220-1201 Practice Test 4 — 25 Questions

Question 1

A technician is troubleshooting a laptop that shuts down randomly after a few minutes of use. The fan is spinning, and the vents are clear. The CPU temperature reaches 95°C quickly. What is the most likely cause?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

The thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink has dried out.. High CPU temperature despite a spinning fan indicates poor thermal transfer, often due to dried-out thermal paste or a heatsink that is not making proper contact. Reapplying thermal paste and reseating the heatsink is the solution. The fan working rules out a fan failure.

Answer

The fan is running at low speed due to a faulty fan controller.

Answer

The CPU is faulty and needs replacement.

Answer

The BIOS is set to an aggressive power-saving mode.

Question 2

A user reports that their laptop screen suddenly went black, but the laptop is still powered on (fans running, power light on). Connecting an external monitor shows the desktop correctly. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The laptop's LCD inverter or backlight has failed.. The external display working normally indicates the GPU and OS are functional. The black built-in display points to a failure in the LCD panel, backlight, or the display cable (e.g., LVDS/eDP ribbon cable) connecting the motherboard to the screen. A loose or damaged internal cable is a common cause, especially in laptops that have been moved frequently.

Answer

The graphics driver has crashed and needs to be reinstalled.

Answer

The Windows display settings are set to 'Show only on external display'.

Answer

The laptop's RAM is faulty and causing video output issues.

Question 3

A user reports that they cannot send emails from their Outlook client, but they can receive emails. The email server is using standard ports. Which port is most likely blocked on the firewall?

Accepted Answer

25. Port 25 is the default SMTP port used for outgoing email transmission. If a firewall blocks port 25, the Outlook client cannot connect to the SMTP server to send emails, but receiving via POP3 (port 110) or IMAP (port 143) remains unaffected. This matches the user's symptom of being able to receive but not send emails.

Answer

110

Answer

143

Answer

443

Question 4

A technician is troubleshooting a laptop that shuts down randomly after a few minutes of use. The fan is spinning, and the vents are clear. The CPU temperature reaches 95°C quickly. What is the most likely cause?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

The battery. A blinking battery light often indicates a battery or charging circuit error. Since the AC adapter is known to be good, the issue is likely with the laptop's internal battery, the DC jack, or the charging circuit on the motherboard. The battery is the most common failure point.

Answer

The CPU

Answer

The RAM

Answer

The hard drive

Question 5

A technician is troubleshooting a network where users report intermittent connectivity. The technician finds that the switch logs show excessive CRC errors on multiple ports connected to different workstations. What is the most likely cause of these errors?

Accepted Answer

The Ethernet cables are run too close to power cables. CRC errors indicate data corruption at the physical layer, typically caused by electromagnetic interference (EMI) from nearby power cables. Running Ethernet cables too close to power cables induces noise, corrupting frames and causing CRC mismatches at the switch port.

Answer

The switch is configured with the wrong VLAN assignments

Answer

The workstations have duplicate IP addresses

Answer

The switch firmware is outdated

Question 6

A company's multifunction printer supports faxing over VoIP. Users report that faxes are frequently incomplete or fail to send. The fax line is connected to an analog telephone adapter (ATA). What should you check first?

Accepted Answer

Check the ATA's configuration to ensure T.38 fax relay is enabled.. Fax over VoIP is sensitive to jitter and latency. The ATA's settings for fax passthrough (T.38) must be enabled and properly configured. Without T.38, fax data may be corrupted by voice codecs.

Answer

Replace the fax modem card in the printer.

Answer

Increase the printer's print resolution.

Answer

Disable the printer's firewall.

Question 7

A user reports that their Android tablet's screen flickers when using a specific video streaming app, but the screen is stable in other apps and on the home screen. What hardware component is most likely at fault?

Accepted Answer

The video streaming app has a software bug or codec issue.. The screen flickers only within a specific video streaming app, while the home screen and other apps remain stable. This strongly indicates the issue is isolated to software, specifically a bug or codec incompatibility within that app, rather than a hardware failure affecting the entire display or GPU.

Answer

The tablet's display panel is failing.

Answer

The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is overheating.

Answer

The tablet's battery is swollen and pressing on the display.

