220-1201 Practice Exam 65 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A customer calls stating that their Android phone's messaging app is not receiving SMS messages from one specific contact, but all other contacts work. The phone has good signal strength. What is the most likely cause?

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

Accepted Answer

The contact's number is blocked in the messaging app.. The most likely cause is that the contact's number has been blocked in the messaging app. Blocking a contact prevents SMS messages from that specific number from being delivered to the inbox, while all other contacts continue to work normally. This matches the symptom of a single contact failing to send SMS, with good signal strength and no carrier-wide issues.

Answer

The phone's SIM card is damaged.

Answer

The messaging app has a corrupted database.

Answer

The carrier is experiencing an outage in the area.

Question 2

A user reports that the multifunction printer is producing copies with a faint vertical line running down the entire page. The line appears in the same position on every copy, but printed documents from a PC do not have the line. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The scanner glass or scanning strip has a scratch or debris.. This question differentiates between scanner and printer issues. Since the line appears only on copies (scan then print) and not on PC prints, the problem is in the scanner assembly. A dirty or scratched scanner glass or a stuck debris on the scanning element causes consistent vertical lines.

Answer

The toner cartridge is defective and needs replacement.

Answer

The printer's fuser unit is damaged.

Answer

The network cable is faulty.

Question 3

A customer brings in an iPhone that is running iOS 15 and complains that a newly released app crashes immediately upon launch. The app requires iOS 16 or later. What is the best solution?

Accepted Answer

Update the iPhone to iOS 16 or later.. The app crashes because it requires iOS 16 APIs and frameworks that are not present in iOS 15. Updating the iPhone to iOS 16 or later provides the necessary runtime environment, resolving the compatibility issue at the system level.

Answer

Reinstall the app from the App Store.

Answer

Restart the iPhone to clear temporary files.

Answer

Download an older version of the app from a third-party site.

Question 4

A user reports that their wireless earbuds produce choppy audio when they walk to the other side of their office, but work fine when near the phone. The office has many metal filing cabinets and concrete walls. Which of the following is the most likely cause of the audio degradation?

Accepted Answer

Physical obstructions are blocking the Bluetooth signal.. Bluetooth signals (typically in the 2.4 GHz ISM band) are highly susceptible to physical obstructions, especially metal filing cabinets and concrete walls, which can absorb or reflect the signal. When the user moves to the other side of the office, the increased distance and these dense materials cause significant attenuation and multipath interference, resulting in choppy audio. The earbuds work fine near the phone because the signal path is clear and short, confirming that the degradation is due to obstruction rather than a device fault.

Answer

The earbuds' battery is low.

Answer

The phone's Bluetooth antenna is weak.

Answer

There is interference from a nearby microwave oven.

Question 5

A technician is troubleshooting a laptop that emits a series of beeps (one long, two short) on startup and displays nothing on the screen. The laptop was working fine until the user installed a new RAM module. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The new RAM module is incompatible with the laptop's chipset. One long and two short beeps is a common BIOS POST code indicating a video or display adapter issue. However, since the problem started after installing RAM, it is likely that the RAM module is incompatible or not seated properly, causing a memory-related POST failure that manifests as a video error code on some systems.

Answer

The laptop's display cable has become disconnected

Answer

The laptop's CMOS battery is dead

Answer

The user accidentally damaged the motherboard when installing the RAM

Question 6

During a BIOS update on a workstation, the power is interrupted, and now the system fails to POST. The motherboard has a backup BIOS chip. What is the most efficient way to recover the system?

Accepted Answer

Switch the motherboard's dual BIOS jumper to the backup position. Many motherboards have a dual BIOS feature where a backup chip stores a factory-default firmware. Switching to the backup BIOS restores functionality without needing external tools. This scenario tests knowledge of BIOS recovery mechanisms and the importance of redundant firmware.

Answer

Replace the motherboard

Answer

Use a USB flash drive with the correct BIOS file and press a recovery key combination

Answer

Remove the CMOS battery for 30 minutes

Question 7

A user's smartphone intermittently drops Wi-Fi connection when the device is moved from one room to another. The home uses a single Wi-Fi router. The technician suspects the issue is related to the device's power management. Which setting should be adjusted to maintain a stable connection?

Accepted Answer

Disable 'Wi-Fi power saving mode' in the advanced Wi-Fi settings.. Disabling 'Wi-Fi power saving mode' prevents the device from reducing radio power or entering low-power states when moving between rooms, which can cause intermittent signal drops. This setting directly addresses the power management behavior that leads to unstable connections during transitions.

