220-1101 Practice Test 43 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A user reports that their desktop computer intermittently loses network connectivity. The computer uses a USB Wi-Fi adapter. The technician notices that the adapter feels warm during use and the connection drops most often when the computer has been running for a while. Other devices on the same wireless network work fine. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

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

Accepted Answer

The USB port not providing enough power. The USB Wi-Fi adapter feels warm and drops connectivity after prolonged use, which indicates thermal stress from insufficient power delivery. USB ports have a maximum current output (typically 500mA for USB 2.0 or 900mA for USB 3.0), and if the adapter draws more power than the port can supply, the voltage drops, causing the adapter to overheat and disconnect. Other devices on the same network work fine, ruling out wireless interference or network-side issues, and the intermittent nature tied to runtime points directly to power starvation rather than a driver or cable fault.

Answer

Wireless interference from nearby devices

Answer

A faulty USB cable connected to the adapter

Answer

A driver conflict with the Wi-Fi adapter

Question 2

A user reports that their iPhone's battery drains quickly throughout the day. The technician checks the Battery settings and sees that the display is the top consumer at 40%. The user mentions the screen is very bright outdoors. Which of the following settings would MOST effectively reduce battery drain in this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Enable Auto-Brightness.. Enabling Auto-Brightness allows the phone to adjust screen brightness based on ambient light, reducing power consumption when full brightness is not needed. This directly addresses the high display battery usage.

Answer

Turn off Bluetooth.

Answer

Disable Background App Refresh.

Answer

Reduce the screen resolution.

Question 3

A company runs an online retail platform that experiences unpredictable traffic surges during holiday sales events. The cloud architecture must automatically scale resources up within minutes to handle the load and then scale down when traffic subsides to avoid unnecessary costs. Which characteristic of cloud computing is being utilized?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. Rapid elasticity is the cloud characteristic that enables resources to automatically scale up or down in response to demand. In this scenario, the platform needs to handle unpredictable traffic surges within minutes and then scale down to avoid costs, which directly matches the definition of rapid elasticity. This is distinct from on-demand self-service, which focuses on provisioning resources without human interaction, not on automatic scaling.

Answer

On-demand self-service

Answer

Broad network access

Answer

Measured service

Question 4

A technician is troubleshooting a workstation that experiences slow file transfers and occasional timeouts on the local network. The workstation is connected to a managed switch via a Cat5e cable. The technician checks the switch port configuration and finds it is set to 'auto-negotiate'. The workstation's network adapter properties show it is manually configured to '100 Mbps Full Duplex'. Other workstations on the same switch do not experience these issues. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the problem?

Accepted Answer

The switch port is negotiating to half-duplex because the workstation is manually set to full duplex.. The workstation's NIC is manually set to 100 Mbps Full Duplex, while the switch port is set to auto-negotiate. During auto-negotiation, if one side is manually configured, the other side will detect the speed via link pulses but cannot determine the duplex setting, defaulting to half-duplex. This duplex mismatch causes collisions, leading to slow file transfers and timeouts, while other workstations using auto-negotiation on both sides operate correctly.

Answer

The Cat5e cable is damaged or too long.

Answer

The switch port is faulty and needs to be replaced.

Answer

The workstation's NIC driver is outdated or corrupt.

Question 5

A user's smartphone is unable to make or receive calls. The device shows full signal bars but when attempting to place a call, it immediately ends. The technician checks airplane mode and it is off. Which of the following should the technician check FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Check the SIM card.. Full signal bars indicate the device is connected to the cellular network at the RF level, but an immediate call failure suggests the device cannot register with the network for voice services. The SIM card contains the IMSI and authentication keys (Ki) required for network registration; if it is loose, damaged, or not properly seated, the phone will show signal bars from the base station but fail to complete call setup because the network rejects the unauthenticated device.

Answer

Reboot the phone.

Answer

Check the Bluetooth settings.

Answer

Check the Wi-Fi calling settings.

