Module 1.

2 Hardware Devices
DATE 1/27/2025

PAGE

1. What is the difference between data and information? Express your answer in
terms of the role of the computer.

Data is information that is waiting in the RAM to be processed by the CPU.

Information is data that has already been processed by the CPU.

2. Output does not necessarily go directly to a user, e.g. a hardcopy output from a
printer. Give TWO other destinations for output, or ways in which output can be
used.

The slip from a POS machine

A Projector

3. Why is the memory (RAM) of an ICT device so important in terms of processing?

The RAM indicates how much and how quickly the device will be able to process
data which is important in an ICT device since you need it to be quick.

4. Give TWO types of processing that one might perform on data.

Correcting errors and identifying them

Analysing the data for projects.

5. Give TWO ways in which sensitive data can be protected, besides physically
restricting access to the data.

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 Data encryption so that a special key or phrase and or code to be able to release
the data

Using passwords and biometrics on files.

6. With all the new types of input devices that have be developed, why is the
keyboard still the most commonly used input device?

Because it is the simplest way to enter data onto the keyboard

7. Would you classify a touch screen as an input device or as an output device?

Motivate your answer.

It is both because it inputs touch from the user and outputs images onto the
screen.

8. Your wired mouse suddenly stops working. Give THREE things you can do to get
the mouse working again.

Make sure the cable is plugged in

If it has software make sure its updated.

Restart your computer.

9. Give an example of a situation where a keyboard would be a better choice of input

device to use as opposed to a touch screen.

When you need to type fast or for long

10. Shortcut keys can be used to speed up work, as they are faster than taking your
hand away from the keyboard and using a mouse to accomplish the same task.
Name the set of keyboard shortcuts commonly used to move text.

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 Crtl+v ctrl+c

11. Many novice computer users battle to remember when to use a left-click and when
to use a right-click with a mouse, as well as when to double-click. Give some
advice by referring to suitable examples.

You have to double left click to open an application

You have to right click on an application to bring up option about it.

You have to left click to click a button in most applications.

12. Give the main advantage and the amin disadvantage of using a wireless keyboard
or mouse as opposed to a wired one.

You can place your mouse anywhere. A main disadvantage is having to need
batteries when your mouse dies.

13. Give THREE reasons why a touch screen device is often used in restaurants.

It enhances the customer experience which shows that the restaurant is

technologically capable.

To make it easier for the customer or the employee to take orders

14. Give the TWO main reasons why one should buy an ergonomically designed
keyboard.

It can help your wrists

it will reduce strain

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15. State where you typically find a touchpad and give TWO advantages of using a
touchpad over a mouse.

You typically find a touchpad on laptops. The advantages of using a touchpad is

the shortcuts that it has such as using 4 finger to swipe through the desktop open
applications and dragging to fingers up or down to scroll through a page.

16. Despite the advantages of a touchpad some users prefer to make use of a mouse.
Give TWO reasons why this is the case.

17. Give THREE troubleshooting steps you can take to try to get a wireless keyboard
that has suddenly stopped working to work again..

Make use the Bluetooth is on

Make sure the bluetooh on the pc is on

And make sure that batteries are not dead

18. Give FIVE general advantages of having hard copies scanned and saved in digital
format in the context of a business or office environment.

You can keep a digital footprint of the company.

If the orignals were to be lost or stolen, you would have a backup.

If need be you can email said documents to whoever needs them

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19. Give TWO scenarios where it is preferable to use RFID tags instead of
conventional barcodes.

For anti theft in a large retailer

In large warehouses so that each product does not have to be scanned with the
barcode scanner.

20. Your sister has a 10 MP digital camera. Explain how the term ‘resolution’ relates
to this specification.

The higher the MP of the camera the higher the resolution of the picture is.

21. List and describe FOUR factors other than the resolution, that the quality of an
image taken with a digital camera depends on.

22. Do scanners and digital cameras use the same units to measure resolution?
Motivate your answer.

No cameras us MP scanners use DPI

23. Most laptop computers have an integrated webcam. What does the term
‘integrated’ mean in this context?

It is built into the laptop typically at the top of the screen.

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24. Your father wants to buy a new monitor. He was advised that besides the general
specifications such as the size and the resolution he should also look at
specifications such as the aspect ratio, the contrast ratio and the refresh rate.
Briefly describe what each of the specifications refers to.

Aspect ratio is what format it will be able to play videos in. contrast ratio is how
well it is able to produce colour and refresh rate is how quickly new pixels appear
on a screen.

25. Suppose you switch on your computer and there is no display. Give TWO
troubleshooting steps you can take to try to solve the problem.

Restart your computer.

26. Suppose you have just bought the latest CD of your favourite group. You place
the CD in your computer’s DVD drive and the media player starts but there is no
sound. Give FOUR troubleshooting steps you can take to try to solve the problem.

Make use the video cables are plugged in correctly.

Restart the media player.

Make sure the source device is correct

27. Give FOUR specification you might consider when purchasing a new printer,
besides the type of printer, the colour factor, the cost and the warranty.

How fast it can print.

What resolution it can print in.

Can it use wifi.

How much paper can it hold

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28. What are the THREE main types of printers?

Laser

Inkjet

3D

29. Give a typical scenario where you would use each of the types you gave in the
previous question (as opposed to the other TWO types of printers).

Inkjet printer cause the other will not be able to print a high quality photo

30. Inkjet printers are generally cheaper to buy than laser printers, but have some
disadvantages compared to laser printers. Give THREE of these disadvantages.

Ink has to be replaced for often

Can print slow.

Cartidges are expensive.

31. How does a 3D printer differ from other types of printers, in terms of what it can
print?

It can print physical objects.

