220-1201 Practice Test 15 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A user complains that their laser printer is printing blank pages. The printer has toner, and the paper feeds correctly. Which component should the technician inspect first?

Accepted Answer

The toner cartridge.. Blank pages from a laser printer with toner usually indicate the toner cartridge's shutter is closed or the drum is not making contact. The toner cartridge is the most common cause and should be inspected first.

Answer

The fuser assembly.

Answer

The pickup rollers.

Answer

The network cable.

Question 2

A technician is configuring a multifunction printer for a legal office that requires all scanned documents to be saved in a searchable PDF format. The printer supports OCR. Which setting must be enabled during the scan job?

Accepted Answer

Enable OCR processing. This question tests knowledge of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) functionality in multifunction devices. OCR converts scanned images into searchable text within a PDF. Without OCR, the PDF would be a non-searchable image.

Answer

Enable duplex scanning

Answer

Set the file format to TIFF

Answer

Increase the scan resolution to 1200 DPI

Question 3

A user's multifunction printer is displaying a 'Replace Fuser' error message, but the technician has a replacement fuser available. After installing the new fuser, the error persists. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The fuser error must be cleared via the printer's menu or software. This question tests understanding of printer maintenance procedures and error reset mechanisms. Many printers require a manual reset or calibration after replacing a consumable like the fuser. Simply installing the part without resetting the error code will not clear the message.

Answer

The new fuser is defective

Answer

The printer was not turned off during replacement

Answer

The toner cartridge is also low

Question 4

A user reports that their laser printer prints fine from Windows, but when they print from a macOS device, the output is garbled with random characters. Both devices are on the same network. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The macOS printer driver is incorrect. Garbled output from one OS but not another typically indicates a driver or PPD issue. macOS uses PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files for laser printers, and an incorrect or missing PPD can cause communication errors. Installing the correct driver for macOS resolves the problem.

Answer

The printer's firmware is outdated

Answer

The network cable is faulty

Answer

The printer is set to the wrong emulation mode

Question 5

A customer complains that their inkjet printer's output has horizontal white lines across the page. The cartridges are new and the printer passes a nozzle check pattern. What should the technician check next?

Accepted Answer

Inspect the paper feed rollers. Horizontal white lines on inkjet output often indicate a paper feed issue, such as dirty or worn feed rollers. The roller's surface can lose traction, causing the paper to feed unevenly and creating gaps. Cleaning or replacing the feed rollers typically resolves the problem.

Answer

Replace the printhead

Answer

Clean the encoder strip

Answer

Update the printer driver

Question 6

A technician is troubleshooting a laser printer that frequently jams paper. The jams occur mostly when printing on both sides (duplex). What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The duplex rollers are worn. Duplex printing requires the paper to be flipped and fed back through the printer, which involves additional rollers and a duplex unit. Worn or dirty duplex rollers are a common cause of jams during duplex operations. Cleaning or replacing these rollers often fixes the issue.

Answer

The paper is too thick for the printer

Answer

The fuser is overheating

Answer

The toner cartridge is low

Question 7

A technician is troubleshooting a laser printer that produces a ghost image of the previous page on the current page. The ghost image appears slightly offset. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The drum's cleaning blade is worn. Ghosting in laser printers is often caused by a worn or damaged cleaning blade on the drum unit. If the drum is not properly cleaned after each rotation, residual toner remains and transfers to the next page. Replacing the drum unit or cleaning blade resolves the issue.

Answer

The fuser temperature is too high

Answer

The toner cartridge is low on toner

Answer

The laser scanner is misaligned

Question 8

A user reports that their inkjet printer prints colors that are significantly different from what appears on the screen. The printer uses cyan, magenta, yellow, and black cartridges. What should the technician do first to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Run the printer's color calibration utility. Color mismatch between screen and print is often due to lack of color management. The printer and monitor use different color spaces (CMYK vs. RGB). Calibrating the monitor and using ICC profiles ensures consistent color reproduction. This is the first step before replacing hardware.

