Hardware Book

Handbook

Hardware & Networking










Secure your future with Computer Hardware & Networking
SNo. 103, Opposite to Sundarabai School,
Above Videocon Showroom. Wadgaon Sheri, Pune
Sl No
Topic
Dates
Faculty
Status
1
Computer Hardware technical concept



2
PC Assembling and introduction to component



3
Introduction to Electronics



4
Digital Electronic / Practical / Circuit Building



5
Introduction Operating System



6
Operating System Command and Installation



7
Troubleshooting of Win98



8
WinXP System Installation



9
Application Installation and troubleshooting



10
Introduction to Troubleshooting tools



11
Data recovery tool and Antivirus troubleshooting



12
Keyboard



13
Mouse



14
Floppy Disk



15
Hard Disk



16
CDROM



17
Motherboard



18
Processor



19
Introduction to SMPS circuit reading and repairing



20
Introduction to Monitor troubleshooting



21
Introduction to Printer



22
Basic Networking concept



23
LAN Preparation and Network Troubleshooting



24
Implementation of Proxy Server



25
LAN Troubleshooting tools



26
Introduction to Ghost Cast Server



27
Introduction to Linux / Basic Server Configuration



28
Introduction to Windows 2003 / Server config





Introduction to Computer Hardware
1. Motherboard
2. Processor
3. Memory / RAM
4. Display Card
5. SMPS
6. Monitor
7. Keyboard
8. Mouse
9. Floppy Disk
10. Hard Disk
11. CDROM Drive
12. Cables and connector
a) Floppy Disk connector 34 Pin
b) Hard Disk Connector 40 Pin
c) SMPS AT 12 Pin
d) SMPS ATX 20 Pin

Introduction to Electronics
Resistors
Capacitor
Diode




Transformer

Transistors
Integrated Circuit (IC)







4 Band Resistor Color Codes





Top of Form
Resistance
Ω
Tolerance ±
%
Bottom of Form


Black

Brown

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue

Violet

Grey

White

Gold

Silver

Electronic Harmonium Circuit and Circuit Design


Introduction to Operation system

DOS" stands for Disc Operating System. It is completely command-line oriented; that is, one may run the system exclusively via key commands. Although many Graphic
Summary of the DOS Boot Sequence
POST (Power on Self Test) MBR (Master Boot record) IO.SYS MSDOS.SYS CONFIG.SYS COMMAND.COM AUTOEXEC.BAT Command prompt A:\
Command causes the computer to take some action, or to execute some file. We'll leave most of the file execution discussion for another lesson, and for now focus on the topic of internal commands.
Internal vs. External Commands
Comes with a built-in command interpreter called COMMAND.COM. This file is loaded during the boot process, which means that COMMAND.COM is resident in memory at all times, and the commands that it understands are available to the user at all times. Not all DOS commands are understood by COMMAND.COM. There are commands called external commands that reside in separate files on your hard drive, and must be called specifically for you to use them.
Small reference of internal DOS commands
del, erase - delete files rd, rmdir - delete directories dir - show content of directories cd, chdir - change current directory cls - clear the screen md, mkdir - create a directory copy - copy of one or several files ren, rename - rename of files or directories type - shows the content of text files set - shows the DOS environment variables or defines a new one ver - shows the DOS version number vol - shows the name of the storage drive

Small reference of external DOS commands
attrib - shows the attributes of files or set one of those fdisk - partitioning or modify of the hard disk move - move of files mem - shows the occupancy of working memory tree - shows the directory structure format - format of storage drives




Internal command List
break
buffers
call
cd
copy
country
ctty
date
dos
chcp
chdir
choice
cls
del
device
devicehigh
dir
lh
drivparm
echo
erase
files
for
goto
mkdir
not
numlock
exist
exit
fcbs
include
install
lastdrive
errorlevel
prompt
rd
loadfix
loadhigh
md
menucolor
time
truename
path
rename
rmdir
menudefault
menuitem
if
submenu
verify
vol
rem
shift
stacks
set
shell
move
switches
type
ver
pause
ren


External command list
append
assign
attrib
backup
nlsfunc
power
print
label
mem
chkdsk
command
comp
dblspace
restore
scandisk
select
mode
more
debug
defrag
deloldos
deltree
share
sort
subst
interlnk
intersvr
diskcomp
diskcopy
doskey
dosshell
tree
undelete
unformat
mscdex
msd
edit
emm386
exe2bin
expand
help
himem
replace
msav
msbackup
fasthelp
fastopen
fc
fdisk
join
keyb
setver
xcopy
vsafe
find
format
graftabl
graphics
memmaker
mirror
sys


DOS Troubleshooting
1. Receiving error "Missing command interpreter."
2. Emm386 error #00
3. Do you have additional information on FDISK /MBR?
4. Receive error 'Too many parameters'.
5. Invalid System Disk error.
Forgotten BIOS Password Reset with Debug command
A:\>DEBUG- o 70 2E- o 71 FF- q (Quits to DOS)
How to Network 2 computers in DOS
1. Create a DOS bootable floppy or CD
2. Enter the command Intersvr.exe
3. Boot the client with DOS CD and put the command interlnk.exe
4. Transfer the data from One cd to another


General DOS problem

A duplicate file name exists, or the file cannot be found
When attempting to rename a file, the file does not exist or there is already a file with that name. Verify no other file exists with the same name in the current directory and/or that you're typing the file you wish to rename correctly.
Abort, Retry, Fail?
This error is commonly encountered when attempting to read a diskette that is not readable or if no disk or disc in the drive trying to be read.
Bad command or file name
Commonly caused by a misspelling or error when typing a command and/or when the command attempting to be used is not a valid command for your version of MS-DOS or Windows.
Bad or missing command interpreter
The computer cannot locate the command.com, an important file that that enables the computer to boot into the operating system
Drive not ready error
Disk or disc in the drive is not readable.
Additional information about problems reading floppy diskettes can be found
Insufficient disk space
Disk is full or, if you are trying to copy am file to a disk, the file is too big to fit on the disk.
Internal stack overflow
The MS-DOS internal storage areas are full. You may need to go into your config.sys and increase the STACKS=0,0
Invalid media, track 0 bad or unusable
Format command cannot format the specified disk or the disk capacity is invalid, or bad disk
Write fault error
Tried to reroute text to a device that is not connected, is not valid or not hooked up.
Write protect
Tried to write to a disk that is write protected.




Windows 98 / XP Troubleshooting

Windows Selective Startup
Improve overall system performance and boot time and get rid of programs you don't want running in the background by choosing to do a Selective Startup in msconfig.
Click Start, Run and type: msconfig and press enter.
In the System Configuration Utility click the Startup tab.
Uncheck programs you do not wish to load each time your computer starts. Once done click ok and restart the computer. After the computer boots back into Windows you will receive a prompt about Windows being in a selective startup. Check the box to not receive the prompt and click ok.

Error messages while Windows is loading
Errors that occur while Windows 98 is loading and/or or prevent Windows 98 from loading are likely being caused by a configuration error in the registry.
If you are unable to get into Windows and believe that removing or uninstalling a program or changing a setting may help enable you to get into Windows, boot the computer into Windows 98 Safe Mode. Additional information about Safe Mode can be found on document CHSAFE.
If you were unable to resolve your issue through Safe Mode, attempt to restore the registry using scanreg. Additional information about how to backup and restore the registry using the scanreg utility can be found on our registry page.
Win.com errors.
Cause: Win.com errors can be caused by:
Win.com is missing or corrupt. Win.com is to large to fit into memory. Computer has computer virus.
Solution: The win.com file is missing or corrupt
It is possible that the win.com is missing or is corrupt. To resolve this issue, attempt to load the file manually by following the below instructions.
Boot the computer to a MS-DOS prompt. Information on how to do this can be found on document CHDOS.
At the MS-DOS prompt, type:
cd\windows
dir win.com
This should list the win.com file. If you receive an error message "File not found", skip to the next section. If, however, the file is listed, ensure that the file matches the below size according to your operating system.
Windows 98 = 24,791 bytesWindows 95 OSR2 = 24,503 bytesWindows 95 = 22,679 bytes
If the file size does not match, see the below paragraph for information on how to extract the file and recreate the win.com file.
To create a new win.com, follow the below instructions. These steps will require that you have either the Windows cabinets locally or have access to recover them from the Windows CD-ROM.
The file win.cnf must be extracted from a windows cabinet file. Below is a listing of where this file is on each of the Windows CD's as well as Windows 95 diskette:
Windows 95 floppy disk #3Win95_03.cab of the original Windows 95 CD-ROMWin98_28.cab of the original Windows 98 CD-ROMWin98_25.cab of the Windows 98SE CD-ROM
Once the correct diskette or cabinet has been located please see document CH000363 for additional information about the extract command and how to use it to extract the win.cnf to the C:\Windows directory.
Once win.cnf has been extracted do the below steps at the MS-DOS prompt.
In the Windows directory where win.cnf and win.com are located, type:
ren c:\windows\win.com c:\windows\win.ch ren c:\windows\win.cnf c:\windows\win.com
Enabling the Windows 95, 98, or ME password
No Local Network
Users can customize in Passwords:
Open Control Panel. Open the Passwords icon. Click the User Profiles tab Select the second option "Users can customize their preferences and desktop settings. Windows switches to your personal settings when you log on."
Click Ok and then restart the computer.










