Comptia A+ Basic Flashcards
(366 cards)
1
Q
What are the six steps of the troubleshooting theory?
A
- 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
2
Q
4 stages of computer process
A
Input
Output
Processing
Storage
3
Q
PC component responsible for updating images on monitor.
A
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
4
Q
What type of questions should you avoid when troubleshooting?
A
Accusatory questions
5
Q
Should you use jargons when talking to a customer?
A
No
6
Q
When the user is done describing the problem, what should you do?
A
Describe back what you understood about the problem.
7
Q
When you are fixing a computer, should you backup the files?
A
Yes
8
Q
What type of electricity is the power supply powered by?
A
Alternating Current (AC)
9
Q
What type of electricity does the power supply power the PC with?
A
Direct Current (DC)
10
Q
What part of the PC allows communication with others on the internet?
A
Network Interface Controller (NIC)
11
Q
What does PC stand for?
A
Personal Computer
12
Q
What is the part of the PC that’s usually under the desk that other peripherals connect to?
A
System Unit
13
Q
All the storage and processing takes place where in the PC?
A
System Unit
14
Q
What are the decices that connect to the System Unit called?
A
Peripherals
15
Q
What is the peripheral that provides visual output called?
A
Monitor
16
Q
What is the peripheral that provides input similar to a typewriter?
A
Keyboard
17
Q
What is the peripheral that controls a pointer on the monitor screen for input?
A
Mouse
18
Q
What is the peripheral that provides sound output?
A
Speakers
19
Q
What is the peripheral that provides printed paper output?
A
Printer
20
Q
What is the part that goes into a jack or port?
A
Plug
21
Q
What are the names of the 2 parts that a plug connects to?
A
Jack, Port
22
Q
What describes a port, jack or plug?
A
Connector
23
Q
What are the 3 names for this port?
A
mini-DIN, PS/2, and DIN-6
24
Q
What’s the most common general connector for the PC?
A
Universal Serial Bus (USB)
25
What are the 4 most common USB connection types?
A, B, mini-B, micro-B
26
What's an example of a device that a USB B connector usually connects to?
A device like a camera
27
What are the names of the 2 USB connectors that are smaller than a USB B?
mini-B, micro-B
28
What is it called when you can plug-in and remove a connector and not have to restart the PC?
hot-swappable
29
A USB connector can connect a device to a PC but what else can it do?
Electrical power to the device
30
Which USB standard is called "Hi-Speed?"
USB 2.0
31
Which USB standard is called "SuperSpeed?"
USB 3.0
32
What is FireWire also known as?
IEEE 1394
33
What type of connector moves data very fast and is highly specailized?
FireWire
34
How many pins does a FireWire connector have for devices that require more speed and power?
6-wire connector, 9-wire connector
35
How many pins does a smaller FireWire connector have?
4-pin connector
36
What type of plug is that?
USB A
37
What type of plug is that?
USB B
38
What type of plug is that?
USB mini-B
39
What type of plug is that?
USB micro-B
40
What type of plug is that?
DB connector
41
Name this connector and what it's used for.
RJ-11 jack is used for modems.
42
Name this connector and what it's used for.
RJ-45 jack is used for network connection.
43
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.
44
What's the most 1/8-inch connectors that modern PC's have?
**6** 1/8-inch connectors
45
Name this connector and what it's used for.
eSATA is used to connect external hard drives and optical drives to a PC.
46
What is the slot called inside a system unit that you can add devices?
Expansion Slot
47
What 2 port types do keyboards usually connect to?
mini-DIN and USB
48
What color are the mini-DIN keyboard ports usually?
Purple
49
What 2 port types do mouses usually connect to?
mini-DIN and USB
50
What color are the mini-DIN mouse ports usually?
Green
51
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.
52
Name this connector and what it's used for.
digital visual interface (DVI) is used to connect a monitor to the system unit.
53
Name this connector and what it's used for.
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is used to carry audio and video
54
What color is a VGA port?
Blue
55
What color is a DVI port?
White
56
Name 2 HDMI ports usually found on cell phones to carry audio and video from the phone.
Mini-HDMI and Micro-HDMI
57
What's this connector and what is it used for?
DisplayPort is used to carry audio and video
58
What's the smaller version of DisplayPort?
mini DisplayPort
59
What's this connector and what is it used for?
Thunderbolt is used to carry audio and video
60
What is special about the Thunderbolt connector?
