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 network that covers a metropolitan area - usually using high-speed fiber-optic cable (operating in the gigabits-per-second range).






2. A circuit on a motherboard through which incoming power passes. Several voltage regulators maintain a steady voltage as demand goes up and down - with one or more voltage regulators for the various voltages required (5 volts - 12 volts - 3.3 volts -






3. A group of wires used to identify addresses in main system memory in a computer. The number of wires in an address bus is called the width of the bus and determines the number of unique memory locations that can be addressed using binary math with th






4. An Advanced Options menu choice that simply causes Windows to restart normally (if it can).






5. The digital versatile disc (DVD) encoding format used for data storage.






6. In Windows - one or more settings found in the Local Security Settings console.






7. Audio connectors that use a 1/8" single pin plug.






8. A Windows Advanced Options menu choice that restores a group of registry keys containing system settings such as services and drivers. These are the last settings that worked - and you have only a narrow window of opportunity to use Last Known Good






9. Aka analog modem.






10. A socket for a PGA CPU that has a retention lever as well as contacts to match the number of pins on the CPU. The lever is used to attach the CPU to the socket in a manner that does not require force to insert or to remove the CPU.






11. A processor packaging that uses pads on the processor that come in contact with pins in the socket on the motherboard - permitting a higher density than possible with PGA.






12. A portable computer small enough to fit in your hand - also referred to as a "palmtop" computer. Because it is so small - a PDA does not have the functionality of a laptop or desktop computer. In other words - a typical PDA allows you to perform only






13. A simple type of component video signal that sends three separate signals






14. Aka customer premises equipment.






15. A type of riser card that connects directly into a motherboard and adds no additional functionality of its own - but extends the expansion bus and allows expansion cards to be added in a different physical orientation.






16. The generic term for a pointing stick.






17. In a CPU - the speed at which it can potentially execute instructions - measured in millions of cycles per second






18. Software that takes a scanned image and interprets the patterns in the image into alphanumeric characters.






19. An organization that creates specifications for infrared wireless communication.






20. Used to represent the chrominance signal in S-Video.






21. The moving of data from one storage device to another.






22. A marriage of SCSI and Serial ATA - this uses a serial interface to a SCSI bus.






23. The graphical Internet consisting of a vast array of documents located on millions of specialized servers worldwide. The documents are created using HTML and other specialized languages - and transferred from servers to client computers using HTTP an






24. Circuitry in a PC on an adapter card - or directly on the motherboard - that controls the output from the PC to the display device.






25. Windows run-line utility for testing the DirectX support. Launch this program when experiencing video problems and/or audio problems when running DirectX applications.






26. Aka floating-point unit.






27. Aka internal cache memory.






28. A device that stores a large amount of information - even when it is powered off.






29. The disruption of signal transmission caused by the radiation of electrical and magnetic fields. Electric motors are a common source of EMI.






30. A method for allocating disk space on hard disks in which configuration information for each dynamic disk is located on the disk space beyond the first physical sector. This configuration information is stored outside of any volume on the hard disk.






31. Aka Extended Video Graphics Array.






32. In the laser printing process - the step at which the heat-sensitive toner is fused to the paper by heated fusing rollers.






33. A drive that can be safely installed and removed while a computer is up and running without damaging the data stored on the drive.






34. Aka liquid crystal display.






35. A power-usage level.






36. Software created to perform malicious acts. Also called malicious software.






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






38. A WAN connection that uses existing copper telephone wire for the communication circuit. To accomplish this - a DSL modem splits the existing phone line into two bands; voice transmission uses the frequencies below 4000 Hz - whereas data transmission






39. A wireless network standard that uses the 5 GHz band.






40. A RAM standard that replaces the original DDR2 standard and requires far less power - while providing almost twice the bandwidth. A stick of DDR3 SDRAM has 240 pins - but is keyed so it will not fit into a socket designed for DDR2. DDR3 SO-DIMMs have






41. Any power supply that provides high voltage - such as those in laser printers and CRTs.






42. In a Microsoft Windows network - an administrative organization with a centralized security accounts database maintained on one or more special servers called domain controllers. This centralized database contains accounts for users - groups - and co






43. The Microsoft Website from which you can download updates to Windows.






44. One or more chips designed to work closely with the CPU. Two parts of this chipset are the Northbridge and the Southbridge.






45. The first physical sector on a hard disk - which contains the initial boot program that the BIOS loads into memory during bootup. It also contains the partition table.






46. Laser discs sold at retail stores that contain music (audio CDs) or software (data CDs).






47. A technology for LCD displays in which transistors are positioned at each pixel.






48. An operating system recovery tool introduced in Windows Me and improved in later versions of Windows. System Restore creates restore points - which are snapshots of Windows - its configuration - and all installed programs. If your computer has nonfat






49. An early international standard for sending voice and data over digital telephone wires. ISDN uses existing telephone circuits or higher-speed conditioned lines to get speeds of either 64 Kbps or 128 Kbps. ISDN lines also have the ability to carry vo






50. A component of the Windows operating system that resides in a file and is loaded into memory during the kernel loading phase of the Windows startup.