32. Besides being slow and expensive, why is it that 3D printers are not common in
households?

Not everyone needs to print objects and it can be unsafe to use in a non well
ventilated area.

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33. What does it mean when we say storage is non-volatile compared to RAM which
is volatile?

When the computer loses power the memory that is stored will not be lost. Unlike
the volatile memory in RAM.

34. Why does storage always have to have a larger capacity than RAM?

Because

35. A friend advised your sister to defragment her hard drive. He said that
defragmenting the hard drive will ensure that the computer will not be as slow and
unresponsive as it currently is, and will also free up some disk space. Comment
critically on this advice.

He is correct

36. External hard drives come in 2.5'' and 3.5 '' sizes and have the functionality of an
internal hard drive with sone added advantages.

1. Give FOUR reasons why an external hard drive is better for backups than
using optical discs (CD and DVD).
2. Name TWO types of ports to which you can connect an external hard drive.
3. Give THREE reasons why it might be better to get an external hard drive
rather than to add an additional internal hard drive.
4. Give ONE advantage and ONE disadvantage of a 2.5'' drive compared to
a 3.5'' drive.

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37. Give FIVE reasons why flash drives have largely replaced optical discs.

It is smaller.

It can hold more storage.

It is easy to carry around.

Only one is needed when optical discs when was needed.

38. Give TWO reasons why many companies prohibit their employees from bringing
any portable devices (such as flash drives) to work with them, besides being
‘distracted’ by them.

It can be infected with a virus that can take over their computer and the

Others in the companies network.

39. Your father is looking into the merits of adding an SSD to his computer. He found
out that an SSD is a completely electronic alternative to the traditional hard drive.
Give TWO advantages and TWO disadvantages of an SSD over a traditional hard
drive.

The SSD is fast and less susceptible to damage. However it can be expensive.

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40. Most computers and devices such as smartphones have built-in communications
hardware. Name TWO common means of communication that these devices use.

VolP

And regular cellular connection to make phone calls

41. Why is a cellular connection not always as reliable as a fixed line connection?

If the cell signal drops the call will drop too.

42. Why are fibre connections mainly limited to urban environments?

They it is hard to fit fibre lines in rural areas

43. Give ONE reason why fibre is more reliable than ADSL.

It does not use cell signals to

44. Your Business Studies teacher is in a panic as he printed his exam paper but has
accidently deleted the only electronic copy of the paper and emptied the Recycle
Bin. He still wants to make some changes to the paper. Explain what he can do
to get the paper back into a digital format that he can change without having to
retype it.

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45. Give TWO reasons why many modern smartphones do not make use of a physical
keyboard.

Because if there is a physical keyboard it will reduce the screen size.

46. Some printer problems can be solved by checking the power and printer cables
and connections. Give THREE other problems that might cause a printer not to
print at all.

No ink

No paper

And lost connection to the internet.

47. A notice appeared on an internal banking website advising users not to do online
banking on computers that are not their own, such as in cybercafes, because of
the danger of spyware such keyloggers being installed on these computers.
Briefly explain what a keylogger is and why it is so dangerous.

A keylogger saves keys that has been entered onto the keyboard that will be used
to hack into peoples computer at any time they want. That is why it is dangerous.

48. Give FIVE benefits of using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags as
opposed to barcodes in a warehouse environment.

It will be quick and efficient because you will not have to look for the barcode on
the product.

Faster customer service as the products can be quickly scanned and shipped out
to the customer.

This can track the movement of goods more efficiently that can increase the
security.

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49. Why might installing software from a DVD be a problem on a newer laptop
computer?

Most newer laptop computers do not have disc drives.

50. Give TWO reasons why it is a good idea to use barcodes and barcode scanners
in a library?

So you can track the books

Each book can be assigned the barcode that can be used to identify the book.

51. Making a typing error in your essay can often quickly be picked up and corrected
with a spell check. The same cannot always be said about mistakes on invoices
and bills that are sent to you and that give you a fright when they say your owe
R18000 instead of R180.00!

1. Give TWO reasons why it is difficult to completely prevent these kinds of

mistakes.
2. Give TWO examples of GUI types of controls that can be used to minimise
the amount of data a user has to enter in a program (and reduce the risk of
typing errors).
People who are creating these invoices are just human and are bounf to make
mistakes. The system used to created the invoice can also been confusing to
understand.

52. If you have to back up data from a hard drive, which backup medium would you
rather use: CD, DVD, flash drive or eternal hard drive? Give FOUR reasons to
motivate your choice.

It will be best to use the external harddrive.

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 You can keep it somewhere else in case the location your computer is in is effected
by natural disasters or the device is stolen.

53. Why would it perhaps not be a good idea to use a high-resolution webcam when
you are using Skype to communicate with a friend overseas?

It will slow the bandwidth of your connection making their camera fuzzy and
making your camera fuzzy for them.

54. Name TWO typical peripheral devices you would need to use Skype to
communicate with a friend in London.

A Mic and webcam

55. You want to copy 5.2 GB of photos from your hard drive to your flash drive. How
can you check if these photos will fit on the flash drive before you start copying
them?

You will have to check the storage capacity of the flash drive.

56. You have done all you can to clean up your disk and remove all unnecessary files,
but your hard drive is still very full and you need to move about 10 GB of data off
the drive. Give TWO suggestions as to where you could store the 10 GB of data
that you want to move off the drive.

In the cloud or on an external hard drive.

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57. Explain why one has a greater risk of developing a health problem such as
RSE/CTS if one uses a laptop computer, than if one uses a desktop computer.

58. Give TWO reasons why one might choose to use a portable hard drive, rather
than a portable SSD, to store backups.

It is not ergonomic as well as there being a lack of support for ergonomic

peripherals.

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