Computer Hardware

Front 1

What is a good preventive maintenance measure to protect mouse?

Back 1

Clean the mouse's ball.

Front 2

What is the memory address of the first instruction in the ROM BIOS program?

Back 2

FFFF0 h

Front 3

Which settings information is usually stored in a memory chip and retained by using a battery on the motherboard?

Back 3

CMOS

Front 4

What kind of motherboard improves on the previous standard and rotates the board 90 degress, allowing for a more eficient design?

Back 4

ATX

Front 5

In Windows 9x, what key do you press to enter Safe Mode at startup?

Back 5

F5 key

Front 6

What is the maximum number of memory addresses for a Pentium CPU?

Back 6

4096 MB (4096 mega bytes or 4 gigabytes)

Front 7

What is a good preventive maintenance measure to protect the computer case?

Back 7

Keep it dust free. Place it where it will not be kicked or bumped.

Front 8

What are four types of system resources?

Back 8

IRQ's, DMA channels, I/O Addresses and Memory Adresses

Front 9

L2 cache that is contained on the same die as the processor is called what?

Back 9

ATC or Advanced Transfer Cache

Front 10

True or False: Microchannel is a 64 bit bus.

Back 10

False. MCA is a 32 bit bus.

Front 11

True or False: AT-style system boards require two power connectors from the power supply.

Back 11

True.

Front 12

What rule must be followed when attaching drive cables?

Back 12

Attach the cable so that pin 1 on the board or device attaches to the edge color(typically red) side of the cable.

Front 13

List three ways to prevent a virus

Back 13

Use only authorized software.

Limit downloading files from the internet.


Use a virus scan program at boot-up.

Scan word processing documents before opening them.

Front 14

What is the best way to dispose of a toner cartridge?

Back 14

Return it to the manufacturer or dealer for recycling.

Front 15

What is a good preventive maintenance measure to protect the floppy drive?

Back 15

Blow dust out of the mechanism.

Front 16

What is a good preventive maintenance measure to protect the software?

Back 16

Put original disks in a safe place. Make back-ups of the originals if possible and use the back-ups when performing installs.

Front 17

What is a good preventive maintenance measure to protect hard drive?

Back 17

Back it up!

Front 18

If the floppy drive cable were installed with the edge color opposite pin 1 instead of next to it, what would be the result?

Back 18

When the system boots up, the floppy drive LED stays on and the system hangs.

Front 19

What does LED stand for?

Back 19

Light Emitting Diode.

Front 20

What should you do before switching on the power of a freshly assembled system?

Back 20

Check all connections. Make sure all boards are properly seated. Make sure the system board is not touching the case. Remove all tools from the case. STAND BACK!

Front 21

When building a new computer system, why might you have to change the jumper settings on the system board?

Back 21

To specify type of CPU installed, speed of the CPU, voltage requirements of the CPU or the amount of cache installed on the system board.

Front 22

Name three reasons why it would suck to build your own PC.

Back 22

Probably won't save any money. There will be no overall warranty for the system. It requires skill and knowledge which, frankly, you do not possess. It takes a lot of time

Front 23

What are the advantages of buying a well known, brand name computer?

Back 23

After sales service including toll free numbers to call, parts delivered to home, on-site service and longer warranties.

Front 24

What is the advantage of buying a clone computer?

Back 24

Lower cost, ease of obtaining and exchanging standard parts, more control of components and software.

Front 25

List three reasons why it might be good to build your own PC

Back 25

It can be fun. You can learn a lot and you have control over the hardware and software installed into it.

Front 26

Which Pentium was the first to use Slot 1 instead of a socket?

Back 26

The Pentium II was the first to use a slot 1.

Front 27

What is the range of upper memory addresses in HEX?

Back 27

A0000 to FFFFF

Front 28

You have a memory module with 72 pins on the edge connector. Is it a SIMM or a DIMM?

Back 28

SIMMs use 72 pins.

Front 29

In a system that uses a CD-ROM drive instead of a DVD drive, the audio wire connects the _____to the____.

Back 29

The audio wire connects the CD-ROM drive to the sound card.

Front 30

What local bus standard was developed by Intel?