Windows computer only starts in MS-DOS.
Issue: Windows computer only starts in MS-DOS.
Cause: Commonly, this issue occurs when another program or game is restarted into a MS-DOS mode for compatibility reasons but is improperly restarted.
Solution: Follow the below instructions to allow the computer to boot into Windows 95 or Windows 98 instead of MS-DOS.
Solution one
· Type cd\
· Type edit autoexec.bat
· Type REM with a space after it, in front of the below lines within the autoexec.bat. Note: Not all these lines may be in the autoexec.bat. However, if they are present, remark these lines.
cd c:\windows\commandcall c:\windows\command\c:\windows\win.com/wx
Once the above lines have been remarked, if applicable, click File / Save, and click Exit. Once back at the prompt type the below commands.
Solution two
From the MS-DOS prompt type in the below lines.
Type cd\Type attrib msdos.sys -r -a -s –hType edit msdos.sysLocate the line BOOTGUI=0 and change the line to BOOTGUI=1
How to restore the system.ini and win.ini.
Once at the MS-DOS prompt type the below commands to restore the system.ini
cd\windows ren system.ini system.ch
If after attempting to rename the system.ini you receive File not found, continue to follow the below steps.
ren system.--- system.ini



Keyboard
Issue: When booting computer I receive several beeps.
Cause: This can be caused by one following possibilities:
· Keyboard has a stuck key.
· Computer has a password.
· System Chassis alarm.
· Computer does not pass POST.
Issue: A20 error.
Cause: Issue related to the keyboard and/or keyboard controller.
Solution: Ensure the keyboard is connected to the proper port on the back of the computer.
Turn off the computer and disconnect the keyboard and verify there are no bent, burnt or broken pins on the keyboard connector or on the keyboard connector on the back of the computer.
Try a different keyboard on the computer.
Unfortunately, if all of the above recommendations do not resolve your issue, it is very likely that the motherboard may have a bad controller.
Question: How to move the mouse cursor with the keyboard in Windows.
Reasoning:
Users who find it difficult to move the mouse and/or wish to have an alternative to the mouse may wish to move the mouse using the arrow keys on the numeric keypad of their keyboard.
Answer:
Microsoft Windows users can enable the accessibility feature to move the mouse using their arrow keys by following the below steps.
· Click Start, Settings, Control Panel.
· Within the Control Panel open "Accessibility Options"
· Click the Mouse tab.
· Check the "Use Mouse Keys" check box.
· If you wish to increase the speed or change any other settings, click on the Settings button.
· Click Apply and then close out of the box.





Question: No keys on my keyboard work.
Cause: This issue is often caused by a bad keyboard, bad interface board, and/or bad motherboard.
Additional information:
This document contains information about troubleshooting a keyboard that has no functioning keys. If some of the keys are working and some are not see document CH000305.
Answer:
· Turn off the computer and disconnect the keyboard from the computer and connect another known working keyboard to it.
· New keyboard works
· If connecting another keyboard works. Shutdown the computer and try the potentially bad keyboard again. If the keyboard still fails it's bad and should be replaced.
Issue: Mouse not being detected in Windows 9x, ME, 2000, XP, or Vista.
Cause: This issue can be caused by one or more of the below possibilities.
· Mouse is experiencing a conflict with another device.
· Mouse is not connected into correct port
· Bad hardware.
Solution: A mouse may not be detected in Windows because of any of the below possibilities.
Question: The wheel on my mouse is not working properly.
Answer: Just like any other part on a mouse the wheel or roller on the top of a wheel mouse can also malfunction. Below are some tips on troubleshooting this issue and suggestions if unable to fix.




Floppy Drive
If you have spent any time at all working with a computer, then chances are good that you have used a floppy disk at some point. The floppy disk drive (FDD) was the primary means of adding data to a computer until the CD-ROM drive became popular. In fact, FDDs have been a key component of most personal computers for more than 20 years.
Basically, a floppy disk drive reads and writes data to a small, circular piece of metal-coated plastic similar to audio cassette tape. In this article, you will learn more about what is inside a floppy disk drive and how it works. You will also find out some cool facts about FDDs.
History of the Floppy Disk Drive
The floppy disk drive (FDD) was invented at IBM by Alan Shugart in 1967. The first floppy drives used an 8-inch disk (later called a "diskette" as it got smaller), which evolved into the 5.25-inch disk that was used on the first IBM Personal Computer in August 1981. The 5.25-inch disk held 360 kilobytes compared to the 1.44 megabyte capacity of today's 3.5-inch diskette.
The 5.25-inch disks were dubbed "floppy" because the diskette packaging was a very flexible plastic envelope, unlike the rigid case used to hold today's 3.5-inch diskettes.
By the mid-1980s, the improved designs of the read/write heads, along with improvements in the magnetic recording media, led to the less-flexible, 3.5-inch, 1.44-megabyte (MB) capacity FDD in use today. For a few years, computers had both FDD sizes (3.5-inch and 5.25-inch). But by the mid-1990s, the 5.25-inch version had fallen out of popularity, partly because the diskette's recording surface could easily become contaminated by fingerprints through the open access area.
The major parts of a FDD include:
Read/Write Heads: Located on both sides of a diskette, they move together on the same assembly. The heads are not directly opposite each other in an effort to prevent interaction between write operations on each of the two media surfaces. The same head is used for reading and writing, while a second, wider head is used for erasing a track just prior to it being written. This allows the data to be written on a wider "clean slate," without interfering with the analog data on an adjacent track.
Drive Motor: A very small spindle motor engages the metal hub at the center of the diskette, spinning it at either 300 or 360 rotations per minute (RPM).
Stepper Motor: This motor makes a precise number of stepped revolutions to move the read/write head assembly to the proper track position. The read/write head assembly is fastened to the stepper motor shaft.
Mechanical Frame: A system of levers that opens the little protective window on the diskette to allow the read/write heads to touch the dual-sided diskette media. An external button allows the diskette to be ejected, at which point the spring-loaded protective window on the diskette closes.

Circuit Board: Contains all of the electronics to handle the data read from or written to the diskette. It also controls the stepper-motor control circuits used to move the read/write heads to each track, as well as the movement of the read/write heads toward the diskette surface.



Inside the Floppy drive

The computer program passes an instruction to the computer hardware to write a data file on a floppy disk, which is very similar to a single platter in a hard disk drive except that it is spinning much slower, with far less capacity and slower access time.

· The computer hardware and the floppy-disk-drive controller start the motor in the diskette drive to spin the floppy disk.
· The disk has many concentric tracks on each side. Each track is divided into smaller segments called sectors, like slices of a pie.
A second motor, called a stepper motor, rotates a worm-gear shaft (a miniature version of the worm gear in a bench-top vise) in minute increments that match the spacing between tracks.
· The time it takes to get to the correct track is called "access time." This stepping action (partial revolutions) of the stepper motor moves the read/write heads like the jaws of a bench-top vise. The floppy-disk-drive electronics know how many steps the motor has to turn to move the read/write heads to the correct track.
· The read/write heads stop at the track. The read head checks the prewritten address on the formatted diskette to be sure it is using the correct side of the diskette and is at the proper track. This operation is very similar to the way a record player automatically goes to a certain groove on a vinyl record.
· Before the data from the program is written to the diskette, an erase coil (on the same read/write head assembly) is energized to "clear" a wide, "clean slate" sector prior to writing the sector data with the write head. The erased sector is wider than the written sector -- this way, no signals from sectors in adjacent tracks will interfere with the sector in the track being written.
· The energized write head puts data on the diskette by magnetizing minute, iron, bar-magnet particles embedded in the diskette surface, very similar to the technology used in the mag stripe on the back of a credit card. The magnetized particles have their north and south poles oriented in such a way that their pattern may be detected and read on a subsequent read operation.
The diskette stops spinning. The floppy disk drive waits for the next command.


Types of Floppy Drive Cable standard


Issue: Floppy drive works in Windows but not MS-DOS.
Cause: Because the floppy works in Windows this is an indication that physically your hard disk drive works. However, because the floppy does not work in MS-DOS, this can be caused by any of the below possibilities.
· Another Hardware device connected of floppy controller not compatible with MS-DOS.
· Not setup properly in CMOS.
· LS120 or Super Disk is being used as floppy drive.
· Different drive letter.


Issue: Invalid / Non System Disk error.
Cause: This error can be caused by one or more of the below possibilities.
· Floppy or CD that is not bootable is currently in the computer.
· BIOS or CMOS setup is not setup properly.
· Hard disk drive does not have bootable files on it.
· The hard disk drive is bad or not connected properly.
Issue: Floppy drive light does not go off.
Cause: This issue can be caused by one of the below two possibilities.
· Floppy drive data cable is not connected properly.
· Floppy drive is bad.

Issue: FDC Failure.
Cause: Short for Floppy Disk Controller Failure, this issue can be caused by any of the below.
· Floppy not setup properly
· Bad hardware or floppy controller

Question: Receive a track error when reading, writing, or formatting a disk.
Answer: Receiving track error when reading, writing or formatting the computer hard disk drive or floppy disk.
If you are receiving track errors when reading, writing or formatting a computer hard disk drive or floppy disk drive, it is likely that either the hard disk drive or disk contains errors or has corrupt information. If you are running Microsoft Windows we recommend you first attempt to resolve this issue by running Microsoft Scandisk and Microsoft Defrag if available.
If you are getting this error while you are formatting the hard disk drive or floppy diskette, unfortunately it is almost certainly a hardware failure and it is recommend you replace the hard disk drive / use a different floppy diskette.









