220-1101 Practice Test 20 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A technician replaces a failed power supply in a desktop computer. After connecting all components, the computer does not power on. The technician verifies the power supply's AC cord is plugged in and the wall outlet is working. The motherboard has a standby LED that is lit. When the technician presses the power button, no fans spin and no other LEDs light up. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

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

Accepted Answer

Inspect the front panel header connections on the motherboard. The standby LED on the motherboard indicates that the power supply is receiving AC power and is providing standby voltage to the motherboard. Since pressing the power button yields no response (no fans, no LEDs), the most likely cause is a faulty connection between the power button and the motherboard. The front panel header, which includes the power switch pins, is often miswired or loose, preventing the signal from reaching the motherboard to initiate the power-on sequence.

Answer

Replace the power supply with a known-good unit

Answer

Reset the CMOS by removing the battery

Answer

Replace the motherboard

Question 2

A user reports that their Android smartphone's touchscreen is unresponsive in a narrow vertical strip near the left edge of the display. The rest of the screen responds normally to touch. The phone has not been dropped or exposed to moisture, and it functions otherwise normally. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

Digitizer malfunction. The touchscreen digitizer is the layer responsible for detecting touch input. A narrow vertical strip of unresponsiveness, without any physical damage or other display issues, is a classic symptom of a failing or damaged digitizer, not the LCD panel. The LCD panel only handles image display, which is reported as normal.

Answer

LCD panel damage

Answer

Software calibration issue

Answer

Battery swelling

Question 3

A technician installs a new CPU on a compatible motherboard. After applying thermal paste and installing the cooler, the system powers on but immediately shuts down after about 3 seconds. The technician verifies that the CPU fan is spinning and that the power supply is adequate. The motherboard's diagnostic LEDs show no errors before shutdown. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The CPU is not supported by the BIOS version. The system powers on but shuts down after a few seconds, which is a classic symptom of a CPU that is not supported by the installed BIOS version. Even though the motherboard's diagnostic LEDs show no errors before shutdown, the CPU may lack the required microcode, causing the motherboard to fail to initialize the CPU properly and triggering a safety shutdown. The fact that the CPU fan spins and the power supply is adequate rules out basic power or cooling issues, pointing directly to a BIOS compatibility problem.

Answer

The thermal paste was applied too liberally

Answer

The CPU fan connector is plugged into the wrong header

Answer

The power supply's ATX12V connector is loose

Question 4

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop computer that randomly restarts under heavy load, such as during video rendering. Temperature monitoring shows CPU and GPU temperatures are within normal ranges. The power supply unit (PSU) fan is spinning, but the technician suspects power delivery issues. Which tool should the technician use to directly test the PSU's voltage outputs?

Accepted Answer

Power supply tester. A power supply tester (D) is the correct tool because it is specifically designed to measure the voltage outputs of a PSU on each rail (e.g., +3.3V, +5V, +12V) under load conditions, directly verifying if the PSU is delivering stable power. While a multimeter can also measure voltage, it requires the technician to probe live pins while the system is running, which is less safe and does not simulate load as effectively. The power supply tester provides a dedicated, safe, and accurate way to test PSU output without needing to power on the entire system.

Answer

Multimeter

Answer

Loopback plug

Answer

Cable tester

Question 5

A technician connects a new workstation to a switch port that is configured with port security and a maximum of one MAC address. After connecting the workstation, the port link LED remains off. The technician has verified the Ethernet cable is good, the switchport is not administratively down, and the workstation's NIC is functioning. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The workstation's MAC address violates port security, causing the port to error-disable. Port security with a maximum of one MAC address will place the port into an error-disabled state if a MAC address violation occurs, such as when the workstation's MAC address differs from the one already learned or when the port detects a new MAC after the limit is reached. The link LED being off indicates the port is administratively up but not operational, which is consistent with an error-disabled condition caused by a security violation. Since the cable, switchport status, and NIC are verified good, the most likely cause is that the workstation's MAC triggered a port security violation, disabling the port.

