220-1101 Practice Test 41 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A technician installs a new M.2 SSD into a desktop computer. The motherboard has two M.2 slots: one labeled M.2_1 (PCIe only) and one labeled M.2_2 (PCIe/SATA). The technician places the SSD into the M.2_1 slot, but the drive is not detected in the BIOS. The SSD is a M.2 SATA drive. Which of the following is the MOST likely reason for the detection failure?

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

Accepted Answer

The SSD is a SATA M.2 drive, but the M.2_1 slot only supports PCIe/NVMe. The M.2_1 slot is labeled as 'PCIe only,' meaning it exclusively supports PCIe-based NVMe SSDs. The installed SSD is a SATA M.2 drive, which uses the AHCI protocol and requires a SATA interface. Since the slot lacks SATA signal lines, the drive cannot be detected during POST.

Answer

The SSD requires a driver to be loaded during POST

Answer

The M.2_1 slot shares bandwidth with a SATA port that must be enabled first

Answer

The motherboard does not support booting from NVMe drives

Question 2

A user's Android smartphone recently got a swollen battery and feels warm to the touch even when not in use. The technician checks the battery health using the built-in diagnostic tool, which reports 'Good'. The user mentions the phone was dropped onto a hardwood floor a few days ago. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

B. The swollen battery and heat generation indicate a physical battery failure, likely caused by internal damage from the drop. The built-in diagnostic tool reports 'Good' because it typically checks electrical parameters (voltage, charge cycles) rather than physical deformation or internal shorts. The drop likely compromised the battery's separator, leading to a thermal runaway risk regardless of software-reported health.

Answer

A

Answer

C

Answer

D

Question 3

A technician replaces the CPU and cooler in a desktop computer. After reassembly, the computer boots but shuts down automatically after about two minutes. The technician enters the BIOS and sees the CPU temperature rapidly climbing to 100°C. The CPU cooler fan is spinning at high speed, and the heatsink is firmly attached. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

The thermal paste application or protective film on the cooler.. The rapid temperature climb to 100°C with the fan spinning at high speed and the heatsink firmly attached indicates that heat is not being transferred from the CPU to the heatsink. The most likely cause is either missing thermal paste or a protective film left on the cooler's base, which acts as an insulator. Checking and reapplying thermal paste or removing the film is the correct next step.

Answer

The CPU voltage settings in the BIOS.

Answer

Whether the CPU is compatible with the motherboard.

Answer

The power supply wattage.

Question 4

A company needs to run a legacy application that requires a specific version of a Linux kernel that is not supported by the current physical server's hardware. The IT team wants to use virtualization to run this application on the existing server. Which virtualization technology would BEST allow this?

Accepted Answer

Full virtualization. Full virtualization allows a guest operating system to run unmodified on top of a hypervisor by abstracting the underlying hardware completely. In this scenario, the legacy application requires a specific Linux kernel version that the physical server's hardware does not support; full virtualization enables the hypervisor to present a virtualized hardware environment that is compatible with that kernel, regardless of the actual physical hardware. Technologies like VMware ESXi or KVM with hardware-assisted virtualization (Intel VT-x/AMD-V) provide this capability without requiring any modifications to the guest OS.

Answer

Paravirtualization

Answer

Containerization

Answer

Emulation

Question 5

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop computer that powers on, but the system emits three long beeps and does not display anything on the monitor. The technician has already reseated the RAM modules in their original slots. Which of the following should the technician do NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Test each RAM module individually, or swap with known good modules. Three long beeps during POST typically indicate a memory (RAM) failure. Since reseating the RAM in the original slots did not resolve the issue, the next logical step is to isolate the fault by testing each module individually or swapping with known good modules. This follows the standard troubleshooting methodology of component isolation before moving to more invasive steps.

Answer

Replace the power supply with a known good unit

Answer

Reseat the CPU and reapply thermal paste

Answer

Clear the CMOS by removing the battery

Question 6

A user reports that the camera on their smartphone takes pictures but all images are completely black, even in well-lit conditions. The camera app does not show any error messages. The flash works, and the front camera functions normally. Which component is MOST likely faulty?

Accepted Answer

Camera sensor. The camera sensor is the component that converts light into an electronic signal to form an image. If the sensor is faulty, it will not capture any light data, resulting in completely black images regardless of lighting conditions. The fact that the flash works and the front camera functions normally isolates the issue to the rear camera sensor itself, not the software or other hardware.

