DDR2 standard for RAM?
DDR3
What type of RAM uses special circuitry to detect and, in some cases, correct errors in data?
Error-Correcting Code (ECC) RAM
What are the steps your computer goes through between when you press the power button and the desktop appears on your monitor?
Boot Process
What are the 3 vital components that drive the boot process?
System ROM, BIOS, and the CMOS
What is the special memory chip that stores the BIOS programs?
System Read-Only Memory (ROM)
What is the collective name for the hundreds of tiny programs that tell your computer everything from what time it is to what kind of computer it is called?
Basic Input/Output System (BIOS)
What 2 things enable you to control important aspects of your PC configuration, such as the boot device sequence?
CMOS memory chip, setup utility
What are the 3 stages of the boot up process?
Power-on, power-on self test (POST), and operating system (OS) loading
What is the special wire on the CPU called that tells the CPU to wake up when it’s charged by the power supply?
Power Good Wire
What happens in the power on step of the bootup process?
Power the system on sending current to the power good wire. That turns the CPU on and the CPU communicates with the ROM and starts BIOS.
What happens during POST?
BIOS tells essential hardware to identify itself and does internal diagnostic on the hardware.
What happens if there is an error with hardware during POST?
BIOS reports to the user with Error Codes
What beep code means the the bootup went well?
A single happy beep.
What beep code means there is a problem with RAM?
Long repeating beeps.
What beep code means there is a problem with the GPU?
1 long beep and 3 short beeps.
What numeric error code range indicates a problem with the motherboard?
100 - 199
Numeric error code range indicates a problem with the RAM?
200–299
What is a hardware component that plugs into a PCI or PCIe slot and displays POST codes coming from the system BIOS?
POST Card
What happens in the OS loading step on bootup?
BIOS locates the system boot device and loads 1 or more OS system files into RAM. From there, the OS is loaded.
What are the 2 things the system ROM chip stores?
BIOS routines and CMOS setup utility
Current motherboards use writable ROM chips called what?
Flash ROM
What type of memory only stores data while it’s on?
Volatile Memory
What type of memory stores data even when it’s off?
Non-Volatile Memory
Techs refer to updating system BIOS as what?
Flashing the BIOS
What enables you to configure important system BIOS settings?
CMOS setup utility
What is it called when you can plug in a device and it will automatically work?
Plug and Play (PnP)
What are 2 ways you can access CMOS if you forgot the password?
CMOS clear jumper or remove the CMOS battery and place it back
The slots, accompanying wires and support chips of an expension slot are called what?
Expansion Bus
The expansion slots connects to the rest of the PC through what?
The Chipset
Modern motherboards offer what 2 types of expansion slots?
PCI and PCI Express
What type of expansion slot was created by Intel in the early 1990s?
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
How wide and how fast were the old PCI slots?
32 bits wide and ran at 33 MHz
What were 2 things that made PCI great?
Its ability to coexist with other expasion slots and self-configure.
Every piece of hardware, from the CPU to the lowliest expansion card, directly or indirectly plugs into what?
The motherboard.
What are the wires that are etched into the motherboard called?
traces
What are the three characteristics that define modern motherboards?
form factor,
chipset,
components.
What aspects of a motherboard is defined by the “form factor”?
The physical size and the general location of components and ports.
What aspects of a motherboard are defined by the chipset?
The type of processor and RAM the motherboard requires.
What aspect of motherboards is defined by the ‘components’?
These are the built-in components of the system and determine the core functionality of the system.
The vast majority of motherboards are which form factor? And the bookshelf variety are called what?
ATX
ITX
The smaller versions of the full ATX form factor are called what?
microATX,
FlexATX
The small form factor (SFF) standard for motherboards is what?
ITX
This standard created by VIA Technologies.
What are the three SFF motherboard standards called?
Mini-ITX (6.7 in sq)
Nano-ITX (4.7 in sq)
Pico-ITX (3.8 in sq)
What is the key benefit of the SFF motherboards?
The tiny amount of power needed. That generates less heat which means that they can be passive cooled, and that eliminates fan noise.
