220-1101 Practice Test 45 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A technician runs a new Cat6 Ethernet cable between a switch in the server room and a workstation in an office. The cable run is approximately 120 meters long. The workstation shows a 'Network cable unplugged' error and the switch port LED does not light. The technician confirms the cable is properly terminated with T568B on both ends and the switch port is enabled. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The cable length exceeds the maximum allowable segment length. The maximum segment length for a Cat6 Ethernet cable is 100 meters (328 feet) for reliable 1000BASE-T operation. At 120 meters, the signal attenuation exceeds the IEEE 802.3ab specification, causing the link to fail. The 'Network cable unplugged' error and unlit switch port LED indicate a physical layer issue, which is most likely due to the excessive cable length.

Answer

Electromagnetic interference from nearby power cables

Answer

The switch does not support auto-MDIX

Answer

A poor crimp on one of the RJ45 connectors

Question 2

A user drops their smartphone onto a tile floor. The screen is not cracked and the phone powers on normally. However, the phone can no longer detect any Wi-Fi networks, even though other devices in the same location can. Bluetooth continues to work correctly. Which of the following components is MOST likely damaged?

Accepted Answer

The Wi-Fi antenna. The Wi-Fi antenna is a separate physical component from the Bluetooth antenna in many smartphones, even though they often share the same wireless chipset. A drop can break the tiny solder joints or the antenna trace itself, which would prevent the phone from detecting any Wi-Fi networks while leaving Bluetooth functional because Bluetooth uses a different antenna path. Since the phone powers on and the screen is intact, the impact likely damaged only the dedicated Wi-Fi antenna.

Answer

The NFC chip

Answer

The digitizer

Answer

The baseband processor

Question 3

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?

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 4

A technician replaced the power supply unit (PSU) in a desktop PC. After installation, the system does not power on at all—no fans spin and no LEDs light up. The technician confirms that the PSU is plugged into a known-good wall outlet and the PSU's power switch is in the 'ON' position. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Verify that the front panel power button connector is properly attached to the motherboard header. The most likely cause of a completely dead system after a PSU replacement is a loose or incorrectly connected front panel power button header. The power button connector bridges two pins on the motherboard header to signal the power-on event; if it is not seated properly, the system will not respond to the button press, even with a functional PSU. Since the PSU is plugged into a known-good outlet and its switch is on, the next logical step is to verify this low-voltage signal path before testing the PSU itself.

Answer

Test the PSU with a multimeter to ensure the voltages are correct

Answer

Swap the PSU for a different unit to rule out a defective power supply

Answer

Check the motherboard CPU power connector (EPS12V) for proper seating

Question 5

A user moves their laptop from a conference room to their office and connects the Ethernet cable. The laptop shows a network connection with an IP address of 169.254.22.115 and a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. The user cannot access the internet or any network resources. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The DHCP server is unreachable or failed to assign an IP address. The IP address 169.254.22.115 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0 is an Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address, which Windows assigns when a DHCP server is unreachable or fails to respond. Since the user moved the laptop and connected via Ethernet, the most likely cause is that the DHCP server did not assign a valid IP address, leaving the device with a link-local address that cannot route to the internet or network resources.

Answer

The subnet mask is incorrect

Answer

The network interface card is faulty

Answer

The DNS server address is misconfigured

Question 6

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 7

A technician is upgrading a gaming desktop with a new high-end graphics card that requires additional power. After installing the card and connecting the PCIe power cables from the 500W power supply, the system powers on but there is no display output when the monitor is connected to the graphics card. However, when the monitor is connected to the motherboard's integrated graphics port, the system boots normally. The technician has verified that the graphics card is properly seated and the PCIe power connectors are fully inserted. What is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The power supply does not provide enough wattage for the graphics card. The most likely cause is that the 500W power supply does not provide enough wattage for the new high-end graphics card. High-end GPUs often have a high peak power draw that can exceed the total capacity of a 500W PSU, especially when the rest of the system (CPU, drives, fans) is also drawing power. When the GPU does not receive sufficient power, it may fail to initialize and output a display signal, even though the system powers on and the integrated graphics work fine.

Answer

The graphics card is not fully seated in the PCIe slot

Answer

The monitor cable is faulty

Answer

The motherboard PCIe slot is damaged

Question 8

A technician is troubleshooting a workstation that shuts down randomly after running for 20-30 minutes. The technician has reseated the RAM modules, confirmed the power supply voltages are within specification using a multimeter, and verified that all case fans are spinning. The system has a dedicated graphics card. Which of the following should the technician do NEXT to diagnose the issue?

Accepted Answer

Check the CPU cooler for proper contact and reapply thermal paste. The random shutdown after 20-30 minutes strongly indicates thermal throttling or overheating. Since the technician has already verified power supply voltages and case fan operation, the most likely cause is inadequate CPU cooling due to poor contact between the CPU cooler and the processor or dried-out thermal paste. Reseating the RAM and checking fans would not address a CPU thermal issue, so checking the CPU cooler and reapplying thermal paste is the correct next step.

Answer

Replace the motherboard

Answer

Update the GPU driver

Answer

Disable the onboard network interface card (NIC)

Question 9

A user reports that a laser printer is displaying a 'Paper Jam' error even though no paper is visibly jammed inside the printer. The technician has removed all paper trays and checked the fuser area, rollers, and output bin, but finds no crumpled or stuck paper. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this error?

Accepted Answer

A stuck paper jam sensor. A stuck paper jam sensor can cause a false 'Paper Jam' error because the sensor remains in the triggered position even when no paper is present. The printer's firmware interprets the sensor's state as a jam, halting operation. Since the technician has visually confirmed no paper in all common areas, the sensor itself is the most likely culprit.