You can daisy chain several monitors with the Thunderbolt connector.
61
What are groups of connected PCs that share information
Networks
62
What enables you to connect a PC to a network via a standard telephone line?
Modem
63
What's this connector and what is it used for?
Parallel Port is used to connect a printer to the system unit.
64
What other connector options do printers have now?
USB, Ethernet, and wireless connectivity options
65
What is a pointing device with a stick to control motion and usually some buttons?
Joystick
66
What's this connector and what is it used for?
Joystick/MIDI port is used to connect joysticks and instruments to the system unit.
67
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
68
What is it called when you touch something that has an electric charge that differs from your body's charge?
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)
69
Many techs wear a device called what that clips to the side of the system unit case?
Antistatic Wrist Strap
70
If you don't have an antistatic wrist strap, what should you do to prevent an ESD?
Touch the power supply inside the case.
71
What performs all of the calculations that take place inside a PC?
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
72
What's a big slab of copper or aluminum that helps draw heat away from the processor?
Heat Sink
73
What are 2 things that a CPU usually needs to keep cool?
Heatsink and fan
74
What are the 2 most common makes of CPU's?
AMD and Intel
75
What stores programs and data currently being used by the CPU
Random access memory (RAM)
76
An average PC will have how much RAM?
1GB to 8GB
77
What is the most common type of RAM in PC's today?
Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM)
78
What is a thin, flat piece of circuit board, that all other devices connect to?
Motherboard
79
What provides the necessary electrical power to make the PC operate?
Power Supply
80
What stores programs and data that are not currently being used by the CPU?
Hard Drive
81
What device enables a computer to read one or more types of optical discs?
Optical Drives
82
What are the 3 main optical disk types?
CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disk
83
To prolong the life of your PC, you must do what?
inspect and clean it regularly
84
Regular cleaning of the PC will prevent what 2 things?
ESD and Overheating
85
What 2 types of fire extenguishers are good for putting out electrical fires?
ABC and C
86
What are 2 ways you should dispose of computer batteries?
Take them to a recycling center or to the manufacture
87
What are 2 ways you should dispose CRT monitors?
Take them to a commercial recycler or contact your city's hazardous waste management department.
88
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.
89
How should you dispose of Chemical Solvents and Cans?
Dispose of these through your city's hazardous waste program.
90
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)
91
What do batteries often contain?
Lithium, mercury and nickel-cadmium
92
Shock that causes a computer component to immediately fail?
Catastrophic ESD
93
What shock is caused by build up of dust that creates an electrical charge?
Hidden ESD
94
What type of shock occures when a computer component is shocked at low levels multiple times?
Degradation
95
What provides a work surface that dissipates ESD?
Portable antistatic mat
96
What dissipates ESD that you stand on?
Antistatic Floor Mat
97
What is a bag that helps dissipate any ESD?
Antistatic Bag
98
What processes data and is the primary processing component of the CPU?
Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
99
What are memory circuits located inside the CPU that hold data before and after processing called?
Registers
100
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)
101
What type of memory in a CPU doesn't need to be refreshed and is much faster than DRAM?
Static RAM (SRAM)
102
What is the SRAM memory in the CPU called?
Cache
103
What memory is the first and fastest and is built into the CPU?
Level 1 (L1) cache
104
What memory is the second cache that is usually built into the CPU?
Level 2 (L2) cache
105
What data bus transfers data between the CPU and L2 cache when the L2 cache is outside the CPU?
Backside bus
106
The ceramic casing that holds the CPU is called what?
The Package
107
The silicon wafer that has all the transistors inside the CPU is called what?
The Die
108
The components that are incorporated into the silicon die in the CPU such as L2 cache is called what?
On-Die
109
Which cache is usually shared by all cores in the CPU?
L3 cache
110
Each core in a CPU usually has its own what type of caches?
L1 cache and L2 cache
111
What type of RAM is fast, inexpensive and must be refreshed?
Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (SDRAM)
112
What type of RAM is very fast, expensive and doesn't need to be refreshed?
Static Random-Access Memory (SRAM)
113
What is the term used about an address bus that defines the maximum amount of RAM a CPU can theoretically address?
Address Space
114
What's the maximum amount of RAM a 32-bit address bus can address?
4GB
115
What refers to the discrete series of steps that the CPU follows to process commands?
Pipeline
116
What tells you how many calculation cycles a CPU can execute per second?
CPU clock speed
117
One calculation cycle per second is equal to what?
