220-1201 Practice Test 32 — 15 Questions

Question 1

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?

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

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 2

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 3

During a deployment of a new multifunction printer, the technician needs to ensure the device can scan documents directly to a shared network folder on a Windows server. Which protocol must be configured on the printer to support this?

Accepted Answer

SMB. This question tests knowledge of network protocols used for scanning to a network folder. SMB (Server Message Block) is the standard protocol for file sharing in Windows environments. FTP or email would require additional services, and SNMP is for management only.

Answer

FTP

Answer

SNMP

Answer

SMTP

Question 4

A technician is troubleshooting a system that experiences random lockups and blue screens. The technician suspects a CPU issue but has already run a stress test without errors. Which diagnostic step should the technician perform next to isolate the problem?

Accepted Answer

Run a memory diagnostic tool like MemTest86. Random lockups and BSODs with a clean CPU stress test point strongly to faulty RAM, since memory errors corrupt kernel data and cause unpredictable crashes that don't reproduce under CPU-only load. MemTest86 boots outside the OS and writes/reads patterns across every address, catching bit flips that a CPU stress test cannot detect. This is the logical next isolation step before swapping hardware.

Answer

Replace the CPU with a known good one

Answer

Update the motherboard BIOS to the latest version

Answer

Check the CPU voltage in BIOS and increase it slightly

Question 5

A user reports that their computer connected to a wall jack works fine, but when they move the computer to a different desk and plug into a different wall jack, there is no network connectivity. The switch port shows no link light. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The wall jack is terminated incorrectly.. The most likely cause is that the wall jack at the new desk is terminated incorrectly, such as a miswired T568A/T568B standard or a broken punch-down connection. Since the computer works at the original jack and the switch port shows no link light, the issue is isolated to the new cabling path, not the NIC or switch configuration. Incorrect termination can cause a physical layer failure, preventing the switch from detecting a carrier signal.

Answer

The computer's NIC is faulty.

Answer

The patch cable is not a crossover cable.

Answer

The switch port is administratively down.

Question 6

A technician is troubleshooting a customer's home network where the desktop PC is wired to the router, but the wireless printer intermittently disappears from the network. The printer is connected via Wi-Fi to the same router. After checking, the technician finds that the printer's IP address is in the 169.254.x.x range. Which network type is the printer attempting to use, and what does this indicate?

Accepted Answer

WLAN with DHCP failure; the printer has self-assigned an APIPA address.. The 169.254.x.x IP address range is reserved for Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA), which a device assigns to itself when it fails to obtain an IP address from a DHCP server. Since the printer is connected via Wi-Fi to the same router, this indicates a DHCP failure on the WLAN, causing the printer to use a self-assigned APIPA address and intermittently disappear from the network.

Answer

Peer-to-peer network; the printer is sharing directly with the PC.

Answer

PAN network; the printer is using Bluetooth.

Answer

Ad hoc network; the printer is connecting directly to the PC.

Question 7

A technician is troubleshooting a PC that will not boot after a power surge. The motherboard has a built-in diagnostic LED that shows a red light near the DRAM slot. The user had recently upgraded the RAM. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The new RAM module is not compatible with the motherboard.. A red LED near the DRAM slot indicates a memory-related issue. After a power surge, the RAM could be damaged, or the new RAM might have been improperly seated. However, since the user recently upgraded, the most likely cause is that the new RAM is not compatible or is faulty.

Answer

The power surge damaged the motherboard's memory controller.

Answer

The power surge corrupted the BIOS firmware.

Answer

The RAM is not seated in the correct slots for dual-channel mode.

Question 8

A user's PC is running very slowly, and the hard drive activity LED is constantly lit even when idle. Task Manager shows 100% disk usage. Which component is most likely failing?

Accepted Answer

Failing hard drive. Constant 100% disk usage with no corresponding high CPU or memory usage is a classic sign of a failing hard drive, often due to bad sectors or mechanical wear. While a slow drive can be caused by malware or fragmentation, hardware failure is the primary suspect in this scenario.

Answer

Insufficient RAM

Answer

CPU overheating

Answer

Malware infection

Question 9

A user reports that their desktop computer's display is very dim, even at maximum brightness settings. The monitor is an older LCD model with a CCFL backlight. What component is most likely failing?

Accepted Answer

The inverter board. The inverter board is responsible for converting DC power from the power supply into the high-voltage AC required to drive the CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) backlight in older LCD monitors. When the inverter fails, the backlight either dims significantly or fails entirely, even though the LCD panel itself may still be receiving a valid video signal and the brightness controls appear to function. This matches the symptom of a very dim display at maximum brightness settings.