Answer

The switchport is configured for a different VLAN than the workstation

Answer

The switch requires a reboot to recognize the new workstation

Answer

The workstation has a duplicate IP address on the network

Question 6

A company uses a private cloud platform to provide development and test environments. Developers frequently need to create new virtual machines (VMs) quickly for various projects. The cloud platform allows developers to provision VMs from pre-configured templates that include the OS and required applications, without any interaction from the IT team. Which cloud computing characteristic does this capability BEST represent?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. The capability described allows developers to provision VMs from pre-configured templates without any IT interaction. This directly aligns with on-demand self-service, a core NIST-defined characteristic of cloud computing where a consumer can unilaterally provision computing resources automatically without requiring human interaction with each service provider.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

Measured service

Question 7

A technician is building a new desktop computer. After installing the CPU, heatsink, and attaching the CPU fan to the motherboard header, the technician connects all power cables. When the system is powered on, the case fans spin and the motherboard LEDs light up, but no display appears and no beep codes are heard. The technician has already verified the monitor works and the video cable is connected to the dedicated GPU. Which of the following should the technician check FIRST?

Accepted Answer

A. Ensure the 8-pin CPU power connector is connected to the motherboard. The system powers on (case fans spin, motherboard LEDs light) but has no display and no beep codes, which indicates the CPU is not receiving power or is not initialized. The 8-pin CPU power connector (EPS12V) supplies dedicated 12V power to the CPU voltage regulator; without it, the CPU cannot execute POST, so no beep codes occur and the system appears dead despite other components receiving power. This is the most likely cause given the technician just installed the CPU and heatsink but may have overlooked this separate power cable.

Answer

B. Reseat the graphics card in its PCIe slot

Answer

C. Check that the RAM modules are installed in the correct slots

Answer

D. Verify the monitor's input source is set correctly

Question 8

A user's iPhone 11 is stuck in a boot loop after an attempted jailbreak. The device repeatedly shows the Apple logo and then restarts. The technician connects the iPhone to a computer; iTunes displays a message that the device is in recovery mode and must be restored. The technician attempts a force restart and tries a different USB cable and computer, but the iPhone remains in recovery mode and enters the boot loop after any restore attempt. Which of the following is the NEXT best step?

Accepted Answer

Perform a DFU restore. The iPhone is stuck in a boot loop after a failed jailbreak, and standard recovery mode restores are failing. A DFU (Device Firmware Update) restore bypasses the bootloader and iBoot, allowing the device to be completely wiped and the firmware reinstalled at the lowest level, which is necessary to recover from a corrupted boot chain caused by the jailbreak attempt.

Answer

Replace the battery

Answer

Replace the logic board

Answer

Update iOS using over-the-air (OTA)

Question 9

A technician relocates a workstation to a different office. The workstation's link light on the NIC is solid green, and the switch port link light is also solid. The workstation shows a valid IP address but cannot ping any other devices on the network, including the default gateway. The technician verifies that the IP configuration is correct and that other devices on the same switch can communicate. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The switch port is configured for a different VLAN. The link lights are solid on both the NIC and switch port, indicating Layer 1 (physical) connectivity is intact. A valid IP address but inability to ping any devices, including the gateway, while other devices on the same switch communicate normally, points to a Layer 2 segmentation issue. The most likely cause is that the switch port is configured for a different VLAN, which isolates the workstation's broadcast domain and prevents it from reaching devices outside that VLAN, including the default gateway.

Answer

The Ethernet cable is faulty

Answer

The workstation has a duplicate IP address

Answer

The subnet mask is incorrect

Question 10

A technician is troubleshooting a workstation that can access internal network resources and the internet, but users report that they cannot browse websites using domain names (e.g., www.example.com). The technician opens a command prompt and successfully pings a public IP address (8.8.8.8), but pinging www.google.com returns 'Ping request could not find host'. The workstation receives IP settings via DHCP. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The DNS server addresses are not being provided by DHCP. The workstation can ping a public IP address (8.8.8.8) but cannot resolve domain names like www.google.com. This indicates that IP connectivity is working, but DNS resolution is failing. Since the workstation receives IP settings via DHCP, the most likely cause is that the DHCP server is not providing correct DNS server addresses, leaving the workstation without a valid DNS resolver.