1 hertz (Hz)
118
What is equivalent to 1 million Hz?
megahertz (MHz)
119
What is equivalent to 1 billion Hz?
gigahertz (GHz)
120
What's a quartz crystal circuit that oscillates at a fixed frequency when fed current and sets the motherboard's clock speed?
System Crystal
121
Today's CPUs actually report to the motherboard through a function called what?
CPUID (CPU identifier)
122
All current CPUs come in a square package called what?
Pin Grid Array (PGA)
123
What PGA uses flat pads instead of pins?
Land Grid Array (LGA)
124
What PGA (Pin Grid Array) uses tiny balls instead of pins?
Ball Grid Array (BGA)
125
What is a socket, ball or pad that requires very little force for the installation of a CPU called?
Zero Insertion Force (ZIF)
126
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
127
CPUs with more than one processor core are known as what?
Multicore CPUs
128
What are CPUs that are meant to function in laptops called?
Mobile Processors
129
What is it called when modern CPUs reduce their processing cycles and lower their clock speeds when they reach a certain temperature?
Throttling
130
Intel and AMD have built-in support for running more than one operating system at a time called what?
Virtualization
131
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)
132
What GPU was integrated into Intels many Core i3/i5/i7 processors?
Intel HD Graphics
133
The key to a successful CPU installation is making sure what two things are compatible?
Processor and Motherboard
134
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)
135
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)
136
What type of RAM comes in 200-pin packages and is used in laptops?
SO-DIMM
137
What type of RAM comes in capacities of up to 512 MB?
Rambus inline memory module (RIMM)
138
What does RIMMs usually have to dissipate heat?
heat spreader
139
What is a RAM package, or group of RAM packages, that provides enough data for the CPU's data bus
Memory Bank
140
What is it called when the CPU accesses each RAM module seperately?
Single Channel
141
What is it called when the CPU accesses RAM modules in pairs?
Dual-Channel
142
What is it called when the CPU accesses RAM modules three at a time?
Triple-Channel
143
DRAM needs to be refreshed every few nanoseconds (ns). This interval is called what?
Wait State
144
What type of RAM runs independently to the system clock speed?
Asynchronous RAM
145
SDRAM transfers data in high-speed bursts and is measured in what?
Megahertz
146
SDRAM uses what size DIMM?
168-pin
147
What type of RAM has to be installed in pairs and ran at 800MHz?
Rambus DRAM (RDRAM)
148
What is the device called that had to populate all the slots that weren't being used by a RDRAM package?
Continuity RIMM (CRIMM)
149
What type of RAM operates by performing data operations on both the rising and falling edge of the clock signal, effectively doubling it?
DDR
150
What succeeded the DDR standard for RAM?
DDR2
151
DDR2 uses what size DIMM?
240-pin
152
What succeeded the DDR2 standard for RAM?
DDR3
153
What type of RAM uses special circuitry to detect and, in some cases, correct errors in data?
Error-Correcting Code (ECC) RAM
154
What are the steps your computer goes through between when you press the power button and the desktop appears on your monitor?
Boot Process
155
What are the 3 vital components that drive the boot process?
System ROM, BIOS, and the CMOS
156
What is the special memory chip that stores the BIOS programs?
System Read-Only Memory (ROM)
157
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)
158
What 2 things enable you to control important aspects of your PC configuration, such as the boot device sequence?
CMOS memory chip, setup utility
159
What are the 3 stages of the boot up process?
Power-on, power-on self test (POST), and operating system (OS) loading
160
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
161
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.
162
What happens during POST?
BIOS tells essential hardware to identify itself and does internal diagnostic on the hardware.
163
What happens if there is an error with hardware during POST?
BIOS reports to the user with Error Codes
164
What beep code means the the bootup went well?
A single happy beep.
165
What beep code means there is a problem with RAM?
Long repeating beeps.
166
What beep code means there is a problem with the GPU?
1 long beep and 3 short beeps.
167
What numeric error code range indicates a problem with the motherboard?
100 - 199
168
Numeric error code range indicates a problem with the RAM?
200–299
169
What is a hardware component that plugs into a PCI or PCIe slot and displays POST codes coming from the system BIOS?
POST Card
170
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.
171
What are the 2 things the system ROM chip stores?
BIOS routines and CMOS setup utility
172
Current motherboards use writable ROM chips called what?
Flash ROM
173
What type of memory only stores data while it's on?