Answer

Enable 'Wi-Fi calling' to offload calls to cellular.

Answer

Set the device to 'Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep' to 'Always'.

Answer

Change the Wi-Fi frequency band from 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz.

Question 8

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop that will not boot. The power LED is on, fans spin, but there is no display and no beep codes. The CPU and RAM have been reseated, and the motherboard appears to have power. What should the technician check next?

Accepted Answer

Inspect the CPU socket for bent pins. With power, fans, and no beep codes, the system is likely not completing POST. The most common cause after reseating CPU and RAM is a bent CPU socket pin or a misaligned CPU, which can prevent the system from initializing the processor. This is a common issue on LGA sockets.

Answer

Test the power supply with a multimeter

Answer

Replace the CMOS battery

Answer

Flash the BIOS

Question 9

A customer reports that their laptop connects to the office Wi-Fi but cannot access the internet. Other devices on the same network work fine. What is the most likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The laptop's default gateway address is incorrect. The laptop can connect to the Wi-Fi network but cannot access the internet, while other devices work fine. This points to a client-side configuration issue. The default gateway is the router that forwards traffic from the local subnet to external networks; if the laptop's default gateway address is incorrect, its packets cannot leave the local subnet, breaking internet access while local connectivity remains.

Answer

The laptop's DNS server address is set to a public DNS like 8.8.8.8

Answer

The laptop's IP address is set to a static address in the same subnet as the router

Answer

The office Wi-Fi network is using a different SSID than expected

Question 10

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop that shuts down abruptly after 10 minutes of use. The CPU fan is spinning, but the heatsink feels cool to the touch. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The CPU fan is plugged into a chassis fan header instead of the CPU_FAN header.. When the CPU fan is plugged into a chassis fan header instead of the CPU_FAN header, the motherboard does not detect a fan on the CPU header. Many motherboards have a safety feature that shuts down the system after a short period if no CPU fan is detected, even if the CPU is not overheating. The spinning fan (on the chassis header) may cool the case but does not satisfy the CPU fan detection requirement, leading to an automatic shutdown after about 10 minutes. The cool heatsink confirms the CPU is not overheating, ruling out thermal issues.

Answer

The CPU is not receiving power from the motherboard.

Answer

The thermal paste has been applied too thickly.

Answer

The power supply is failing under load.

Question 11

A technician is setting up a kiosk mode on an Android tablet for a retail display. The tablet will run a single app that customers use to browse products. After enabling kiosk mode via a third-party app, the tablet reboots and the kiosk app does not start automatically. What should the technician verify?

Accepted Answer

The kiosk app is set as the default home screen app.. When kiosk mode is enabled on Android, the device must designate the kiosk app as the default home screen app. This ensures that after a reboot, the Android launcher automatically starts the designated app instead of the system launcher. Without this setting, the tablet will boot to the default home screen, not the kiosk app.

Answer

The tablet is connected to Wi-Fi for app updates.

Answer

The tablet's battery is fully charged.

Answer

The kiosk app is installed on the SD card.

Question 12

A technician is troubleshooting a satellite internet connection that has high latency and frequent disconnections. The dish is installed on a roof with a clear view of the sky. What is the most likely cause of the high latency?

Accepted Answer

The signal has to travel a long distance to the satellite and back.. Satellite internet inherently suffers from high latency because the signal must travel to a geostationary satellite approximately 35,786 km above the equator and back. This round-trip distance of roughly 70,000 km, even at the speed of light, results in a minimum latency of about 240 ms, which is far higher than terrestrial connections. Frequent disconnections can also occur due to atmospheric conditions, but the high latency is a direct consequence of the physical distance the signal must traverse.

Answer

The satellite dish is not grounded properly.

Answer

The modem is outdated.

Answer

There is interference from nearby cellular towers.

Question 13

A user reports that their computer randomly freezes and displays a blue screen error with the message 'MEMORY_MANAGEMENT'. They recently installed a new 8 GB DDR4 module alongside the existing 8 GB module. Both modules are from different manufacturers and have different CAS latencies. What is the most likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The RAM modules have mismatched CAS latencies, causing timing conflicts.. Mixing RAM modules with different specifications, especially CAS latency, can cause timing mismatches that lead to system instability and blue screen errors like MEMORY_MANAGEMENT. The system tries to run both sticks at the same timings, which can fail if the modules are not compatible.

