CompTIA A+ Practice Test (220-1101)

USB 3.0, marketed as SuperSpeed USB, introduced a new full-duplex data lane that raised the signaling rate to 5 Gbit/s (about 500 MB/s raw). All earlier standards are slower (USB 2.0 peaks at 480 Mbit/s, USB 1.1 at 12 Mbit/s). USB 3.1 Gen 2 doubles the speed again to 10 Gbit/s, so it is faster than 5 Gbit/s but not the 5 Gbit/s standard in the question. Therefore USB 3.0 is the correct choice.

Duplex printing allows for printing on both sides of a page. By enabling this feature, you can reduce the total number of pages used for a print job. This setting is the most effective way to conserve paper when printing a lengthy document. Single-page printing would use more paper as it only prints on one side, and setting to draft quality would save toner or ink but wouldn't reduce paper use. High-quality printing is not necessary for text documents meant for internal company use, as it would use more toner or ink without reducing the number of pages printed.

The essential step is to confirm that the laptop's motherboard has a slot that supports the protocol used by the high-speed non-volatile memory module. Without the appropriate slot that supports NVMe, installing the module would be futile regardless of other considerations. Checking if there's physical space is important, but the compact nature of the module usually means it will fit in most laptops. BIOS or firmware revisions may be needed for optimization or to address compatibility bugs, but the baseline compatibility still depends on the slot type. Lastly, additional drivers could be needed, but this doesn't directly inform about hardware interface compatibility.

Cleaning the fingerprint reader is the first step in troubleshooting the device as oils and residue from fingers can often interfere with the sensor’s ability to accurately detect fingerprints. Updating the driver or resetting the device settings should only be considered after ensuring the fingerprint reader is clean, as these are more complex steps that may not be necessary. Checking for physical damage to the sensor would be part of a visual inspection and could be done in conjunction with cleaning.

When there's no sound from a projector, but the video display is working, it indicates that the issue may be related to the audio connection or configuration. Checking whether the audio cable is connected properly is a logical next step because loose or weak connections can result in audio loss. If the connection was previously working and has suddenly failed, it's less likely that the projector's audio hardware has failed. Therefore, checking physical connections is preferable over more complex solutions like driver reinstallation or system configuration changes.

Serial ATA (SATA) is used internally by computers to connect hard drives to the motherboard.

ECC memory is most commonly found in servers because a server has a much higher load and fault tolerance requirement than an average computer or device.

IPS technology was developed to overcome the narrow viewing angles and limited color fidelity of TN panels. As a result, IPS displays maintain accurate colors and brightness even when viewed from extreme angles-often rated at 178° horizontally and vertically. TN panels, while faster and cheaper, show noticeable color and contrast shift off-axis. Thus, wider viewing angles are the key advantage of IPS panels over TN.

A community cloud is provisioned for exclusive use by a group of organizations that share similar requirements (for example, industry-specific compliance or security controls). Ownership, management, and location are flexible: the cloud can be on-premises or off-premises and can be run by the community members themselves, a third-party provider, or both. Unlike a public cloud, it is not open to the general public, and unlike a private cloud, it is not dedicated to a single organization. A hybrid cloud simply connects two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (private, public, or community) rather than providing a collective environment for a specific community.

The correct action to take is to replace the print head. The evidence pointing to this action includes poor quality prints despite an error-free self-test printout and unusual noises during operation. These symptoms can be caused by physical wear or damage to the print head, as the print head is the component that impacts the ribbon to transfer ink onto paper. The other options are less likely to cause unusual sounds during printing and are not directly related to the print quality when a self-test printout error is absent.

The 4-pin peripheral ("Molex") connector supplies +12 V on the yellow wire and +5 V on the red wire, with two black grounds. It was the standard power plug for PATA hard drives, optical drives, and some case fans. A 15-pin SATA power connector is used on SATA devices, the small 4-pin Berg connector powers floppy drives, and the 24-pin ATX connector powers the motherboard-none of these are appropriate for PATA or IDE optical drives.

PATA hard drives and optical drives draw power through the legacy four-pin Molex (also called LP4) peripheral connector. This plug provides +12 V (yellow wire) for the motor and +5 V (red wire) for the drive electronics, along with two ground wires. SATA drives use the wider 15-pin SATA power connector, PCIe 6-pin connectors power graphics cards, and the small Berg connector is designed for floppy drives, so none of those would supply the correct power to a PATA optical drive.

A processor with a 1700-land socket requirement must be installed onto a motherboard with a matching socket specification. Hence, the motherboard in the graphic designer's workstation needs to be replaced with one that is compatible with the processor's socket type. Adapters for CPU sockets are not available because CPU socket types are physically distinct, with different pin configurations and cannot be adapted from one type to another. Updating firmware or attempting any form of socket modification will not facilitate a physically different socket type to accept another processor.

Socket AM4 is the correct answer because it is compatible with the latest AMD Ryzen series processors. Making sure the motherboard has the correct socket type is essential to ensure compatibility with the specific model of CPU being installed. Socket types like TR4, FM2+, and LGA 1151 are incompatible with the AMD Ryzen series as TR4 is used for the AMD Threadripper series, FM2+ was designed for older AMD APUs, and LGA 1151 is for Intel's 6th and 7th generation CPUs.

The error 'IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL' typically indicates a problem related to memory access, where a driver or process has attempted to access a memory address without proper access rights. The best initial step in troubleshooting this error is to check the RAM, as faulty or incompatible RAM can often be the cause of this issue. Other options listed may be responsible for other types of crash screens or general system instability, but for the specific IRQL error, the RAM is the most probable cause.

DisplayPort supports the ability to daisy chain multiple monitors through a feature known as Multi-Stream Transport (MST). This allows a series of displays to be connected in sequence with just one cable from the source. DVI and HDMI do not natively support daisy chaining. VGA does not support daisy chaining, as it is an older analog standard.

A DNS server's core job is to take the human-readable domain name (such as www.example.com) requested by a client and return the corresponding numerical IP address. This name-to-address resolution lets the client know where to send packets, enabling web browsing, email delivery, and other TCP/IP communications that rely on IP addressing. The other options describe functions performed by different services: translating MAC addresses to IP addresses is handled by ARP, encrypting web traffic is a role of HTTPS/TLS, and assigning dynamic IP addresses is done by DHCP.

Metered utilization, also known as pay-as-you-go, is the defining characteristic of Public cloud services that allows organizations to optimize operational costs by paying only for the computing resources they consume. This model is cost-effective for enterprises with large-scale, variable workloads, like a multinational enterprise's customer-facing application, as it avoids overprovisioning and minimizes waste. Rapid elasticity, while a beneficial feature for scaling resources according to demand, does not directly contribute to cost optimization. High availability is a common feature across many cloud models and ensures business continuity but is not unique to cost optimization. File synchronization is a feature for data consistency and does not pertain to cost.

Wireless connectivity issues that are erratic and affect multiple users typically indicate an environmental or infrastructure-related problem, strongly pointing to interference from external sources or possibly an overloaded wireless access point (AP). A technician should first check for interference or saturation in the wireless channels being used, which could cause intermittent disconnections, by conducting a site survey to identify the presence of interference from other wireless networks or devices operating on the same channel. Issues specific to hardware or TCP/IP configuration would more likely produce consistent or isolated connectivity failures, rather than widespread and random ones. A firmware upgrade should only be considered if the issue is known to be resolved through such an update.

Integrated GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) or Integrated Graphics is a technology that allows a motherboard to handle graphics generation without a dedicated expansion card with a GPU. Generally this requires that some of your system memory (RAM) be assigned to the GPU instead of the CPU and results in slower performance.