220-1101 Practice Exam 51 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A technician installs an NVMe SSD in a desktop, but the drive is not detected. The motherboard manual states that one M.2 slot supports SATA only. What should the technician do?

Accepted Answer

Move the drive to an M.2 slot that supports PCIe/NVMe. The NVMe SSD requires a PCIe-based M.2 slot to function, as NVMe uses the PCIe bus for communication. The motherboard manual indicates that one M.2 slot is SATA-only, which means it cannot detect or communicate with an NVMe drive. Moving the drive to an M.2 slot that supports PCIe/NVMe resolves the detection issue.

Answer

Disable all USB ports

Answer

Replace the HDMI cable

Answer

Format the drive from the printer control panel

Question 2

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

Accepted Answer

Router. The router is required because it performs Network Address Translation (NAT), which allows multiple devices on the local network to share a single public IP address provided by the ISP. It also routes traffic between the local subnet and the internet, handling both IP address assignment (via DHCP) and packet forwarding. A switch alone cannot translate addresses or route between networks, so it would not enable internet sharing.

Answer

Switch

Answer

Hub

Answer

Modem

Question 3

A technician installs a new high-performance graphics card into a desktop workstation. The card requires two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. The technician connects the appropriate cables from the power supply, but the system fails to POST; the monitor remains black, although all fans spin including the graphics card fans. The technician verifies that the monitor works with another computer and that the card is fully seated in the PCIe x16 slot. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The power supply unit does not have sufficient wattage to support the new graphics card. The most likely cause is that the power supply unit (PSU) does not have sufficient wattage to support the new high-performance graphics card. Even though the fans spin, the card may draw more power under load than the PSU can provide, causing voltage drops or instability that prevent the system from completing POST. A PSU with inadequate total wattage or insufficient amperage on the +12V rail can cause this symptom, as the card requires two 6-pin PCIe connectors (each providing up to 75W) plus up to 75W from the PCIe slot, totaling up to 225W.

Answer

The monitor is not compatible with the graphics card's output resolution

Answer

The PCIe slot is damaged or incompatible

Answer

The BIOS settings need to be changed to enable the new graphics card

Question 4

A technician is troubleshooting a user's desktop computer that intermittently loses network connectivity. The issue occurs only when the building's central air conditioning (HVAC) system turns on. The technician has already replaced the Ethernet cable, the NIC (network interface card), and the switch port. The computer is connected to a surge protector and the power cabling is properly routed. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the intermittent connectivity?

Accepted Answer

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) from the HVAC motor. The HVAC motor generates a strong electromagnetic field when it starts, which can induce current in nearby unshielded Ethernet cables, corrupting the data signal and causing intermittent connectivity. This is a classic example of electromagnetic interference (EMI), and the fact that the issue correlates precisely with the HVAC system turning on, combined with the replacement of the cable, NIC, and switch port, points directly to an external interference source.

Answer

IP address conflict due to DHCP lease expiration

Answer

Faulty switch port

Answer

DNS server unavailability

Question 5

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop computer that will not boot. The CPU cooler fan spins, but the graphics card (GPU) fan is not spinning, and there is no display on the monitor. The power supply was tested in another system and works. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The graphics card is faulty or not receiving power. The CPU cooler fan spinning indicates the motherboard is receiving power and the PSU is functional, but the GPU fan not spinning and no display output point to the graphics card as the most likely culprit. The GPU may be faulty, improperly seated in its PCIe slot, or missing its required auxiliary power connectors (6/8-pin PCIe power cables), preventing it from initializing and producing a video signal.

Answer

The motherboard has a short circuit

Answer

The RAM modules are not seated properly

Answer

The power button is stuck

Question 6

A technician installs a new M.2 NVMe SSD into a desktop computer. The drive is detected in the system BIOS, but it does not appear in Windows Disk Management. The technician has verified that the correct driver is installed and the SATA controller mode is set to AHCI. Which of the following should the technician do NEXT to make the drive available in Windows?

Accepted Answer

Initialize the disk in Disk Management.. The M.2 NVMe SSD is detected in BIOS but not in Windows Disk Management, which indicates the drive is recognized at the hardware level but lacks a partition structure or volume. The correct next step is to initialize the disk in Disk Management, which writes a master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) to the drive, making it visible and ready for partitioning and formatting.

Answer

Update the motherboard chipset drivers.

Answer

Enable the M.2 slot in the Device Manager.

Answer

Change the SATA mode to RAID in the BIOS.

Question 7

A technician is upgrading a desktop computer with a high-end graphics card that requires an 8-pin PCIe power connector. The existing power supply unit (PSU) only has 6-pin PCIe connectors available. Which adapter should the technician use to safely provide power to the new graphics card?

