220-1102 Software Troubleshooting Practice Question
A user reports that a specific application crashes when they try to export a report to PDF. The technician reinstalls the application but the problem persists. The technician notices that the export works when the user logs into another computer. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers assume a reinstallation should fix the problem, overlooking that user-specific data remains unchanged, or they may incorrectly attribute the issue to a printer driver when the symptom is tied to a single user account.
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
✓
Corrupted user profile
A corrupted user profile is the most likely cause because the application works correctly on another computer and after reinstallation, isolating the issue to the user's environment rather than the application or system files. When a user profile is corrupted, it can cause application-specific settings, permissions, or registry entries to fail, leading to crashes during operations like PDF export. The fact that the export works on another computer with the same application confirms the problem is tied to the user's profile on the original machine.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Corrupted user profile
Why this is correct
An application's export routine often writes to per-user registry keys under HKCU and to the profile's %APPDATA% or %LOCALAPPDATA% for temporary files. If the NTUSER.DAT or associated profile folders are corrupted, the export operation can hit an invalid handle or permission-denied exception causing the app to crash. Because another user profile works normally on the same hardware, the fault is isolated to profile-specific state rather than the application binary or OS configuration.
- ✗
Outdated printer driver
Why it's wrong here
Exporting a report to PDF normally uses an in-process rendering engine or the system's virtual 'Print to PDF' pipeline, not the installed physical printer driver. Even if a printer driver were outdated, it would throw a print-spooler error for every user account on that computer, yet the issue follows the user, which means the component at fault is profile-bound, not driver-bound.
- ✗
Insufficient RAM
Why it's wrong here
Insufficient RAM produces memory-allocation failures, page-file errors, or system-wide sluggishness across all programs, and it would not selectively crash an app only when exporting. A low-memory condition would affect any user logged into the same session and would generally surface in Task Manager as high Commit Charge or hard faults. Since the crash reproduces for one user while another user's export succeeds, the cause is a per-user configuration problem, not a hardware-resource shortage.
- ✗
Missing .NET framework
Why it's wrong here
.NET Framework assemblies are installed machine-wide in C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET and register in the GAC; a missing version would generate a .NET runtime error at startup or during common operations for all users. It cannot be 'missing' for one profile and present for another, because framework availability is not user-scoped. The observed profile-specific behavior therefore rules out a missing .NET Framework dependency.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1102 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 220-1102 exam.