A+ Chp 5-6

Front 1

What is DRAM?

Back 1

Dynamic Random Access Memory stsndard in all computers since the mid 70's

Front 2

What is a SIMM?

Back 2

Early type of RAM stick called a single inline memory module

Front 3

What is SDRAM

Back 3

Synchronous DRAM dram tied to the system clock that debuted in 1996

Front 4

What is a DIMM

Back 4

Dual inline memory module (SDRAM DIMM)

Front 5

What is a micro DIMM?

Back 5

Laptop DIMM stick

Front 6

Whar is a SO-DIMM?

Back 6

Small outline memory module also used in laptops

Front 7

How fast does SDRAM have to be?

Back 7

It needs to either match or exceed the system speed or the computer will lock up or become unstable

Front 8

What is RDRAM/RIMM?

Back 8

Rambus Dram capable of running at 800 MHz. Was short lived due to developmental delays and high costs. It introduced dual channel. Architecture.

Front 9

What does RIMM stand for.

Back 9

It doesn't mean anything it just rhymes with DIMMS and SIMMS

Front 10

What is it DDR SDRAM?

Back 10

Double data rate SDRAM similar to RDRAM but more cost effective.

Front 11

How did DDR SDRAM increase speed?

Back 11

By doubling the throughput of the SDRAM by making two processes for every clock cycle

Front 12

How is DDR SDRAM speed measured?

Back 12

By multiplying the system speed by 8 bytes and writing PC in gront. For example 400MHz = PC3200

Front 13

What is dual channel architecture?

Back 13

Using 2 sticks of DDR SDRAM or RDRAM to increase throughput. Requires identical sticks placed on paired slots

Front 14

What is the difference between DDR and DDR2?

Back 14

DDR2 improved upon the design of DDR by using less power and increasing the speed. Speed was increased by increasing the input/output and adding special cache like buffers.

Front 15

How many pins are on a SDRAM stick for desktop?

Back 15

168

Front 16

How many pins are on a micro DIMM SDRAM for laptops?

Back 16

68 or 144 or 172

Front 17

How many pins are on the SRDRAM SO-DIMM for laptops?

Back 17

72 or 144 or 200

Front 18

How many pins are on a DRR SDRAM stick for desktop

Back 18

184

Front 19

How many pins are on a DDR SDRAM micro-DIMM for laptops?

Back 19

172

Front 20

How many pins are on a DDR SDRAM SO-DIMM for laptops?

Back 20

200

Front 21

How many pins are on a DDR2 SDRAM stick for desktop?

Back 21

240

Front 22

How many pins are on a DDR2 SO-DIMM for laptops?

Back 22

200

Front 23

How many pins are on a DDR3 SDRAM stick for desktop?

Back 23

240

Front 24

How many pins are on a DDR3 SO-DIMM?

Back 24

204

Front 25

How many pins are on a DDR4 SDRAM stick for desktop

Back 25

288

Front 26

How many pins are on a DDR4 SO-DIMM

Back 26

260

Front 27

True or false: The DDR series is backwards compatible

Back 27

False

Front 28

What is the difference between DDR3 and DDR2?

Back 28

DDR3 is faster and uses 30% less power. It also has XMP to alllow overclocking

Front 29

What is XMP?

Back 29

Extended memory profile, a feature on DDR3 that allows for overclocking

Front 30

What is triple channel architecture?

Back 30

Uses 3 sticks of RDRAM or DDR SDRAM (any #) to increase throughput. Requires identical sticks placed in paired slots.

Front 31

Who supports triple channel architecture?

Back 31

Intel on the LGA1366 motherboard. There is no support from amd

Front 32

What is quad channel architecture?

Back 32

Uses 4 sticks of RDRAM or DDR SDRAM (any #) to increase throughput. Requires identical sticks placed in paired slots

Front 33

Who supports quad channel architecture?

Back 33

Both amd and Intel on more recent devices.

Front 34

What is single sided ram?

Back 34

Ram with chips only on one side of the board

Front 35

What is double sided ram?

Back 35

Ram with chips on both sides of the board. Some motherboards can't use this kind of ram or can only use it in certain ways.

Front 36

What is latency? How is it written?

Back 36

Latency is the delay in Ram response time. It is written as CL# the higher the number the longer the delay.