Accepted Answer

6-pin to 8-pin PCIe. The correct adapter is a 6-pin to 8-pin PCIe adapter because the existing PSU already provides a 6-pin PCIe power connector, which shares the same +12V and ground pinout as the 8-pin PCIe connector but with fewer sense pins. This adapter simply adds the two extra pins (typically ground and a sense pin) to meet the 8-pin connector's physical and electrical requirements, allowing the high-end graphics card to draw up to 150W safely.

Answer

Molex to 8-pin PCIe

Answer

SATA to 8-pin PCIe

Answer

4-pin to 8-pin ATX

Question 8

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop computer that fails to boot after a power surge during a thunderstorm. The computer's power LED illuminates briefly when the power button is pressed, but then nothing happens. The technician has tested the power supply with a multimeter and it outputs correct voltages. Which of the following components is MOST likely damaged?

Accepted Answer

Motherboard. (Motherboard). Even though the power supply outputs correct voltages under multimeter testing, a power surge can damage the motherboard's voltage regulation modules (VRMs) or power management IC, preventing the system from completing the POST sequence. The brief power LED illumination indicates the PSU is functional, but the motherboard fails to sustain the boot process, which is a classic symptom of motherboard damage from a surge.

Answer

CPU

Answer

RAM

Answer

Hard drive

Question 9

A user reports that their network printer is not responding to print jobs sent from their Windows workstation. The technician can successfully ping the printer's IP address (192.168.1.50) from the user's computer. The printer's web interface shows it is online and ready. The technician checks the print queue on the workstation and sees documents stuck with an 'Access Denied' error. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Verify printer permissions and ensure the correct driver is installed.. The 'Access Denied' error in the print queue indicates a permissions or driver mismatch issue, not a connectivity problem. Since the printer is reachable via ping and its web interface shows it is online, the network and printer hardware are functional. The next logical step is to verify that the user has the necessary permissions to print and that the correct printer driver is installed, as an incompatible or corrupted driver can cause access errors.

Answer

Replace the Ethernet cable connecting the printer.

Answer

Restart the Windows Print Spooler service.

Answer

Assign a static IP address to the printer.

Question 10

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 11

A company runs its customer-facing web application on a public cloud platform. The application experiences dramatic traffic spikes during promotional events. The cloud platform automatically increases the number of virtual server instances during high demand and reduces them when demand subsides. The company only pays for the compute resources consumed during the billing cycle. Which cloud computing characteristic does this configuration BEST exemplify?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. The scenario describes the cloud platform automatically scaling virtual server instances up and down in response to traffic spikes, which is the defining characteristic of rapid elasticity. This allows the company to provision and release compute resources dynamically, paying only for what is used, which is a core benefit of cloud computing.

Answer

On-demand self-service

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

Measured service

Question 12

A technician is installing a 2.5" SATA SSD in a desktop computer that already has an M.2 SATA SSD installed in the primary M.2 slot. After connecting the SATA SSD to a SATA port, the computer boots normally but the new SATA SSD is not detected in Windows. The technician verifies the SATA cable is secure and the drive has power. The motherboard manual shows that the M.2 slot shares bandwidth with SATA port 5. The technician has connected the new drive to SATA port 3. Which of the following should the technician do NEXT to resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

Check Windows Disk Management to initialize and format the new drive.. The new SATA SSD is not detected in Windows, but the technician has already verified the cable is secure and the drive has power. Since the drive is connected to SATA port 3, which does not share bandwidth with the M.2 slot (only SATA port 5 does), the issue is likely that the drive is simply not initialized or formatted. The next logical step is to check Windows Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) to see if the drive appears there and needs to be brought online, initialized, or formatted.

Answer

Move the SATA SSD to SATA port 5 to avoid potential bandwidth conflicts.

Answer

Disable the M.2 SSD in the BIOS to free up bandwidth for the SATA port.

Answer

Replace the SATA cable with a known-good cable.

Question 13

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 14

A technician is configuring a small office network with a managed switch. The network has two VLANs: VLAN 10 for workstations (192.168.10.0/24) and VLAN 20 for servers (192.168.20.0/24). The switch ports for workstations are set to access mode and assigned to VLAN 10. The server ports are also set to access mode and assigned to VLAN 20. The router is connected to one of the switch ports and is configured with subinterfaces (192.168.10.1 on VLAN 10 and 192.168.20.1 on VLAN 20) to route between VLANs. A workstation on VLAN 10 cannot ping a server on VLAN 20. The workstation can ping other workstations on VLAN 10. The technician has verified the router subinterfaces are configured correctly. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the problem?