PIN 1
Ground
PIN 8
Index
PIN 15
Ground
PIN 22
Write Data
PIN 29
Ground
PIN 2
Unused
PIN 9
Ground
PIN 16
Motor Enable B
PIN 23
Ground
PIN 30
Read Data
PIN 3
Ground
PIN 10
Motor Enable A
PIN 17
Ground
PIN 24
Write Enable
PIN 31
Ground
PIN 4
Unused
PIN 11
Ground
PIN 18
Direction (Stepper Motor)
PIN 25
Ground
PIN 32
Select Head 1
PIN 5
Ground
PIN 12
Drive Select B
PIN 19
Ground
PIN 26
Track 0
PIN 33
Ground
PIN 6
Unused
PIN 13
Ground
PIN 20
Step Pulse
PIN 27
Ground
PIN 34
Ground
PIN 7
Ground
PIN 14
Drive Select A
PIN 21
Ground
PIN 28
Write Protect







Hard Disk

Hard Disk Basics
Hard disks were invented in the 1950s. They started as large disks up to 20 inches in diameter holding just a few megabytes. They were originally called "fixed disks" or "Winchesters" (a code name used for a popular IBM product). They later became known as "hard disks" to distinguish them from "floppy disks." Hard disks have a hard platter that holds the magnetic medium, as opposed to the flexible plastic film found in tapes and floppies.
At the simplest level, a hard disk is not that different from a cassette tape. Both hard disks and cassette tapes use the same magnetic recording techniques described in How Tape Recorders Work. Hard disks and cassette tapes also share the major benefits of magnetic storage -- the magnetic medium can be easily erased and rewritten, and it will "remember" the magnetic flux patterns stored onto the medium for many years.
Capacity and Performance
A typical desktop machine will have a hard disk with a capacity of between 10 and 40 gigabytes. Data is stored onto the disk in the form of files. A file is simply a named collection of bytes. The bytes might be the ASCII codes for the characters of a text file, or they could be the instructions of a software application for the computer to execute, or they could be the records of a data base, or they could be the pixel colors for a GIF image. No matter what it contains, however, a file is simply a string of bytes. When a program running on the computer requests a file, the hard disk retrieves its bytes and sends them to the CPU one at a time.
There are two ways to measure the performance of a hard disk:
Data rate - The data rate is the number of bytes per second that the drive can deliver to the CPU. Rates between 5 and 40 megabytes per second are common.
Seek time - The seek time is the amount of time between when the CPU requests a file and when the first byte of the file is sent to the CPU. Times between 10 and 20 milliseconds are common.
The platters - These typically spin at 3,600 or 7,200 rpm when the drive is operating. These platters are manufactured to amazing tolerances and are mirror-smooth (as you can see in this interesting self-portrait of the author... no easy way to avoid that!).
The arm - This holds the read/write heads and is controlled by the mechanism in the upper-left corner. The arm is able to move the heads from the hub to the edge of the drive. The arm and its movement mechanism are extremely light and fast. The arm on a typical hard-disk drive can move from hub to edge and back up to 50 times per second -- it is an amazing thing to watch!
Most hard disks have multiple platters. This drive has three platters and six read/write heads:
The mechanism that moves the arms on a hard disk has to be incredibly fast and precise. It can be constructed using a high-speed linear motor.
Many drives use a "voice coil" approach -- the same technique used to move the cone of a speaker on your stereo is used to move the arm.
The process of low-level formatting a drive establishes the tracks and sectors on the platter. The starting and ending points of each sector are written onto the platter. This process prepares the drive to hold blocks of bytes. High-level formatting then writes the file-storage structures, like the file-allocation table, into the sectors. This process prepares the drive to hold files.







Issue: Hard drive is not being detected when using a boot diskette.
Cause: Below we have listed reasons why a hard disk drive may not be detected when using a bootable diskette:
· Disk drive overlay or other software utility is being used on the hard disk drive.
· Hard drive is a SCSI hard disk drive. H
· ard disk drive is not properly setup in CMOS.
· Hard disk drive is bad, not formatted
Cause: This issue occurs when:
· Disk is bad.
· Disk is dirty or unable to be read.
Issue: I'm getting Bad Sectors, Clusters, and/or Missing Allocations what should I do?
Cause: Either of these can be caused by either bad or corrupted software or generally a failing hard disk drive.
Solution:
If you are running scandisk and/or other disk utilities and encountering errors about your hard disk drive being bad and/or that it has bad sectors it is recommended that you backup your data and attempt to format the hard disk drive and start over
Issue: How to lock / unlock the hard disk drive.
Cause: A hard disk drive may be come locked or unlocked allowing or not allowing for software to have direct disk access. You may encounter an error indicating to unlock the hard disk drive in any of the below circumstances.
· Attempting to install another operating system.
· Attempting to fdisk the hard drive.
· Installing software.
lock x:unlock x:








CDROM

A CD is a fairly simple piece of plastic, about four one-hundredths (4/100) of an inch (1.2 mm) thick. Most of a CD consists of an injection-molded piece of clear polycarbonate plastic. During manufacturing, this plastic is impressed with microscopic bumps arranged as a single, continuous, extremely long spiral track of data. We'll return to the bumps in a moment. Once the clear piece of polycarbonate is formed, a thin, reflective aluminum layer is sputtered onto the disc, covering the bumps. Then a thin acrylic layer is sprayed over the aluminum to protect it. The label is then printed onto the acrylic. A cross section of a complete CD (not to scale) looks like this:











The fundamental job of the CD player is to focus the laser on the track of bumps. The laser beam passes through the polycarbonate layer, reflects off the aluminum layer and hits an opto-electronic device that detects changes in light. The bumps reflect light differently than the "lands" (the rest of the aluminum layer), and the opto-electronic sensor detects that change in reflectivity. The electronics in the drive interpret the changes in reflectivity in order to read the bits that make up the bytes.


















Motherboard Architecture

The shape and layout of a motherboard is called the form factor. The form factor affects where individual components go and the shape of the computer's case. There are several specific form factors that most PC motherboards use so that they can all fit in standard cases. For a comparison of form factors, past and present, check out Motherboards.org.
The form factor is just one of the many standards that apply to motherboards. Some of the other standards include:
The socket for the microprocessor determines what kind of Central Processing Unit (CPU) the motherboard uses.
The chipset is part of the motherboard's logic system and is usually made of two parts -- the Northbridge and the Southbridge. These two "bridges" connect the CPU to other parts of the computer.
The Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) chip controls the most basic functions of the computer and performs a self-test every time you turn it on. Some systems feature dual BIOS, which provides a backup in case one fails or in case of error during updating. The real time clock chip is a battery-operated chip that maintains basic settings and the system time.
The slots and ports found on a motherboard include:
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)- connections for video, sound and video capture cards, as well as network cards Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) - dedicated port for video cards. Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) - interfaces for the hard drives Universal Serial Bus or FireWire - external peripherals Memory slots
Current socket arrangements are often named for the number of pins in the PGA. Commonly used sockets are:
Socket 478 - for older Pentium and Celeron processors Socket 754 - for AMD Sempron and some AMD Athlon processors Socket 939 - for newer and faster AMD Athlon processors Socket AM2 - for the newest AMD Athlon processors Socket A - for older AMD Athlon processors
The Northbridge connects directly to the processor via the front side bus (FSB). A memory controller is located on the Northbridge, which gives the CPU fast access to the memory. The Northbridge also connects to the AGP or PCI Express bus and to the memory itself.

The Southbridge is slower than the Northbridge, and information from the CPU has to go through the Northbridge before reaching the Southbridge. Other busses connect the Southbridge to the PCI bus, the USB ports and the IDE or SATA hard disk connections.
Here are some of the other busses found on a motherboard:
The back side bus connects the CPU with the level 2 (L2) cache, also known as secondary or external cache. The processor determines the speed of the back side bus.
The memory bus connects the Northbridge to the memory.
The IDE or ATA bus connects the Southbridge to the disk drives.
The AGP bus connects the video card to the memory and the CPU. The speed of the AGP bus is usually 66 MHz.
The PCI bus connects PCI slots to the Southbridge. On most systems, the speed of the PCI bus is 33 MHz. Also compatible with PCI is PCI Express, which is much faster than PCI but is still compatible with current software and operating systems. PCI Express is likely to replace both PCI and AGP busses.














CPU and motherboard Architecture

































SMPS (Switch Mode Power Supply)

In a personal computer (PC), the power supply is the metal box usually found in a corner of the case. The power supply is visible from the back of many systems because it contains the power-cord receptacle and the cooling fan.
Power supplies, often referred to as "switching power supplies", use switcher technology to convert the AC input to lower DC voltages. The typical voltages supplied are:
3.3 volts 5 volts 12 volts
The 3.3- and 5-volts are typically used by digital circuits, while the 12-volt is used to run motors in disk drives and fans. The main specification of a power supply is in watts. A watt is the product of the voltage in volts and the current in amperes or amps. If you have been around PCs for many years, you probably remember that the original PCs had large red toggle switches that had a good bit of heft to them. When you turned the PC on or off, you knew you were doing it. These switches actually controlled the flow of 120 volt power to the power supply.
Today you turn on the power with a little push button, and you turn off the machine with a menu option. These capabilities were added to standard power supplies several years ago. The operating system can send a signal to the power supply to tell it to turn off. The push button sends a 5-volt signal to the power supply to tell it when to turn on. The power supply also has a circuit that supplies 5 volts, called VSB for "standby voltage" even when it is officially "off", so that the button will work.
There have been at least six different standard power supplies for personal computers. Recently, the industry has settled on using ATX-based power supplies. ATX is an industry specification that means the power supply has the physical characteristics to fit a standard ATX case and the electrical characteristics to work with an ATX motherboard.
Power Supply Problems
The PC power supply is probably the most failure-prone item in a personal computer. It heats and cools each time it is used and receives the first in-rush of AC current when the PC is switched on. Typically, a stalled cooling fan is a predictor of a power supply failure due to subsequent overheated components. All devices in a PC receive their DC power via the power supply.
A typical failure of a PC power supply is often noticed as a burning smell just before the computer shuts down. Another problem could be the failure of the vital cooling fan, which allows components in the power supply to overheat. Failure symptoms include random rebooting or failure in Windows for no apparent reason.

For any problems you suspect to be the fault of the power supply, use the documentation that came with your computer. If you have ever removed the case from your personal computer to add an adapter card or memory, you can change a power supply. Make sure you remove the power cord first, since voltages are present even though your computer is off.



