Question 6

A technician is assembling a new gaming PC with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU and a B550 motherboard. After installing the CPU, two DDR4-3600 RAM sticks in slots A2 and B2 (as per manual), and a dedicated GPU, the system powers on but there is no display. The motherboard's CPU debug LED remains lit. The technician has reseated the CPU and checked for bent pins (none found). The PSU is a known-good 650W unit and all fans spin. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

B. The motherboard's BIOS needs to be updated to support the Ryzen 5 5600X.. The Ryzen 5 5600X is based on the Zen 3 architecture, which requires a BIOS version that supports AGESA ComboV2 1.1.0.0 or later. B550 motherboards were originally released with BIOS versions that only supported Zen 2 (Ryzen 3000 series) CPUs. Without a BIOS update, the motherboard cannot initialize the CPU, causing the CPU debug LED to stay lit and preventing any display output, even though all other components appear powered.

Answer

A. The RAM is not on the motherboard's Qualified Vendor List (QVL).

Answer

C. The CPU cooler is mounted too tightly, causing pressure on the socket.

Answer

D. The PCIe power cable for the graphics card is not connected.

Question 7

A network laser printer displays 'Replace imaging drum' on its control panel. The technician installs a new imaging drum, but the next day the message reappears and users report faded prints. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The drum was not reset after installation. The 'Replace imaging drum' message persists and prints are faded because the printer's maintenance counter for the drum unit was not reset after installing the new drum. Most laser printers track drum life via a page count or a rotation counter; replacing the physical drum without resetting this counter leaves the printer believing the old, worn drum is still installed, causing it to continue displaying the warning and potentially reducing toner transfer efficiency, leading to faded output.

Answer

The printer firmware is out of date

Answer

The toner cartridge is low

Answer

The main logic board is failing

Question 8

A technician upgrades a workstation's memory. The motherboard has four DIMM slots and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory. Two 8 GB DDR4-3200 modules are installed in slots A1 and B1. The system boots, detects 16 GB of RAM, but reports the memory speed at 2133 MHz. Which step should the technician take to achieve the rated speed of 3200 MHz?

Accepted Answer

Enable XMP/DOCP in the BIOS. The memory is running at the JEDEC default speed of 2133 MHz, not the rated 3200 MHz. To achieve the higher speed, the technician must enable Intel XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) or AMD DOCP (Direct Overclock Profile) in the BIOS, which loads the manufacturer's overclocking profile for the rated frequency and timings.

Answer

Install the modules in slots A1 and A2 instead

Answer

Replace the modules with DDR4-2666

Answer

Update the motherboard chipset drivers

Question 9

A user's smartphone has a cracked screen. The display still shows images, but the touch input is completely unresponsive. The user needs to back up all data (contacts, photos, app data) before sending the phone for repair. The phone is not rooted, and no prior backup software was configured. Which of the following methods is the MOST reliable and complete way to back up the data in this situation?

Accepted Answer

Use a USB On-The-Go (OTG) adapter to connect a mouse to the phone, navigate to enable USB file transfer, then connect to a computer via USB cable.. A USB OTG adapter allows connecting a mouse to the smartphone, enabling cursor control to navigate the touch interface. This lets the user access settings to enable USB file transfer mode (MTP), after which a computer can read the phone's storage for a full backup of contacts, photos, and app data. Since the screen is cracked but functional, and the phone is not rooted, this method provides complete control without requiring prior backup software.

Answer

Connect the phone to a computer using a USB cable; the computer should automatically detect it as a mass storage device, allowing file access.

Answer

Remove the SIM card and any microSD card, then connect the phone to a computer via USB to access internal storage directly.

Answer

Put the phone in a bag of rice to dry it out, then connect to a computer via USB, as the moisture may block the touch input.

Question 10

A technician is building a PC for a video editor. The motherboard has one PCIe x16 slot and one PCIe x4 slot. The technician installs a high-end graphics card in the x16 slot. The system powers on but displays no video output. The graphics card's fans spin, and the LED on the card lights up. Which of the following should the technician check FIRST?

