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






2. A type of computer firmware that is responsible for informing the CPU of installed devices and how to communicate with them.






3. Aka digital versatile disc (DVD).






4. A plastic card - often the size of a credit card - that contains a microchip. The microchip can store information and perform functions - depending on the type of smart card. Some smart cards only store data - whereas others may have a variety of fun






5. A group of networking standards created by the IEEE 802.3 subcommittee.






6. A strap designed to discharge static electricity from your body. One end attaches to the wrist - whereas the other end attaches to a grounded object.






7. A connector that contains two to four wires and usually attaches phone cables to modems and to wall-mounted phone jacks.






8. The term used for dynamic space allocation that can be formatted with a file system.






9. In Windows - an Advanced Options menu choice that will start Windows without the Windows GUI (EXPLORER.EXE) and with only a simple Command Prompt window from which you can launch Windows administrative utilities.






10. Aka systray.






11. Aka Secure Digital (SD) Card.






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






13. Aka IEEE 1394.






14. A KVM switch that uses software and special keyboard commands to switch among controlled computers. Also called anactive KVM switch.






15. A standard for interconnecting electronic musical instruments to communicate with computers and among themselves.






16. In the laser printing process - the step in which the laser beam creates a negative of the image that will eventually appear on the printout. Each place that the laser beam touches loses most of its charge - creating an image - whereas the rest of th






17. Aka floppy disk drive.






18. A wireless network standard that uses the 2.4 GHz band at a speed of up to 10 Mbps.






19. The code used to provide multiple language support to Windows.






20. An optical disc created and read by a mechanism using a laser.






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






22. Aka PCIe.






23. An underlying protocol that supports Microsoft Remote Desktop.






24. A power supply that only accepts one input power voltage.






25. A display device that contains a cathode ray tube and uses an electron gun to activate phosphors behind the screen at the front of the tub.






26. Synchronous graphics random access memory is a type of RAM used on video adapters.






27. A file system in which one of the basic structures is a table used for allocating space. This table is called the file allocation table (FAT).






28. Aka World Wide Web.






29. A virtual tunnel created between two endpoints over an untrusted network. The tunnel is created by encapsulating the packets within special packets for the tunnel. Other security methods are also usually applied to a VPN - such as encrypting the data






30. In Windows Vista and Windows 7 - an Advanced Options menu choice that starts Windows normally - except that the video mode is changed to the lowest resolution - using the currently installed video driver. This option does not switch to the basic Wind






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






32. A 25-pin D-shell connector.






33. Aka Advanced Micro Devices.






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






35. One of many low-level instructions built into the control unit of a CPU. Also called a microprogram.






36. A fiber-optic connector that resembles an RJ-45 network connector and is less expensive and easier to work with than ST or SC connectors.






37. A small device containing a microchip used to generate unique passwords for logging on to a computer or a network.






38. Aka DDR3 SDRAM.






39. Aka digital linear tape.






40. A category of software that runs surreptitiously on a user's computer in order to gather information without the user's permission and then sends that information to the people who requested it.






41. A specialized type of scanner that reads bar codes - which are patterns of bars of varying widths printed on labels or directly on items. The bar pattern is converted into a numeric code that is transmitted to a computer as data.






42. An interface standard developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) - it is used for both internal and external hard drives and optical drives as well as devices such as printers - modems - scanners - and many other peripherals.






43. In reference to a memory module - the number of memory modules required to match the data bus width of the processor.






44. A scaled-down laptop in the ultra-portable category - designed for Internet access. Aka also ultra-portable and mini-notebook.






45. On a circuit board - a small connector that slides down on a pair of pins jutting up from the board. Multiple pins are often side-by-side - and a jumper joins a pair of them.






46. Aka virtual file allocation table.






47. An online power protection device that isolates a computer or other device plugged into it. During normal operation - the devices run directly off the battery through an inverter - rather than switching to the battery only after a loss of power.






48. A computer circuit board that attaches to and controls SCSI devices.






49. A value assigned to a process that controls the order in which the program code is executed in relation to other code.






50. A server containing source files for installing software onto client computers. The shared folder containing these files is a software distribution point.