Answer

Camera app software

Answer

Flash LED

Answer

Proximity sensor

Question 7

A technician is replacing a 10/100 Mbps network switch with a new Gigabit switch. After connecting all devices, the technician notices that the link LEDs on several ports are showing amber instead of green. The switch documentation states that green indicates a 1000 Mbps link, and amber indicates a 10/100 Mbps link. All connected devices support Gigabit Ethernet. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The Ethernet cables between the switch and devices are faulty or of poor quality.. The amber link LED indicates that the switch is operating at 10/100 Mbps rather than the expected 1000 Mbps. Since all connected devices support Gigabit Ethernet, the most likely cause is that the Ethernet cables are faulty or of poor quality, as Gigabit Ethernet requires all four twisted pairs (8 wires) to be fully functional, whereas 10/100 Mbps only uses two pairs. A marginal or damaged cable can cause auto-negotiation to fall back to a lower speed.

Answer

The devices are configured for half-duplex, causing auto-negotiation to fail.

Answer

The power supply of the switch is insufficient for all ports.

Answer

The switch is not properly configured for Gigabit mode.

Question 8

Drag and drop the steps for configuring a SOHO wireless router into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

1. Connect router to modem and power on. 2. Connect computer to router via Ethernet. 3. Open browser and enter router IP. 4. Log in with default credentials. 5. Change admin password. 6. Configure wireless SSID and security (WPA2). 7. Save settings.. Initial setup begins with physical connections, then accessing the router, securing admin access, configuring wireless settings, and saving.

Answer

1. Connect router to modem and power on. 2. Connect computer wirelessly. 3. Open browser and enter router IP. 4. Log in with default credentials. 5. Configure wireless SSID and security. 6. Save settings. 7. (Skip changing admin password)

Answer

1. Connect router to modem and power on. 2. Connect computer via Ethernet. 3. Open browser and enter router IP. 4. Log in with default credentials. 5. Configure wireless SSID and security. 6. Save settings. 7. Change admin password.

Answer

1. Connect computer to router via Ethernet. 2. Connect router to modem and power on. 3. Open browser and enter router IP. 4. Log in with default credentials. 5. Change admin password. 6. Configure wireless SSID and security. 7. Save settings.

Question 9

A small office uses a router with a built-in switch and a separate wireless access point. Users on the wired network can access the internet and internal resources, but wireless users cannot access any internal resources. Wireless users can connect to the access point and obtain an IP address in the 192.168.2.0/24 range, while wired users are on 192.168.1.0/24. The router's LAN interface is 192.168.1.1/24, and the access point is connected to the router's switch port and has an IP of 192.168.1.100/24. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The router does not have a route between the two subnets.. The router's LAN interface is on 192.168.1.0/24, and the access point is connected to that same subnet with IP 192.168.1.100/24. Wireless clients receive IPs in 192.168.2.0/24, which is a different subnet. For traffic from 192.168.2.0/24 to reach internal resources on 192.168.1.0/24, the router must have a route between these two subnets. Without that route, the router drops or fails to forward packets, isolating wireless users from internal resources.

Answer

The access point is not configured as a bridge.

Answer

The wireless network encryption is set incorrectly.

Answer

The access point's DHCP server is conflicting with the router.

Question 10

A technician is building a workstation for video editing. The motherboard has four DDR4 DIMM slots and supports dual-channel memory. The technician installs two 16 GB modules in slots 1 and 2, and two 8 GB modules in slots 3 and 4. The system boots and recognizes all 48 GB of RAM, but the memory bandwidth is lower than expected. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The memory is operating in single-channel mode because the capacities per channel are mismatched.. Dual-channel memory requires matched capacities per channel. With 16 GB in slots 1 and 2 (channel A) and 8 GB in slots 3 and 4 (channel B), the total capacity per channel is 32 GB vs. 16 GB. This mismatch forces the memory controller to fall back to single-channel mode, halving the theoretical bandwidth and causing the lower-than-expected performance.

Answer

The RAM modules are not compatible with the motherboard.

Answer

The CPU does not support 48 GB of RAM.

Answer

The BIOS needs to be updated to enable dual-channel mode.

