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. In reference to a memory module - how much information the processor can access from or write to memory in a single cycle.






2. A joke program that produces strange behavior - such as screen distortions - erratic cursor behavior - or strange icons to appear on the screen.






3. 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






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 computer circuit board that attaches to and controls SCSI devices.






6. Two or more disks working together in one of the several RAID schemes.






7. A specialized device for testing a power supply unit that comes with connectors compatible with the output connectors on a standard power supply.






8. Storage media that is removable - meaning the drive stays in place - while the media (disk - disc - or tape) is removed and replaced with another disk - disc - or tape.






9. Aka analog modem.






10. An arrangement of pins on a processor in which the pins are offset in a way that allows for a higher pin density than PGA.






11. Aka RAID 5.






12. The practice of applying a digital signature to device driver code.






13. An obsolete video standard introduced with IBM PS/2 computers in the late 1980s. VGA had a maximum resolution of 720






14. Memory chips that provide much slower access than SRAM chips but that can store several megabytes of data on a single chip (or hundreds of megabytes - or even gigabytes - when they are packaged together on a "stick").






15. 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






16. 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.






17. A device that combines two or more devices - such as a printer - scanner - and fax machine.






18. In Windows - an Advanced Options menu choice that starts Windows without several drivers and components and loads only very basic - non-vendor-specific drivers for mouse - video - keyboard - mass storage - and system services. It also displays in low






19. A 9-pin D-shell connector.






20. Digital versatile disc (DVD) discs that can be written to - but data cannot be overwritten. This standard is newer than DVD-R. This term also refers to the drives that can write to these discs.






21. A primary partition that is marked for use by the system during startup. Windows operating systems can only be booted from an active partition.






22. A version of the FAT file system used by MS-DOS for hard drives - using a 16-bit file allocation table.






23. 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.






24. A type of printer that uses one of several technologies to apply wet ink to paper to create text or graphic printouts. The two most popular inkjet printer models are the InkJet - developed by Hewlett-Packard - and the Bubble Jet - developed by Canon.






25. Aka Serial Attached SCSI.






26. Aka Small Computer System Interface.






27. A RAID array in which every time data is written to disk - a portion (block) is written to each disk in turn - creating a "stripe" of data across the member disks. RAID 0 uses the total disk space in the array for storage - without protecting the dat






28. A company in the business of providing Internet access to users.






29. A power management standard - introduced by Intel in 1992 - that defines four power-usage operating levels.






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






31. A name used by the Windows operating systems to identify any parallel port.






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






33. One of the two main protocols of the TCP/IP protocol suite - TCP breaks the data into chunks - called datagrams. Each datagram also contains information - stored in a header - which is used by the TCP protocol on the receiving end to reassemble the c






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






35. A power supply form factor that pairs with an ATX motherboard and case.






36. A drive that can write either to CD-R discs or to specially designed CD-RW discs. In the case of the CD-RW discs - the drive can write more than once to the same portion of disc - overwriting old data.






37. Local area networking using radio waves that includes several implementations based on the IEEE 802.11 group of standards.






38. An early technology for increasing the performance of DRAM.






39. A power-usage level.






40. Aka arithmetic logic unit.






41. In reference to IDE PATA drives - the slave drive on the first channel.






42. 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.






43. A communication service provided over a telecommunications network or computer network. A VC logically resembles a circuit while passing over a complex routed or switched network - such as the phone company's frame relay network.






44. The format in which IP addresses are usually shown - with decimal numbers separated by "dots" as in 192.168.100.2.






45. 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.






46. The first type of RAM available. It is very fast - compared to DRAM - but also very expensive.






47. Aka top-level domain.






48. The name used by the Windows operating systems to identify the first parallel port.






49. A version of Windows XP that includes Windows Media Center - which supports advanced multimedia functions.






50. A service that manages Microsoft NetBIOS names for a Windows network. This service is becoming obsolete - as Windows has moved to DNS for naming and name service.