220-1101 Mobile Devices Practice Question
A user reports that their smartphone does not vibrate even though the vibrate mode is enabled in settings. The phone was accidentally dropped onto a hard floor two days ago. The screen is not cracked, and the phone still rings and displays notifications. The user has already tried restarting the phone and toggling the vibrate setting. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
CompTIA often tests the distinction between hardware and software faults after physical damage, trapping candidates who assume a drop would cause a software bug rather than a hardware disconnection.
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 vibrate motor is loose or disconnected
The most likely cause is that the vibrate motor is loose or disconnected. The smartphone was dropped, and the vibrate motor is a physical component that can become dislodged or have its electrical connection disrupted by impact. Since the phone still rings and displays notifications, the audio and display subsystems are functional, isolating the issue to the vibration mechanism.
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 vibrate motor is loose or disconnected
Why this is correct
The vibrate motor is an electromechanical component that can be dislodged or unplugged by physical shock. A drop can break the soldered connections on the motor's flex cable or separate the motor from its adhesive mount, interrupting the power and control signal. Since the operating system still receives the command to vibrate but the motor never actuates, the phone remains silent—exactly matching the reported symptom after a fall.
- ✗
The operating system has a software bug that disables vibration after a drop
Why it's wrong here
Software bugs are not physically triggered by mechanical impact; a drop causes hardware damage, not logical corruption. The user already restarted the device, which clears transient software states and reloads the OS kernel, making a persistent software-level disable unlikely. Moreover, a software fault would typically affect the vibration toggle or show error messages, not silently stop the motor after a drop while other features continue working.
- ✗
The loudspeaker is damaged
Why it's wrong here
The loudspeaker and vibrator are entirely separate output components: the speaker converts electrical audio signals into sound, while the vibration motor is an eccentric rotating mass (ERM) or linear resonant actuator (LRA) driven by a dedicated motor driver. A damaged loudspeaker would produce no ringtone or distorted audio, but the phone still rings normally, confirming the speaker is functional. Vibration does not rely on the loudspeaker in any way, so this diagnosis misattributes a mechanical fault to an unrelated audio transducer.
- ✗
The vibration setting is controlled by a third-party app that was corrupted
Why it's wrong here
System vibration settings are controlled by the Android or iOS framework, not by third-party applications, and the user directly toggled the built-in vibrate option. A corrupted app could theoretically request haptic feedback via the API, but after a physical drop, hardware failure is far more probable than software corruption occurring at the same moment. Additionally, the device was restarted, which would clear any app-level overrides or services; the persistent lack of vibration suggests a physical disconnection rather than an application issue.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1101 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 220-1101 exam.