A+ Core Hardware practice questions

1. RS-232 is a standard that applies to: A. serial ports B. parallel ports C. game ports D. networks E. digital frequencies

Answer :A 2. Comm ports use: (select all that apply) A. 9 pin male connector B. 14 pin female connector C. 25 pin male connector D. edge connector E. parallel connector Answer :A, C 3. Before a modem transmits, it send a: A. RTS B. DTR C. DSR D. RQS E. TRX Answer :A 4. RTS stands for: A. ready to start B. ready to switch C. request to send D. request to scan E. ready to set Answer :C

5. In modem terminology, CD stands for: A. collect data B. call data C. cease deliver D. carrier detect E. comm detect Answer :D 6. UART is a type of serial chip. Its letters stand for: A. unidirectional access regarding transmission B. universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter C. upper advanced real transfer D. unable all restore t-bits E. use all rom types Answer :B 7. Select all true statements: A. com1 and com3 share the same IRQ B. com1 and com4 share the same IRQ C. com2 and com3 share the same IRQ D. com2 and com4 share the same IRQ E. com1 and com2 share the same IRQ Answer :A, D 8. In modems that support more than 300 baud, baud and bps do not mean the same thing. A. true B. false Answer :A 9. "bps" stands for bits per second. Baud is the number of discrete signals per second One discrete signal can encode more than one bit. Hence, a 9600 bps modem actually operates at 2400 baud. However, in common non-techie terminology, baud and bps are used synonymously, though that is not technically correct. These are all true statements. A. true B. false Answer :A 10. ________ is the term used to refer to the process of two modems establishing communications with each other.

A. B. C. D. E.

interacting handshaking connecting linking pinging

Answer :B

11. ISDN stands for: A. internal select data nulls B. integrated services digital network C. interval set down next D. interior sector direct none E. inferior sector data net

Answer :B 12. Your modem does not respond when you try to dial out. You try another modem on another computer and get the same result. What is the most likely problem? A. defective modem B. defective computer C. software bug D. bad phone line E. virus Answer :D 13. You have a serial scanner connected to your computer configured to use com3. It is turned on. Your modem is using com1, and you can't dial out. What is the most likely problem? A. everything should work ok B. you have an i/o conflict C. you have a conflict withIRQ4 D. you have a loose connection E. you have a conflict withIRQ3

Answer :C 14. What is the i/o address for com1? A. 3e8 B. 3bc C. 5f8 D. 3f8 E. 008 Answer :D 15. What is the i/o address for com2? A. 2vb B. 2f8 C. 8f8 D. 330 E. e8e Answer :B 16. What is the i/o address for com3? A. 3e8 B. 345 C. ff8 D. 5e8 E. be8 Answer :A 17. What is the i/o address for com4? A. 4e7 B. e8e C. be0 D. cb8 E. 2e8 Answer :E 18. Before sending data, a modem sends a request to send signal, or RTS. A. true B. false Answer :A 19. ISDN uses _______________

technology. A. only digital B. digital and analog C. only analog D. neither digital nor analog E. mostly digital Answer :A 20. A COM port is a _______ port. A. parallel B. serial C. static D. multi E. scsi Answer :B

21. Modems use ________________ transmission. A. synchronous B. asynchronous C. timed interval D. ata E. bank

Answer :B 22. CD-Roms typically hold ______ of data. A. 100 meg B. 500 meg C. 650 meg D. 1000 meg E. 350 meg Answer :C

23. The terms "red book", "yellow book", and "orange book" refer to: A. scsi B. ide C. floppy drive technology D. CD-Rom standards E. none of the above Answer :D 24. CD-Roms are read by _________. A. magnetic heads B. electronic sensors C. stepper motors D. laser diodes E. titanium servos Answer :D 25. Which of the following can cause CDs to be misread? Select all that apply. A. smudges B. finger prints C. scratches D. cracks E. slight melting Answer :A, B, C, D & E 26. CD-Rom drives typically have which of the following interfaces? Select all that apply. A. serial B. parallel C. ide D. scsi E. esdi Answer :A, B & C 27. CD-Rom drives have which connectors? Select all that apply. A. molex B. berg C. data cable D. audio cable