Answer

A faulty fuser heating element

Answer

A worn transfer roller

Answer

Outdated printer firmware

Question 10

A technician replaces the digitizer on a smartphone that had a cracked screen and an unresponsive touch area. After reassembly, the touch screen still does not respond in the area where the crack was. The technician has already verified that all flex cable connections to the digitizer are secure. Which of the following should the technician do NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Test the phone with a known-good digitizer. Option C is correct because the technician has already verified that all flex cable connections to the digitizer are secure, yet the touch screen remains unresponsive in the same area. This indicates the replacement digitizer itself may be defective. Testing with a known-good digitizer isolates the issue to the digitizer component versus the phone's main board or software, following a logical hardware troubleshooting process.

Answer

Replace the LCD assembly

Answer

Calibrate the touch screen in the operating system

Answer

Update the phone's firmware

Question 11

A user in a small office reports that their laptop cannot connect to the corporate Wi-Fi network. Other devices in the same area connect without issue. The laptop can connect to the internet when plugged into the wired Ethernet port. The technician checks the wireless adapter status and sees it is enabled and shows available networks, but the corporate SSID is not listed. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The wireless network is configured for 5 GHz only, and the laptop only supports 2.4 GHz.. The corporate SSID is not listed on the laptop, but other devices connect fine, indicating the network exists and is reachable. If the network is configured for 5 GHz only and the laptop only supports 2.4 GHz, the laptop will not see the SSID because it cannot tune to the 5 GHz frequency band during passive or active scanning. This matches the symptom of a missing SSID while the adapter is otherwise functional.

Answer

The laptop's MAC address is not allowed on the wireless network.

Answer

The wireless router is not broadcasting the SSID.

Answer

The laptop's Wi-Fi antenna is disconnected inside the case.

Question 12

A user configures a workstation with a static IP address of 192.168.1.50, subnet mask 255.0.0.0, default gateway 192.168.1.1, and DNS server 8.8.8.8. The workstation can ping other computers on the local network (e.g., 192.168.1.100) but cannot ping the default gateway (192.168.1.1) or access the internet. Other workstations using DHCP on the same network have no issues. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The subnet mask is incorrectly set to 255.0.0.0, causing the gateway to be considered a remote host.. The subnet mask 255.0.0.0 is a Class A mask, which means the network portion is only the first octet (192). This causes the workstation to believe that the default gateway 192.168.1.1 is on a different network (since 192.0.0.0/8 vs. 192.168.1.0/24), so it attempts to send packets to the gateway via ARP to a remote host, which fails because there is no router configured for that path. The workstation can still ping local hosts like 192.168.1.100 because they fall within the same /8 network as per the misconfigured mask, but the gateway is treated as off-subnet, breaking all traffic beyond the local link.

Answer

The default gateway IP address is incorrect; it should be 192.168.0.1.

Answer

The DNS server address is incorrect; the workstation should use a local DNS server.

Answer

The static IP address conflicts with another device on the network.

Question 13

A user recently purchased a new desktop computer that does not have any USB-C ports. The user wants to add USB-C connectivity to charge devices and transfer data. Which of the following expansion cards should the technician install?

Accepted Answer

PCIe USB 3.0 card with USB-C ports. A PCIe USB 3.0 card with USB-C ports is the correct choice because it directly adds USB-C connectivity to a desktop lacking native ports. USB 3.0 (now USB 3.2 Gen 1) supports up to 5 Gbps data transfer and can provide up to 4.5W (0.9A at 5V) for charging, which meets the user's stated need to charge devices and transfer data. The PCIe interface ensures compatibility with the desktop's expansion slot, making this a straightforward upgrade.

Answer

Thunderbolt 3 PCIe card

Answer

eSATA PCIe card

Answer

FireWire (IEEE 1394) PCIe card

Question 14

A technician is upgrading a desktop PC by adding two additional 8GB DDR4-3200 RAM sticks to an existing pair of 8GB DDR4-3200 sticks. After installation, the system powers on but does not POST; the fans spin and the power LED is on, but no display appears. The technician has reseated all four sticks and verified they are fully clicked into place. The original two sticks alone allow the system to boot normally. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The memory controller cannot handle the combined load of four dual-rank modules, causing memory training failure during POST.. The most likely cause is that the memory controller cannot handle the combined load of four dual-rank modules, leading to memory training failure during POST. With four dual-rank sticks, the electrical load on the memory bus increases significantly, which can prevent the system from completing the initial memory training sequence. This is a common issue on consumer platforms where the memory controller is optimized for two modules or single-rank configurations, and the original two sticks alone boot normally because they present a lighter load.

Answer

The new RAM sticks are of a different DDR generation (e.g., DDR3) and are not compatible with the motherboard.

Answer

The motherboard does not support running four memory modules simultaneously; it only supports two modules in dual-channel mode.

Answer

The new RAM sticks are defective, as they do not match the speed of the original sticks.

Question 15

A user reports that their Android smartphone can send and receive text messages (SMS) and browse the internet using the cellular data connection, but cannot send picture messages (MMS) to contacts. Which of the following should the technician check FIRST?

Accepted Answer

APN settings. MMS messages require a specific APN configuration that includes both an MMS proxy and MMS port, which are separate from the standard internet APN settings. Since the user can send SMS and browse the web, the core cellular data connection works, but the missing or incorrect MMS proxy/port values in the APN prevent the phone from establishing the necessary WAP gateway connection for MMS delivery. Checking the APN settings first is the logical step because MMS relies on a dedicated data channel through the carrier's MMS server, not the standard internet APN.

Answer

Data roaming setting

Answer

Message center number

Answer

Wi-Fi calling setting