hardMultiple Choice
220-1201 Practice Question: That their laptop's battery life has dropped…
A user reports that their laptop's battery life has dropped significantly over the past month. The battery now lasts only 30 minutes on a full charge. The technician runs a battery report and finds that the design capacity is 50,000 mWh, but the full charge capacity is only 12,000 mWh. What is the most likely conclusion?
⚠ Common exam trap
220-1201 often tests whether candidates can distinguish battery wear (low FCC vs. design capacity) from calibration or power-draw issues — the numeric ratio is the giveaway.
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 battery has reached the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced.
Full charge capacity (12,000 mWh) is only 24% of design capacity (50,000 mWh), indicating severe battery wear. Lithium-ion batteries lose capacity over charge cycles, and a drop this large means the battery has reached end of life and should be replaced.
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 battery calibration is off and needs to be recalibrated by fully discharging and recharging.
Why it's wrong here
Battery calibration addresses discrepancies between the battery's reported charge level and its actual capacity, often due to the battery management system losing track of the true full and empty states. While it can correct inaccurate charge percentages displayed by the operating system, calibration cannot physically restore lost chemical capacity within the battery cells. The problem described indicates a significant reduction in the battery's actual full charge capacity, which is a hardware degradation, not a software reporting error that calibration could fix.
- ✗
A background process is consuming excessive power, draining the battery quickly.
Why it's wrong here
A background process would cause the battery to drain faster, but the full charge capacity would still be near design capacity. The report shows the battery can only hold 12,000 mWh, which is a hardware limit.
- ✓
The battery has reached the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced.
Why this is correct
A full charge capacity of 12,000 mWh versus a design capacity of 50,000 mWh means the battery has lost over 75% of its capacity. This is a clear sign of battery wear and requires replacement.
- ✗
The laptop's power adapter is not providing enough voltage to charge the battery fully.
Why it's wrong here
A faulty adapter would prevent the battery from charging at all or cause it to charge slowly, but it would not cause the battery to report a reduced full charge capacity. The capacity loss is internal to the battery.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
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.