220-1201 Practice Test 16 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A small business uses a thermal printer for shipping labels. Recently, the labels are printing with missing sections and uneven darkness. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The thermal printhead is dirty or has a dead element.. Missing sections and uneven darkness on a thermal label printer are classic symptoms of a dirty or damaged thermal printhead. A clogged element or debris on the printhead prevents heat from transferring to the thermal paper in specific spots, producing blank bands or faded areas. Cleaning the printhead with an isopropyl alcohol swab, or replacing it if elements are dead, resolves the issue.

Answer

The label roll is loaded upside down.

Answer

The printer's platen roller is worn.

Answer

The label stock is expired.

Question 2

A user reports that their inkjet printer produces output with horizontal white lines through text and images. The printer has been used heavily for months without maintenance. What should you do to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Run the printer's printhead cleaning cycle. Horizontal white lines on inkjet output after months of heavy use without maintenance are a classic symptom of clogged printhead nozzles. Running the printer's built-in printhead cleaning cycle purges dried ink and restores uniform nozzle firing, resolving the streaks. This is the first and most appropriate corrective action before considering hardware replacement.

Answer

Replace the fuser assembly

Answer

Perform a printhead alignment

Answer

Replace the pickup rollers

Question 3

A user reports that their laser printer prints a blank page after every print job. The document itself prints correctly, but an extra blank sheet follows. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The printer driver is set to print a separator page. A separator page is a printer configuration that inserts a blank or informational page between print jobs. If the printer driver is set to print a separator page, it will output an extra page after each job, which matches the symptom of a blank page following every print job. The other options would cause different symptoms, such as poor print quality or jamming.

Answer

The printer has a low toner cartridge

Answer

The fuser is malfunctioning

Answer

The paper size setting is wrong

Question 4

A technician is installing a new network-connected laser printer in a conference room. After connecting the Ethernet cable and power, the printer's control panel shows an IP address of 169.254.3.18. What is the most likely issue?

Accepted Answer

The printer's Ethernet cable is faulty or not connected properly.. An IP address in the 169.254.x.x range is an APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) address, which Windows and many network devices self-assign when DHCP fails. The most likely cause is a physical connectivity problem such as a faulty or improperly seated Ethernet cable, preventing the printer from reaching a DHCP server. Checking and reseating or replacing the cable is the first troubleshooting step.

Answer

The printer is configured with a static IP address.

Answer

The printer's toner cartridge is empty.

Answer

The printer's firmware needs to be updated.

Question 5

A company's network uses a 10.0.0.0/8 private IP scheme. A remote user connects via VPN and gets an IP of 172.16.0.5. They can access the internet but cannot reach internal servers at 10.1.1.50. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The VPN client is using split tunneling and no route to 10.0.0.0/8 is defined.. Split tunneling allows the VPN client to send only traffic destined for specific networks through the VPN tunnel, while other traffic goes directly to the internet. If the VPN configuration does not include a route for the 10.0.0.0/8 network, the client will not send packets for 10.1.1.50 through the tunnel, and they will be dropped or routed to the internet, failing to reach internal servers.

Answer

The internal server's firewall is blocking the VPN IP range.

Answer

The VPN server's DHCP scope is exhausted.

Answer

The user's DNS server is set to a public DNS like 8.8.8.8.

Question 6

A small office has an inkjet printer that produces prints with horizontal white lines across the page. The lines appear in different positions on each print. Which step should the technician take first?

Accepted Answer

Run the printer's printhead cleaning cycle.. Horizontal white lines that appear in different positions on each print are a classic symptom of clogged or dirty printhead nozzles in an inkjet printer. Running the printer's built-in printhead cleaning cycle is the first, least invasive step to clear the blockage. It is the standard initial troubleshooting action.

Answer

Replace the ink cartridges.

Answer

Update the printer driver.

Answer

Replace the printer's fuser.

Question 7

A user reports that their inkjet printer makes a loud grinding noise when printing, and the paper feeds crookedly. Which component is most likely failing?

Accepted Answer

The paper feed rollers.. Crooked paper feeding combined with a loud grinding noise points to mechanical wear in the paper feed path. The paper feed rollers (pickup, separation, and feed rollers) grip and advance paper; when they are worn, glazed, or misaligned, paper skews and the gears driving them grind. This is a classic hardware symptom, not an ink or electronics issue.

Answer

The printhead assembly.

Answer

The ink cartridges.

Answer

The printer's main logic board.

Question 8

A technician is troubleshooting a color laser printer that prints documents with a yellow tint on all pages. The yellow toner cartridge is full, and the other colors are at normal levels. Which component is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The yellow toner cartridge's shutter is stuck open.. A yellow tint on every page with a full yellow cartridge points to excess yellow toner being deposited, which happens when the yellow cartridge's shutter (the mechanical door that should close when the cartridge is not actively imaging) is stuck open. This lets yellow toner continuously transfer to the drum/paper, tinting all output. A full cartridge rules out depletion, and the symptom is uniform rather than calibration-related.