What are the functions of the chipset on a motherboard?
The chips in a PC’s chipset serve as electronic interfaces through which the CPU, RAM, and input/output devices interact.
On traditional Intel-based motherboards what function did the Northbride serve?
Helped the CPU work with RAM.
On traditional motherboards what function did the Southbridge serve?
Handled some expansion devices and mass storage drives, such as hard drives.
What is a driver?
A small piece of software that tells the operating system and other software how to communicate with a piece of hardware.
What terms do Intel-based motherboards use instead of Northbridge and Southbridge.
Memory Controller Hub (MCH) for the Northbridge and I/O Controller Hub (ICH) for the Southbridge.
What is the core processor in the iPhone and other smartphones and tablets called generically?
system-on-a-chip (SoC)
Shortly after Intel invented PCI, they presented a specialized, video-only version of PCI called what?
Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)
An AGP slot is a PCI slot, but one with what difference?
AGP has a direct connection to the Northbridge
What extension port was an enhancement to PCI that was also fully backward compatible in terms of both hardware and software?
PCI Extended (PCI-X)
How wide is the PCI-X address bus?
64-bit
What were the 4 speed grades that the PCI-X 2.0 standard allowed?
PCI-X 66, PCI-X 133, PCI-X 266, and PCI-X 533
What PCI expasion slot is designed for laptops?
Mini-PCI
What is the latest, fastest, and most popular expansion bus in use today?
PCI Express (PCIe)
What expasion slot uses one wire for sending and one for receiving data?
PCIe
PCIe 1.0 has what speed level?
2.5 Gbps
PCIe 2.0 has what speed level?
5 Gbps
PCIe 3.0 has what speed level?
8 Gbps
What is the most common PCIe slot size?
PCIe ×16
What is the most common general-purpose PCIe slot?
PCIe ×1
What is the program that Microsoft does that tests manufactures hardware and drivers then certifies them for Windows?
Windows Certification Program
How do you run the Add Hardware Wizard in Windows 7?
Go to the start menu and type “hdwwiz.exe” in run.
What are the 3 types of motherboard failure?
catastrophic, component, and ethereal
What type of motherboard failure would make the computer not boot?
Catastrophic falure
What type of motherboard failure would cause a bad connection between a device and the motherboard?
Component falure
What is the unit that takes electricity from the wall socket and transforms it into electricity to run the motherboard and other internal components?
The power supply (also know as the PSU - Power Supply Unit).
The ‘pressure’ of electrons in a wire is expressed with what term?
Volts (V).
The flow or amount of electrons moving past a certain point on a wire is expressed with what two terms?
Current or amperage (A).
The amount of electricy that a particular device needs in order to function is expressed with what term?
Watts (W).
The resistance to the flow of electrons is expressed with what term?
ohms
What are the two electrical mechanisms that provide basic protection from accidental overflow of electrical current?
Circuit breakers,
Ground wires.
What component must an electrical outlet have in order to be suitable for PC use?
ground wire
What is the main electrical difference between direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC)?
With direct current (DC) electrons flow in one direction around a continuous circuit, and alternating current (AC) the flow of electrons alternates direction back and forth in a circuit.
What type of electricity is supplied by power companies and why?
Alternating Current (AC) because AC travels long distances much more efficiently than DC.
What type of power do PCs use and what is the significance of this for the PSU?
PCs use direct current (DC), therefore the power supply unit must convert the incoming AC current to DC.
What are the three switches and connectors shown on the back of this fixed-input power supply?
IEC-320 connector (plug),
115/230 voltage switch,
hard on/off switch.
Using a multimeter or* volt-ohm meter* (VOM) on a standard IEC-320 plug what should be the voltage reading between the:
- Hot to Neutral holes,
- Hot to Ground holes,
- Neutral to Ground holes?
Hot to Neutral.. ~115 V
Hot to Ground.. ~115 V
Neutral to Ground.. 0 V
Using a multimeter what is the test that verifies whether electrons can flow from one end of a wire to the other.
