A+ Module 3 TestOut Questions

3.0 System Components

3.1 Cases and Form Factors

· • Why must the case be matched to the motherboard?

· • How does the ATX form factor differ from the ITX form factor?

· • What are the characteristics of the ATX form factor?

· • What is the main difference between a Micro-ATX tower and a Micro-ATX slim tower case?

· • What is the most common ITX form factor?

3.2 Power Supplies

· • How does the case form affect the type of power supply you purchase?

· • What is the function of the red toggle switch on a power supply? Why is this so important?

· • What rating determines the number of internal components a computer can handle?

· • What is soft power?

· • Why must you be careful when using a proprietary power supply?

3.3 Motherboards and Buses

· • What factors should you consider when selecting a motherboard?

· • What chipset functionalities have moved to the CPU on newer systems?

· • What are the basic steps of installing a motherboard?

· • How can you add peripheral devices to a system?

· • How are PCI and PCIe different?

3.4 Motherboard Troubleshooting

· • What are the symptoms of system power problems? How do you troubleshoot system power problems?

· • How do you interpret BIOS/UEFI error codes generated during POST?

· • What are the symptoms of system overheating? How do you troubleshoot overheating issues?

· • What are the symptoms of internal and external device failures? How do you troubleshoot internal and external device failures?

3.5 Processors

· • What are the differences between the four levels of cache memory?

· • What is the biggest limitation of using a 32-bit processor?

· • What factors should be considered when comparing the speed of computers?

· • What are the benefits of using a smaller processor size during CPU manufacture?

· • What is the difference between hyper-threading and multithreading?

· • Under what circumstances might you choose to use throttling?

· • What is virtualization? Which CPU features enable advanced virtualization support?

· • Which components are used with a CPU to dissipate heat?

3.6 Processor Troubleshooting

· • How can you protect a CPU from electrostatic discharge?

· • What could cause a system to not boot after installing a new CPU?

· • What could cause a system to spontaneously shut down after it has been running for a period of time?

· • What causes CPUs to fail prematurely?

3.7 Memory

· • What is the difference between SRAM and DRAM?

· • What are two advantages of using DDR3 memory over DDR2 memory?

· • What is the difference between SODIMM and UniDIMM?

· • How does DDR4 differ from DDR3?

· • What does the IMC do?

3.8 Memory Installation

· • Why is consulting the motherboard documentation so important when purchasing memory?

· • You have DDR2 memory with a CAS latency of 6 and DDR3 memory with a CAS latency 7. What can you tell about the relative speed of the two memory modules?

· • What is the difference between ECC and registered memory?

· • How does a triple-channel configuration and a quad-channel configuration differ?

· • After installing the memory, what should you do?

3.9 Memory Troubleshooting

· • What does a memory error indicate?

· • What are the symptoms of memory errors? How do you troubleshoot memory problems?

· • What has happened when the system boots, but the memory count is incorrect?

· • At which times might a memory problem manifest itself?

3.10 BIOS/UEFI

· • What are the functions of the BIOS?

· • What is the role of CMOS? How does it differ from the BIOS?

· • Why does the CMOS require a battery?

· • What might be some common reasons for editing the CMOS settings?

· • What determines the keystroke to open a CMOS editor? How can you find this information?

· • What functions are performed in the POST process?

3.11 Expansion Cards

· • What advantage does a PCIe bus have over a PCI bus?

· • Which type of devices typically use mini PCI cards?

· • Which bus type is commonly used by graphic cards?

· • What type of slot can a PCIe x1 expansion card be placed in?

3.12 Video

· • How does the video card affect the quality of the image on the monitor?

· • Which type of DVI connector sends digital signals only?

· • How does the GPU increase the video performance?

· • What are the differences between integrated graphics and dedicated video cards?

· • What advantages are provided by SLI and CrossFire?

· • What is the general function of HDCP? When should you be concerned with an HDCP video card or monitor?

· • What is the difference between ATSC and NTSC? Which format would you most likely choose if you wanted to watch broadcast TV in the United States?

3.13 Audio

· • What do you need to do to play AIFF files on a Windows computer?

· • What color typically indicates the speaker port on a sound card? What color is used for the microphone?

· • Which connectors are used for digital S/PDIF audio?

· • Which encoding techniques are used for surround sound audio?

3.14 Cooling

· • How does adequate cooling improve performance and extend the life of components?

· • How does organizing and attaching cables and wires in and around a computer system help with internal airflow?

· • Why should you keep the system case cover on during normal operations?

· • Why is it important that case fans are installed properly?

· • When might you want to add liquid cooling to a computer?

· • What is the difference between an active heat sink and a passive heat sink?

· • What is the function of thermal paste? When should it be used?