Volatile Memory
174
What type of memory stores data even when it's off?
Non-Volatile Memory
175
Techs refer to updating system BIOS as what?
Flashing the BIOS
176
What enables you to configure important system BIOS settings?
CMOS setup utility
177
What is it called when you can plug in a device and it will automatically work?
Plug and Play (PnP)
178
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
179
The slots, accompanying wires and support chips of an expension slot are called what?
Expansion Bus
180
The expansion slots connects to the rest of the PC through what?
The Chipset
181
Modern motherboards offer what 2 types of expansion slots?
PCI and PCI Express
182
What type of expansion slot was created by Intel in the early 1990s?
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
183
How wide and how fast were the old PCI slots?
32 bits wide and ran at 33 MHz
184
What were 2 things that made PCI great?
Its ability to coexist with other expasion slots and self-configure.
185
Every piece of hardware, from the CPU to the lowliest expansion card, directly or indirectly plugs into what?
The motherboard.
186
What are the wires that are etched into the motherboard called?
traces
187
What are the three characteristics that define modern motherboards?
form factor,
chipset,
components.
188
What aspects of a motherboard is defined by the "form factor"?
The physical size and the general location of components and ports.
189
What aspects of a motherboard are defined by the chipset?
The type of processor and RAM the motherboard requires.
190
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.
191
The vast majority of motherboards are which form factor? And the bookshelf variety are called what?
ATX
ITX
192
The smaller versions of the full ATX form factor are called what?
microATX,
FlexATX
193
The small form factor (SFF) standard for motherboards is what?
ITX
This standard created by VIA Technologies.
194
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)
195
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.
196
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.
197
On traditional Intel-based motherboards what function did the Northbride serve?
Helped the CPU work with RAM.
198
On traditional motherboards what function did the Southbridge serve?
Handled some expansion devices and mass storage drives, such as hard drives.
199
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.
200
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.
201
What is the core processor in the iPhone and other smartphones and tablets called generically?
system-on-a-chip (SoC)
202
Shortly after Intel invented PCI, they presented a specialized, video-only version of PCI called what?
Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)
203
An AGP slot is a PCI slot, but one with what difference?
AGP has a direct connection to the Northbridge
204
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)
205
How wide is the PCI-X address bus?
64-bit
206
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
207
What PCI expasion slot is designed for laptops?
Mini-PCI
208
What is the latest, fastest, and most popular expansion bus in use today?
PCI Express (PCIe)
209
What expasion slot uses one wire for sending and one for receiving data?
PCIe
210
PCIe 1.0 has what speed level?
2.5 Gbps
211
PCIe 2.0 has what speed level?
5 Gbps
212
PCIe 3.0 has what speed level?
8 Gbps
213
What is the most common PCIe slot size?
PCIe ×16
214
What is the most common general-purpose PCIe slot?
PCIe ×1
215
What is the program that Microsoft does that tests manufactures hardware and drivers then certifies them for Windows?
Windows Certification Program
216
How do you run the Add Hardware Wizard in Windows 7?
Go to the start menu and type "hdwwiz.exe" in run.
217
What are the 3 types of motherboard failure?
catastrophic, component, and ethereal
218
What type of motherboard failure would make the computer not boot?
Catastrophic falure
219
What type of motherboard failure would cause a bad connection between a device and the motherboard?
Component falure
220
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).
221
The 'pressure' of electrons in a wire is expressed with what term?
Volts (V).
222
The flow or amount of electrons moving past a certain point on a wire is expressed with what two terms?
*Current* or *amperage (A).*
223
The amount of electricy that a particular device needs in order to function is expressed with what term?
Watts (W).
224
The resistance to the flow of electrons is expressed with what term?
ohms
225
What are the two electrical mechanisms that provide basic protection from accidental overflow of electrical current?
Circuit breakers,
Ground wires.
226
What component must an electrical outlet have in order to be suitable for PC use?
ground wire
227
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.
228
What type of electricity is supplied by power companies and why?
Alternating Current (AC) because AC travels long distances much more efficiently than DC.
229
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.
230
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.
231
Using a *multimeter* or* volt-ohm meter* (VOM) on a standard IEC-320 plug what should be the voltage reading between the:
1. Hot to Neutral holes,
2. Hot to Ground holes,
3. Neutral to Ground holes?
Hot to Neutral.. ~115 V
Hot to Ground.. ~115 V
Neutral to Ground.. 0 V
232
Using a multimeter what is the test that verifies whether electrons can flow from one end of a wire to the other.