Continuity
You need to check what three characteristics when verifying if an AC adapter is correct for a device.
voltage, amperage, and polarity (which wire is hot and which is neutral)
What Underwriters Laboratories rating should surge suppressors have.
UL 1449 for 330-V
What is the minimum joules rating that a surge suppressor should have?
minimum of 800 joules—and the more joules, the better the protection
What is the best way to determine the needed capactiy of a UPS (uninterruptible power supply)?
The quicker and far better method to use for determining the UPS you need is to go to any of the major surge suppressor/UPS makers’ websites and use their handy power calculators.
What are the two main types of UPS?
online, where devices are constantly powered through the UPS’s battery, and standby, where devices connected to the UPS receive battery power only when the AC sags below ~80–90 V.
What type of power connector is shown here?
This is a 20- or 24-pin motherboard power connector.
What type of power connector is shown here?
A common type of power connection for devices other than modern hard drives is the Molex connector.
What type of power connector is shown here?
Serial ATA (SATA) drives use a 15-pin SATA power connector. No other device on your computer uses the SATA power connector.
What type of power connector is shown here?
PCI Express (PCIe) power connector. Some motherboards add a Molex socket for PCIe, and some video and sound cards come with a Molex socket as well. Higher-end cards have a dedicated 6-pin or 8-pin PCIe power connector.
What is the purpose of active power factor correction (active PFC) circuitry?
Circuitry that smoothes out the way the power supply takes power from the power company and eliminates harmonics. Never buy a power supply that does not have active PFC—all power supplies with active PFC will announce it on the box.
What is the minimum wattage recommended for a power supply for a new system?
500 W.
And the larger the better.
What 2 ways do power supplies fail?
sudden death and slowly over time
If you suspect the power supply died, what should you do before replacing it?
Verify AC power is going to the power supply.
How much percentage can the voltage of a power supply vary from the stated values?
±10%
What component does a power supply need to connect to to power on?
Motherboard
The majority of PC problems occur when what happens to the power supply?
They die slowly
Whenever you experience intermittent problems, your first guess that’s causing it is what?
The Power Supply is bad.
If your power supply is smoking or you smell something burning inside of it, what should you do?
Replace the power supply.
How much Voltes will an ATX power supply have when the computer’s off but it’s plugged into the wall?
5 Voltes
When would you need to install a special driver for your keyboard?
If the keyboard has special buttons.
What are the 3 most common things that cause issues with keyboards?
spills, physical damage, and dirt
Where can you go in Windows to control the settings for your keyboard?
Keyboard Control Panel applet
Where can you go in Windows to control the settings for your mouse?
Mouse Control Panel applet
What type of mice use a small round ball to track movement?
Ball mice
What type of mouse uses a camera and lasers or LED to track movement?
Optical Mouse
What is used to make digital copies of existing paper photos, documents, drawings, and more?
Scanner
What scanner works by placing a photo or other object face down on the glass, closing the lid, and then using software to initiate the scan?
Flatbed Scanner
What has been the default driver type for scanners for a long time?
Technology Without an Interesting Name (TWAIN)
What technology is a way to scan a document and have the computer turn the picture into text that you can manipulate by using a word processing program?
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
What input device is used to label and describe individuals?
Biometric identifier
What are 2 things Biometric devices are used for?
Security and recognition
What input device is designed to read standard Universal Product Code (UPC) bar codes?
Bar Code Reader
What is a monitor with some type of sensing device across its face that detects the location and duration of contact, usually by a finger or stylus?
Touchscreen
What is a hardware device that enables multiple computers to be viewed and controlled by a single mouse, keyboard, and screen?
Keyboard, Video, Mouse (KVM)
What 2 peripherals are commonly used for controlling PC games?
Joysticks and Gamepads
What input device enables users to paint, ink, pencil, or otherwise draw on a computer?
Digitizer
What 2 types of devices electronically simulate older film and tape technology?
Digital cameras and camcorders
What is the most common removable storage media used in modern digital cameras?
Secure Digital (SD) card
In the Windows Device Manager what are serial ports usually called?
