220-1201 Practice Test 50 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company deploys a new multifunction printer that supports both USB and network connectivity. The printer is installed in a conference room and must be accessible to all employees on the same subnet. Which connection method should the technician use?

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

Accepted Answer

Connect the printer to the network using an Ethernet cable. This question assesses understanding of connectivity options for shared multifunction devices. A network connection (Ethernet) allows multiple users on the same subnet to access the printer simultaneously. USB is limited to a single directly connected computer.

Answer

Connect the printer via USB to the nearest workstation

Answer

Use a USB-to-Ethernet adapter

Answer

Enable Wi-Fi Direct on the printer

Question 2

A small office has several desktop PCs that are experiencing intermittent blue screen errors, especially when running multiple applications. The IT support team suspects faulty RAM. Which tool should they use to test the memory modules?

Accepted Answer

Windows Memory Diagnostic.. Windows Memory Diagnostic is a built-in tool in Windows that performs a thorough test of installed RAM to detect errors. It can be run from the boot menu or within Windows and is the standard first step for diagnosing memory issues. Other tools like MemTest86 are also common, but Windows Memory Diagnostic is readily available without additional downloads.

Answer

Task Manager.

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CHKDSK.

Answer

System Configuration (msconfig).

Question 3

A user complains that their PC is running slowly, especially when opening multiple browser tabs. The system has 4 GB of RAM installed, and the OS is Windows 10 64-bit. Task Manager shows memory usage consistently at 90-95%. Which upgrade would provide the most immediate performance improvement?

Accepted Answer

Add an additional 4 GB of RAM to bring the total to 8 GB.. With 4 GB of RAM, Windows 10 is likely using most of it for the OS and background processes, leaving little for applications. Upgrading to 8 GB or more will significantly reduce paging to the hard drive and improve multitasking. Adding more RAM is the most effective solution for this symptom, as the system is memory-constrained.

Answer

Upgrade the CPU to a faster model.

Answer

Replace the hard drive with a solid-state drive (SSD).

Answer

Disable the page file to force the system to use only RAM.

Question 4

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop that randomly restarts under heavy load. They suspect the RAM is overheating. What type of RAM cooling solution is most commonly integrated into high-performance memory modules?

Accepted Answer

Heat spreaders (metal fins) on the modules.. High-performance RAM modules often come with heat spreaders—metal fins or covers that dissipate heat from the memory chips. These are passive cooling solutions that increase the surface area for heat dissipation. Active cooling (fans) is less common on standard modules and is usually an aftermarket addition.

Answer

Liquid cooling loops attached to the RAM sticks.

Answer

Small fans mounted directly above the RAM slots.

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Thermal pads that connect RAM to the motherboard heatsink.

Question 5

A small office server uses RAID 5 with three 1 TB hard drives. One drive fails and is replaced with a new 1 TB drive. During the rebuild process, the server becomes very slow and the RAID controller reports an error. What is the most likely cause of the slowdown?

Accepted Answer

The rebuild process is consuming all available disk I/O.. RAID 5 rebuilds require reading data from all remaining drives to reconstruct parity, which consumes significant I/O resources. This can cause performance degradation, especially if the array is in use during rebuild. The error may also indicate a second drive failure or a bad sector.

Answer

The new drive is not the same model as the others.

Answer

The RAID controller is overheating.

Answer

The new drive is not properly seated in the bay.

Question 6

A technician is configuring a RAID 10 array for a database server using four 500 GB SSDs. After setup, the array shows a total capacity of 1 TB instead of 2 TB. What is the most likely reason for this discrepancy?

Accepted Answer

RAID 10 uses half the total capacity for mirroring.. RAID 10 combines mirroring (RAID 1) and striping (RAID 0). With four drives, two mirrored pairs are created, so half the capacity is used for redundancy. The total usable capacity is (number of drives / 2) * drive size, which is 1 TB in this case.

Answer

The RAID controller is faulty.

Answer

The array was accidentally configured as RAID 1.

Answer

The drives are not all the same size.

Question 7

A user reports that their computer is running very slowly and they hear a repetitive clicking sound from the case. The technician checks the SMART status of the primary hard drive and sees a 'Reallocated Sectors Count' value that is critically high. What should the technician do next?

Accepted Answer

Back up all important data immediately.. A high reallocated sectors count indicates the drive is failing and likely to suffer data loss. The priority is to back up critical data immediately, then replace the drive. Continuing to use the drive risks permanent data loss.