Continuity
233
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)
234
What Underwriters Laboratories rating should surge suppressors have.
UL 1449 for 330-V
235
What is the minimum joules rating that a surge suppressor should have?
minimum of 800 joules—and the more joules, the better the protection
236
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.
237
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.
238
What type of power connector is shown here?
This is a 20- or 24-pin motherboard power connector.
239
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.
240
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.
241
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.
242
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.
243
What is the minimum wattage recommended for a power supply for a new system?
500 W.
And the larger the better.
244
What 2 ways do power supplies fail?
sudden death and slowly over time
245
If you suspect the power supply died, what should you do before replacing it?
Verify AC power is going to the power supply.
246
How much percentage can the voltage of a power supply vary from the stated values?
±10%
247
What component does a power supply need to connect to to power on?
Motherboard
248
The majority of PC problems occur when what happens to the power supply?
They die slowly
249
Whenever you experience intermittent problems, your first guess that's causing it is what?
The Power Supply is bad.
250
If your power supply is smoking or you smell something burning inside of it, what should you do?
Replace the power supply.
251
How much Voltes will an ATX power supply have when the computer's off but it's plugged into the wall?
5 Voltes
252
When would you need to install a special driver for your keyboard?
If the keyboard has special buttons.
253
What are the 3 most common things that cause issues with keyboards?
spills, physical damage, and dirt
254
Where can you go in Windows to control the settings for your keyboard?
Keyboard Control Panel applet
255
Where can you go in Windows to control the settings for your mouse?
Mouse Control Panel applet
256
What type of mice use a small round ball to track movement?
Ball mice
257
What type of mouse uses a camera and lasers or LED to track movement?
Optical Mouse
258
What is used to make digital copies of existing paper photos, documents, drawings, and more?
Scanner
259
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
260
What has been the default driver type for scanners for a long time?
Technology Without an Interesting Name (TWAIN)
261
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)
262
What input device is used to label and describe individuals?
Biometric identifier
263
What are 2 things Biometric devices are used for?
Security and recognition
264
What input device is designed to read standard Universal Product Code (UPC) bar codes?
Bar Code Reader
265
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
266
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)
267
What 2 peripherals are commonly used for controlling PC games?
Joysticks and Gamepads
268
What input device enables users to paint, ink, pencil, or otherwise draw on a computer?
Digitizer
269
What 2 types of devices electronically simulate older film and tape technology?
Digital cameras and camcorders
270
What is the most common removable storage media used in modern digital cameras?
Secure Digital (SD) card
271
In the Windows Device Manager what are serial ports usually called?
COM1 and LPT
272
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.
273
What is the established standard for serial ports?
RS-232 is a very old standard that defines everything about serial ports
274
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.
275
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.
276
How many devices can be handled by a single USB host controller.
127
277
What are the two factors that limit the practical number of USB hubs and devices connected to a single host controller?
bandwidth and power
278
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.
279
How much power can a bus-powered USB bus deliver?
Depending on the standard, 500 to 900 milliamps.
280
What is the data transfer speed of the USB 1.1 "low speed"?
1.5 Mbps
281
What is the data transfer speed of the USB 1.1 "full speed"?
12 Mbps
282
What is the data transfer speed of the USB 2.0 "Hi-Speed"?
480 Mbps
283
What is the data transfer speed of the USB 3.0 "SuperSpeed"?
5 Gbps
284
What's the longest USB 3.0 cable you should use?
you shouldn't use a cable longer than 3 meters
285
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.
286
What is the standard that FireWire is also known as?
IEEE 1394
287
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**
288
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**.
289
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.
290
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.
291
What is the platter-reading component of a HDD?
Head Actuator
292
What type of drives use memory chips to store data?
Solid-state drives (SSDs) use memory chips to store data.
293
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
294
What are the two main types of hard drives?
Advanced Technologies Attachment (ATA),
small computer system interface (SCSI)
295
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.
296
What drive standard can handle 144 petabytes of data?
PATA
297
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).
298
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.
299
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
300
What's the difference between SATA and eSATA?
External SATA (eSATA) extends the SATA bus to external devices, as the name implies.
301
What 2 cable connectors have replaced the eSATA connector?
USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt
302
What is the original hard drive standard from the 1970's?
*small computer system interface* (**SCSI**) (pronounced, skuzzy)
303
Which RAID level requires at least 2 hard drives and strips the data between the hard drives?
