Learn About A+ IT Technician

  By Certification Magazine —

These questions are based on 220-602: A+ IT Technician.

CompTIA

Self Test Software Practice Test

Objective: Personal computer components.

Sub-objective: Install, configure, optimize and upgrade personal computer components.

Single answer, multiple-choice

You have both internal and external devices on an SCSI chain. All devices are Fast SCSI-2 devices. How should you place terminators for the SCSI bus?

A.     No active termination is required.

B.     Place an active terminator on both end devices on the chain.

C.     Place a single active terminator in the middle of the SCSI chain.

D.     Place an active terminator on the SCSI host adapter and the last device on the chain.

Answer:

B. Place an active terminator on both end devices on the chain.

Tutorial:

For Fast SCSI-2 devices, you must use active termination, rather than passive termination. Active terminators are required for Fast or Wide SCSI, according to the SCSI-2 specification. Each end of the SCSI bus must be terminated.

For a SCSI bus in which there are both external and internal devices on the chain, you should place an active terminator on both end devices on the chain, but not on the SCSI host adapter, which is in the middle of the bus.

For a SCSI bus in which there are either all internal or all external devices, you should place an active terminator on the SCSI host adapter and on the last device on the chain.

Reference:

Upgrading and Repairing PCs, Chapter 12: Physical Drive Installation and Configuration, SCSI Chains: Internal, External, or Both, pages 849-850.

Objective: Operating systems.

Sub-objective: Identify the fundamentals of operating systems.

Single answer, multiple-choice

In which situation would you advise a Windows XP user to run the Disk Defragmenter utility?

A.     When files often become corrupted.

B.     When the user often exceeds his or her disk quota.

C.     When the user frequently creates and deletes large files.

D.     When Windows XP system files become replaced by unsigned versions.

E.      When the user wants to create free space by removing temporary and unused files.

Answer:

C. When the user frequently creates and deletes large files.

Tutorial:

You should advise a user who frequently creates and deletes large files to run the Windows XP Disk Defragmenter utility on a regular basis. Over time, a disk partition can become fragmented as storage clusters develop gaps as files are deleted and portions of new files stored in their place. Disk fragmentation can lead to degraded system performance.

Windows XP and other Windows operating systems include the Disk Defragmenter, a disk-optimization utility that can be used to re-order the clusters on a FAT, FAT32 or NTFS disk partition, leading to greater overall system performance and faster file access. The Disk Defragmenter tool can be opened by any of several methods. You can right-click a drive letter in My Computer or Windows Explorer, select Properties and then select the Tools tab in the Local Disk Properties dialogue box. The Disk Defragmenter window is opened when you click Defragment Now in the Defragmentation section of the Tools tab.

You also can navigate from the Start menu to Programs, Accessories, System Tools and then click Disk Defragmenter. You also can double-click the Administrative Tools icon in Control Panel and then open Computer Management. Disk Defragmenter is found in the left-hand tree under Storage. Disk Defragmenter is manufactured by Executive Software International, which sells a more fully featured version of the software named Diskeeper.

The Windows XP Error-checking tool can be used to check for errors in the file system on a disk partition. Running the Error-checking tool regularly can minimize the probability that files will become corrupted on a disk partition.

All Windows XP system files have been digitally signed by Microsoft. The Sigverif utility, the File Signature Verification tool, can ensure all installed Windows XP system files contain a digital signature from Microsoft. If a system file has been replaced with a version that does not carry a Microsoft digital signature, the File Signature Verification tool can be used to restore a certified Windows XP system file from the Windows XP installation CD-ROM.

NTFS partitions can be configured with per-user disk quotas. This can be used to control the amount of disk space each person can use on a volume. However, the Disk Defragmenter has no effect on the operation of disk quotas apart from the speed at which file-system access occurs.

The Disk Cleanup utility can be used to remove temporary files, ActiveX controls and Java applets that were downloaded from the Internet and programs that are no longer used. It also can empty the Recycle Bin. However, these activities will not defragment a drive and may instead increase the likelihood of future fragmentation.

Reference:

Microsoft Help and Support: How to Analyze and Defragment a Disk in Windows XP

Objective: Printers and scanners.

Sub-objective: Identify the fundamental principles of using printers and scanners.

Single answer, multiple-choice

What does an inkjet printer use to push ink onto paper?

A.     A nozzle.

B.     A moving pin.

C.     A piezoelectric crystal.

D.     An electrostatic charge.

Answer:

C. A piezoelectric crystal.

Tutorial:

Inkjet printers use one of two methods to push ink onto the print medium, typically paper. One method is to precisely vibrate a piezoelectric crystal that then pumps ink through a nozzle. The other method is to apply a voltage to a resistor that heats ink to the boiling point.

When the ink boils, the vaporization pressure pushes the ink through fixed-position nozzles and onto paper. The first method is referred to as mechanical vibration, and the second method is referred to as thermal shock. An inkjet printer will use only one of these ink-deposition techniques.

Although the nozzles control the direction of an ink droplet, they do not push the ink. Laser printers use an electrostatic charge to pull toner from a photosensitive drum onto the paper.

Moving pins are not a feature of inkjet printers. A dot-matrix printer has a print head that contains an array of pins; these movable pins strike an inked ribbon against a piece of paper to generate a series of dots that collectively create text and images.

A laser printer uses an electrostatic charge to allow the toner to adhere to the paper.