CompTIA exam questions
After a recent power spike, a user upgrades their motherboard. However, every time they try to turn their workstation on, it only crashes and performs a core dump. All hard drives and processors are compatible with the new motherboard. Which of the following symptoms has MOST likely occurred?
A. Fans spin but no power to other devices
B. Missing operating system
C. System only works in Safe Mode
D. Stop error
When installing Windows XP Professional, which of the following file types will the hard drive be formatted to use by default?
A. FAT32
B. CDFS
C. NTFS
D. FAT
A technician needs to securely delete all data from a hard drive containing highly sensitive information. Which of the following is the BEST way to delete the data?
A. Low-level format
B. Manually select and delete the data within the OS
C. Delete the partition and re-format
D. Standard format
Which of the following methods is BEST used to ensure that data on a hard drive cannot be recovered?
A. Overwrite the drive
B. Use a degaussing tool
C. Repartition the drive
D. Format the drive
A technician troubleshoots a broken PC only to find that a strong burning odor is coming from inside the case. Which of the following parts MOST likely experienced a level of electrical burn?
A. PSU
B. Processor
C. CMOS battery
D. Hard drive
Which of the following is the MAXIMUM number of primary partitions that can be created on a hard drive with FAT32?
A. 2
B. 4
C. 6
D. 8
Recently, a user built a new gaming PC and is testing it out by running graphic intensive games. After a short time playing a game, the computer reboots with an error “a thermal event has occurred”. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?
A. Processor is under-clocked
B. Insufficient power to the motherboard
C. Hard drive is overheating
D. Video card is overheating
Jane, a technician, is trying to recover some files for a user from a damaged laptop. Since the Windows installation has been corrupted and does not boot, Jane plugs the drive into a bench system to attempt a recovery. After trying to access the drive on the bench computer, the following message is displayed. “Access Denied. Please Enter Encryption Password.” Which of the following is the reason that this error is displayed?
A. The hard drive is experiencing S.M.A.R.T. failure errors
B. The TPM security chip inside the bench system is not enabled
C. The BIOS of the bench system is out of date
D. BitLocker is being used
A technician just finished replacing the system board of a users laptop. Now, every time the unit attempts to boot into Windows 7, the laptop goes through an automatic restart midway through the OS boot screen process. Which of the following MOST likely needs to be fixed?
A. The optical drive needs to be moved lower in the boot process, below the hard disk.
B. The BIOS version on the motherboard is stock, and needs to be updated to the latest release.
C. The technician forgot to enable the SATA controller in the BIOS.
D. The hard drive operation setting in BIOS needs to be changed from AHCI to IDE.
A technician, Peter, is running a diagnostic program on a laptop when it shuts down after running for 10 minutes. Which of the following should he do before disassembling the laptop?
A. Use compressed air to blow the dust out of all the fans
B. Hard reset the computer and attempt to boot it into the operating system
C. Run CHKDSK on the laptops hard drive
D. Remove the battery and re-run the diagnostic program