220-1101 Practice Test 50 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A technician installs a new M.2 NVMe SSD into a desktop computer. The system boots into Windows, and the SSD is detected in the BIOS/UEFI. However, the drive does not appear in File Explorer. Which of the following should the technician do FIRST to resolve this issue?

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

Accepted Answer

Initialize the disk in Disk Management. The SSD is detected in the BIOS/UEFI, which confirms the hardware is recognized and the M.2 slot is enabled. The drive does not appear in File Explorer because Windows requires the disk to be initialized (with a partition table like GPT or MBR) and have a volume created before it can be assigned a drive letter and appear in File Explorer. The first step is to open Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) and initialize the disk, which writes a protective partition table and makes the disk available for partitioning and formatting.

Answer

Enable the M.2 slot in the BIOS settings

Answer

Update the chipset drivers

Answer

Format the drive using the command prompt

Question 2

A technician is upgrading a workstation used for graphic design. The user wants to improve application load times and file transfer speeds for large design files. The current system has a single 1 TB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive. The motherboard has an available M.2 slot that supports PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA modes, and two available SATA III ports. Which upgrade will provide the MOST noticeable performance improvement?

Accepted Answer

Add a 500 GB M.2 NVMe SSD and migrate the OS and applications to it. The M.2 NVMe SSD uses the PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, which provides significantly higher sequential read/write speeds (up to 3,500 MB/s) compared to a SATA III SSD (up to 550 MB/s) or a 7200 RPM HDD (around 160 MB/s). By migrating the OS and applications to the NVMe drive, the technician directly reduces application load times and accelerates file transfer operations for large design files, offering the most noticeable performance improvement.

Answer

Replace the hard drive with a 2 TB 7200 RPM hard drive

Answer

Add a second 1 TB hard drive and configure RAID 0

Answer

Add a 1 TB SATA SSD and keep the existing hard drive for storage

Question 3

A user reports that their desktop computer is experiencing very slow network performance. The technician runs a speed test and gets only 10 Mbps download speed, while other devices on the same network achieve 500 Mbps. The technician checks the network adapter settings in the operating system and sees that 'Speed & Duplex' is manually set to '10 Mbps Half Duplex'. Which of the following should the technician do to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Change the Speed & Duplex setting to 'Auto-Negotiation'. The issue is that the network adapter is manually locked to '10 Mbps Half Duplex', which forces a 10 Mbps connection even though the network infrastructure supports much higher speeds. Changing the setting to 'Auto-Negotiation' allows the adapter to automatically negotiate the highest mutually supported speed and duplex mode with the switch or router, restoring the expected 500 Mbps throughput.

Answer

Replace the Ethernet cable with a Cat5e cable

Answer

Update the network adapter driver

Answer

Disable and re-enable the network adapter

Question 4

A technician is setting up a small office network. The ISP provides a modem with a single Ethernet port. The office has 10 computers that all need to share the single public IP address to access the internet. Which of the following devices should the technician connect directly to the modem to allow all computers to access the internet?

Accepted Answer

Router. A router is required to perform Network Address Translation (NAT), which allows multiple devices on a local network to share a single public IP address provided by the ISP's modem. The router connects directly to the modem's Ethernet port and then distributes private IP addresses (e.g., 192.168.x.x) to the 10 computers, translating their outbound traffic to the single public IP. A switch or hub alone cannot perform NAT and would not enable internet sharing without a router.

Answer

Switch

Answer

Hub

Answer

Bridge

Question 5

A user notices that the back cover of their Android smartphone is slightly bulging and the screen is lifting from the frame. The phone still turns on and functions normally. Which of the following actions should the technician recommend FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Power off the phone and replace the battery. The bulging back cover and screen lifting indicate a swollen lithium-ion battery, which is a critical safety hazard. The correct first action is to power off the phone immediately to prevent electrical short circuits or thermal runaway, and then replace the battery to eliminate the risk of fire or explosion.

Answer

Place the phone in a freezer to reduce swelling

Answer

Continue using the phone but monitor the swelling daily

Answer

Use a clamp to press the screen back into place

Question 6

A user reports that their smartphone's GPS is often inaccurate (location is off by several blocks) and the camera app crashes when switching to video mode. The phone has no physical damage and has not been dropped recently. The technician performs a factory reset, but the problems persist. Which of the following components is MOST likely faulty?

Accepted Answer

Main logic board. The main logic board (motherboard) integrates the GPS receiver, camera controller, and other subsystems. A fault here can cause seemingly unrelated issues—like GPS inaccuracy and camera crashes—because the board handles data routing and power distribution for multiple components. Since a factory reset did not resolve the problems, the hardware failure is likely on the logic board itself, not a peripheral module.

Answer

Camera module

Answer

GPS antenna

Answer

Battery

Question 7

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 8

A technician is installing a new power supply unit (PSU) into a desktop computer. The PSU has a 4+4 pin CPU power connector, but the motherboard only has a 4-pin CPU power header. Which of the following steps should the technician take to properly connect the CPU power?

Accepted Answer

Separate the connector into two 4-pin sections and connect one section to the motherboard. The 4+4 pin CPU power connector is designed to be split into two 4-pin sections for compatibility with motherboards that have either a 4-pin or an 8-pin CPU power header. Since the motherboard only has a 4-pin header, the technician should separate the connector and connect one 4-pin section to the header, ensuring proper power delivery to the CPU without overloading or damaging the connector.