COM1 and LPT
What type of port is this?
A traditional serial port which consists of two pieces: the physical, 9-pin DB connector and a chip that actually does the conversion between the serial data and parallel data, called the universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) chip.
What is the established standard for serial ports?
RS-232 is a very old standard that defines everything about serial ports
What is the function of a USB host controller?
In the Device Manager, the USB host controller provides the interface between the PC and the USB root hub. USB devices connect to the ports on the hubs.
What is an HID-compliant device?
HID devices enable humans to interact with the PC or get response from the PC. Devices that follow the HID standard are said to be HID-compliant devices.
How many devices can be handled by a single USB host controller.
127
What are the two factors that limit the practical number of USB hubs and devices connected to a single host controller?
bandwidth and power
What is the difference between a bus-powered and a powered device?
A bus-powered hub or device draws its electricity from the USB bus. A powered hub or device has a separate power supply.
How much power can a bus-powered USB bus deliver?
Depending on the standard, 500 to 900 milliamps.
What is the data transfer speed of the USB 1.1 “low speed”?
1.5 Mbps
What is the data transfer speed of the USB 1.1 “full speed”?
12 Mbps
What is the data transfer speed of the USB 2.0 “Hi-Speed”?
480 Mbps
What is the data transfer speed of the USB 3.0 “SuperSpeed”?
5 Gbps
What’s the longest USB 3.0 cable you should use?
you shouldn’t use a cable longer than 3 meters
What is the first and often-ignored rule of USB installation?
Always install the device driver for a new USB device before you plug it into the USB port.
What is the standard that FireWire is also known as?
IEEE 1394
What are the two FireWire speeds?
FireWire comes in two speeds: IEEE 1394a, which runs at 400 Mbps, and IEEE 1394b, which runs at 800 Mbps
What are three differences between FireWire and USB other than just speed and different-looking connectors?
USB device must connect directly to a hub, but a FireWire device may use either a hub or daisy chaining.
FireWire supports a maximum of 63 devices, compared to USB’s 127.
Each cable in a FireWire daisy chain has a maximum length of 4.5 meters, as opposed to USB’s 5 meters.
What is the “known good” test?
It is testing if a device like a keyboard is not functional by switching it out with a keyboard you know works.
What are the two ways that a USB or Firewire port can be turned off?
Disabled in the Device Manager or in the CMOS utility.
What is the platter-reading component of a HDD?
Head Actuator
What type of drives use memory chips to store data?
Solid-state drives (SSDs) use memory chips to store data.
What are three advantages of SSDs?
A lot quicker than standard hard drives
Has no moving parts, thus, reduces the possibility of damage
Uses a lot less electricity
What are the two main types of hard drives?
Advanced Technologies Attachment (ATA),
small computer system interface (SCSI)
What terms has ComTIA adopted for use specifically refering to PATA drives?
Techs often refer to ATA drives as integrated drive electronics (IDE) or Enhanced IDE (EIDE). CompTIA has adopted the use of the terms specifically for PATA drives.
What drive standard can handle 144 petabytes of data?
PATA
What are the 3 technologies that enabled steadily larger disk drives?
Logical Block Addressing (LBA) (up to 8 GB), interrupt 13 (INT 13) extensions (up to 137 GB), and ATA/ATAPI-7 (up to 144 PB).
How much faster can a SATA drive move data than a PATA dirve?
A SATA device’s single stream of data moves much faster than the multiple streams of data coming from a PATA device—theoretically up to 30 times faster.
What are 4 advantages of SATA over PATA?
Cable is much thinner enabling better airflow in the computer.
SATA device cable length is more than twice that of a PATA cable
SATA has no limit to the amount of drives.
SATA device’s single stream of data moves much faster PATA
What’s the difference between SATA and eSATA?
External SATA (eSATA) extends the SATA bus to external devices, as the name implies.
What 2 cable connectors have replaced the eSATA connector?
USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt
What is the original hard drive standard from the 1970’s?
small computer system interface (SCSI) (pronounced, skuzzy)
Which RAID level requires at least 2 hard drives and strips the data between the hard drives?
