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CompTIA A+ 220-1101 > Hardware > Flashcards

Hardware Flashcards

1
Q

What are two common types of laptop batteries?

A

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) and Lithium-ion polymer (LiPo)

  • Designed to be fully charged
  • No “memory effect”/decreasing of capacity
  • Different form factor for each laptop (battery is unique)
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2
Q

What type of memory does a laptop use?

A

SO-DIMM (Small outline dual in-line memory module)

  • Used in laptop and other mobile devices
  • Non-module laptops don’t allow upgrades and are soldered to the board
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3
Q

What hard drive form factor do most laptops use?

A

2.5” (3.5” is for desktops)

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4
Q

What are the benefits of an SSD?

A
  • Fast, less latency
  • All memory, no moving parts
  • Quiet
  • Is an upgrade from virtually any HDD
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5
Q

What is the smaller form factor of laptop storage?

A

M.2

  • No SATA or power cables required
  • Easy installation (modular/insert into slot)
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6
Q

What are three ways to migrate data from an HDD to an SSD?

A

Install an OS on the SSD
- Move files between drives, then install required applications (time consuming)

Create an image or clone of the HDD
- No OS installation required
- Move the image to the new SSD with imaging software (sometimes included with the SSD)

Drive-to-drive image
- Image directly from one drive to another

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7
Q

What wireless standard do laptops have?

A

802.11 (LAN)

  • mini PCI or mini PCIe slots for expansion/replacement of LAN or PAN
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8
Q

What kind of short-distance networking do some laptops have?

A

NFC (Near-field communication)

  • 4 centimeters or less
  • Transfers data or authenticates
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9
Q

What is an LCD and what benefits does it provide?

A

Liquid crystal display

  • Lightweight
  • Low power requirement
  • Relatively inexpensive
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10
Q

What is are some disadvantages of LCDs?

A
  • Poor black levels
  • Requires a separate backlight which are difficult to replace
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11
Q

What is OLED and what characteristics does it have?

A

Organic light emitting diode
- Does not require a backlight
- Thinner and no glass required
- Very good color representation and has more contrast than LCDs
- Slightly more expensive

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12
Q

How are Wi-Fi antennas physically configured in a laptop?

A

Bluetooth and wireless antennas are routed to the top of the laptop display, the highest point of the device
- This can create challenges when replacing or repairing displays; antennas must be reconnected

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13
Q

What are the two different types of backlighting used by LCDs?

A

LED backlit (MOST COMMON)
- Uses LEDs around the edge of the screen with an array of them behind it
- Used on newer laptops

CCFL - Cold cathode fluorescent lamp (OBSOLETE)
- Higher power requirements
- Thick

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14
Q

What is a digitizer?

A

A type of input device that converts physical touch/analog input to a digital signals (touchscreen for example)

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15
Q

What does a laptops power adapter do, and what component might use it?

A

A power adapter/inverter converts DC into AC power which the laptop can use.
In some older laptops, the backlight may use this power.

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16
Q

What are the characteristics of a TN (twist nematic) display?

A

– Fast response times
– Poor viewing angles (color inversion)
– Less color accuracy

Best for speed, least for color

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17
Q

What are the characteristics of a VA (vertical alignment) display?

A

-Good color representation, not as good as IPS
-Good compromise between TN and IPS

–Slower repsonse times than TN

Good visuals, less performance

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18
Q

What are the characteristics of an IPS (in-plane switching) display?

A

-Best color representation, better than VA
-Wide viewing angles
-Slower repsonse times than TN

-More expensive

Best visuals and less performance at a higher cost

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19
Q

What motherboard components operate in the Northbridge chipset?

A

CPU, memory, PCIe

Most performance aspects determined by this.

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20
Q

On what signal pathway do the CPU and memory communicate?

A

The FSB (front-side bus)

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21
Q

Connected the the Northbridge, what chipset supports slower peripherals (USB, serial ATA, parallel ports)?

A

Southbridge

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22
Q

On a motherboard, what is a data sent through between components?