Question 8

A technician is troubleshooting a DSL connection that keeps disconnecting. The modem shows the DSL light blinking. After checking the phone line, they find a filter is missing on a nearby phone handset. How does this cause the issue?

Accepted Answer

The missing filter allows voice frequencies to interfere with DSL frequencies. DSL operates at frequencies above the voice band (typically 25 kHz to 1.1 MHz for ADSL), while analog phone handsets use the 0–4 kHz range. A missing filter (microfilter) allows the phone handset's impedance changes and noise from voice-band signals to reflect onto the DSL line, causing crosstalk and signal-to-noise ratio degradation. This interference triggers frequent retrains and disconnections, visible as a blinking DSL light.

Answer

The phone handset draws too much power from the line

Answer

The filter is needed to amplify the DSL signal

Answer

The phone handset creates a short circuit without the filter

Question 9

A company wants to allow employees to securely access the corporate network from home using their laptops. Which network service should be deployed to provide encrypted remote access?

Accepted Answer

VPN. C is correct because a Virtual Private Network (VPN) creates an encrypted tunnel between the employee's laptop and the corporate network, typically using protocols such as IPsec or TLS. This ensures that all data transmitted over the public internet is confidential and integrity-protected, meeting the requirement for secure remote access.

Answer

DHCP

Answer

DNS

Answer

Port forwarding

Question 10

A user complains that their laptop frequently disconnects from the Wi-Fi when they move to the conference room, which is 50 feet from the access point through two walls. The network uses 5 GHz. What is the MOST likely cause of the disconnects?

Accepted Answer

5 GHz signals have poor penetration through walls.. The 5 GHz band offers higher data rates and less interference than 2.4 GHz, but it has significantly poorer wall penetration due to its shorter wavelength. At 50 feet through two walls, the signal attenuation is severe enough to cause frequent disconnects, especially if the walls contain dense materials like concrete or metal studs.

Answer

The access point is overloaded with too many clients.

Answer

The laptop's power management settings are turning off the Wi-Fi adapter.

Answer

The conference room has a metal door that blocks the signal.

Question 11

A server administrator reports that a critical server is unreachable from the network. The technician can ping the server's IP address from the local subnet but not from a remote subnet. Which command-line tool should be used to identify where packets are being dropped along the path?

Accepted Answer

tracert. B is correct because `tracert` (or `traceroute` on Linux) uses ICMP Time Exceeded messages to map each hop along the path from source to destination. When a server is reachable locally but not from a remote subnet, `tracert` can pinpoint exactly which router is dropping packets, revealing a routing or firewall issue at that hop.

Answer

ping -t

Answer

netstat -r

Answer

pathping

Question 12

A user reports that their computer cannot connect to a network share. The technician runs ipconfig and sees an IP address of 169.254.1.5. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The DHCP server is unavailable or unreachable. The IP address 169.254.1.5 is an Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address, assigned by Windows when a DHCP discovery fails. This indicates the client could not reach a DHCP server to obtain a valid lease, making the DHCP server unavailable or unreachable the most likely cause.

Answer

The DNS server is not resolving the share name

Answer

The network cable is unplugged or faulty

Answer

The user's account does not have permission to access the share

Question 13

A company deploys a load balancer to distribute traffic across three web servers. Users report that they occasionally see outdated content or are asked to log in repeatedly. Which network service configuration is most likely missing to maintain session persistence?

Accepted Answer

Session persistence (sticky sessions). Session persistence (sticky sessions) ensures that all requests from a given user session are directed to the same backend web server. Without it, the load balancer may distribute requests across different servers, causing the user to see outdated content if one server has stale cached data, or to be asked to log in repeatedly if the session state is stored locally on each server rather than in a shared database.

Answer

DNS round-robin

Answer

DHCP reservation

Answer

Port forwarding

Question 14

A user reports that their VoIP phone works but the PC connected to the phone's passthrough port has no network access. What should the technician check first?

Accepted Answer

The Ethernet cable between the phone and the PC.. This question tests understanding of VoIP passthrough ports. The PC's lack of connectivity is often due to a faulty or unseated Ethernet cable between the phone and PC. The phone itself is working, so the upstream connection is fine.

Answer

The PC's IP configuration.