Question 11

A company operates a private cloud using a hypervisor cluster. The administrator wants to ensure that if a physical host server fails, the virtual machines running on that host are automatically restarted on other healthy hosts in the cluster with minimal manual intervention. Which hypervisor feature should the administrator configure?

Accepted Answer

High Availability (HA). High Availability (HA) is the correct feature because it automatically detects a physical host failure and restarts the affected virtual machines on other healthy hosts in the cluster without requiring manual intervention. This is achieved through heartbeat monitoring between hosts and a cluster resource management system that ensures VM availability after a host crash.

Answer

Live Migration

Answer

Fault Tolerance

Answer

Resource Pooling

Question 12

A company hosts a web application on a public cloud IaaS platform. During a promotional event, traffic spikes to five times the normal volume. The cloud platform automatically provisions additional virtual machines to handle the load and then deprovisions them when traffic returns to normal. The IT team does not need to perform any manual intervention. Which essential cloud characteristic does this scenario BEST demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. The scenario describes automatic provisioning and deprovisioning of virtual machines in response to fluctuating demand, which is the defining characteristic of elasticity in cloud computing. Elasticity specifically refers to the ability to dynamically scale resources up and down automatically, often in near real-time, to match workload changes without manual intervention. This goes beyond mere scalability by including the automatic removal of resources when they are no longer needed, which is exactly what the cloud platform does during the promotional event.

Answer

Scalability

Answer

High availability

Answer

Fault tolerance

Question 13

A technician is building a new computer. After installing the CPU, RAM, and a dedicated graphics card, the system powers on (fans spin, power LED on) but there is no display on the monitor. The monitor is connected to the motherboard's integrated video port using an HDMI cable. The motherboard's diagnostic LEDs show a solid white light on the VGA LED. Which of the following should the technician do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Move the monitor cable to the dedicated graphics card's video port.. The system powers on with fans spinning and a VGA LED lit, indicating the motherboard is not detecting a display output. Since a dedicated graphics card is installed, many motherboards automatically disable the integrated video ports. Moving the monitor cable to the dedicated graphics card's video port is the correct first step to establish a display connection.

Answer

Replace the graphics card.

Answer

Reseat the CPU.

Answer

Update the motherboard's BIOS to the latest version.

Question 14

A technician is building a new PC using an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU and an Asus TUF GAMING B550-PLUS motherboard. When powering on, the motherboard's Q-LED indicator shows a solid red light for the CPU. The CPU fan spins, and all other fans and LEDs appear normal. The technician has carefully reseated the CPU and verified there are no bent pins. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the CPU error light?

Accepted Answer

The BIOS version is too old to support the CPU. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is based on the Zen 3 architecture, which requires a BIOS version that supports Vermeer CPUs. The Asus TUF GAMING B550-PLUS motherboard may ship with an older BIOS that only supports Zen 2 (Matisse) processors. A solid red CPU Q-LED indicates the motherboard cannot initialize the CPU, typically due to an incompatible BIOS version. Updating the BIOS to a version that includes support for Ryzen 5000 series CPUs resolves this issue.

Answer

The CPU is not on the motherboard's Qualified Vendor List (QVL)

Answer

The power supply unit is insufficient for the CPU

Answer

The CPU cooler is not making proper contact with the CPU

Question 15

A technician is upgrading a workstation used for video editing. The current configuration includes an M.2 SATA SSD in the only M.2 slot on the motherboard, which supports both SATA and PCIe NVMe devices. The user wants the fastest possible storage performance for large video files. Which of the following upgrades will provide the GREATEST performance improvement without replacing the motherboard?

Accepted Answer

Replace the M.2 SATA SSD with an M.2 NVMe SSD. The M.2 slot on this motherboard supports both SATA and PCIe NVMe devices. Replacing the current M.2 SATA SSD with an M.2 NVMe SSD directly upgrades the interface from SATA (6 Gb/s, ~550 MB/s) to PCIe (up to 4 GB/s for Gen3 x4), providing the greatest performance improvement for large video files without replacing the motherboard.

Answer

Add a second 2.5-inch SATA SSD and configure them in RAID 0

Answer

Replace the M.2 SATA SSD with a larger 2.5-inch SATA SSD

Answer

Install a PCIe SATA controller card and add another SATA SSD