Monitor

Understanding the CD: Material
A CD can store up to 74 minutes of music, so the total amount of digital data that must be stored on a CD is:

44,100 samples/channel/second x 2 bytes/sample x 2 channels x 74 minutes x 60 seconds/minute = 783,216,000 bytes
To fit more than 783 megabytes (MB) onto a disc only 4.8 inches (12 cm) in diameter requires that the individual bytes be very small. By examining the physical construction of a CD, you can begin to understand just how small these bytes are.

Often referred to as a monitor when packaged in a separate case, the display is the most-used output device on a computer. The display provides instant feedback by showing you text and graphic images as you work or play.
Most desktop displays use liquid crystal display (LCD) or cathode ray tube (CRT) technology, while nearly all portable computing devices such as laptops incorporate LCD technology. Because of their slimmer design and lower energy consumption, monitors using LCD technology (also called flat panel or flat screen displays) are replacing the venerable CRT on most desktops.
Standards and Resolution
Resolution refers to the number of individual dots of color, known as pixels, contained on a display. Resolution is expressed by identifying the number of pixels on the horizontal axis (rows) and the number on the vertical axis (columns), such as 800x600. Resolution is affected by a number of factors, including the size of the screen.

As monitor sizes have increased over the years, display standards and resolutions have changed. In addition, some manufacturers offer widescreen displays designed for viewing DVD movies.
Common Display Standards and Resolutions
Standard Resolution Typical Use
XGA (Extended Graphics Array) 1024x768 15- and 17-inch CRT monitors15-inch LCD monitors
SXGA (Super XGA) 1280x1024 15- and 17-inch CRT monitors17-and 19-inch LCD monitors
UXGA (Ultra XGA) 1600x1200 19-, 20-, 21-inch CRT monitors20-inch LCD monitors
QXGA (Quad XGA) 2048x1536 21-inch and larger CRT monitors WXGA (Wide XGA) 1280x800 Wide aspect 15.4-inch laptops


LCD displays
WSXGA+ (Wide SXGA plus) 1680x1050 Wide aspect 20-inch LCD monitors WUXGA (Wide Ultra XGA) 1920x1200 Wide aspect 22-inch and larger LCD monitors
Computers work in a digital world. The computer and video adapter convert digital data into analog format. A video adapter is an expansion card or component that provides the ability to convert display information into a signal that is sent to the monitor. It can also be called a graphics adapter, video card or graphics card.

Once the display information is in analog form, it is sent to the monitor through a VGA cable. The cable connects at the back of the computer to an analog connector (also known as a D-Sub connector) that has 15 pins in three rows
1: Red out
6: Red return (ground)
11: Monitor ID 0 in
2: Green out
7: Green return (ground)
12: Monitor ID 1 in or data from display
3: Blue out
8: Blue return (ground)
13: Horizontal Sync out
4: Unused
9: Unused
14: Vertical Sync
5: Ground
10: Sync return (ground)
15: Monitor ID 3 in or data clock






























Printers





Networking

Network - A group of computers connected together in a way that allows information to be exchanged between the computers.

Node - Anything that is connected to the network. While a node is typically a computer, it can also be something like a printer or CD-ROM tower.

Segment - Any portion of a network that is separated, by a switch, bridge or router, from other parts of the network.

Backbone - The main cabling of a network that all of the segments connect to. Typically, the backbone is capable of carrying more information than the individual segments. For example, each segment may have a transfer rate of 10 Mbps (megabits per second: 1 million bits a second), while the backbone may operate at 100 Mbps.

Topology

The geometric arrangement of devices on the network or the shape of a local area network (LAN) or other communications system.



Networks needs to interconnect at a distance by a form of point to point or point to multiple point connected media
A network is a group of computers connected together in such a way as to allow
Networks that are interconnected have proven to be low cost, reliable, and efficient means of communicating at a distance
Common Topologies
Bus
Bus: each node is daisy-chained (connected one right after the other) along the same backbone. Information sent from a node travels along the backbone until it reaches its destination node. Each end of a bus network must be terminated with a resistor to keep the


Ring
Ring: Similar to a bus network, rings have nodes daisy chained, but the end of the network in a ring topology comes back around to the first node, creating a complete circuit. Each node takes a turn sending and receiving information through the use of a token. The token along with any data is sent from the first node to the second node which extracts the data addressed to it and adds any data it wishes to send. Then second node passes the token and data to the third node, etc. until it comes back around to the first node again. Only the node with the token is allowed to send data . All other nodes must wait for the token to come to them.




Star
In a star network, each node is connected to a central device called a hub. The hub takes a signal that comes from any node and passes it along to all the other nodes in the network.
A hub does not perform any type of filtering or routing of the data.
A hub is a junction that joins all the different nodes together.

Key Network Terminology
Simplex: information flows in only one direction
Half-duplex: information flows in two directions, but only in one direction at a time.
Full-duplex: information flows in two directions at the same time

Basic Signal Terminologies
· Bit: binary digit, either 0 or 1
· Baud (don’t really use anymore; not accurate) = one electronic state change per second
· Bit rate – a method for measuring data transmission speed – bits per second
· Mbps – millions of bits per second (data speed; measure of bandwidth = total information flow over a given time) on a telecommunication medium
· 8 bits = 1 byte
· Mb – million bits (quantity of data)
· MB – million bytes (quantity of data)
· Gbps – Billion bits per second (data speed)
· Teraflops – trillion operations per second

Data Transmission
• Successful transmission of data depends on:
– The quality of the signal being transmitted
– Characteristics of the transmission medium
• Data rate – bits per second in data communications
• Bandwidth – bandwidth or signal is constrained by the transmitter and the nature of the transmission in cycles per second or hertz
• Noise – Average level of noise over the communication path.
• Error rate – rate at which errors occur where error in 1 or 0 bit occurs

Basic transmission medium concepts
• Medium is the physical path between transmitter and receiver in a data transmission system
• Guided Medium: waves are guided along a solid medium path (twisted pair, coaxial cable, and optical fiber).
• Unguided medium: waves are propagated through the atmosphere and inner/outerspace (satellite, laser, and wireless transmissions).

Medium examples by type
• Conductive: twisted pairs and coaxial cables
• Electromagnetic: microwave
• Light: lasers and optical fibers (need clear line of sight)
• Wireless – inner/outerspace; satellite (omnidirectional à security issues)

Coaxial cable
Widely installed for use in business and corporation ethernet and other types of LANs. Consists of inter copper insulator covered by cladding material, and then covered by an outer jacket Physical Descriptions



• Applications:
– TV distribution (cable tv); long distance telephone transmission; short run computer system links
– Local area networks

• Transmission characteristics:
– Can transmit analog and digital signals
– Usable spectrum for analog signaling is about 400 Mhz
– Amplifier needed for analog signals for less than 1 Km and less distance for higher frequency
– Repeater needed for digital signals every Km or less distance for higher data rates
– Operation of 100’s Mb/s over 1 Km.



Twisted Pair Cables


• Physical description:
– Each wire with copper conductor
– Separately insulated wires
– Twisted together to reduce cross talk
– Often bundled into cables of two or four twisted pairs
– If enclosed in a sheath then is shielded twisted pair (STP) otherwise often for home usage unshielded twisted pair (UTP). Must be shield from voltage lines
• Application:
– Common in building for digital signaling used at speed of 10’s Mb/s (CAT3) and 100Mb/s (CAT5) over 100s meters.
– Common for telephone interconnection at home and office buildings
– Less expensive medium; limited in distance, bandwidth, and data rate.

Categories of Twisted Pairs Cabling System
Category
Maximum data rate
Usual application
CAT 1
Less than 1 Mbps
analog voice (plain old telephone service) Integrated Services Digital Network Basic Rate Interface in ISDN Doorbell wiring
CAT 2
4 Mbps
Mainly used in the IBM Cabling System for token ring networks
CAT 3
16 Mbps
Voice and data on 10BASE-T Ethernet (certify 16Mhz signal)
CAT 4
20 Mbps
Used in 16Mbps Token Ring
Otherwise not used much
CAT 5
100 Mbps
100 Mbps TPDDI
155 Mbps asynchronous transfer mode (certify 100 Mhz signal)

CAT 5 is currently under consideration to be incorporated into the Gigabit Ethernet specification for short distance wiring. While longer connections using Gigabit Ethernet use optical fiber, the goal is to leverage the CAT 5 twisted-pair wiring most organizations already have in place for connections out to the desktop.

RJ45 Connector


Ethernet Specifications

10BaseT - Ethernet specification for unshielded twisted pair cable (category 3, 4, or 5), transmits signals at 10 Mbps (megabits per second) with a distance limit of 100 meters per segment.
10BaseF - Ethernet specification for fiber optic cable transmits signals at 10 Mbps (megabits per second) with a distance limit of 2000 meters per segment.
100BaseT - Ethernet specification for unshielded twisted pair cabling that is used to transmit data at 100 Mbps (megabits per second) with a distance limit of 100 meters per segment.
1000BaseTX - Ethernet specification for unshielded twisted pair cabling that is used to transmit data at 1 Gbps (gigabits per second) with a distance limitation of 220 meters per segment

Optical Fibers
• Physical Description:
– Glass or plastic core of optical fiber = 2to125 µm
– Cladding is an insulating material
– Jacket is a protective cover
– Laser or light emitting diode provides transmission light source
• Applications:
– Long distance telecommunication
– Greater capacity; 2 Gb/s over 10’s of Km
– Smaller size and lighter weight
– Lower attenuation (reduction in strength of signal)
– Electromagnetic isolation – not effected by external electromagnetic environment. Aka more privacy
– Greater repeater spacing – fewer repeaters, reduces line regeneration cost





Use of optical fibers
Optical fiber (or "fiber optic") refers to the medium and the technology associated with the transmission of information as light pulses along a glass or plastic wire or fiber. Optical fiber carries much more information than conventional copper wire and is in general not subject to electromagnetic interference and the need to retransmit signals. Most telephone company long-distance lines are now of optical fiber.
Transmission on optical fiber wire requires repeater at distance intervals. The glass fiber requires more protection within an outer cable than copper. For these reasons and because the installation of any new wiring is labor-intensive, few communities yet have optical fiber wires or cables from the phone company's branch office to local customers (known as local loop).
Single mode fiber is used for longer distances; multimode fiber is used for shorter distances.