Accepted Answer

B. The workstation can ping other workstations on VLAN 10, confirming Layer 2 connectivity within the VLAN. The router subinterfaces are correctly configured, so the issue is likely that the switch port connecting to the router is not configured as a trunk port. Without a trunk, the switch cannot carry both VLAN 10 and VLAN 20 traffic to the router, preventing inter-VLAN routing.

Answer

A

Answer

C

Answer

D

Question 15

A technician configures a new workstation with DHCP. Initially, the workstation obtains an IP address of 192.168.1.100/24 with default gateway 192.168.1.1 and can browse the internet. After approximately 30 minutes, the user reports that internet access stops working, but the workstation can still ping other local devices on the same subnet. The technician runs ipconfig and sees that the workstation now has an IP address of 169.254.15.78. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The DHCP lease expired and the workstation could not contact the DHCP server to renew it. The workstation initially received a valid DHCP lease (192.168.1.100/24). After 30 minutes, the lease expired, and the workstation failed to renew it from the DHCP server. As a result, Windows Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) assigned a 169.254.x.x address, which allows local subnet communication but not internet access. This matches the symptom of losing internet while retaining local connectivity.

Answer

The DHCP server has run out of available IP addresses in the scope

Answer

The DNS server address provided by DHCP has become invalid

Answer

The switch port the workstation is connected to was moved to a different VLAN without trunking

Question 16

A web application hosted on a public cloud platform automatically adds virtual server instances during high traffic and removes them during low traffic, without requiring manual intervention. This is an example of which cloud computing characteristic?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. The scenario describes a web application that automatically scales virtual server instances up and down based on traffic demand, which is the defining characteristic of rapid elasticity. This cloud computing feature allows resources to be provisioned and released elastically, often automatically, to match workload fluctuations. The key here is the automatic scaling without manual intervention, which distinguishes rapid elasticity from other characteristics like on-demand self-service, which focuses on user-initiated provisioning.

Answer

On-demand self-service

Answer

Broad network access

Answer

Measured service

Question 17

A company wants to migrate its custom web application to the cloud. The development team needs full administrative access to the operating system, the ability to install custom middleware, and control over security configurations. They want to avoid managing the physical servers, hypervisors, and data center infrastructure. Which cloud service model should the company choose?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides virtualized computing resources over the internet, giving the development team full administrative access to the operating system, the ability to install custom middleware, and control over security configurations. The cloud provider manages the physical servers, hypervisors, and data center infrastructure, while the customer retains control over the OS, storage, and deployed applications. This matches the requirement for full OS-level access without managing the underlying hardware.

Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Answer

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 18

A technician replaces the glass/digitizer assembly on an iPhone 12. After reassembling the phone, it powers on and the display works, but the touch input is completely unresponsive. The technician has already reseated the screen connectors. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the touch failure?

Accepted Answer

The digitizer flex cable was torn or not properly connected during the repair. The digitizer flex cable is responsible for transmitting touch input from the glass/digitizer layer to the logic board. If it was torn during the replacement or is not fully seated despite reseating the main screen connectors, the touch function will fail while the display (which uses a separate LCD/OLED data path) still works. This is the most common physical failure in iPhone glass/digitizer replacements.

Answer

The replacement screen is not a genuine Apple part and is incompatible

Answer

The touch controller integrated circuit on the logic board is damaged

Answer

A software glitch occurred during reassembly that disabled the touch screen

Question 19

A software development company wants to migrate a custom Python web application to the cloud. The team wants to focus exclusively on writing code and managing the database, without worrying about patching the operating system, managing the runtime environment, or scaling the underlying servers. Which cloud service model BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a managed platform that includes the runtime environment, operating system, and scaling capabilities, allowing developers to focus solely on writing code and managing the database. In this scenario, the team wants to avoid patching the OS, managing the runtime, or scaling servers, which aligns exactly with PaaS offerings like AWS Elastic Beanstalk or Google App Engine.

Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Answer

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 20

A technician is troubleshooting a laptop that will not power on. The power adapter's LED is lit when plugged into the wall, but pressing the laptop's power button yields no response—no fans, no LEDs, and no beeps. The technician has already removed the battery and held the power button for 30 seconds to drain residual charge. Which of the following should the technician try NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Use a multimeter to measure the voltage at the tip of the power adapter.. The power adapter's LED is lit, indicating the wall outlet is supplying power, but the laptop shows no signs of life. The next logical step is to verify that the adapter is actually delivering the correct voltage to the laptop's power jack. Using a multimeter to measure the voltage at the tip of the adapter confirms whether the adapter itself is faulty, which is a common failure point before moving to internal components.

Answer

Remove the RAM modules and reseat them one at a time.

Answer

Replace the laptop's internal battery with a known-good battery.

Answer

Inspect the DC power jack on the laptop for physical damage.