220-1101 Practice Test 3 — 10 Questions

Question 1

A technician is building a new desktop computer. After installing the motherboard, CPU, RAM, and power supply, the technician connects the main 24-pin ATX power cable and the 8-pin EPS12V CPU power cable. When the power button is pressed, the system fans spin briefly and then stop immediately. The motherboard power LED does not light up. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

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

Accepted Answer

The 24-pin motherboard power connector is not fully seated.. The brief spin and immediate stop of the fans, combined with the motherboard power LED not lighting, indicates that the power supply is entering a protection state (overcurrent or short-circuit protection). This is most commonly caused by the 24-pin ATX connector not being fully seated, which prevents the power supply from receiving the proper 'power good' signal from the motherboard, causing it to shut down to protect components.

Answer

The RAM modules are not seated properly.

Answer

The power supply is not connected to the wall outlet.

Answer

The CPU is not supported by the motherboard.

Question 2

A technician is troubleshooting a laser printer that is printing blank pages. The toner cartridge is new and installed correctly. The printer performs its startup cycle normally. Which of the following components should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Transfer roller. The transfer roller applies a positive charge to the paper to attract the negatively charged toner from the imaging drum. If the transfer roller fails, toner is not transferred to the paper, resulting in blank pages even though the printer startup cycle completes normally and a new toner cartridge is installed correctly.

Answer

Fuser

Answer

Pickup rollers

Answer

Imaging drum

Question 3

A network administrator is setting up a wired network for a small office that has 25 workstations, 2 file servers, and a router with 4 LAN ports. The office uses IP-based printers and VoIP phones. The administrator wants to minimize broadcast traffic and improve network performance by separating the workstations from the servers and printers. Which of the following is the BEST solution?

Accepted Answer

Use a single managed switch and configure port-based VLANs. A managed switch with port-based VLANs allows the network administrator to logically segment the workstations from the servers and printers on the same physical switch, reducing broadcast domain size and improving performance. VLANs isolate broadcast traffic to only the ports within the same VLAN, so workstations do not see broadcasts from servers or printers, and vice versa. This solution uses a single switch, which is cost-effective and simple to manage, while meeting the requirement to minimize broadcast traffic without needing multiple routers.

Answer

Connect all devices to a single unmanaged switch

Answer

Connect all devices to a hub instead of a switch

Answer

Use multiple routers to separate networks

Question 4

A technician is building a new workstation with a high-end graphics card. The power supply is 650W 80+ Gold. The system boots and runs normally for basic tasks, but when the user launches a 3D rendering application, the computer shuts down immediately. The technician checks the GPU temperature and it stays below 70°C. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The power supply is insufficient for the GPU under load.. The 650W 80+ Gold power supply is likely insufficient to handle the peak power draw of a high-end graphics card under full 3D rendering load. When the GPU transitions from idle to maximum load, it can draw significantly more current, causing the PSU to trip its overcurrent protection or drop voltage below the ATX specification, resulting in an immediate shutdown. The fact that the system works for basic tasks but fails under load points directly to a power delivery issue, not a thermal or driver problem.

Answer

The GPU drivers are outdated.

Answer

The motherboard BIOS needs an update for the GPU.

Answer

The CPU is overheating.

Question 5

A user wants to synchronize their smartphone's contacts and calendar with their company's Microsoft Exchange server. Which protocol is specifically designed to provide this synchronization?

Accepted Answer

Exchange ActiveSync. Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) is a Microsoft protocol specifically designed to synchronize email, contacts, calendar, tasks, and notes between mobile devices and an Exchange server. It uses HTTP(S) and supports push synchronization, remote wipe, and policy enforcement, making it the correct choice for syncing contacts and calendar with a company's Exchange environment.