Back 30

PCI (Peripheral Component Interface)

Front 31

________ is a combination of hardware and software. It includes ROMs, PROMs, EPROMs and EEPROMs.

Back 31

Firmware

Front 32

What makes up the TOTAL system BIOS?

Back 32

The ROM BIOS on the system board and the BIOS on expansion cards

Front 33

Name four things that can be carried on a Bus.

Back 33

Electrical power, control signals, addresses and data.

Front 34

Built-in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk is called____________?

Back 34

BIOS

Front 35

What characteristic of the system board architecture determines the amount of memory that a CPU can address?

Back 35

The number of lines assigned to the address bus.

Front 36

Name four Buses.

Back 36

ISA bus, EISA bus, USB and PCI bus

Front 37

What is a good preventive maintenance measure to protect the printer?

Back 37

Remove any bits of paper or dust that have accumulated. exchange toner.

Front 38

How is disk mirroring different from disk duplexing?

Back 38

Disk mirroring makes two copies of data, one to each of two hard drives, both of which work off of one drive controller card.

Disk duplexing does the same thing EXCEPT each drive has its own drive controller card.

Front 39

List and describe three types of Viruses.

Back 39

Boot sector virus: Hides in a program written to the boot sector of a disk or hard drive.

File virus: Hides in an executable file.

Macro virus: Hides in a macro that is part of a word processing document file.

Multipartite virus: A combination of a boot sector virus and a file virus.

Front 40

When one hard drive can be removed and another installed without powering down the computer, this is called?

Back 40

Hot swapping.

Front 41

Explain how the child, parent, grandparent backup method for using tapes works.

Back 41

Child backup made daily and rotated weekly with one tape devoted to each day of the week and reused on that day every week. Parent is made weekly and rotated monthly. Grandparent is made monthly and rotated yearly.

Front 42

What is the external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of 12Mps

Back 42

USB (Universal Serial Bus)

Front 43

What rule must be followed when connecting the power supply cables to the system board?

Back 43

For AT system boards, use the black-to-black rule. The black wires on one connector should face the black wires of the other connector, with all black wires in the center of the two connectors. For ATX system boards the P1 power connector will only go in one way.

Front 44

Name the five form fators currently used by Intel to house its procssors in desktop PC's

Back 44

SEP (Single Edge Processor)

SECC (Single Edge Contact Cartridge)

SECC2 (Single Edge Contact Cartridge, version 2)

PPGA (Plastic Pin Grid Array)

FC-PGA (Flip Chip Pin Grid Array)

Front 45

What does AGP stand for?

Back 45

Accelerated Graphics Port

Front 46

What is the proper way to dispose of a battery pak from a notebook computer?

Back 46

Return it to the original dealer, take it to a recycling center or contact your local county for local regulations for disposal.

Front 47

List several LED connectors that are typically atached to a system board.

Back 47

Reset switch, Turbo LED, break switch, hard drive LED, key lock, speaker and power LED.

Front 48

What is a BUS?

Back 48

A path on the system board that can carry electrical power, control signals, memory addresses and data.

Front 49

What is the difference between CMOS and ROM BIOS?

Back 49

CMOS requires battery backup.

Front 50

As your computer is booting, you hear a single beep. What troubleshooting actions should you take?

Back 50

NONE! a single beep indicated that the computer has sucessfully passed the POST
(Power On Self Test)

Front 51

What local bus architecture was popular in PC's made in 1993 and 1994?

Back 51

VESA Local Bus (VL-Bus)

Front 52

Why is Dynamic RAM (DRAM) slower than Static Ram (SRAM)?

Back 52

Dynamic RAM needs to be REFRESHED.

Front 53

What term refers to the capability of a computer system to automatically configure expansion boards and other devices?

Back 53

Plug and Play

Front 54

When is it appropriate to have a slot 1 on a system board?

Back 54

When using a Pentium II CPU.

Front 55

List three things that should be done before moving or shipping a computer.

Back 55

Unplug all cables and devices. Back up the hard drive. Back up CMOS. Package carefully.

Front 56

What are the two most popular types of system board form factors?

Back 56

ATX and AT system board form factors.

Front 57

Name three CPU chip manufacturers.

Back 57

Intel, AMD and Cyrix

Front 58

What is the maximum number of IDE devices that can be installed on a system?

Back 58

For EIDE systems, only four IDE devices can be installed.