E. arcnet Answer :A, C & D 28. In a computer with an eide adapter, where should you connect an ATA CD-Rom drive? A. on the floppy bus B. on the primary ide C. on the secondary ide D. on the scsi bus E. none of the above Answer :C 29. Your IDE CD-Rom drive is attached to the primary IDE adapter with our hard drive. How should its jumpers be set? A. as a master B. as a slave C. as neutral D. auto detect E. to 001 Answer :B 30. What does MSCDEX.EXE do? A. configures hard drives B. it's a scsi driver C. bios setup
It's a CD-Rom DOS driver

D. nothing, I just made it up Answer :D

31. A CD-Rom drive always uses IRQ: A. 9 B. 10 C. 11 D. 5 E. depends on the adapter it's attached

Answer :E 32. If a computer's bios allows it, you can boot from a CD-Rom. A. true B. false Answer :A 33. A single speed CD-Rom drive transfers data at: A. 1 MB per second B. 100 bytes per second C. 20 million bits per second D. 186,282 bits per second E. 150 KBs per second Answer :E 34. Your CD-Rom audio cable connects to the: A. speaker B. sound card (or motherboard if sound is integrated with it) C. power supply D. hard drive E. bios Answer :B 35. This statement is in autoexec.bat: c:\dos\cdrom\mscdex /d:cdrom001 /l:e /m:10 /v This statement is in config.sys: device=c:\cdrom\atapicd.sys /d:cd001 Your CD-Rom drive is not working. What is wrong? A. the "v" switch in autoexec.bat is invalid B. the device name is not the same in both files C. the "m" switch in autoexec.bat is

set too high D. config.sys is not using the dos directory E. nothing, it should work Answer :B 36. Which of the following are SCSI issues? Select all that apply. A. unique id settings B. limited cable length C. parity D. passive termination E. active termination Answer :A, B, C, D & E 37. On some older SCSI adapters, the boot hard drive must be set to id#: (as a side note, some of the older IBM SCSI PCs had to have the boot hard drive set to id 6, but this question deals primarily with most other PC makes and clones) A. 2 B. 3 C. 0 D. 9 E. 11 Answer :C 38. You have a PC with a SCSI adapter built into the system board It has only one connection (internal), which is used for your hard drive, CD-Rom drive, and tape drive. Your boss wants to connect a SCSI scanner to the PC, so you install a SCSI adapter with an externalconnection to support the scanner. Now you have a PC with two SCSI adapters. SCSI adapters normally use id# 7, which the onboard adapter is set for. The adapter you installed should: (select all that apply) A. use a different id B. use id 7 also C. not use an id

D. use a different IRQ E. be checked for fleas Answer :B, D 39. You run a super wing-ding diagnostic program on your PC, and it reports that your hard drive, microprocessor, ram, and video card have seen better days. To resolve this problem you should: A. replace each part one at a time, rerunning the diagnostic before replacing the next part. B. check to see if you have a software problem C. replace everything at once and rerun the diagnostic D. get another copy of the diagnostic program E. runanexhaustivememory check Answer :B 40. Whenever you have a hardware resource conflict, it will more likely be an IRQ conflict rather than an i/o conflict because: A. there are alot more i/o addresses than IRQs. B. the bios sometimes has more of a problem controlling IRQs C. i/o addresses cannot conflict D. software tends to correct i/o conflicts E. software tends to mess up IRQs Answer :A

