easyMultiple Choice
FC0-U71 Practice Question: A user at a small design company calls the help…
A user at a small design company calls the help desk because their computer is running very slowly when opening large image files. The computer has 8 GB of RAM, a 500 GB HDD, and an integrated graphics card. The technician suspects the slow performance is due to insufficient RAM. Which of the following is the BEST course of action?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse a symptom (slow disk access) with the root cause (insufficient RAM), leading them to choose an SSD upgrade (Option C) instead of addressing the primary memory shortage.
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
✓
Add more RAM
The computer has only 8 GB of RAM and an integrated graphics card, which shares system RAM for video memory. When opening large image files, the system runs out of physical RAM and must use the much slower page file on the HDD, causing severe slowdowns. Adding more RAM directly addresses the bottleneck by providing sufficient physical memory to hold the image data and reduce reliance on disk swapping.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the size of the page file
Why it's wrong here
Enlarging the page file gives the system more disk-backed virtual memory, but paging to the 500 GB HDD is orders of magnitude slower than RAM, so large image files still open slowly. A larger page file suits preventing out-of-memory crashes, not eliminating a genuine RAM shortfall.
- ✓
Add more RAM
Why this is correct
Adding RAM directly increases available memory for large files.
- ✗
Upgrade the HDD to an SSD
Why it's wrong here
An SSD accelerates storage read/write throughput, but the bottleneck described is RAM capacity: opening large image files forces paging to the 500 GB HDD. Swapping the disk does not add memory. An SSD is the right upgrade when boot times, application launches or file transfers are slow due to mechanical disk latency.
- ✗
Reduce the image resolution
Why it's wrong here
Lowering image resolution alters the user's working files rather than addressing the hardware constraint; the design company needs full-resolution images. It reduces memory pressure only by degrading the deliverable. Downsampling suits scenarios where output size matters, such as web thumbnails or email attachments, not a workstation short on RAM.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This FC0-U71 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 FC0-U71 exam.