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220-1201 Practice Question: A customer brings in a desktop PC with a 4K…
A customer brings in a desktop PC with a 4K monitor that displays a blurry image at native resolution. The monitor's settings show 3840x2160 resolution, but text is hard to read. What is the most likely issue?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The display scaling is set to 100%.
Blurry text at native resolution on a 4K monitor often indicates incorrect scaling settings in the operating system. Windows scaling should be set to 150% or 200% to make text readable, otherwise it appears too small and blurry due to pixel density.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The monitor's sharpness setting is too low.
Why it's wrong here
A low sharpness setting on a monitor primarily affects the definition of edges and fine details by reducing the contrast between adjacent pixels, making the image appear slightly softer or less defined. However, it does not typically cause the significantly tiny and unreadable text that results from incorrect display scaling at high resolutions. Blurry text at 4K is almost exclusively a scaling or rendering issue, not a monitor's sharpness adjustment.
- ✓
The display scaling is set to 100%.
Why this is correct
At a high resolution like 4K (3840x2160), setting the display scaling to 100% means that each UI element and character of text is rendered using its absolute pixel dimensions, making them appear extremely small on a typical monitor. This often results in text being unreadably tiny and can also lead to poor rendering quality, making the text appear blurry or pixelated as the operating system struggles to display very small fonts clearly. Increasing the scaling percentage, for example to 150% or 200%, instructs the OS to render elements larger, improving readability and visual clarity.
- ✗
The HDMI cable does not support 4K.
Why it's wrong here
If the HDMI cable did not support 4K resolution, the display adapter would either not offer 4K as an available resolution option in the operating system's display settings, or the monitor would display a "No Signal" message or a garbled image when 4K was selected. The fact that the customer is successfully running the PC at 4K resolution, albeit with blurry text, confirms that the cable is capable of transmitting the necessary bandwidth for 4K video.
- ✗
The graphics card is overheating.
Why it's wrong here
An overheating graphics card typically manifests with severe visual artifacts such as random colored pixels, screen tearing, geometric distortions, or even complete system crashes and reboots. It does not selectively cause text to appear blurry while maintaining a stable 4K resolution for the rest of the display. Blurry text at a specific resolution points to a display configuration issue rather than a hardware thermal problem.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1201 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1201 exam.