RAID 0 Disk Striping
304
Which RAID level requires at least 2 hard drives and mirrors the data?
RAID 1 Disk Mirroring/Duplexing
305
Which RAID level requires 3 drives or more and destributes parity data accross all the hard drives?
RAID 5 Disk Striping with Distributed Parity
306
What's the big downside to RAID 5?
You can only lose one hard drive without losing the data.
307
Which RAID level requires 4 drives, strips the data and mirrors it in pairs?
RAID 10 Striped Mirrored pairs
308
Why would you implement RAID through hardware?
Becuase you want high performance.
309
Why would you implement RAID through software?
Because you are on a budget.
310
Which RAID can XP and Vista impliment through software?
RAID 0
311
Which RAID can Windows 7 impliment through software?
RAID 0 and 1
312
What are the 3 categories of hard drive failure?
Connectivity and configuration, dying hard drives, and problems with RAID.
313
What does hard drive connectivity error mean?
The hard drive isn't plugged in properly or it got unplugged.
314
What does hard drive configuration error mean?
Something in CMOS isn't configured properly.
315
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.
316
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.
317
What special device is required at the end of a SCSI chain?
Termination
318
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.
319
What does this photo depict?
That is the master/slave jumpers on a hard drive.
320
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.
321
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.
322
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.
323
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 ID**s on the controller and the drive. Finally, you need to connect the **ribbon cable and power connections properly**.
324
What are the two types of partitioning schemes supported by Windows?
***Master Boot Record* (MBR)**
***Dynamic Storage***
325
What is the function of the master boot record (MBR)?
To look in the partition table for a partition with a valid OS
326
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*.
327
How many partitions are allowed with basic partitioning?
4
328
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.
329
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.**
330
What is the size limit for MBR-partiontioned disks?
2.2 TB
331
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.
332
How many drives may a *spanned volume* cross?
32
333
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.
334
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.
335
What are the 3 file systems Windows supports?
FAT, FAT32, and NTFS
336
What file system creates a 16-bit file allocation table?
FAT
337
What is the strength of FAT?
It is supported by all operating systems.
338
What is the largest disk partition supported by FAT?
2.1 GB
339
What is the largest disk partition and file size supported by FAT32?
2 TB and 4 GB
340
What file system is required in order to gain the full benefits of newer OS's?
New Technology File System (NTFS)
341
What is the largest disk partition supported by NTFS?
16TB
342
Which file system supports encryption and compression?
NTFS
343
NTFS uses an enhanced file allocation table called what that keeps track of the locations of files and folders?
Master File Table (MFT)
344
What is the encryption utility of NTFS called?
Encrypting File System (EFS)
345
What feature of NTFS enables administrators to set limits on drive space usage for users?
Disk Quota
346
What is the largest disk partition and file size supported by exFAT?
16 exabytes (EB) and 64 zettabytes (ZB)
347
What utilities are used to check if hard drive clusters have gone bad?
Error-Checking Utilities.
348
What is Windows' term for a cluster?
Allocation Unit
349
What are CD's, DVD's and blu-ray disks called?
Optical Disks
350
What is the device called that reads obtical disks?
Optical Drives
351
What are the optical drives that write to optical disks called?
Burners
352
What are the 3 main styles of optical disks?
Read-only, write-once, and rewritable
353
What 2 capacities do CD's come in?
650 MB and 700 MB
354
In windows what dirve letters are reserved for floppy drives?
A and B
355
What type of cable is used to connect a floppy drive?
34-pin ribbon cable
356
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.
357
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."**
358
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.
359
Most optical drives use what 2 types of connectors?
SATA or Pata
360
What device enables you to add functions and storage to your system without opening the case?
External Drives
361
What device enables you to connect internal hard drives to external connections, such as a USB port?
Enclosure
362
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
363
What is the Transfer mode, speed and amount of wires of an ATA/33 connector?
Ultra DMA mode 2
33 MBps
40-pin
364
What is the Transfer mode, speed and amount of wires of an ATA/66 connector?
Ultra DMA mode 3
66 MBps
80-wire
365
What is the Transfer mode, speed and amount of wires of an ATA/100 connector?
Ultra DMA mode 4
100 MBps
80-wire
366
What is the Transfer mode, speed and amount of wires of an ATA/133 connector?
Ultra DMA mode 5
133 MBps
80-wire