Front 37

What happens when you install high latency ram in a motherboard designed for low latency ram?

Back 37

"Dead" pc

Front 38

What is a CAS?

Back 38

Column array strobe. It helps the mcc find a particular bit of memory. It requires electricity to charge up before it can work and contributes to latency

Front 39

What is a RAS?

Back 39

Row array strobe. It helps the mcc locate a specific bit of memory. Requires electricity to charge up before it can work and contributes to latency.

Front 40

What is parity ram? What are the disadvantages of it?

Back 40

Ram designed with an extra bit (called parity bit) used to verify that lines of code coming from the ram was accurate. Didn't always catch errors and didn't have a means to correct the ones it did catch.

Front 41

What is Ecc ram? What advantages does it have?

Back 41

Error correction code ram. It catches 100% of code errors and fixes them on the fly. Used in very expensive high end systems.

Front 42

What is registered/buffered ram?

Back 42

Ram with extra bits of circuitry that helps compensate for electrical problems in systems with lots of memory modules.

Front 43

What is virtual memory?

Back 43

Portion of hard drive or solid state drive set aside as a "swap file" or "page file" it works like a snapshot of a program to remove it from active ram when the ram gets overloaded. The program is automatically put back into ram when it needs to run

Front 44

What is the default recommended page file size for windows?

Back 44

1.5x the ram on the computer.

Front 45

What is disk thrashing?

Back 45

Windows working furiously to move files between page files and ram. Indicated by hard drive led light going crazy.

Front 46

What is readyboost?

Back 46

Ability to use a flash drive to as super fast dedicated virtual memory.

Front 47

How many devices can be used in windows for readyboost?

Back 47

In windows vista only 1 but up to 8 in Windows 7 and later.

Front 48

How do you set up a device for readyboost?

Back 48

Plug in device > right click device icon in computer > click readyboost > use device.

Front 49

How do you install a DIMM?

Back 49

Discharge static > swing side tabs down on the ram slot to unlocked position > line up guide notches >snap into place

Front 50

What is SPD?

Back 50

Serial presence detect. A chip on the ram that talks to the motherboard so that the motherboard can automatically identify and install a new ram stick.

Front 51

True or false. Bad spd chips can be fixed.

Back 51

False

Front 52

What is the difference between real parity errors and phantom parity errors.

Back 52

Real parity errors occur on systems with ecc or parity ram while phantom errors occur in systems that don't have ecc or parity ram.

Front 53

How can you tell if an error is being caused by bad ram sticks?

Back 53

A memory error always shows up as a hexidecimal value. The same value showiing up at the the same place in memory almost always means bad ram. Random messages at random times usually indicates other problems.

Front 54

What is a NMI?

Back 54

Non masking interrupt. Manifests as a proprietary crash screen and could be caused by a number of reasons.

Front 55

What are the 4 ways to test ram?

Back 55

Buy a ram tester, replace and pray, run a software based ram rester, or use the memory diagonstics tool on windows 7 and later

Front 56

What is the northbridge?

Back 56

Term used to describe the MCC when including it's capability to connect the CPU to other devices. It primarily deals with high speed devices

Front 57

What is the southbridge?

Back 57

Chip paired with the northbridge in order to relieve the workload primarily deals with low speed devices

Front 58

What is BIOS?

Back 58

Basic input/output services. It is a support program loaded into memory that teaches the cpu how to communicate with a particular device.

Front 59

What are device services/drivers?

Back 59

Programs dedicated to enabling the cpu to communicate with a device

Front 60

What is ROM?

Back 60

Read only memory. It's a nonvolatile memory chip similar to ram. Since its read only once a program is installed it can't be changed.

Front 61

What is flash ROM?

Back 61

ROM chip in modern pcs that allows for the contents to be updated by "flashing the ROM"

Front 62

What does nonvolatile mean?

Back 62

Information isn't erased when the computer is turned off

Front 63

What is firmware?

Back 63

Programs stored on the ROM chip

Front 64

What is software?

Back 64

Programs stored on dynamic media

Front 65

What is UEFI?

Back 65

More modern version of BIOS that stands for unified extensible firmware interface.

Front 66

What advantages does UEFI have over BIOS?

Back 66

Supports file systems that enable booting to drives larger than 2.2 TB, supports either 32 bit or 64 bit booting, handles all boot loader details, not dependant on x86 firmware.