• Multimode fiber is optical fiber that is designed to carry multiple light rays or modes concurrently, each at a slightly different reflection angle within the optical fiber core. used for relatively short distances because the modes tend to disperse over longer lengths (this is called modal dispersion) .
• For longer distances, single mode fiber (sometimes called monomode) fiber is used. In single mode fiber a single ray or mode of light act as a carrier


Wireless Media

• Wireless LAN
• HiperLAN (European standard; allow communication at up to 20 Mbps in 5 GHz range of the radio frquency (RF) spectrum.
• HiperLAN/2 operates at about 54 Mbps in the same RF band.

Wireless LAN or WLAN
• Wireless local area network that uses radio waves as its carrier
Wi-Fi ("Wireless Fidelity“)
• A set of standards for WLANs based on IEEE 802.11
Wi-Max
• Emerging technology that can cover ranges up to 10 miles or more
Satellite/Microwave
• High speed media used for longer distances and remote locations
In wireless LAN (WLAN) technology, 802.11 refers to a family of specifications developed by a working group of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). There are three specifications in the family: 802.11, 802.11a, and 802.11b.
All three of the above mentioned specifications use CSMA/CD carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD)as the path sharing protocol. If a source station has a data packet to send, the station checks the system to see if the path medium is busy. If the medium is not busy, the packet is sent; if the medium is busy, the station waits until the first moment that the medium becomes clear.
The 802.11 and 802.11b specifications apply to wireless Ethernet LANs, and operate at frequencies in the 2.4-GHz region of the radio spectrum. Data speeds are generally 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps for 802.11, and 5.5 Mbps or 11 Mbps for 802.11b, although speeds up to about 20 Mbps are realizable with 802.11b. The 802.11b standard is backward compatible with 802.11. The modulation used in 802.11 has historically been phase-shift keying (PSK). The modulation method selected for 802.11b is known as CCK (complementary code keying), which allows higher data speeds and is less susceptible to multipath-propagation interference.

Network Hardware

Hubs
• A hub is the place where data converges from one or more directions and is forwarded out in one or more directions.
• Seen in local area networks




Gateways
• A gateway is a network point that acts as an entrance to another network. On the internet, in terms of routing, the network consists of gateway nodes and host nodes.
• Host nodes are computer of network users and the computers that serve contents (such as Web pages).
• Gateway nodes are computers that control traffic within your company’s network or at your local internet service provider (ISP)



Repeater

§ Used to boost the signal between two cable segments or wireless access points.
§ Can not connect different network architecture.
§ Does not simply amplify the signal, it regenerates the packets and retimes them.
§ Resides on Layer 1 of the OSI model.



Routers
• A router is a device or a software in a computer that determines the next network point to which a packet should be forwarded toward its destination.
• Allow different networks to communicate with each other
• A router creates and maintain a table of the available routes and their conditions and uses this information along with distance and cost algorithms to determine the best route for a given packet.
• A packet will travel through a number of network points with routers before arriving at its destination.


Bridge
• a bridge is a product that connects a local area network (LAN) to another local area network that uses the same protocol (for example, Ethernet or token ring).
• A bridge examines each message on a LAN, "passing" those known to be within the same LAN, and forwarding those known to be on the other interconnected LAN (or LANs).


What is the difference between?
• Bridge: device to interconnect two LANs that use the SAME logical link control protocol but may use different medium access control protocols.
• Router: device to interconnect SIMILAR networks, e.g. similar protocols and workstations and servers
• Gateway: device to interconnect DISSIMILAR protocols and servers, and Macintosh and IBM LANs and equipment



Switches

• Allow different nodes of a network to communicate directly with each other.
• Allow several users to send information over a network at the same time without slowing each other down.










WANs and LANs
• Local Area Networks (LAN)
– A network of computers that are in the same general physical location, within a building or a campus.
• Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN)
• Wide Area Networks (WAN)

Local Area Network
• Small interconnected of personal computers or workstations and printers within a building or small area up to 10 Kms.
• Small group of workers that share common application programs and communication needs.
• LANs are capable of very high transmission rates (100s Mb/s to G b/s).
• LAN equipment usually owned by organization. Medium may be owned or leased from telephone company provider or common carrier.
• PC or Workstation interconnected to medium (twisted pair; fiber optics; etc) through concentrators to servers. LAN is interconnected with other networks via switches and router/gateways.
• Advanced LANs using circuit switching are available. ATM LANs, fiber channel baseband, and broadband LANs are being used. Etc.
Data Communications through WANs
• WANs were developed to communicate over a large geographical area (e.g. lab-to-lab; city-to-city; east coast-to-west coast; North America-to-South America etc)
• WANs require the crossing of public right of ways (under control and regulations of the interstate commerce and institute of telephone and data communications established by the gov’t and international treaties).
• WANs around the world relies on the infrastructure established by the telephone companies (“common carrier”) or public switched telephone network (PSTN).
• WANs consists of a number of interconnected switching nodes (today = computers). Transmission signals are routed across the network automatically by software control to the specified destination. The purposes of these nodes are to route messages through switching facilities to move data from node to node to its destination.
• implemented to achieve higher operating and processing speeds for the message.
• Interconnected devices, I.e. LANs or Personal Computers (PC) or Workstation or Servers can be (usually are) privately owned by companies.

What is Ethernet?
• A group of standards for defining a local area network that includes standards in cabling and the structure of the data sent over those cables as well as the hardware that connects those cables.
• Independent of the network architecture
• Flavors of Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Specification
– Great detail specifying cable types, data formats, and procedures for transferring that data through those cables
• IEEE 802.5 Token Ring Specification

Network Interface Card (NIC)
• Every computer and most devices (e.g. a network printer) is connected to network through an NIC. In most desktop computers, this is an Ethernet card (10 or 100 Mbps) that is plugged into a slot on the computer motherboard.

How does Ethernet work?
• Using MAC addresses to distinguish between machines, Ethernet transmits frames of data across baseband cables using CSMA/CD (IEEE 802.3)

What is a MAC Address?
• Media Access Control (MAC) Address – are the physical address of any device, e.g. a NIC in a computer on the network. The MAC address has two parts of 3 bytes long. The first 3 bytes specify the company that made the NIC and the second 3 bytes are the serial number of the NIC.
Section A - Question Paper – Operating System
What DOS program can you run to see which serial ports are detected?
comdiag MSD command.com SDET serial.chk
Answer :B

Where you would you load the mouse driver mouse.sys?
config.sys autoexec.bat win.ini io.sys msdos.sys
Answer :A

Where would you place mouse.com or mouse.bat?
config.sys autoexec.bat system.ini io.sys
msdos.sys
Answer :B

What is a TSR?
test status request
terminate and stay resident program
take status request
token set ready
token steady route
Answer :B

Where are most TSRs loaded?
autoexec.bat
config.sys
tsr.sys
msdos.sys
you cannot load TSRs
Answer :A

Where is the "FILES=" statement placed?
there is no files statement
in autoexec.bat
in config.sys
in msdos.sys
in command.com
Answer :C

Where is the "BUFFERS=" statement placed?
in config.sys
in autoexec.bat
win.ini
system.ini
config.ini
Answer :A

Smartdrv.exe can cache which of the following: (select all that apply)
hard drives
cd-roms
compressed hard drives
floppy drives
network drives
tape drives
video devices
Answer :A, B & D

Himem.sys must be loaded before loading emm386.exe.
true
false
Answer :A

You can run Windows 3.1 or 3.11 without loading himem.sys.
true
false
Answer :B

You must have himem.sys loaded before you can load DOS high.
true
false
Answer :A

When DOS is loaded high it is placed in the HMA (high memory area). This is located:
between 640k and 1024k
the first 64k above 1024k
anywhere in extended memory
anywhere in expanded memory
in the first UMB
Answer :B

To load DOS high you must place a statement in config.sys. It is:
loadhigh DOS
device=DOSHIGH
dos=high
lh dos
load dos high
Answer :C

The reason you load DOS high is to:
optimize DOS to run faster
free up more extended memory
free up more conventional memory
free up more expanded memory
avoid i/o conflicts
Answer :C

The upper memory area is located:
between 640k and 1024k
above 1 meg
between 512k and 840k
anything above 1024k
between 1000k and 1024k
Answer :A

Extended memory is:
paged memory
anything above 1024k
anything above 640k
anything accessed by rom
anything above 1 meg
Answer :B

Extended memory is managed by:
emm386.exe
DOS
himem.sys
ram controller
rom bios
Answer :C

Expanded memory is:
paged memory
anything below 1 meg
anything above 640k
anything above 1024k
between 640k and 1024k
Answer :A

Expanded memory is managed by:
himem.sys
emm386.exe
DOS
rom bios
CPU
Answer :B

Conventional memory is:
anything up to 640k
anything below 1024k
anything above 1 meg
only below 512k
anything between 640k and 1024k
Answer :A

By default, DOS will load where?
extended memory
conventional memory
HMA
expanded memory
above 1024k
Answer :B

UMBs, or upper memory blocks are located where?
anything above 640k
anything above 1024k
between 640k and 1024k
in conventional memory
in extended memory
Answer :C

What statement in config.sys will allow DOS access to unused UMBs?
device=DOSUMB
UMB=true
UMB=1
DOS=UMB
UMB=DOS
Answer :D

