CompTIA Practice Test Hardware 4

Question 1

A desktop PC beeps three times on startup and does not display anything. According to common BIOS POST codes, what does three beeps typically indicate?

Accepted Answer

RAM error

Answer

Three beeps on most BIOS implementations (AMI, Award) signals a RAM failure or incompatibility, requiring reseating or replacement of memory modules.

Question 2

Which storage interface standard uses a differential signal pair for each lane and supports hot-plugging in its SAS implementation?

Accepted Answer

SAS (Serial Attached SCSI)

Answer

SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) uses differential signaling for noise immunity, supports hot-plugging, and is designed for enterprise storage environments.

Question 3

A technician needs to upgrade RAM in a laptop that uses SO-DIMM slots. What distinguishes SO-DIMM from standard DIMM modules?

Accepted Answer

SO-DIMMs are physically smaller, designed for compact devices

Answer

SO-DIMM (Small Outline DIMM) modules are roughly half the length of standard DIMMs, allowing them to fit in laptops, mini-PCs, and some embedded systems.

Question 4

What does a 80 PLUS Gold certification on a power supply indicate?

Accepted Answer

The PSU is at least 87% efficient at 20%, 92% at 50%, and 87% at 100% load

Answer

80 PLUS Gold certification means the PSU achieves a minimum efficiency of 87%/92%/87% at 20%/50%/100% load on a 115V AC line.

Question 5

A technician is adding a PCIe x16 GPU to a system but only a PCIe x8 physical slot with x8 electrical lanes is available. What is the result?

Accepted Answer

The GPU will function but at reduced bandwidth compared to x16

Answer

PCIe is backward compatible; a x16 card in an x8 slot will operate at x8 bandwidth, which may slightly limit performance but allows the GPU to function.