Front 67

What is CMOS?

Back 67

Complimentary metal-oxidizer semiconductor stores data needed by the BIOS to complete the programs needed to communicate with changeable hardware. Also stores time and date information.

Front 68

True or false: CMOS used to be a separate chip but now is integrated with the southbridge.

Back 68

True

Front 69

How do you access CMOS in Windows 8/8.1?

Back 69

Open charms bar > click settings > change pc settings > update & recovery > recovery > advanced startup > restart now > troubleshoot > advanced options > UEFI firmware startup options

Front 70

When accesing CMOS the long way in Windows 8/8.1 why should you avoid the option "refresh pc"

Back 70

Refresh pc saves "files" but removes all desktop apps

Front 71

When accesing CMOS the long way in Windows 8/8.1 why should you avoid the option "reset"

Back 71

Reset wipes everything and reinstalls windows

Front 72

True or false: the key or combination of keys needed to access the CMOS is usually displayed on the screen or can be looked up on the motherboad book or manufacturers website

Back 72

True

Front 73

True or false: if the data in CMOS doesn't match the specs of the actual hardware the computer can't access the hardware

Back 73

True

Front 74

What is secure boot?

Back 74

UEFI protocol that secures the boot process by requiring purportedly signed software

Front 75

What do you need to use secure boot?

Back 75

Intel cpu with a UEFI BIOS and an os designed for it such as windows 8/8.1/10.

Front 76

What is chassis intrusion detection/notification?

Back 76

Feature of some computer cases where a switch gets tripped when the case is opened and a log is crwated in CMOS abd a notification is displayed on the next bootup

Front 77

What is drive lock/ATA security mode?

Back 77

Feature of CMOS that allows for the hard drive to be locked as a defense against unwanted access if stolen.

Front 78

What is lojack?

Back 78

Security feature in some pcs that allows for tracking a stolen pc, remote shutdown, and installing a keylogger.

Front 79

What is a trusted platform module (tpm)?

Back 79

A secure cyptoprocessor that accelerates encryption making it more secure, can be a small circuit board on the motherboard or built into the chipset

Front 80

What is option rom?

Back 80

Option rom is a chip built into a piece of hardware with its own BIOS so it can communicate with the cpu. Becoming obsolete in favor of more flexible methods except for video cards they still option rom.

Front 81

What is the registry?

Back 81

Special database in Windows that stores everything you might need to know about your computer including drivers .

Front 82

What is the POST?

Back 82

Power on self test. A special diagnostic program that runs everytime a computer boots up. Alerts the user too problems via beep codes or text

Front 83

What are POST beep codes?

Back 83

Beep codes used to communicate with the user before and during the video card test.

Front 84

What does one long beep followed by two or three short beeps during POST mean?

Back 84

Bad or missing video card

Front 85

What does a repeating beep during POST mean?

Back 85

Bad or missing ram

Front 86

What is a POST card? When is it used?

Back 86

Device used to monitor the POST and identify which piece of hardware is causing problems. Mostly used to determine which level the pc is dead at when something disrupts the POST and sends it into an endless loop.

Front 87

What is a power good wire?

Back 87

Special wire that the power circuitry sends a signal down after checking the voltage. Starts the POST

Front 88

What is the bootstrap loader?

Back 88

A feature of older BIOS systems that was attatched to the end of the POST that searched for the OS and checked the boot sequence.

Front 89

What is the boot sequence?

Back 89

The order in which the system boots up

Front 90

What is the boot sector?

Back 90

Special location on bootable devices that tells the CMOS where to find the OS

Front 91

What does the CMOS setting option "load default CMOS" do?

Back 91

Sets the CMOS to the simplest factory settings. Great for reversing scrambled CMOS

Front 92

What does the CMOS settings option "OS optimized default" do?

Back 92

Sets the CMOS settings to the best stability and speed for the OS

Front 93

How do you reset the CMOS by using the jumper? If it doesn't work?

Back 93

Move the jumper from wires 1&2 to wires 2&3 wait 10 seconds and move it back. If it doesn't work then pry out the coin battery and wait 10 seconds and put it back.

Front 94

What is a firmware upgrade?

Back 94

Update to the contents of a flash ROM chip

Front 95

What is flashing the BIOS?

Back 95

The process of updating the BIOS