Answer

Run a disk defragmentation to improve performance.

Answer

Replace the SATA cable and power connector.

Answer

Disable the paging file to reduce disk activity.

Question 8

A technician is building a workstation for video editing and needs to configure a RAID array for maximum performance without redundancy. The motherboard supports RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10. Which RAID level should the technician choose?

Accepted Answer

RAID 0. RAID 0 stripes data across multiple drives, offering the best read/write performance by utilizing all drives simultaneously. However, it provides no fault tolerance, meaning if one drive fails, all data is lost. This matches the requirement for maximum performance without redundancy.

Answer

RAID 1

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RAID 5

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RAID 10

Question 9

A user's SATA SSD is not detected by the BIOS after a power surge. The motherboard has four SATA ports, and the SSD was previously working on port 0. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The SSD has been corrupted by the surge.. Power surges can damage electronic components. The SSD not being detected in BIOS after a surge points to hardware failure, most likely the SSD itself. Other SATA ports and cables are less likely to be the sole issue.

Answer

The SATA cable is loose.

Answer

The SATA port is disabled in BIOS.

Answer

The motherboard's SATA controller is damaged.

Question 10

A user reports that their external hard drive, formatted as NTFS, is not showing up in Windows Explorer but is visible in Disk Management as 'Not Initialized'. The drive was working yesterday. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The drive's partition table is corrupted.. A 'Not Initialized' status indicates the disk's partition table or signature is missing or corrupted. This often happens due to improper ejection or sudden power loss, causing logical corruption of the disk structure.

Answer

The USB cable is defective.

Answer

The drive needs a new driver.

Answer

The drive has a physical head crash.

Question 11

A technician is configuring a new workstation for video editing. The user needs fast read/write speeds for large project files. Which storage technology should be selected for the primary drive?

Accepted Answer

NVMe M.2 SSD. An NVMe M.2 SSD uses the PCIe interface, offering significantly faster speeds than SATA SSDs or HDDs, ideal for video editing. SATA SSDs are slower, and HDDs are too slow for this workload.

Answer

2.5-inch SATA SSD

Answer

10,000 RPM HDD

Answer

Hybrid drive (SSHD)

Question 12

A user reports that their computer will not boot and displays an 'Operating System Not Found' error. They recently installed a new SATA SSD and connected it to the motherboard. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The boot order in BIOS is not set to the new SSD.. If the boot order is not set to the new SSD, the system may try to boot from another drive or nothing, causing the error. The SSD itself is likely fine, and cables are usually detected if properly connected.

Answer

The SATA cable is faulty.

Answer

The SSD is not compatible with the motherboard.

Answer

The SSD needs to be formatted before use.

Question 13

A client wants to add a second internal hard drive to their desktop for additional storage, but all SATA ports on the motherboard are already used. What is the best solution?

Accepted Answer

Install a SATA expansion card into an available PCIe slot.. An eSATA or SATA expansion card adds more SATA ports via a PCIe slot. USB adapters are slower, and replacing the motherboard is unnecessary. External enclosures are not internal.

Answer

Use a USB-to-SATA adapter and connect the drive externally.

Answer

Replace the motherboard with one that has more SATA ports.

Answer

Use an external hard drive enclosure connected via USB.

Question 14

A customer reports that their external USB hard drive is not recognized when plugged into the front USB ports of their desktop, but it works fine on the back ports. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The front USB ports do not supply enough power.. This question tests knowledge of USB port power delivery and cable length limitations. Front USB ports often share a single internal header and may deliver less power than rear ports directly on the motherboard, causing high-power devices like external hard drives to fail.

Answer

The USB cable is too short.

Answer

The front USB ports are not connected to the motherboard.

Answer

The hard drive is formatted with the wrong file system.

Question 15

A technician is troubleshooting a server that uses a RAID 5 array with three 2 TB HDDs. The array reports 4 TB of usable space. One drive fails. What is the immediate impact on data availability?

Accepted Answer

The array continues to function, but performance may decrease until the drive is replaced.. RAID 5 can tolerate one drive failure without data loss because parity data is distributed across all drives. The array will continue to operate in a degraded state until the failed drive is replaced and rebuilt. A second failure would cause data loss.

Answer

All data is lost because RAID 5 cannot handle any drive failures.

Answer

The usable capacity drops to 2 TB until the drive is replaced.

Answer

The array automatically switches to RAID 0 to maintain performance.