Test your basic knowledge |

Comptia A + Certification

Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. A printer that creates printed output line by line.






2. Aka virtual circuit.






3. Aka nickel metal hydride.






4. Memory locations within a CPU that is used as a scratch pad for calculations. Modern CPUs have dedicated registers for specific functions and general-purpose registers for multiple purposes.






5. An early PC hard drive interface.






6. A type of solid-state storage that is commonly used in a variety of devices - such as digital cameras - which often use CompactFlash.






7. A type of printer that transfers ink to paper by causing a print head to strike a printer ribbon containing ink against the paper.






8. The hardware architecture - including the CPU - BIOS - and chipset.






9. The protocol for connecting optical drives and tape drives to an ATA channel.






10. A software fix for a single problem.






11. A processor on a graphics adapter used to render graphics images for the display - saving the CPU for other functions.






12. A term applied to a CPU - motherboard - or other components that conform to the newer 64-bit architecture. Also referred to as 64-bit.






13. The protocol used by DHCP servers and clients. A DHCP server allocates IP addresses within the scope of addresses configured on the server by an administrator. DHCP clients request IP addresses and other IP configuration settings from DHCP Servers.






14. A special-purpose computer designed for a certain task and installed within a device.






15. An LCD display using an old technology that has a grid of horizontal and vertical wires with a transistor at the end of each wire. When two transistors (one at the x-axis and one at the y-axis) send voltage along their wires - the pixel at the inters






16. A password that meets certain criteria in order to be difficult to crack. One definition of a strong password is one that contains at least eight characters - includes a combination of letters - numbers - and other symbols ( _ - - - $ - and so on) an






17. Digital versatile disc (DVD) discs that can be written to once - but data cannot be overwritten. This term also refers to the drives that can write to these discs.






18. In Windows - a security account that contains one or more local user accounts - and when a computer is a member of a Windows domain - may also contain domain user or group accounts.






19. The use of a biometric for authentication.






20. A cooling fan mounted directly on the case - as opposed to a power supply fan - which is inside the power supply.






21. Aka logical block address.






22. In a computer - pathways that power - data - and control signals travel from one component to another within the system.






23. A power management standard that includes all the power states of APM - plus two more. It also supports soft power.






24. The original digital versatile disc (DVD) encoding format used for movies sold at retail.






25. In a laser printer - a wire that stretches across the printer's drum - not touching it - but positioned very close to the drum's surface so it can pass high voltage to the drum.






26. Aka optical character recognition.






27. In the Windows registry - the top five folders - each of which is the top of a hierarchical structure. Also called subtrees.






28. Aka error-correcting code.






29. Aka musical instrument digital interface.






30. A special substance - also called thermal paste or heat sink compound - that increases the heat conductivity between a fan or heat sink and a chip.






31. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - an international nonprofit organization that sets standards as part of its charter.






32. Aka Serial Attached SCSI.






33. Aka double-data rate (DDR) SDRAM.






34. A file or folder name that breaks the 8.3 file-naming convention used in the FAT file system. This term continues to be used on newer file systems.






35. The Internet service that manages access to Internet domain names and the naming system it uses for computers and resources connected to the Internet or in a private network.






36. Aka demilitarized zone.






37. Software instructions stored in ROM chips. It exists on most PC components and on the motherboard.






38. A card that fits into the PC Card interface - including both PC Card and CardBus cards. This type measures 85.6 millimeters long by 54 millimeters wide and 3.3 millimeters thick.






39. In the laser printing process - the stage in which the printer's high-voltage power supply (HVPS) conducts electricity to the primary corona wire so it can pass the voltage on to the printer's electro-photosensitive drum.






40. A menu that opens from the Start button on the taskbar.






41. An assigned channel over which a device can send a signal to the processor to get its attention.






42. The read-only DVD discs sold at retail stores - containing video or software and having a maximum capacity of 15.9 GB of data. This term also applies to the drives that can only read DVDs.






43. A DVD of any type that can contain data on only one side.






44. The PCMCIA standard that succeeds the PC Card.






45. An exact duplicate of an entire hard drive's contents - including the OS and all installed software.






46. Aka Encrypting File System (EFS).






47. A Windows server running the WINS service to maintain and resolve NetBIOS names.






48. Aka pin grid array.






49. Aka MSCONFIG.






50. In a low-profile PC case - a card that plugs into a motherboard to allow other cards to be inserted at a right angle to the riser card and parallel to the motherboard. Also - a single expansion card containing multiple functions - such as modem - sou