Answer

The new RAM module is defective.

Answer

The RAM is not seated properly in the slot.

Answer

The motherboard does not support 16 GB of RAM.

Question 14

A technician is deploying a new VoIP phone and needs to ensure the Ethernet cable connecting the phone to the wall jack provides sufficient power for the phone to operate. The network switch supports Power over Ethernet (PoE). Which tool can verify that PoE is active on the cable?

Accepted Answer

PoE tester. A PoE tester is specifically designed to detect the presence and voltage of Power over Ethernet on a cable, confirming that the switch is delivering power. Unlike a standard cable tester, it checks for the DC voltage (typically 48V) that powers the VoIP phone, ensuring the phone will operate without needing a separate power adapter.

Answer

Multimeter

Answer

Cable tester

Answer

Loopback plug

Question 15

A customer reports that their laptop screen flickers intermittently, especially when they adjust the lid angle. The image is clear when the screen is at a specific angle but flickers or goes black at others. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The display cable is loose or damaged. The intermittent flickering that correlates with lid angle changes is a classic symptom of a loose or damaged display cable (e.g., LVDS or eDP ribbon cable). As the lid moves, the cable flexes, causing intermittent contact and signal loss, which results in flickering or a black screen at certain angles.

Answer

The LCD panel has a dead pixel

Answer

The video card driver is outdated

Answer

The inverter is failing

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 customer reports that their new printer, configured with a static IP of 192.168.1.100, cannot be accessed from any computer on the network. The technician pings 192.168.1.100 from a workstation and gets no reply. The workstation's IP is 192.168.1.50 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The printer's static IP address conflicts with another device on the network.. The most likely cause is that the printer's static IP address (192.168.1.100) conflicts with another device on the same subnet. When two devices share the same IP, the network becomes unreachable for one or both due to ARP table instability. The ping fails because the workstation's ARP cache may resolve the IP to the wrong MAC address, or the printer may not respond at all if it detects the conflict via gratuitous ARP.

Answer

The printer's IP address is on a different subnet than the workstation.

Answer

The workstation's subnet mask is set to 255.255.0.0.

Answer

The printer's default gateway is misconfigured.

Question 18

A customer reports that their new Cat6a installation passes a cable certifier test but the link only negotiates at 100 Mbps. The cable run is 90 meters and uses standard T568B terminations. What is the most likely cause of the speed limitation?

Accepted Answer

The patch cables are Cat5e instead of Cat6a.. The cable certifier passes because the physical layer (Cat6a cabling) meets specifications for signal integrity and crosstalk. However, if the patch cables connecting the equipment to the structured cabling are Cat5e, they may not support the higher frequencies required for 1000BASE-T (up to 100 MHz for Cat5e vs. 500 MHz for Cat6a). This can cause the link to fall back to 100BASE-TX, which operates at lower frequencies and is more tolerant of the reduced performance of Cat5e patch cables.

Answer

The cable run exceeds the maximum length for Cat6a.

Answer

The switch port is configured for 100 Mbps only.

Answer

The cable is terminated in T568A instead of T568B.

Question 19

A user reports that their laptop cannot connect to the internet, but other devices on the same network work fine. The technician runs ipconfig and sees an IP address of 169.254.12.34 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. What is the most likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The DHCP server is not responding to the laptop's request.. The IP address 169.254.12.34 with a 255.255.0.0 subnet mask is an Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address, assigned by Windows when the DHCP client fails to receive a response from a DHCP server. Since other devices on the same network work fine, the DHCP server is operational, but the laptop's DHCP request is not being answered, likely due to a network connectivity issue between the laptop and the DHCP server or a DHCP client service problem.

Answer

The laptop has a static IP address configured incorrectly.

Answer

The subnet mask is wrong; it should be 255.255.255.0.

Answer

The laptop's network adapter is faulty.

Question 20

A company's network uses a /24 subnet mask. The IT manager asks a technician to configure a new server with a static IP address of 192.168.1.300. The technician knows this is invalid. What is the reason this IP address cannot be used?

Accepted Answer

The octet value 300 exceeds the maximum of 255.. An IPv4 octet must be a decimal value between 0 and 255 inclusive. The value 300 exceeds this maximum, making the address 192.168.1.300 invalid. This is a fundamental rule of IPv4 addressing defined in RFC 791.

Answer

The address is outside the private IP range.

Answer

The address is a broadcast address.

Answer

The address is a network address.