Answer

The fuser assembly is overheating.

Answer

The printer's color calibration is incorrect.

Answer

The printer driver is set to grayscale.

Question 9

A technician is configuring a new PC for a user who runs multiple virtual machines. The motherboard has an AM5 socket. Which CPU feature is most important for this workload?

Accepted Answer

High core and thread count. Running multiple virtual machines simultaneously requires the CPU to handle many concurrent instruction streams, as each VM needs its own virtual cores. A high core and thread count allows the hypervisor to assign dedicated logical processors to each VM, preventing resource contention and maintaining performance. High clock speed or cache alone cannot compensate for insufficient parallel execution resources when multiple VMs are active.

Answer

High clock speed

Answer

Large L3 cache

Answer

Integrated graphics

Question 10

A technician is selecting a CPU for a compact home theater PC (HTPC) that will be passively cooled. Which CPU characteristic is most critical to ensure reliable operation without a fan?

Accepted Answer

Low TDP. Low TDP (Thermal Design Power) is the most critical characteristic for a passively cooled HTPC because it directly determines how much heat the CPU generates under load. A lower TDP means less heat to dissipate, making it feasible to use a fanless cooler. High clock speed, integrated graphics, and large cache are secondary to thermal management in this scenario.

Answer

High clock speed

Answer

Integrated graphics

Answer

Large L3 cache

Question 11

A technician is deploying a new laser printer in a medical office. After installation, the printer prints a test page correctly, but when users print from their workstations, the output is garbled with random characters. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The printer driver is incorrect or corrupt. Garbled output with random characters typically indicates a printer driver mismatch or corruption. The test page prints correctly because it uses the printer's internal fonts and settings, bypassing the driver. When printing from workstations, the driver translates the document into a language the printer understands; if the driver is incorrect, the printer misinterprets the data, resulting in garbled text.

Answer

The printer's network cable is faulty

Answer

The printer's memory is full

Answer

The printer is set to PostScript emulation but the driver uses PCL

Question 12

A customer reports that their new Gigabit Ethernet connection is only achieving 100 Mbps speeds. The cable run is about 75 meters through a drop ceiling. You verify the switch and NIC are both Gigabit-capable. Which cable issue is most likely causing the speed limitation?

Accepted Answer

The cable is a Cat5 cable.. Cat5 cable is only rated for 100 Mbps over distances up to 100 meters. Since the run is 75 meters, the cable itself cannot support Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T), which requires at least Cat5e cabling. The switch and NIC being Gigabit-capable confirms the bottleneck is the cable category.

Answer

The cable is a Cat5e patch cable.

Answer

The cable is a Cat6a cable.

Answer

The cable is a Cat6 cable.

Question 13

A user reports that their smartphone's screen protector has a large bubble in the center and the edges are lifting. They installed it themselves two days ago. What is the most likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The user did not properly clean the screen before installation.. A large central bubble with lifting edges appearing shortly after a self-installation is the classic signature of dust, oil, or debris trapped under the protector because the screen was not properly cleaned. Adhesive cannot bond where contaminants sit, so air and lifting propagate outward from the contaminated area.

Answer

The screen protector is incompatible with the phone model.

Answer

The phone's screen has a manufacturing defect.

Answer

The screen protector is a tempered glass type, which is prone to bubbles.

Question 14

A small office reports that internal users can access the internet but cannot resolve domain names to IP addresses. The DNS server is configured correctly. Which port should be checked on the firewall?

Accepted Answer

Port 53. Port 53 is the standard port for DNS traffic, used for both TCP and UDP. Since internal users can access the internet but cannot resolve domain names, the firewall is likely blocking outbound DNS queries on port 53, preventing the client from reaching the DNS server even though the server itself is configured correctly.

Answer

Port 80

Answer

Port 443

Answer

Port 67

Question 15

A customer reports that their desktop PC randomly shuts down when playing graphics-intensive games, but runs fine during web browsing. The power supply is a 450W unit. What is the most likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The power supply is underrated for the system's peak power draw.. Random shutdowns that occur only under graphics-intensive load strongly indicate the power supply cannot sustain the system's peak power draw. Modern GPUs can spike well above their rated TDP, and a 450W unit is often insufficient once the CPU, GPU, drives, and fans are all under load. During web browsing, power draw stays low, so the PSU never trips its overcurrent or overvoltage protection.

Answer

The CPU thermal paste has dried out, causing overheating only during gaming.

Answer

The graphics card driver is corrupted, causing system instability.

Answer

The motherboard capacitors are failing, causing intermittent power loss.