RAID 0 Disk Striping
Which RAID level requires at least 2 hard drives and mirrors the data?
RAID 1 Disk Mirroring/Duplexing
Which RAID level requires 3 drives or more and destributes parity data accross all the hard drives?
RAID 5 Disk Striping with Distributed Parity
What’s the big downside to RAID 5?
You can only lose one hard drive without losing the data.
Which RAID level requires 4 drives, strips the data and mirrors it in pairs?
RAID 10 Striped Mirrored pairs
Why would you implement RAID through hardware?
Becuase you want high performance.
Why would you implement RAID through software?
Because you are on a budget.
Which RAID can XP and Vista impliment through software?
RAID 0
Which RAID can Windows 7 impliment through software?
RAID 0 and 1
What are the 3 categories of hard drive failure?
Connectivity and configuration, dying hard drives, and problems with RAID.
What does hard drive connectivity error mean?
The hard drive isn’t plugged in properly or it got unplugged.
What does hard drive configuration error mean?
Something in CMOS isn’t configured properly.
How many SCSI disk drives or other SCSI devices can be daisy-chained.
You can daisy-chain up to 15 devices to one host adapter. SCSI chains can be internal, external, or both.
How do you set the SCSI ID on a SCSI device?
A SCSI device may use jumpers, dip switches, or even tiny dials; every new SCSI device is a new adventure as you try to determine how to set its SCSI ID.
What special device is required at the end of a SCSI chain?
Termination
What is the latest SCSI standard and what are its 4 main advantages?
Serial attached SCSI (SAS) Doesn’t require daisy chaining and termation
SAS has more narrow cabling
It runs at 12 Gbps
Offers great support for large RAID arrays.
What does this photo depict?
That is the master/slave jumpers on a hard drive.
What is the thing to look for in order to properly plug in a PATA cable?
Hard drive cables have a colored stripe that corresponds to the number one pin—called Pin 1—on the connector. You need to make certain that Pin 1 on the controller is on the same wire as Pin 1 on the hard drive.
What are 3 reasons why SATA is easier to connect up than PATA?
PATA requires master, slave and cable select configuration. SATA doesn’t.
PATA requires jumper settings. SATA doesn’t.
The keying on the SATA controller and power cables makes it impossible to install either incorrectly.
How do you change the boot order of SATA drives?
What do you do when it comes time to start the computer and the system is trying to find the right hard drive to boot up? That’s where CMOS comes into play. By default, boot order and drive letter priority follow SATA controller ID, so SATA 0 in a single drive system would be C:, SATA 1 would be D:, and so on.
What are the three things to get right when connecting a SCSI drive?
Connecting SCSI drives requires three things: You must use a controller that works with your drive. You need to set unique SCSI IDs on the controller and the drive. Finally, you need to connect the ribbon cable and power connections properly.
What are the two types of partitioning schemes supported by Windows?
Master Boot Record (MBR)
Dynamic Storage
What is the function of the master boot record (MBR)?
To look in the partition table for a partition with a valid OS
Where is the MBR on a disk?
Basic disk partitioning creates two very small data structures on a drive, the MBR and a partition table, and stores them on the first sector of the hard drive, called the boot sector.
How many partitions are allowed with basic partitioning?
4
What’s the difference between Primary and Extended partitions?
All basic disk partition tables support up to four partitions. The partition table supports two types of partitions: primary partitions and extended partitions. Primary partitions are designed to support bootable operating systems. Extended partitions are not bootable. A single basic disk may have up to three primary partitions and one extended partition. If your disk does not have an extended partition, it may have up to four primary partitions.
What is the function of the active setting in a partition table?
Every primary partition on a single drive has a special setting called active stored in the partition table. This setting is either on or off on each primary partition. At boot, the MBR uses the active setting in the partition table to determine which primary partition to choose to try to load an OS.
What is the size limit for MBR-partiontioned disks?
2.2 TB
With which Windows release was dynamic partitioning introduced?