A

Bus
The wider the bus, the more data that can be processed per unit of time (ex. GHz)

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23
Q

What kind of bus does nearly every board today use?

A

Serial bus

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24
Q

What PCIe link width is most commonly supported?

A

16x

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25
Q

What is virtual memory?

A

A spot reserved on the harddrive to act as additional memory. The swap, or paging file, is called PAGEFILE.SYS in Microsoft OSs.

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26
Q

What is cache memory?

A

Very fast form of memory between the CPU and RAM. It predicts what the CPU will ask for and prefetches the information before being asked.

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27
Q

Whats are the different designations of cache memory?

A

L1, L2, 3
–L1 is the smallest and fastest
–In multi-core processing, each core has its own dedicated L1 and 2 caches
–L3 cache is larger and slower and is usually shared among all cores

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28
Q

What is a PGA socket?

A

Pin-grid array
The socket has holes to receive the pins that are on the CPU.

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29
Q

What CPU socket type utilizes a land-grid array?

A

LGA 1200
The pins are located on the motherboard socket and the lands are on the CPU.

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30
Q

What component uses SATA?

A

Hard drive

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31
Q

What is the main purpose of BIOS?

A

It boots the systems and allows the operating system to ineract with certain hardware in the computer rather than having a driver do it.

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32
Q

What is the successor to BIOS?

A

UEFI
(Unified Extensible Firmware Interface)

Its much more extensible than BIOS

33
Q

What two passwords can BIOS/UEFI set?

A

User password (to boot)
Administrator password (to access settings)

34
Q

What is TPM?

A

Trusted Platform Module
–An extension of BIOS/UEFI that can be configured to only boot to the OS if the boot drive is verified

Swapping hard drives trips this (ex: Bitlocker)

35
Q

If a TPM chip isn’t present, what can be used in its place?

A

HSM (hardware security module) that creates, manages and stores encryption keys

36
Q

What is Secure Boot?

A

It ensure that the PC boots using only software that is trusted by the manufacturer. These signatures can be updated.

37
Q

What is POST?

A

Power-on self-test

38
Q

What troubleshooting step can resolve unrecognized hardware (after installing drivers)?

A

BIOS flash
–Only certain types of hardware benefit from this such as CPU, RAM or drives

39
Q

If you brick the computer during a BIOS update, what can be done?

A

Replace the BIOS/UEFI chip. If this isn’t possible, a motherboard replacement may be necessary.
Most newer systems have proctions in place.

40
Q

What settings does the CMOS store?

A

Date, time, drive and CPU settings, etc.

41
Q

How does CMOS interact with the BIOS?

A

BIOS/UEFI starts with its own default info, then reads info from CMOS

42
Q

What connector is used to power the motherboard?

A

24-pin connector

43
Q

What MB form factor is low-power and small?

A

ITX

44
Q

Whats the primary MB form factor used in desktop PCs?

A

ATX

Includes two form factors: Standard and Micro

45
Q

What USB related security setting can be set in BIOS?

A

USB ports can be disabled in BIOS to protected against viruses

46
Q

What are the two major categories of CPU ISAs (Instruction Set Architecture)?

A

CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing)
RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing)

47
Q

What is the relationship between busses and CPU platforms (x64, x86)?

A

The type of software/OS it can run directly correlates with the width of the bus and CPU. CPUs that are designed to work with 64 bits of data from the bus at a time can run either x64 (64-bit) or x86 (32-bit) versions of Windows, but not vice versa.

48
Q

What platform do 32-bit processors use?

A

x86

This derrived from old Intel CPU naming convention

49
Q

What is the primary type of processor used with RISC?

A

ARM
(Advanced RISC Machine)

It competes against Intel and AMD x64 CPUs

50
Q

Are RISC chips inferior to CISC?

A

Not necessarily. They just do calculations differently. They are also smaller and produce less heat, making them useful in mobile devices.

They do however use more memory because it takes more code to complete a task.

51
Q

What are the functional characteristics of a CPU core?

A

They’re a set of instruction pathways that operates as its own independent processor (ex. multi-core processing).