Answer

Connect the full 8-pin connector to the 4-pin header

Answer

Use a 24-pin to 4-pin adapter

Answer

Leave the CPU power unconnected because the motherboard can draw power from the 24-pin connector

Question 9

A cloud administrator can log into a web portal at any time, day or night, and immediately provision a new virtual server with the desired resources without having to contact the cloud provider's support team or wait for approval. Which essential characteristic of cloud computing does this scenario BEST describe?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. The scenario describes on-demand self-service because the cloud administrator can provision a virtual server instantly via a web portal without human interaction. This characteristic, defined by NIST SP 800-145, allows users to automatically configure computing resources as needed, eliminating the need for manual approval or support tickets.

Answer

Broad network access

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

Measured service

Question 10

A user's smartphone has a cracked screen. The touch display still works partially, but there are areas where touch is unresponsive. The phone's LCD is intact, with no dead pixels or discoloration. Which component most likely needs to be replaced?

Accepted Answer

The digitizer. The digitizer is the touch-sensitive layer that registers touch input. Since the LCD is intact and displays correctly, the unresponsive touch areas indicate a damaged digitizer, not the display panel. Replacing the digitizer restores full touch functionality.

Answer

The battery

Answer

The LCD panel

Answer

The front-facing camera

Question 11

A user reports that their smartphone's touch screen is unresponsive. The technician observes that the screen is cracked and has visible black spots. The phone still powers on and the physical buttons work. Which of the following components is MOST likely faulty?

Accepted Answer

Digitizer. The digitizer is the layer responsible for converting touch input into electrical signals. A cracked screen with visible black spots indicates physical damage to the digitizer layer, which directly causes unresponsiveness to touch. The LCD display may still function (showing an image) even when the digitizer is broken, which matches the symptom of the phone powering on and physical buttons working.

Answer

LCD display

Answer

Battery

Answer

Motherboard

Question 12

A user reports that their Android smartphone displays 'No SIM card - Emergency calls only' even though the SIM is properly inserted. The technician removes the SIM and inserts it into another compatible phone, where it works perfectly. The technician then inserts a known-working SIM from another phone into the original device, which still shows 'No SIM card.' Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The SIM slot contacts are damaged or dirty. Since the known-working SIM also fails in the original device, the fault is isolated to the device's SIM interface. Damaged or dirty SIM slot contacts can prevent the electrical connection needed for the phone to detect the SIM, even though the SIM itself is functional. This is the most likely cause because the SIM works in another phone and the original phone fails with any SIM.

Answer

The SIM card tray is upside down

Answer

The IMEI number is corrupted in software

Answer

The phone's baseband firmware needs to be updated

Question 13

A technician connects a new workstation to a wall jack in an office. The link lights on both the workstation's NIC and the switch port are solid green. The workstation cannot obtain an IP address via DHCP. The technician manually assigns a static IP address in the same subnet as other working workstations (192.168.1.100/24, gateway 192.168.1.1), but the workstation still cannot ping the gateway or any other device on the network. Other workstations connected to the same switch can access network resources normally. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The switch port has port security enabled, and the workstation's MAC address is not allowed. The solid link lights indicate Layer 1 connectivity is good, ruling out a faulty cable. The inability to obtain an IP via DHCP and the failure to ping the gateway even with a manually assigned static IP in the correct subnet point to a Layer 2 filtering mechanism. Port security on the switch port is the most likely cause, as it would block all traffic from an unauthorized MAC address, preventing DHCP discovery and any subsequent communication, even with a valid static IP.

Answer

The IP address 192.168.1.100 is already in use by another device

Answer

The Ethernet cable is faulty

Answer

The DHCP server has exhausted its IP address pool

Question 14

A technician is troubleshooting a laser printer that produces pages where the toner smudges easily and can be wiped off with a finger. The technician has already replaced the toner cartridge with a new OEM cartridge, but the problem persists. Which of the following printer components is MOST likely causing this issue?

Accepted Answer

Fuser assembly. The fuser assembly is responsible for melting toner particles into the paper fibers using heat and pressure. If the fuser is not reaching the correct temperature or is malfunctioning, the toner will not be permanently bonded to the page, causing it to smudge or wipe off easily. Since replacing the toner cartridge did not resolve the issue, the fuser is the most likely culprit.

Answer

Transfer roller

Answer

Pickup rollers

Answer

Corona wire

Question 15

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop computer in a manufacturing facility. The computer loses network connectivity whenever a nearby floor buffer (motor) is turned on. The link light on the NIC turns off during these events. The technician has already replaced the Ethernet cable with a shielded Cat6 cable and moved the computer to a different electrical circuit. The problem persists. Which of the following should the technician do NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Install a ferrite choke on the network cable.. The floor buffer's motor generates strong electromagnetic interference (EMI) that couples onto the unshielded network cable, corrupting the signal and causing the NIC's link light to turn off. Installing a ferrite choke on the cable suppresses common-mode EMI by acting as a low-pass filter, blocking high-frequency noise while allowing the data signal to pass. Since the technician already replaced the cable with shielded Cat6 and isolated the electrical circuit, the next logical step is to add a ferrite choke to attenuate the remaining conducted interference.

Answer

Replace the network interface card (NIC).

Answer

Change the switch port configuration from auto-negotiation to 100 Mbps full duplex.

Answer

Disable the NIC's power management settings in the operating system.