Answer

Replace all ink cartridges with new ones

Answer

Clean the printhead

Answer

Change the paper type to photo paper

Question 9

A technician is setting up a new thermal printer for a retail point-of-sale system. The printer uses direct thermal technology and will print receipts. After connecting the printer via USB and installing the driver, the test page prints, but the text is very faint. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The printhead darkness setting is too low. Faint output on a direct thermal printer is typically due to insufficient heat from the printhead. The printhead's temperature setting or the media's thermal sensitivity may be mismatched. Adjusting the darkness or heat setting in the driver or printer configuration is the correct fix.

Answer

The printer driver is incorrect

Answer

The thermal paper is loaded upside down

Answer

The USB cable is faulty

Question 10

A network printer in a busy law office is shared by 15 users. Several users report that their print jobs are not being output, but the printer shows no error lights and the print queue appears empty. The printer is connected via Ethernet. Which step should be taken first?

Accepted Answer

Restart the print spooler service on the print server. When a network printer appears idle but jobs disappear, the issue is often with the print spooler on the server or client. The spooler may be stalled or corrupted, causing jobs to be lost without error. Checking the print queue on the server and restarting the spooler service is the appropriate first step.

Answer

Replace the network cable

Answer

Power cycle the printer

Answer

Reinstall the printer driver on all workstations

Question 11

A user reports that their color laser printer is producing prints with a repeating vertical black line down the left side of every page. The line appears at regular intervals. Which component is most likely causing this defect?

Accepted Answer

Imaging drum. Repeating marks on laser printer output often indicate a damaged component that rotates, such as the imaging drum or fuser roller. The distance between repeats helps identify the source. A vertical line at regular intervals is characteristic of a scratch or debris on the drum.

Answer

Toner cartridge

Answer

Transfer belt

Answer

Fuser roller

Question 12

A technician is troubleshooting an impact printer that is producing faint characters on multipart forms. The ribbon is new, and the print head is clean. The forms are properly aligned. Which adjustment should be made?

Accepted Answer

Adjust the platen gap to bring the print head closer to the paper. Faint characters on multipart forms with a new ribbon and clean print head indicate insufficient impact force. Impact printers have a platen gap adjustment that controls the distance between the print head and the platen. If the gap is too wide, the pins cannot strike through all layers effectively.

Answer

Increase the print head temperature

Answer

Replace the platen

Answer

Change the paper thickness setting to a thicker setting

Question 13

A technician is setting up a thermal printer for a retail point-of-sale system that prints receipts. The printer uses direct thermal technology. After installation, the receipts are completely blank when printed. The printer feeds paper and makes printing sounds. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The thermal paper is loaded upside down.. Direct thermal printers use heat-sensitive paper; if the paper is loaded upside down, the thermal coating does not contact the printhead, resulting in blank output. The printer still feeds paper and makes noise because the mechanism works, but no image is produced. Other issues like driver or connection problems would typically cause errors or no activity.

Answer

The printer driver is not installed correctly.

Answer

The printhead is dirty and needs cleaning.

Answer

The printer is set to 'thermal transfer' mode instead of 'direct thermal'.

Question 14

A user reports that their laser printer jams frequently, but only when printing on both sides (duplex). Single-sided printing works fine. The technician has inspected the paper and it is within specifications. What is the most likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The duplex unit is misaligned or has a mechanical fault.. Duplex jams often occur because the duplex unit (the mechanism that flips the paper) is misaligned or has a broken gear. Single-sided printing bypasses this unit, so it works fine. Other causes like paper path rollers or fuser issues would typically affect both simplex and duplex printing.

Answer

The paper is too thick for duplex printing.

Answer

The fuser roller is worn out.

Answer

The printer driver is set to 'duplex' incorrectly.

Question 15

A user reports that their virtual machine is running very slowly. The host system has 16 GB of RAM, and the VM is configured with 8 GB. The host is running a Type 2 hypervisor on Windows 10. The technician checks Task Manager and sees that the host is using 14 GB of RAM. What is the most likely cause of the VM's poor performance?

Accepted Answer

The host does not have enough free RAM to support the VM's needs. The host is running low on available RAM because the VM's allocated memory is not being released efficiently, or other host processes are consuming memory. In a Type 2 hypervisor, the host OS manages memory, and if it is oversubscribed, the VM will experience swapping and slowdowns.

Answer

The VM's virtual CPU is overclocked

Answer

The hypervisor is not compatible with Windows 10

Answer

The VM's network adapter is set to NAT instead of bridged