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 device found in laptops that monitors and regulates power usage. The features vary by manufacturer - but typically - they provide short-circuit protection - give "low battery" warnings - and can be configured to shut down the computer automatically






2. The act of covertly obtaining information broadcast from wireless devices using the Bluetooth standard.






3. The IBM branded name for a pointing stick or track point.






4. A long-handled tool with a magnet on one end - used to pick up small objects containing iron.






5. A variety of persuasion techniques used for many purposes






6. 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.






7. A printer that uses a light beam (laser) in the printing process.






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






9. Microsoft's product activation program.






10. A server that manages DNS names.






11. A cell phone with Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) functions built in.






12. A disc designed to store all types of data usable by a computer. This term also refers to the drives that read and write to these discs. There are various types of DVD drives and media.






13. Aka asynchronous transfer mode.






14. A power supply standard that has both the 20-pin connector for the motherboard and a 4-pin 12 V connector.






15. A reading and writing device in a floppy or hard drive that is mounted on an articulated arm that moves back and forth over the floppy disk or metal platter.






16. An interface on a PC that originally was unidirectional and operated at a speed of 150 KBps - but now has several operation modes.






17. 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.






18. A printed circuit card that you add to the motherboard to enhance functionality. Also called an expansion card. Video adapters and network interface cards (NICs) are examples of adapter cards.






19. A special disk used for recovering an OS failure in Windows 2000. It requires that you create the ERD while the system is healthy - and then use it - along with the Windows Setup CD - to repair Windows.






20. A riser card that is similar to audio modem riser (AMR) except that it is plug and play-compatible and supports LANs in addition to audio - modem - and sound.






21. The type of electrical current delivered by a battery in which the electrons flow in only one direction.






22. 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






23. A now-obsolete type of rechargeable battery used in laptops and other portable devices - replaced by lithium-ion batteries.






24. 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.






25. A type of KVM switch that is controlled through a mechanical switch on the box.






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






27. Aka Internet Control Message Protocol.






28. The EXPLORER.EXE program. This program supports the entire Windows GUI. If EXPLORER.EXE is called up from inside the GUI - it opens a window for browsing your local disks and files.






29. An early PC hard drive interface.






30. A memory error-checking method in which the parity bit is used to ensure that the total number of 1s in the data stream is odd.






31. Aka channel service unit.






32. A virus that downloads to a user's computer through a pop-up window that appears in a Web browser. It requires an action on the part of a user - such as clicking a button that implies acceptance of something like free information.






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






34. A mat that provides a path to ground for a static charge and is designed for the desktop or floor of a workspace. One placed on the workbench reduces the risk of electrostatic discharge for components placed on it - while one placed on the floor prov






35. A disc drive that uses laser technology to read and/or write to special discs.






36. Aka emergency repair disk.






37. 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.






38. A key on a laptop that is combined with the FN key to toggle the laptop's speaker on and off. The SPEAKER ON/OFF key is usually one of the standard function keys - such as F3 - that displays a speaker symbol.






39. A wireless network standard that defines speeds of up to 600 Mbps. It is downward-compatible with 802.11a - 802.11b - and 802.11g.






40. A program downloaded to a computer without the user's consent. The user unwittingly initiates the download by some simple act - such as browsing to a Website or opening an e-mail message written in HTML. Or a user may initiate a drive-by download by






41. A file used by Windows for virtual memory. Also called the swap file. The actual filename in Windows is PAGEFILE.SYS.






42. A multi-GPU solution developed by ATI.






43. Aka optical character recognition.






44. A file attribute that is given to a file to indicate it should not be visible in Windows Explorer unless View settings override the attribute and allow the file to be shown.






45. The smallest laptop type - weighing less than 3 pounds. Aka also netbook and mini-notebook.






46. The worldwide network that carries traditional voice traffic.






47. An optional toolbar you can add to the taskbar just to the right of the Start button. Shortcuts on this bar launch with a single-click.






48. A portion of a program that can run separately from and concurrently with other portions of the program. Also called thread of execution.






49. A grouping of wires built into a PC that - based on certain protocols - transfers data - control signals - and power to printed circuit boards (adapter cards) that are plugged into connectors in the expansion bus. Technicians often use the termsexpan






50. Introduced in Windows 2000 - a user interface for Windows administration tools that is flexible and configurable.