Answer

The LCD panel itself

Answer

The video cable

Answer

The power supply unit

Question 10

A technician is setting up a new file server with four 4 TB SATA SSDs. The customer requires maximum read performance and fault tolerance for up to two drive failures. Which RAID level should the technician choose?

Accepted Answer

RAID 6. RAID 6 uses dual parity, which allows the array to survive up to two simultaneous drive failures while still providing read performance improvements through striping. With four 4 TB SSDs, RAID 6 delivers fault tolerance for two failures and better read performance than RAID 1 or RAID 5, matching the customer's requirements exactly.

Answer

RAID 0

Answer

RAID 1

Answer

RAID 5

Question 11

A user reports that their laptop battery no longer charges and the system only runs when plugged in. You test the AC adapter and it outputs correct voltage. Inside the battery, which component is most likely failed?

Accepted Answer

The battery management system (BMS) is faulty.. The battery management system (BMS) is the circuit board inside the battery pack that controls charging, monitors cell voltage and temperature, and communicates with the laptop. Since the AC adapter outputs correct voltage and the laptop runs on AC power, the BMS is the most likely failed component because it can prevent charging even if the lithium-ion cells are healthy. A faulty BMS may stop communicating with the laptop's embedded controller, causing the system to treat the battery as absent or non-functional.

Answer

The lithium-ion cells have degraded.

Answer

The DC jack on the laptop is loose.

Answer

The laptop's motherboard charging circuit is damaged.

Question 12

A technician is upgrading a client's older PC from 8 GB to 16 GB of DDR3 RAM. After installing the new modules, the system boots but only recognizes 8 GB in the BIOS and Windows. The technician has tried reseating the RAM and swapping slots. What should the technician check next?

Accepted Answer

Check if the motherboard supports 16 GB of RAM.. If a system boots but only recognizes half the installed RAM after reseating and slot-swapping, the next logical check is whether the motherboard (chipset) supports the total capacity and the specific module density. Many older DDR3 boards cap at 8 GB or 16 GB depending on chipset and BIOS, and some only support certain densities (e.g., 2Rx8 vs 1Rx8). Verifying the motherboard's maximum supported memory is the correct next step before assuming a faulty module.

Answer

Update the motherboard BIOS to the latest version.

Answer

Verify that the operating system is 64-bit.

Answer

Test each RAM module individually in a known working system.

Question 13

A company's remote employees use VPN to connect to the office network. Recently, some users report that they can connect to the VPN but cannot browse the internet or access internal servers by name, though they can ping internal IP addresses. The VPN is configured to push DNS settings. Which protocol is likely misconfigured on the VPN server?

Accepted Answer

DNS. (DNS) because the users can connect to the VPN and ping internal IP addresses, but cannot resolve hostnames to IP addresses. This indicates that the DNS resolution is failing, which is caused by the VPN server not correctly pushing DNS server settings to the VPN clients. Without proper DNS configuration, clients cannot translate domain names (e.g., internal server names or internet URLs) into IP addresses, even though the network layer connectivity (ping to IPs) works.

Answer

DHCP

Answer

IPsec

Answer

SSL/TLS

Question 14

A technician is troubleshooting a laser printer that produces a '50.1 Fuser Error' message on the display. The printer is in a dusty warehouse environment. What should the technician do first?

Accepted Answer

Power cycle the printer. The '50.1 Fuser Error' on HP laser printers indicates a fuser warm-up or temperature regulation failure, which can be transient — caused by a power fluctuation, a loose connection, or a temporary thermal fault. The first troubleshooting step is always the least invasive: power cycle the printer to clear the transient error and allow the fuser to re-initialize. Only if the error persists should hardware replacement or cleaning be considered.

Answer

Replace the fuser immediately

Answer

Clean the fuser with compressed air

Answer

Update the printer firmware

Question 15

A user complains that their smartphone's screen protector has started peeling off at the edges after a few weeks. They installed it themselves. What is the most likely cause of this problem?

Accepted Answer

The user did not clean the screen properly before installation, leaving dust or oil.. Improper cleaning leaves dust, oil, or debris on the screen, which creates microscopic gaps between the adhesive and the glass. These contaminants prevent full adhesion, causing the edges to lift over time as the protector is subjected to daily handling and temperature changes.

Answer

The screen protector is of low quality and does not fit the device model.

Answer

The smartphone case is too tight and pushes the protector off.

Answer

The device's screen has a factory oleophobic coating that repels the adhesive.