hardmultiple choiceObjective-mapped

A technician is building a high-performance workstation for 3D rendering. The motherboard supports PCIe 4.0 and has three PCIe x16 slots. The technician installs two identical graphics cards for SLI. After installing the cards and connecting the SLI bridge, the system boots but only one card is detected. Both cards have power connected. The technician checks BIOS settings and confirms the slots are set to x16 mode. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Question 1hardmultiple choice
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A technician is building a high-performance workstation for 3D rendering. The motherboard supports PCIe 4.0 and has three PCIe x16 slots. The technician installs two identical graphics cards for SLI. After installing the cards and connecting the SLI bridge, the system boots but only one card is detected. Both cards have power connected. The technician checks BIOS settings and confirms the slots are set to x16 mode. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Answer choices

Why each option matters

Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.

A

Distractor review

The SLI bridge is faulty.

A faulty SLI bridge would typically affect the ability to enable SLI mode, but both cards should still be detected by the operating system as separate devices. The issue here is that only one card is detected at all, which points to a more fundamental problem like power delivery or chipset compatibility.

B

Distractor review

The PSU does not provide enough wattage.

Insufficient power might cause system instability, crashes, or the system not booting. However, the system boots and one card works, which suggests the PSU can supply enough power for at least one card. Detection of the second card usually happens at a low power state, so power alone is unlikely to prevent detection entirely.

C

Best answer

The motherboard chipset does not support SLI.

Many motherboards, especially those using B-series chipsets, lack official SLI support. Even if the BIOS allows configuring x16 mode, the chipset may not permit the necessary peer-to-peer communication and card enumeration. This results in only one card being detected by the system. The technician should verify chipset SLI support in the motherboard manual.

D

Distractor review

The drivers are not installed correctly.

Driver issues would typically allow both cards to be detected in Device Manager (possibly with errors) but prevent SLI configuration. The fact that only one card is detected at the hardware level (e.g., in BIOS or Device Manager) suggests the issue is before driver loading. Drivers come into play after both cards are enumerated.

Common exam trap

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.

Technical deep dive

How to think about this question

This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.

KKey Concepts to Remember

  • Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
  • Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
  • Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
  • Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.

TExam Day Tips

  • Underline the problem statement mentally.
  • Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
  • Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.

Related practice questions

Related 220-1101 practice-question pages

Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.

More questions from this exam

Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.

Question 1

A user reports intermittent network connectivity on a desktop computer. The technician observes that the Ethernet link light on the NIC turns off for a few seconds and then turns back on. The cable passes a wiremap test, the switch port is verified good with another device, and the NIC driver is updated. The issue occurs more frequently when the computer's case fan runs at high speed. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Question 2

A workstation is unable to connect to the internet. The technician runs the 'ipconfig' command and sees the IPv4 address is 169.254.15.200 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. The workstation can ping other devices on the local subnet but cannot ping the default gateway or any external addresses. Which TWO actions should the technician take to resolve this issue? (Select two.)

Question 3

A workstation is connected to a managed switch. It obtains a valid IP address (192.168.10.50) from the DHCP server, but it cannot ping the default gateway (192.168.10.1). The link light on both the workstation NIC and the switch port are solid green. Other workstations on the same switch CAN ping the default gateway successfully. The technician accesses the switch management interface and finds that the workstation's port is configured as an access port on VLAN 10. The default gateway is located on VLAN 20. An inter-VLAN router is configured but not explicitly allowing VLAN 10 access to VLAN 20. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the problem?

Question 4

A company develops a web application that relies on a custom library available only for a specific Linux distribution. They want to deploy the application in the cloud with minimal administrative overhead, but they need full control over the software stack, including the ability to install the custom library and configure the web server. Which cloud service model BEST meets these requirements?

Question 5

A company has a legacy virtual machine running on a deprecated hypervisor (Hyper-V). They want to migrate this VM to a new hypervisor (VMware vSphere) hosted in a private cloud while preserving the VM's configuration, installed applications, and data. The migration must be performed with minimal downtime. Which of the following methods is MOST appropriate?

Question 6

A company hosts a critical database on a virtual machine in a public cloud. The database requires persistent storage that must be retained even if the VM is terminated. The storage must also be accessible from multiple VMs simultaneously for a future high-availability configuration. Which type of cloud storage BEST meets these requirements?

FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this 220-1101 question test?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: The motherboard chipset does not support SLI. — SLI (Scalable Link Interface) requires not only physical PCIe slots but also chipset support. Entry-level chipsets (e.g., B-series, H-series) often do not support SLI, even if they have multiple full-length x16 slots. High-end chipsets (e.g., Z-series, X-series) typically support SLI. The symptom of detecting only one card is classic when SLI is not supported. The BIOS may see the second card but the system may disable it if the chipset does not allow SLI.

What should I do if I get this 220-1101 question wrong?

Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.

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