What DOS command shows which TSRs are loaded?
TSR-SHOW
DOSVIEW
LOADVIEW
MEM /c
hold down CTRL key and hit "T"
Answer :D

The DIR command shows a single directory listing. What switch is required to show the subdirectories inside the directory where you typed the DIR command?
/s
/sub
/ds
/show all
there is none
Answer :A

You wish to see the hidden files in a directory and you type "DIR /A:H". Does this work?
yes
no
Answer :A

What two DOS commands lets you know the presence of hidden files?
chkdsk and scandisk
dir and scandisk
chkdsk and dir
attrib and dir
chkdsk and attrib
Answer :C

What are the two hidden DOS system files?
io.sys
command.com
os2.exe
msdos.sys
io.com
Answer :A, D

Which provides the quickest data access time?
rom
ram
IDE hard drive
cd-rom drive
SCSI hard drive
Answer :B

In CMOS setup, if you enable Rom Bios Shadowing, what happens?
rom memory is minimized
rom is used instead of ram
rom memory is maximized
rom cannot be used by the bios
a copy of the bios is placed in ram
Answer :E

What does XMS refer to?
extended memory
expanded memory
extra high memory
extra memory systems
has nothing to do with memory
Answer :A

What does EMS refer to?
extended memory
expanded memory
enhanced memory standard
enhanced memory systems
has nothing to do with memory
Answer :B

Virtual memory is composed of ram and:
a rom sub-system
a bios extension
a swap file
DOS extensions
himem.sys
Answer :C

Memory that is paged out to the hard drive is known as:
extended memory
virtual memory
expanded memory
conventional memory
memory cannot be paged to the hard drive
Answer :B

Memory that is paged from extended memory addresses to a 64k window in the upper memory area is known as:
expanded memory
extended memory
virtual memory
high memory
memory cannot be paged in this manner
Answer :A

In order for EMM386.EXE to emulate expanded memory, you must load what into config.sys? Select all that apply.
device=emm386.exe
device=emm386.exe /noems
device=emm386.exe /ram
load emm386.exe
load emm386.exe /noems
Answer :A, C

In addition to managing expanded memory, emm386.exe also manages the upper memory blocks.
true
false
Answer :A

If you wanted to exclude the entire 64k upper memory block of the "C" segment from being used by DOS, which would you place in config.sys?
device=emm386.exe x=C000-CFFF
device=emm386.exe /x /C
device=emm386.exe /C \X
device=emm386.exe /exclude C
device=emm386.exe /X,C000-CFFF
Answer :A

What device driver must be loaded in config.sys to enable power management on a laptop computer?
power.sys
power.exe
power.com
power.ini
power.bat
Answer :B

You wish to make a diskette bootable. From the "C" prompt you type: (select all that apply)
sys a:
sys c: a:
sys boot a:
boot /a
sys /a: /boot
Answer :A, B

As you soon as you see DOS starting, what key do you press to bypass the startup files?
F6
F5
F8
ESC
CTRL
Answer :B

What are the user configureable DOS startup files?
config.dos
config.sys
dosstart.exe
autoexec.bat
msdos.sys
Answer :B, D

As soon as you see DOS starting, what key do you press to step through the startup files?
F4
F5
F8
ALT
TAB
Answer :C

Which statement is placed in autoexec.bat to halt its processing until a key is pressed?
stop
hold
pause
interrupt
whoa
Answer :C

You have an older PC that may or may not require the double buffering option in SMARTDRV.EXE What can you type at the DOS prompt to find out if it's needed?
smartdrv /double/?
smartdrv
smartdrv /? /double-buffer
smartdrv /double-buffer
smartdrv /db-function
Answer :B



RS-232 is a standard that applies to:
serial ports
parallel ports
game ports
networks
digital frequencies
Answer :A

Comm ports use: (select all that apply)
9 pin male connector
14 pin female connector
25 pin male connector
edge connector
parallel connector
Answer :A, C

Before a modem transmits, it send a:
RTS
DTR
DSR
RQS
TRX
Answer :A

RTS stands for:
ready to start
ready to switch
request to send
request to scan
ready to set
Answer :C

In modem terminology, CD stands for:
collect data
call data
cease deliver
carrier detect
comm detect
Answer :D

UART is a type of serial chip. Its letters stand for:
unidirectional access regarding transmission
universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter
upper advanced real transfer
unable all restore t-bits
use all rom types
Answer :B

Select all true statements:
com1 and com3 share the same IRQ
com1 and com4 share the same IRQ
com2 and com3 share the same IRQ
com2 and com4 share the same IRQ
com1 and com2 share the same IRQ
Answer :A, D

In modems that support more than 300 baud, baud and bps do not mean the same thing.
true
false
Answer :A

"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.
true
false
Answer :A

________ is the term used to refer to the process of two modems establishing communications with each other.
interacting
handshaking
connecting
linking
pinging
Answer :B


What is the switch to use with SMARTDRV to cause it to disable write-behind caching on all drives?
/no-wb
/cache:off
/c
/off
/x
Answer :E

If SMARTDRV is not loaded you may reduce the number of allocated buffers in the "BUFFERS=" statement.
true
false
Answer :B

What DBLSPACE switch is used to create a new compressed drive?
/compress
/automount
/create
/mount
/size
Answer :C

In DOS 6.0, once a drive has been compressed using DBLSPACE, it cannot be uncompressed However, DOS 6.2 and above allows for a compressed drive to be uncompressed. After you determine you have enough free space to "unravel" a compressed drive, what switch do you use with DBLSPACE to do this?
/undo
/uncompress
/back
/restore
/unpack
Answer :B


















Section B – Hardware

RS-232 is a standard that applies to:
serial ports
parallel ports
game ports
networks
digital frequencies
Answer :A

Comm ports use: (select all that apply)
9 pin male connector
14 pin female connector
25 pin male connector
edge connector
parallel connector
Answer :A, C

Before a modem transmits, it send a:
RTS
DTR
DSR
RQS
TRX
Answer :A

RTS stands for:
ready to start
ready to switch
request to send
request to scan
ready to set
Answer :C

In modem terminology, CD stands for:
collect data
call data
cease deliver
carrier detect
comm detect
Answer :D

UART is a type of serial chip. Its letters stand for:
unidirectional access regarding transmission
universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter
upper advanced real transfer
unable all restore t-bits
use all rom types
Answer :B

Select all true statements:
com1 and com3 share the same IRQ
com1 and com4 share the same IRQ
com2 and com3 share the same IRQ
com2 and com4 share the same IRQ
com1 and com2 share the same IRQ
Answer :A, D

In modems that support more than 300 baud, baud and bps do not mean the same thing.
true
false
Answer :A

"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.
true
false
Answer :A

________ is the term used to refer to the process of two modems establishing communications with each other.
interacting
handshaking
connecting
linking
pinging
Answer :B


stands for:
internal select data nulls
integrated services digital network
interval set down next
interior sector direct none
inferior sector data net
Answer :B

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?
defective modem
defective computer
software bug
bad phone line
virus
Answer :D

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?
everything should work ok
you have an i/o conflict
you have a conflict with IRQ 4
you have a loose connection
you have a conflict with IRQ 3
Answer :C

What is the i/o address for com1?
3e8
3bc
5f8
3f8
008
Answer :D

What is the i/o address for com2?
2vb
2f8
8f8
330
e8e
Answer :B

What is the i/o address for com3?
3e8
345
ff8
5e8
be8
Answer :A

What is the i/o address for com4?
4e7
e8e
be0
cb8
2e8
Answer :E

Before sending data, a modem sends a request to send signal, or RTS.
true
false
Answer :A

ISDN uses _______________ technology.
only digital
digital and analog
only analog
neither digital nor analog
mostly digital
Answer :A

A COM port is a _______ port.
parallel
serial
static
multi
scsi
Answer :B


Modems use ________________ transmission.
synchronous
asynchronous
timed interval
ata
bank
Answer :B

CD-Roms typically hold ______ of data.
100 meg
500 meg
650 meg
1000 meg
350 meg
Answer :C

The terms "red book", "yellow book", and "orange book" refer to:
scsi
ide
floppy drive technology
CD-Rom standards
none of the above
Answer :D

CD-Roms are read by _________.
magnetic heads
electronic sensors
stepper motors
laser diodes
titanium servos
Answer :D

Which of the following can cause CDs to be misread? Select all that apply.
smudges
finger prints
scratches
cracks
slight melting
Answer :A, B, C, D & E

CD-Rom drives typically have which of the following interfaces? Select all that apply.
serial
parallel
ide
scsi
esdi
Answer :A, B & C

CD-Rom drives have which connectors? Select all that apply.
molex
berg
data cable
audio cable
arcnet
Answer :A, C & D

In a computer with an eide adapter, where should you connect an ATA CD-Rom drive?
on the floppy bus
on the primary ide
on the secondary ide
on the scsi bus
none of the above
Answer :C

Your IDE CD-Rom drive is attached to the primary IDE adapter with our hard drive. How should its jumpers be set?
as a master
as a slave
as neutral
auto detect
to 001
Answer :B

What does MSCDEX.EXE do?
configures hard drives
it's a scsi driver
bios setup
It's a CD-Rom DOS driver
nothing, I just made it up
Answer :D

CD-Rom drive always uses IRQ:
9
10
11
5
depends on the adapter it's attached to
Answer :E

If a computer's bios allows it, you can boot from a CD-Rom.
true
false
Answer :A

A single speed CD-Rom drive transfers data at:
1 MB per second
100 bytes per second
20 million bits per second
186,282 bits per second
150 KBs per second
Answer :E

Your CD-Rom audio cable connects to the:
speaker
sound card (or motherboard if sound is integrated with it)
power supply
hard drive
bios
Answer :B

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?