41. SCSI adapters usually don't need drivers, just the devices that interface with them. A. true

B. false

Answer :B 42. Most SCSI-2 devices will work fine with SCSI-1 adapters. A. true B. false Answer :A 43. Single-ended SCSI or "regular" SCSI has one wire for each signal that needs to be sent along the SCSI bus. Differential SCSI has two wires for each signal that is sent. Differential SCSI cable lengths can be up to 25 meters. How long can single-ended SCSI cables be? A. up to 50 meters B. up to 100 meters C. up to 6 meters D. up to 14 meters E. up to 3 meters Answer :C 44. Your PC has both internal and external SCSI devices connected to one SCSI host adapter. Which devices should be terminated? Select all that apply. A. the last internal device on the chain B. the last external device on the chain C. the host adapter D. the host adapter and one external device

E. the PC Answer :A, B 45. How many devices can connect to the typical SCSI adapter? Assume is has only one data connector. A. 7 B. 8 C. 20 D. 10 E. depends on whether both internal and external devices are used Answer :A 46. How many devices can be used on a single SCSI bus? Keep in mind that the SCSI host adapter counts as a device. A. 7 B. 8 C. 20 D. 10 E. see number 54 Answer :B 47. What is the jumper setting on a SCSI device to configure it to use the fourth SCSI id? Remember, SCSI ids start with zero. A. 010 B. 110 C. 011 D. 101 E. 001 Answer :C

48. Which type of interface provides for the fastest data transfer? A. IDE B. SCSI C. parallel D. serial E. ISA Answer :B 49. In addition to i/o port addresses, SCSI adapters also use a range of rom addresses for their onboard bios. A. true B. false Answer :A 50. SCSI-2 cables have how many pins? A. 40 B. 25 C. 50 D. 72 E. 100 Answer :C

51. IDE cables have how many pins? A. 25 B. 50 C. 100 D. 40 E. 65

Answer :D

52. You are about to install a second IDE hard drive in a PC that has only one IDE adapter. Your first hard drive will still be the boot drive. How should the second drive be configured? A. as a master B. as a secondary C. as a slave D. as a primary E. as auto-select Answer :C 53. What is the maximum number of IDE drives that EIDE will support? A. 15 B. 3 C. 4 D. 2 E. 0 Answer :C 54. You are installing an IDE hard drive that will be your boot drive. Which is the correct order of steps that need to be followed? A. jumper properly, auto-detect(or configure manually) in cmos, low level format, high level format, partition B. jumper properly, auto-detect(or configure manually) in cmos, partition,

high level format with /s switch C. jumper properly, partition, autodetect(or configure manually in cmos, high level format with /s switch D. jumper properly, auto-detect in cmos, regular format E. jumper properly, partition, low level format, high level format Answer :B 55. You are installing a SCSI hard drive that will be your boot drive. Which is the correct order of steps that need to be followed? A. jumper for id 0, cmos setup, low level format, high level format B. set id jumpers to all zeros, high level format, partition C. set id jumpers to all zeros, partition, high level format D. jumper for id 0, cmos setup, partition, high level format E. set id jumpers to all zeros, high level format,

partition Answer :C 56. On a flat data cable, a red or blue stripe means: A. ground B. high voltage C. null connection D. pin 1 E. that it's an IDE or SCSI cable Answer :D 57. Which of the following would be considered an FRU? Select all that apply. A. hard drive B. system board C. ram D. DMA controller E. level 2 cache simm Answer :A, B, C & E 58. Which of the following would not be considered an FRU? A. hard drive B. IRQ controller C. any soldered IC D. floppy drive E. system board Answer :A, B 59. You have a system that periodically locks up. You have ruled out software, and now suspect that it is hardware. What should

you do first that could help you narrow it down to the component at fault? A. rotate the ram B. replace the ram C. replace the level 2 cache simm D. disable the CPU cache in cmos E. replace the CPU Answer :D 60. You have a PC with no video on a known good monitor. Pick the best order you should follow in tracking down the problem. A. replace the video card, replace the monitor, replace the power supply, replace the system board, try a different monitor B. check that PC and monitor are plugged in, check that monitor brightness is turned up, check that PC fan is running, remove all option cards C. check PC supply voltages, replace video card, replace CPU D. check that everything's plugged in, replace system board

E. check that everything's plugged in, replace hard drive, replace ram Answer :B