Front 59

What is a good preventive maintenance measure to protect CMOS setup?

Back 59

Back it up to floppy.

Front 60

True or false: ISA is always faster than PCI.

Back 60

False

Front 61

What must happen to a program that is stored on a hard drive before it can be executed?

Back 61

The program must first be loaded into RAM.

Front 62

What IRQ line is used by the Keyboard controller?

Back 62

IRQ 1.

Front 63

Where in Ram is the Vector Table loaded?

Back 63

The Vector Table loads into the first 16K of Ram. Note that the first 16K of Ram is only flushed during a HARD BOOT!

Front 64

True or False: An ISA expansion card can be either 8-bit or 16-bit.

Back 64

True.

Front 65

How are differential backups different from full backups?

Back 65

A full backup backs up the entire hard drive. A differential backup only backs up those files that have been CHANGED or CREATED since the last FULL backup.
Differential backups DO NOT clear the ARCHIVE attribute.

Front 66

Where does the CPU look to find interupt handllers?

Back 66

The Interrupt Vector Table or Vector Table.

Front 67

What two form factors are used by the Pentium III?

Back 67

SECC 2 using slot 1 and
FC-PGA using socket 370

Front 68

name the four most popular input/output devices for a computer

Back 68

Printer, monitor, mouse and keyboard

Front 69

Assuming they occur at the same time, which IRQ would be processed first, IRQ 4 or IRQ 10?

Back 69

IRQ 10 would be processed first because IRQ's 8-15 are all cascaded to IRQ 2.

Front 70

What does POST stand for?

Back 70

Power On Self Test

Front 71

List three ways to catch a virus.

Back 71

Using unauthorized or bootlegged software.

Downloading programs from the interent.

Using disks that have not been refomatted after initial use.

Using a PC that others have used before you without re-booting.

Front 72

What key do you press to bring up the Windows 9x Startup Menu during the BOOT process?

Back 72

Press the F8 key during the BOOT process.

Front 73

What Windows 9x UTILITY allows you to see the IRQ assignments made to a device?

Back 73

Device Manager

Front 74

What IRQ line is used for a software interrupt?

Back 74

NONE! Software interrupts don't use IRQ's!

Front 75

What is the name of the bus between the processor and the L2 cache called

Back 75

Backside Bus

Front 76

What does RISC stand for?

Back 76

Reduced instruction set computer.

Front 77

A bus that works in sync with the CPU and system clock is called what?

Back 77

A LOCAL or System bus.

Front 78

Is floppy drive A attached to the middle cable connector or the end cable connector of the floppy drive cable?

Back 78

Floppy drive A attaches to the END connector on the floppy drive cable.

Front 79

List three symptoms or problems that might indicate that a virus is present on your machine.

Back 79

The PC makes unusual sounds, File sizes change for no apparent reason, the available hard disk space decreases for no apparent reason, the CD-ROM drive is not accessible.

Front 80

Where and when are SCSI terminating resistors attached?

Back 80

Terminating resistors are attached to each end of the SCSI chain. They are used to reduce the amount of noise on the chain.

Front 81

What was the first microprocessor capable of performing multitasking?

Back 81

The Pentium by Intel

Front 82

How many data bits are used in Real Mode?

Back 82

16 Bits

Front 83

List five port connectors that are typically built into most system boards today.

Back 83

Keyboard, mouse, floppy drive, hard drive, serial port, parrallel port, video port, net port, modem port.

Front 84

Name the four basic functions of a computer

Back 84

Input, output, processing and storage

Front 85

Name a type of software used to interface with hardware.

Back 85

Device Driver

Front 86

What are the two types of storage used in a computer?

Back 86

Primary and secondary storage. Primary storage is temporary storage such as RAM. Secondary storage is permanent such as floppies and hard disks.

Front 87

What does BIOS stand for?

Back 87

Basic Input Output System

Front 88

Name the two operating system modes.

Back 88

Real Mode and Protected Mode.

Front 89

What is a good preventive maintenance measure to protect keyboard?

Back 89

Vacuum and clean surface. Keep food and drink away from it.

Front 90

What will be the SCSI ID of a host adapter on the SCSI chain?

Back 90

The host adapter uses SCSI ID 7.