With the introduction of Windows 2000, Microsoft defined an entirely new type of partitioning called dynamic storage partitioning, better known as dynamic disks.
How many drives may a spanned volume cross?
32
Which versions of Windows support dynamic disks?
Exam Tip: Only the high-end editions of each version of Windows support dynamic disks. This includes Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise. Not surprisingly you can use it with Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise; and Windows 8 Pro and Enterprise.
What is partition “splitting”?
Exam Tip: The CompTIA A+ 802 exam objectives mention “splitting” partitions. To be clear, you never actually split a partition. If you want to turn one partition into two, you need to remove the existing partition and create two new ones, or shrink the existing partition and add a new one to the unallocated space. If you see it on the exam, know that this is what CompTIA means.
What are the 3 file systems Windows supports?
FAT, FAT32, and NTFS
What file system creates a 16-bit file allocation table?
FAT
What is the strength of FAT?
It is supported by all operating systems.
What is the largest disk partition supported by FAT?
2.1 GB
What is the largest disk partition and file size supported by FAT32?
2 TB and 4 GB
What file system is required in order to gain the full benefits of newer OS’s?
New Technology File System (NTFS)
What is the largest disk partition supported by NTFS?
16TB
Which file system supports encryption and compression?
NTFS
NTFS uses an enhanced file allocation table called what that keeps track of the locations of files and folders?
Master File Table (MFT)
What is the encryption utility of NTFS called?
Encrypting File System (EFS)
What feature of NTFS enables administrators to set limits on drive space usage for users?
Disk Quota
What is the largest disk partition and file size supported by exFAT?
16 exabytes (EB) and 64 zettabytes (ZB)
What utilities are used to check if hard drive clusters have gone bad?
Error-Checking Utilities.
What is Windows’ term for a cluster?
Allocation Unit
What are CD’s, DVD’s and blu-ray disks called?
Optical Disks
What is the device called that reads obtical disks?
Optical Drives
What are the optical drives that write to optical disks called?
Burners
What are the 3 main styles of optical disks?
Read-only, write-once, and rewritable
What 2 capacities do CD’s come in?
650 MB and 700 MB
In windows what dirve letters are reserved for floppy drives?
A and B
What type of cable is used to connect a floppy drive?
34-pin ribbon cable
What does the distinctive twist on a floppy drive cable signify?
Floppy drives connect to the computer via a 34-pin ribbon cable. If the cable supports two floppy drives, it will have a seven-wire twist in the middle, used to differentiate electronically between the A: and B: drives. Because most users do not want two floppy drives, many system makers have dropped the twist and saved a couple of pennies on a simpler cable.
What’s important to remember about floppy drive power connections?
The 3.5-inch floppy drives use a mini power connector. Be careful! It is easy to insert a mini connector incorrectly, and if you install it incorrectly, you’ll destroy the floppy drive and experience what we call “The Nasty Smell.”
What type of type drive technology is likely to be on the CompTIA test?
CompTIA lists only one technology, Digital Linear Tape (DLT), in the CompTIA A+ Acronyms list. DLT was a popular tape format from the 1980s up to the early 2000s, with capacities from 10 MB in the early versions up to (arguably) around 800 GB. DLT is rarely used anymore.
Most optical drives use what 2 types of connectors?
SATA or Pata
What device enables you to add functions and storage to your system without opening the case?
External Drives
What device enables you to connect internal hard drives to external connections, such as a USB port?
Enclosure
What are purpose-built computers that have a narrow set of functions, namely to enable you to store data in a central location over a network?
Network Attached Storage (NAS) boxes
What is the Transfer mode, speed and amount of wires of an ATA/33 connector?
Ultra DMA mode 2
33 MBps
40-pin
What is the Transfer mode, speed and amount of wires of an ATA/66 connector?
Ultra DMA mode 3
66 MBps
80-wire
What is the Transfer mode, speed and amount of wires of an ATA/100 connector?
Ultra DMA mode 4
100 MBps
80-wire
What is the Transfer mode, speed and amount of wires of an ATA/133 connector?
Ultra DMA mode 5
133 MBps
80-wire