Answer

The default gateway is misconfigured

Answer

The workstation's firewall is blocking DNS traffic

Answer

The router's NAT is misconfigured

Question 11

A user reports that their workstation can access local network shares and printers but cannot access the internet. The technician pings the default gateway (192.168.1.1) successfully. The technician pings a public DNS server (8.8.8.8) and the request times out. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The router's WAN connection is not functioning. The technician can ping the default gateway (192.168.1.1) successfully, confirming that the workstation's local IP configuration and Layer 2/3 connectivity to the router are correct. However, pinging the public DNS server 8.8.8.8 times out, which indicates that traffic is reaching the router but cannot exit to the internet. This points to a failure in the router's WAN connection (e.g., the modem or ISP link), as the router itself is reachable but cannot forward packets beyond the local subnet.

Answer

Incorrect DNS server configured on the workstation

Answer

The workstation's default gateway is misconfigured

Answer

The workstation's subnet mask is incorrect

Question 12

A technician is building a new PC for a video editor. The motherboard has four DIMM slots, labeled A1, A2, B1, and B2, and supports dual-channel memory. The technician installs two identical 8 GB DDR4 modules. Which of the following slot configurations will provide the BEST memory performance?

Accepted Answer

A1 and B1. (A1 and B1) is correct because dual-channel memory requires one module in each channel. On a typical motherboard with four slots, slots A1 and A2 belong to channel A, while B1 and B2 belong to channel B. Installing one module in A1 (channel A) and one in B1 (channel B) enables dual-channel interleaving, doubling the memory bandwidth compared to single-channel operation, which is critical for video editing workloads that benefit from higher throughput.

Answer

A1 and B2

Answer

A1 and A2

Answer

Any two slots will perform identically

Question 13

A technician sets up a small office network using two unmanaged switches to connect 25 computers. After connecting both switches to the router, the network becomes extremely slow and many computers lose connectivity intermittently. The technician notices that the router's status lights on all ports are flashing rapidly. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

A broadcast storm caused by a network loop. When two unmanaged switches are connected to the same router without any loop-prevention mechanism (such as STP), broadcast frames forwarded by one switch can be received and re-forwarded by the other, creating a network loop. This causes a broadcast storm, where broadcast frames circulate endlessly, saturating the network bandwidth and causing the router's ports to flash rapidly due to the high traffic load. The resulting congestion leads to extreme slowness and intermittent connectivity loss for all devices.

Answer

A faulty router causing packet loss

Answer

DNS server misconfiguration

Answer

Incorrect DHCP scope size

Question 14

After a power outage, a desktop computer will not power on. The PSU fan does not spin, and no LEDs are lit. The technician tests the power supply with a PSU tester; all voltages are within spec. A multimeter reading at the motherboard's power button header shows 3.3V when the button is pressed. The power supply is also confirmed to work when tested in another system. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The motherboard has failed. The motherboard has failed because the PSU passes all voltage tests and works in another system, yet the desktop shows no signs of power (no fan spin, no LEDs) when connected to this motherboard. The 3.3V reading at the power button header indicates the motherboard is receiving standby power and the button is functioning, but the motherboard is not completing the power-on sequence (pulling PS_ON# low) to start the PSU. This points to a failed motherboard, likely a short or damaged power regulation circuit.

Answer

The power supply is still faulty despite the tester showing good voltages

Answer

The power button is faulty

Answer

The BIOS has become corrupted

Question 15

A technician is assembling a new desktop PC with an AMD Ryzen processor on a B550 motherboard. After installing the CPU, cooler, RAM, graphics card, and connecting all power cables, the technician powers on the system. The case fans spin, the motherboard LEDs light up, but there is no video output and no beep codes. The technician has verified that the monitor works with another PC, the graphics card is properly seated and has its power cables connected, and the RAM is installed in the correct slots. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

CPU power connector (8-pin EPS) on the motherboard. The 8-pin EPS12V CPU power connector supplies dedicated power to the processor. If this connector is not plugged in, the CPU will not initialize, resulting in no video output and no beep codes, even though case fans and motherboard LEDs receive power from the 24-pin ATX connector. The B550 motherboard requires this connection for the Ryzen CPU to operate.

Answer

BIOS version compatibility with the CPU

Answer

Power supply unit wattage rating

Answer

CMOS battery voltage