the "v" switch in autoexec.bat is invalid
the device name is not the same in both files
the "m" switch in autoexec.bat is set too high
config.sys is not using the dos directory
nothing, it should work
Answer :B

Which of the following are SCSI issues? Select all that apply.
unique id settings
limited cable length
parity
passive termination
active termination
Answer :A, B, C, D & E

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)
2
3
0
9
11
Answer :C

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 external connection 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)
use a different id
use id 7 also
not use an id
use a different IRQ
be checked for fleas
Answer :B, D

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:
replace each part one at a time, rerunning the diagnostic before replacing the next part.
check to see if you have a software problem
replace everything at once and rerun the diagnostic
get another copy of the diagnostic program
run an exhaustive memory check
Answer :B

Whenever you have a hardware resource conflict, it will more likely be an IRQ conflict rather than an i/o conflict because:
there are alot more i/o addresses than IRQs.
the bios sometimes has more of a problem controlling IRQs
i/o addresses cannot conflict
software tends to correct i/o conflicts
software tends to mess up IRQs
Answer :A

SCSI adapters usually don't need drivers, just the devices that interface with them.
true
false
Answer :B

Most SCSI-2 devices will work fine with SCSI-1 adapters.
true
false
Answer :A

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?
up to 50 meters
up to 100 meters
up to 6 meters
up to 14 meters
up to 3 meters
Answer :C

Your PC has both internal and external SCSI devices connected to one SCSI host adapter. Which devices should be terminated? Select all that apply.
the last internal device on the chain
the last external device on the chain
the host adapter
the host adapter and one external device
the PC
Answer :A, B

How many devices can connect to the typical SCSI adapter? Assume is has only one data connector.
7
8
20
10
depends on whether both internal and external devices are used
Answer :A

How many devices can be used on a single SCSI bus? Keep in mind that the SCSI host adapter counts as a device.
7
8
20
10
see number 54
Answer :B

What is the jumper setting on a SCSI device to configure it to use the fourth SCSI id? Remember, SCSI ids start with zero.
010
110
011
101
001
Answer :C

Which type of interface provides for the fastest data transfer?
IDE
SCSI
parallel
serial
ISA
Answer :B

In addition to i/o port addresses, SCSI adapters also use a range of rom addresses for their onboard bios.
true
false
Answer :A

SCSI-2 cables have how many pins?
40
25
50
72
100
Answer :C

have how many pins?
25
50
100
40
65
Answer :D

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?
as a master
as a secondary
as a slave
as a primary
as auto-select
Answer :C

What is the maximum number of IDE drives that EIDE will support?
15
3
4
2
0
Answer :C

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?
jumper properly, auto-detect(or configure manually) in cmos, low level format, high level format, partition
jumper properly, auto-detect(or configure manually) in cmos, partition, high level format with /s switch
jumper properly, partition, auto-detect(or configure manually in cmos, high level format with /s switch
jumper properly, auto-detect in cmos, regular format
jumper properly, partition, low level format, high level format
Answer :B

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?
jumper for id 0, cmos setup, low level format, high level format
set id jumpers to all zeros, high level format, partition
set id jumpers to all zeros, partition, high level format
jumper for id 0, cmos setup, partition, high level format
set id jumpers to all zeros, high level format, partition
Answer :C

On a flat data cable, a red or blue stripe means:
ground
high voltage
null connection
pin 1
that it's an IDE or SCSI cable
Answer :D

Which of the following would be considered an FRU? Select all that apply.
hard drive
system board
ram
DMA controller
level 2 cache simm
Answer :A, B, C & E

Which of the following would not be considered an FRU?
hard drive
IRQ controller
any soldered IC
floppy drive
system board
Answer :A, B

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?
rotate the ram
replace the ram
replace the level 2 cache simm
disable the CPU cache in cmos
replace the CPU
Answer :D

You have a PC with no video on a known good monitor. Pick the best order you should follow in tracking down the problem.
replace the video card, replace the monitor, replace the power supply, replace the system board, try a different monitor
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
check PC supply voltages, replace video card, replace CPU
check that everything's plugged in, replace system board
check that everything's plugged in, replace hard drive, replace ram
Answer :B

Most PCs give a single beep on bootup to indicate they are ok hardware wise. You boot your PC and don't get a beep. What should you check first?
system board
ram
microprocessor
power supply
speaker
Answer :E

What beep codes could indicate a system board or power supply failure? Select all that apply.
steady short beep
no beep
one long continuous beep tone
steady long beeps
one long, two short beeps
Answer :A, B, C & D

Your PC is continuously rebooting itself. Select all of the following that could be causing the problem.
bad PC power supply
faulty power at AC outlet
bad system board
defective adapter card
corrupt operating system
Answer :A, B, C, D & E

You have an old PC that you decide to upgrade with a 1 gig IDE hard drive You find that you can't configure cmos to see the entire hard drive. The best you can do is 540 meg. What is the fix?
get a newer PC
manually input the sectors, cylinders, and heads of the hard drive
put multiple partitions on the hard drive
make the bios think it's a SCSI drive
use a device driver that makes the bios see the drive as simply a block storage device, or upgrade the bios if possible
Answer :E

A sound card typically uses which IRQ?
6
5
15
1
it doesn't use an IRQ
Answer :B

Your IDE hard drive is not spinning up when you turn on the PC What is the most likely problem.
bad data cable
incorrect jumper setting on drive
loose molex connector
virus
bad system board
Answer :C

You have a PC with no video. Which of the following is LEAST likely to be causing the problem?
defective ram (bank zero)
defective microprocessor
crashed hard drive
loose video card
low AC outlet power
Answer :C

I once had a PC with no video. I replaced the system board, CPU, and video card, and still had no video. I then replaced the IDE cable and fixed the problem. Am I telling the truth?
no, you're just pulling everyone's leg
you betcha!
Answer :B

A virus can mimick just about any hardware symptoms you can think of.
true
false
Answer :A

A static jolt of as little of ____ volts can fry most any PC integrated circuit.
200
30
1000
200
500
Answer :B


A human cannot feel a static discharge as high as ____ volts.
200
2000
10000
50000
50
Answer :A

ESD is ___________.
electronic stasis device
electrostatic discharge
electric surge device
electronic system driver
forget it, I can't think of any more words for these letters
Answer :B

What's the best way to prevent damaging your PC with static electricity?
place your PC on a rubber mat
wear leather soled shoes
periodically touch a safe ground point on the PC to discharge yourself
static electricity doesn't really hurt a PC
wear an ESD wrist strap
Answer :E

What is EMI? (uh, oh - here we go again)
electro-magnetic interference
electronic maintainence inquiry
Answer :A

You're on your PC at midnight and an electric storm pops up. What's the best way to protect your PC.
you don't worry; you have a lightning rod on your house
you don't worry; you've got a surge protector on your PC
you don't worry; you've got a surge protector on your PC and phone line to your modem
unplug the PC and remove phone line from the modem
stop standing on it
Answer :D

Something as small as a ________ on a drive platter can cause your hard drive to crash. Select all that apply.
human hair
dust particles
finger print
a .001 micron high imperfection
accumulation of smoke particles
Answer :A, B, C & E

When your hard drive crashes from any of the correct selections in the question above, or from dropping it, it is known as head-to-disk interference, or HDI.
true
false
A
You should never put floppy drives, hard drives, or even VCR tapes or cassette tapes on top of speakers (or near any other source of magnetism) because of:
RFI
EMI
EXE
FYI
IOU
Answer :B

Static electricity thrives is which type of environment?
cold and humid
warm and humid
warm and dry
cold and warm
cold and dry
Answer :E

Which is the most difficult environmentally to dispose of?
floppy drives
hard drives
power supplies
CRTs
system boards
Answer :D

What should you use to clean the plastic cover on your monitor or PC? Select all that apply.
alcohol
damp sponge
lint-free cloth
WD-40
mild soap solution
Answer :C, E

Dust in a computer actually increases the size of the magnetic fields inside it. This is not good, so you must occasionaly dust, I trust. What's the best way to do this?
reverse vacuum
any small vacuum device
blow real hard on the system board
use a lint-free cloth and wipe gently
non-static compressed air
Answer :E

What's the best way to protect your hard drive data?
regular backups
periodically defrag it
run chkdsk at least once a week
run scandisk at least once a week
run a regular diagnostic
Answer :A

A CRT's grid voltage can be as high as:
110 volts
5000 volts
15,000 volts
50,000 volts
1000 volts
Answer :C

A monitor's CRT (cathode ray tube) can pack quite a wallop of a charge even if it's been turned off for several days or more Before you service a monitor, you must discharge the CRT using a tool specific for that purpose. Before you do the discharge, what must you do first?
make sure the monitor is not connected to a PC
make sure the monitor is unplugged
make sure the monitor is turned off
make sure the brighness is turned down
make sure your life insurance policy is paid up
Answer :B

ESD is least likely to cause damage to which components? Select all that apply.
keyboard
mouse
cmos chips
microprocessor
adapter cards
Answer :A, B

Which of the following are input devices only? Select all that apply.
modem
mouse
keyboard
SCSI controller
video card
Answer :A, B

Which of the following are both input/output devices? Select all that apply.
modem
SCSI controller
keyboard
mouse
monitor
Answer :A, B

Which component stores an electrical charge?
diode
rectifier
capacitor
resistor
transistor
Answer :C

On PC power supplies, the wire attached to pin one is usually:
blue or red
blue or white
red or black
red or white
white or orange
Answer :E

If the voltage on pin 1 of the power supply is not in the range of ______ volts, the PC will not boot.
10 - 20
1 - 5
50 - 110
15 - 25
2.5 - 5
Answer :E

The output voltages of a PC power supply are in the form of _____ current.
AC
DC
amperage
resistive
trickle
Answer :B