Accepted Answer

The graphics card's power connectors. The high-end graphics card's fans spinning and LED lighting up indicate the card is receiving power from the PCIe slot, but many modern GPUs require additional power from the PSU via 6-pin or 8-pin PCIe power connectors. If these supplemental power cables are not connected, the card will not output video despite appearing powered on. This is the most common cause of no display with a new GPU installation and should be checked first.

Answer

The BIOS boot order

Answer

The RAM module seating

Answer

The PCIe slot configuration in BIOS

Question 11

A user reports that their desktop computer intermittently loses network connectivity. The computer uses a USB Wi-Fi adapter. The technician notices that the adapter feels warm during use and the connection drops most often when the computer has been running for a while. Other devices on the same wireless network work fine. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

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

Accepted Answer

The hosts file on the computer.. The hosts file on a local computer can override DNS resolution for specific hostnames. Since the computer can ping the server IP (192.168.1.200) successfully, network connectivity is fine, but if the hosts file contains an incorrect or outdated entry for the internal website's hostname, the browser will fail to load the site. Checking the hosts file is the logical next step before investigating DNS or firewall issues.

Answer

DNS resolution for the internal website.

Answer

Firewall settings on the server.

Answer

The default gateway configuration.

Question 12

A user reports that their smartphone's Bluetooth will not enable. When the user taps the Bluetooth toggle in the Quick Settings panel, it briefly turns blue and then immediately turns gray. The phone did not get wet and was not dropped recently. Which of the following should the technician check FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Restart the smartphone. A Bluetooth toggle that briefly turns on then immediately reverts to gray typically indicates a software or firmware state issue, and the first, least invasive troubleshooting step is to restart the smartphone. A reboot clears stuck Bluetooth stack states, resets the radio, and resolves most transient toggle failures. CompTIA's troubleshooting methodology prioritizes simple, non-destructive steps first.

Answer

Replace the battery

Answer

Check for operating system updates

Answer

Reset network settings

Question 13

A technician is replacing a cracked screen on an Android smartphone. After reassembling the device, the phone powers on successfully and the display shows the lock screen with the correct time and background image. However, the touchscreen does not respond to any taps or swipes. The technician has verified that the replacement screen is compatible with the phone model. Which of the following should the technician check FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Reseat the digitizer ribbon cable connector on the motherboard. The touchscreen not responding while the display works correctly indicates a problem with the digitizer, not the LCD. The digitizer ribbon cable connects the touch sensor to the motherboard; if it is loose or improperly seated after reassembly, the touchscreen will not register input. Reseating this connector is the logical first step before considering other components or software resets.

Answer

Reconnect the LCD display cable

Answer

Replace the smartphone battery

Answer

Perform a factory reset from the recovery menu

Question 14

A user reports that their smartphone's battery life has significantly decreased after a recent OS update. The technician observes that location services and background app refresh are enabled. Which of the following should the technician do FIRST to address the issue?

Accepted Answer

Check the battery health status in the device settings. The first step is to check the battery health status in device settings (C) to determine whether the battery is degraded or whether the OS update introduced a software issue. Battery health reveals maximum capacity and peak performance capability, which distinguishes hardware wear from software-related drain. This diagnostic step guides subsequent actions and avoids unnecessary resets or setting changes.

Answer

Calibrate the battery by fully draining it and then charging it to 100%

Answer

Disable all background app refresh settings

Answer

Perform a factory reset of the smartphone

Question 15

A company runs an internal web application on an on-premises virtual server that handles typical daily traffic. During seasonal sales, traffic spikes to ten times the normal volume. The company configures a public cloud service to automatically deploy additional virtual server instances when the on-premises server reaches a certain utilization threshold. These instances connect to the same database and load balancer, and they are terminated when traffic returns to normal. Which cloud architecture does this describe?

Accepted Answer

Cloud bursting. Cloud bursting is the correct answer because it specifically describes a hybrid deployment where an on-premises application 'bursts' into the public cloud when local capacity is exceeded, then scales back down when demand subsides. The scenario's key markers — on-premises primary server, threshold-triggered cloud instance deployment, shared database/load balancer, and termination after the spike — map exactly to the cloud bursting model.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

High availability