Answer

The VoIP phone's firmware version.

Answer

The switch port the phone is connected to.

Question 15

A technician is asked to run a new network cable from a patch panel to a cubicle 80 meters away. The cable must support at least 1 Gbps. The technician has Cat6 cable on hand. What is the maximum distance this cable will support for 1 Gbps?

Accepted Answer

100 meters. Cat6 cable is rated to support 1 Gbps Ethernet (1000BASE-T) up to a maximum distance of 100 meters per the TIA/EIA-568 standard. Since the required distance is 80 meters, which is within this limit, the cable will support 1 Gbps. The 100-meter limit includes the combined length of the horizontal cable from the patch panel to the cubicle, plus any patch cords at both ends.

Answer

55 meters

Answer

150 meters

Answer

200 meters

Question 16

A customer reports that their new rural cabin has no cable TV or phone line, but they need a reliable internet connection for remote work. Which connection type would provide the most consistent service without requiring a wired infrastructure?

Accepted Answer

Satellite. Satellite internet is the correct choice because it provides connectivity without any wired infrastructure, relying on a dish communicating with an orbiting satellite. This makes it ideal for remote rural cabins where cable, DSL, or fiber are unavailable, and it offers consistent service independent of terrestrial wiring.

Answer

DSL

Answer

Cable broadband

Answer

Cellular (4G/5G)

Question 17

A client reports that their new 802.11ac laptop cannot connect to the office Wi-Fi, while older 802.11n devices work fine. The access point is a dual-band model. Which of the following is the MOST likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The 5 GHz radio on the access point is disabled.. The 802.11ac standard operates exclusively on the 5 GHz band. While most 802.11ac devices are dual-band and support 2.4 GHz (802.11n/g/b) for backward compatibility, a new 802.11ac laptop might be configured to prioritize or exclusively attempt to connect to the 5 GHz network, or the user might be specifically trying to connect to a 5 GHz SSID. If the access point's 5 GHz radio is disabled, the 802.11ac laptop would be unable to connect to its preferred 5 GHz network. Older 802.11n clients, which can operate on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, would still be able to connect using the 2.4 GHz radio (which must be active since they are working). This scenario makes the disabled 5 GHz radio the most likely cause for the 802.11ac laptop's inability to connect to the expected Wi-Fi service.

Answer

The laptop's Wi-Fi antenna is damaged.

Answer

The laptop's drivers are not compatible with 802.11n.

Answer

The access point is set to 802.11b-only mode.

Question 18

A user complains that their smartphone's battery drains quickly even when idle. You run diagnostics and find the battery health is at 82%. The device is two years old. Which hardware servicing action is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Replace the battery with a new OEM battery.. This question tests battery replacement thresholds. A battery health below 80-85% often indicates significant degradation, causing poor runtime. Replacing the battery restores normal battery life. Software optimization may help but is secondary to hardware replacement.

Answer

Calibrate the battery by fully draining and recharging.

Answer

Update the operating system to the latest version.

Answer

Disable all background apps and notifications.

Question 19

A customer complains that their smartphone's mobile hotspot stops working after a few minutes. They are using a prepaid data plan. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The carrier's prepaid plan restricts hotspot usage or throttles data.. This scenario highlights carrier restrictions on tethering. Many prepaid plans limit hotspot usage or throttle data after a certain amount, causing the hotspot to disconnect or slow down.

Answer

The smartphone's battery saver mode is turning off the hotspot.

Answer

The connected device is out of Bluetooth range.

Answer

The smartphone's Wi-Fi antenna is overheating.

Question 20

A technician is setting up a small office with 15 devices and needs to assign private IP addresses. The router's LAN interface is 10.0.0.1/24. Which of the following is a valid IP address for a workstation on this network?

Accepted Answer

10.0.0.50. (10.0.0.50) is correct because the router's LAN interface is configured with the IP address 10.0.0.1 and a subnet mask of /24 (255.255.255.0). This defines the network as 10.0.0.0/24, which includes usable host addresses from 10.0.0.1 to 10.0.0.254. 10.0.0.50 falls within this valid host range.

Answer

10.0.1.50

Answer

10.0.0.0

Answer

10.0.0.255