52
Q

What term defines the speed of a processor?

A

Clock speed

53
Q

How does a quartz crystal (XTL) relate to the speed of a CPU?

A

The vibration of the crystal acts as a system clock which keeps the time for the flow of data on the motherboard (the goal is that bits of data arrive quickly but at the same time across busses).

54
Q

What is the effective clock rate defined as?

A

The use of the system clock by the front-side bus, also known as the FSB speed.

55
Q

Starting with the FSB speed, how is the CPU clock rate calculated?

A

The CPU multiplies the FSB speed/effective clock to produce its own internal clock rate.

56
Q

What is the string of instructions that a CPU runs known as?

A

Thread

57
Q

Hyper-Threading Technology is a trademarked name by Intel that is a form of what?

A

Simultatneous multi-threading (SMT)

Multithreading runs more than one thread at once (surprise!)

58
Q

What is Hyper-Threading Technology (HTT)?

A

A CPU divides up its physical cores into virtual cores that are treated as if they are actually physical cores by the operating system.

59
Q

How can you determine if an LED backlight has failed?

A

Use a flashlight to look closely for a faint display

60
Q

What is the purpose of the CPU cache?

A

To improve performance by predicting then prefetching what the CPU will ask for next.

61
Q

What are the characteristics and of relationship between the L1, L2, and L3 CPU caches?

A
  • L1 – Smallest and fastest
    – In the processor die itself
  • L2 – Larger and a bit slower than L1
    –Each core generally has its own L1 and L2
  • L3 – Largest and slowest
    –Shared between all cores
62
Q

What replaces the two-chip chipsets on newer motherboards?

A

The platform controller hub (PCH)

63
Q

What is the largest and smallest form factor of the ITX family?

A

Largest: Mini-ITX (6.7” x 6.7”)
Smallest: Mobile-ITX (not for PCs, 2.4” x 2.4”)

The ITX form factor is actually a family of 4 varying SFF.

64
Q

T/F: Mini-ITX boards are compatible with ATX cases.

A

True.
The rear interfaces are in the same location as those on an ATX.

65
Q

What are headers?

A

Buttons and lights that are easily accessible by the user. Usually located outside of the case on the top or front (i.e. power button, power LED, USB ports).

66
Q

What is TPM?

A

Trusted Platform Module
A chip installed in a motherboard that seals booted hardware to the system. It prohibits devices from being used after being removed from the system. BitLocker also uses this.

Sealing creates a cryptographic key needed to boot

67
Q

If your motherboard does not have TPM, what can be used instead?

A

HSM (hardware security module)
Creates, manages and securly stores encryption keys. Can be a USB or PCIe device.

68
Q

What is Secure Boot?

A

Security feature designed to prevent malicious software from loading when the system starts. It checks the signatures of files to make sure they haven’t been tampered with and are not unauthorized.

69
Q

What are the different PCIe slot lengths?

A
70
Q

Identify USB 2.0 vs 3.0 headers on a motherboard.

A
71
Q

Identify the ATX power connector.

A

24-pin connector

72
Q

Identify the CPU power connector.

A

2 8-pin connectors. 2nd one is optional for overclocking.

73
Q

Identify the motherboard audio connector.

A

9-pin with one key.

74
Q

What is the data width of DIMM?

A

64-bit
Dual, meaning the electrical contacts are different on each side of the stick.

75
Q

What is the visual difference between DDR3, 4, and 5 memory modules?

A

The placement of the notch

They will only fit in their respectable slot.

76
Q

What is a key characteristic of DRAM (dynamic random access memory)?

A

It must be constantly refreshed, otherwise the memory disappears.

77
Q

What makes SDRAM synchronous?

A

Its synchronized with the clock speed of the system bus. Other components will know exactly when the data will be transferred.

Classic DRAM didn’t wait for a clock signal.

78
Q
A
78
Q

What does DDR stand for?

A

Double Data Rate
Each version increases the maximum amount of RAM possible on a single module.

CompTIA A+ 220-1101 (10 decks)

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