The output voltages from a PC power supply are:
+20, +110, -20, -110
+5, +12, -5, -12
+110, -110, +25, -25
+10, -10, +20, -20
+110, -15, +25, -5
Answer :B

A spike is a sharp and sudden rise in voltage It's duration is usually measured in:
nanoseconds
milliseconds
seconds
minutes
picto seconds
Answer :B

A brownout is defined as:
a slightly elevated voltage lasting from seconds to minutes or more
a slightly decreased voltage lasting from seconds to minutes or more
complete power out lasting a few minutes
alternating power out, power on lasting a few minutes
has nothing to do with electricity
Answer :B

Resistance is measured in units of:
ohms
farads
helids
amperes
volts
Answer :A

Current is measured in units of:
volts
amps
ohms
farads
diodes
Answer :B

Capacitance is measured in units of:
volts
amps
farads
neutrinos
anti-neutrinos
Answer :C

Voltage is measured:
in parallel
in series
after breaking the circuit
after checking resistance
after checking current
Answer :A

Resistance is measured:
in parallel
in series
after breaking the circuit
after checking voltage
after checking current
Answer :C

Current is measured:
in parallel
only when you turn the device off first, then connect your meter to the device in series, then turning it back on
after checking voltage
only when you turn the device off first, then touch the correct meter leads to the corresponding terminals
only on an open circuit
Answer :B

AC ripple is unwanted AC current where there should only be direct current. When AC is rectified to DC, it is difficult, if not impossible to get rid of all the AC voltage, though a certain amount is tolerable You want to measure the AC voltage in a DC circuit, so you set your meter to measure:
DC voltage
AC voltage
DC current
AC current
ripple
Answer :B

Anti-static plastic bags are:
conductive
non-conductive
part rubber, part plastic
90% non-porous
magneto-resistive
Answer :A

POST stands for:
positive operating system test
particle of static transfer
power on self test
printer online static test
printer online standard test
Answer :C

POST is done when the PC is: (select all that apply)
warm booted
first turned on
CTRL-ALT-DELETE booted
restarted with the reset button
giving a numeric error code
Answer :A, C

The POST routine, which counts system board ram first, is stored in:
ram
microprocessor
rom bios
cmos
8259 POST controller
Answer :C

A 1xx (x can be any digit) POST error code indicates a problem with the:
video
ram or rom
hard drive
system board
first adapter card
Answer :D

A 2xx POST error code indicates a problem with:
ram or rom
hard drive
system board
second adapter card
cmos battery
Answer :A

A 3xx POST error code indicates a problem with:
mouse
keyboard
floppy drive
video adapter
monitor
Answer :B

A 4xx, 5xx, or 24xx POST error code indicates a problem with:
hard drive
IRQ controller
video adapter
keyboard
floppy drive
Answer :C

OK, last numeric error code check: A 17xx indicates a problem with:
cmos
rom bios
DMA controller
hard drive or controller
power supply
Answer :D

A 6xx indicates a problem with the:
floppy drive (see, I kept my word)
Answer :A

A parity error usually indicates a problem with:
memory
hard drive
hard drive controller
i/o controller
power supply
Answer :A

How many bits in a byte?
16
8
255
10
2 to the 9th power
Answer :B

PCMCIA stands for "personal computer memory card international association". Just take my word for it. This association sets forth the standards for the PC card PC cards are: (select all that apply)
hot swappable
not hot swappable
plug and play
not plug and play
used only in mainframes
Answer :A, C

Type one PC cards:
are used only in desktops
are no longer being produced
are the thinnest of the PC cards
don't exist
have their own power source
Answer :C

To start the setup program (or cmos setup), there is usually a key or set of keys you must press simultaneously. Some of the ones used by various PCs are listed below. Select all that are correct.
CTRL-ALT-ENTER
CTRL-ALT-DELETE
CTRL-ALT-S
DELETE
F10
Answer :A, C, D & E

The floppy drive uses which DMA (direct memory access) channel?
5
4
1
9
2
Answer :E

You do a DIR on a diskette, remove it and insert another, and get the same DIR listing from the first diskett. This is known as a "phantom" directory, and it is caused by: (select all that apply)
line 34 on the floppy cable is bad
bad microprocessor
defective diskette
defective floppy drive
failing hard drive
Answer :A, D

The power connector on a floppy drive is called a:
berg connector
molex connector
has no formal name
mini-molex
hybrid connector
Answer :A

On most floppy cables, the order for the connectors is:
adapter, drive A, drive B
adapter, tape drive connector, drive A
adapter, drive B, drive A
adapter, drive A or B, drive A or B
depends on cmos settings
Answer :C

The print from a dot-matrix printer is light and uneven. This is most likely caused by:
defective printhead
worn ribbon
paper not advancing properly
defective carriage assembly
worn platten
Answer :B

The print from a dot-matrix printer is sometimes light, sometimes dark. This is most likely caused by:
worn ribbon
paper not advancing properly
worn platten
defective printhead
defective carriage assembly
Answer :B

On a dot-matrix printer, regular lube maintainence should be followed, but this component should never be lubed:
platten bearings
carriage rails
printhead
paper advance bearings
carriage bearings
Answer :C

When you move a mouse, the mouse pointer is positioned via:
GPS
analog pulses
pressure sensors
friction detectors
pulses of light
Answer :E

Your laser printer is on, you hear the fan running, but it won't print. What is the first thing you should check?
that all the cables are connected securely
that the correct print driver is installed
that the printer is online
that the printer has paper
that the printer is not jammed
Answer :C

In laser printing, there are six steps the printer follows. What comes between the conditioning phase and the developing phase?
transer phase
writing phase
fusing phase
cleaning phase
nothing
Answer :B

During the laser printer's conditioning phase a uniform charge of _______ is placed on the photosensitive drum.
+1000 volt
+600 volts
-600 volts
-1000 volts
+ 12 volts
Answer :C

In order to place this charge on the drum, the primary corona wire must emit a charge of:
+15000 volts
-110 volts
+110 volts
-6000 volts
+6000 volts
Answer :D

The transfer corona uses a/an ______ charge to attract the toner to the paper.
negative
positive
alternating
magnetic
electronic pulse
Answer :B

Your laser printer gives you an error code 50. This is usually caused by a defective:
formatter board
DC controller
fuser assembly
high voltage power supply
laser unit
Answer :C

Laser printer toner is composed primarily of: (select all that apply)
particles of plastic resin
saw dust
talc
ash
iron oxide (rust)
Answer :A, E

You plug a power supply's connectors onto the system board You know you did it correctly because:
the two sets of black wires are facing the outside edge of the system board
the two sets of black wires are together in the middle
one set of black wires is outside, one is toward the inside
all are facing the power supply
it doesn't matter as long as they can be plugged in
Answer :B

An important first step in troubleshooting which component in a laser printer is causing a jam is to:
note where in the paper path the paper stops
check all voltages
look up error codes
turn the printer off, then on again
remove the jammed paper
Answer :A

Select the best choice for cleaning laser toner from clothing:
warm soapy water
alcohol
dry clean
clean cloth with cool water
pure dishwashing detergent
Answer :D

During the fusing process, toner is:
dry pressed into the paper
electrically bonded to the paper
melted into the paper
glued to the paper
high pressure sprayed onto the paper
Answer :C

On the PC side, the printer port is a:
25 pin female serial connector
15 pin female parallel connector
25 pin male serial connector
15 pin female serial connector
25 pin female parallel connector
Answer :E

ISA is a ___ bit technology.
8/16
16/32
4/8
12/24
32/64
Answer :A

A device which supports DMA is able to i/o with memory by and large bypassing the CPU. Bus mastering takes this a step further by allowing a bus-master device to take charge of the data bus and send data to other devices, including memory, and also allows two bus master devices to talk to each other without requiring the services of the CPU. Does ISA support bus mastering?
no
yes
yes, but only one device
yes, but only in a Pentium
yes, in a DX, but not an SX
Answer :B

EISA and MCA devices do not have jumper settings. How are they configured? Select all that apply.
CMOS setup
Windows setup
through DOS
dip switches
EISA configuration utility or IBM reference diskette (MCA)
Answer :E

You can have EISA and MCA devices in the same PC.
true
false
Answer :B

PCI devices do not have jumper settings or dip switches. How are they configured? Select all that apply.
CMOS setup
an installation utility from the manufacturer
through DOS
Windows setup
they are always self-configuring
Answer :A, B

You can place an ISA device in an EISA slot.
true
false
Answer :A

You can place an EISA device in an ISA slot.
true
false
Answer :B

You can only place an MCA device in an MCA slot.
true
false
Answer :A

Select each bus architecture that supports 32 bit data transfers.
ISA
EISA
MCA
PCI
PCMCIA
Answer :B, C & D

Select each bus architecture that supports bus mastering.
EISA
PCI
VLB
MCA
PCMCIA
Answer :A, B & D

A switching power supply steps down voltage by means of:
transformers
a network of resistor conduits
turning off and back on in rapid cycles
a network of capacitors
there is no such thing
Answer :C

Pick the correct choice for the 8088 CPU.
16 bit word size, 8 bit data path
8 bit word size, 8 bit data path
16 bit word size, 16 bit data path
4 bit word size, 8 bit data path
8 bit word size, 16 bit data path
Answer :A

Pick the correct choice for the 80386SX CPU.
16 bit word size, 16 bit data path
32 bit word size, 16 bit data path
8 bit word size, 32 bit data path
32 bit word size, 8 bit data path
32 bit word size, 32 bit data path
Answer :B

Pick the correct choice for the 80486DX CPU.
32 bit word size, 16 bit data path
64 bit word size, 32 bit data path
32 bit word size, 32 bit data path
32 bit word size, 16 bit data path
32 bit word size, 64 bit data path
Answer :C

What is the first CPU to include an internal math coprocessor?
386DX
486SX
486DX
Pentium
Pentium Pro
Answer :C