Answer

IMAP

Answer

POP3

Answer

SMTP

Question 6

A company hosts its e-commerce application on a public cloud provider. The architecture includes identical virtual server instances in two geographically separate data centers. A global load balancer monitors the health of each data center. If an entire data center becomes unavailable due to a natural disaster, the load balancer automatically redirects all traffic to the remaining healthy data center. The application continues to run without any manual intervention. This capability is BEST described by which cloud characteristic?

Accepted Answer

High availability. High availability (HA) is the correct answer because the architecture uses redundant virtual server instances across two geographically separate data centers with a global load balancer that automatically redirects traffic when an entire data center fails. This design ensures the application remains accessible without manual intervention, which is the defining characteristic of high availability — minimizing downtime through redundancy and automated failover.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

Measured service

Answer

Resource pooling

Question 7

After a RAM upgrade, a PC fails to boot and emits memory beep codes. The technician confirms the modules are the correct generation. What is the best next step?

Accepted Answer

Reseat the RAM and test one module at a time in the recommended slot. Memory beep codes indicate a RAM-related issue, and the most common cause after an upgrade is improper seating or a faulty module. Reseating the RAM and testing one module at a time in the recommended slot (usually slot A2 or DIMM2 per motherboard manual) isolates the problem, ensuring each stick is properly installed and functional before adding more.

Answer

Replace the power button

Answer

Clear all browser cache

Answer

Disable DHCP

Question 8

A user reports that their workstation experiences intermittent network disconnections, often during peak office hours. The technician tests the Cat6 Ethernet cable with a continuity tester; the cable passes all four pairs. The network adapter is set to auto-negotiate and reports a link speed of 1 Gbps when connected. However, after observing the switch port, the technician notices a high number of CRC errors and late collisions. The cable runs through a dropped ceiling and is routed near fluorescent light ballasts. Which of the following should the technician do FIRST to resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

Replace the network cable with a shielded (STP) cable. The high CRC errors and late collisions are classic symptoms of electromagnetic interference (EMI) corrupting the signal, which is consistent with the cable being routed near fluorescent light ballasts. Since the Cat6 cable passes continuity but the errors persist, the issue is noise, not a broken wire. Replacing the unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable with a shielded (STP) cable will protect the signal from EMI, directly addressing the root cause.

Answer

Configure jumbo frames on the workstation and switch

Answer

Replace the network interface card (NIC) in the workstation

Answer

Replace the switch with one that supports auto-MDI/X

Question 9

A company runs a latency-sensitive application on a local server. To handle occasional traffic spikes, the company needs to expand compute resources temporarily without moving the entire application to the cloud. The application runs on a single operating system instance and cannot be easily containerized. Which of the following cloud deployment models BEST allows the company to meet this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Hybrid cloud. A hybrid cloud model allows the company to keep the latency-sensitive application on a local private cloud or on-premises server while temporarily bursting compute resources to a public cloud during traffic spikes. This is achieved through cloud bursting, where additional virtual machines or instances are provisioned in the public cloud and connected to the on-premises environment, without requiring the entire application to be migrated or containerized. The application runs on a single OS instance, so extending resources via hybrid cloud avoids the need for re-architecture while handling peak loads.

Answer

Community cloud

Answer

Public cloud

Answer

Private cloud

Question 10

A technician is troubleshooting a laser printer that produces pages with vertical black streaks down the length of each page. The technician has already replaced the toner cartridge and the imaging drum with new OEM parts. A test page printed from the printer's control panel also shows the streaks. Which of the following printer components is MOST likely causing this issue?

Accepted Answer

Fuser assembly. Vertical black streaks that persist after replacing the toner cartridge and imaging drum indicate a problem downstream of the drum, typically in the fuser assembly. A damaged fuser roller (e.g., a nick, scratch, or melted toner buildup) will transfer a continuous line of toner onto the paper as it passes through the fuser, creating a streak that repeats every page. Since the test page from the printer's control panel also shows the streaks, the issue is hardware-related and not driver or software dependent.

Answer

Transfer roller

Answer

Primary corona wire

Answer

Pickup roller