Fast Notes for A+

1. SIMMs (Single Inline Memory Modules) have 72 pins on each side of the stick. SIMMs are 32
bits wide, and you need two 72-pin SIMM sticks (Minimum) on a Pentium class computer. This
is because, the bus width is 64 bits in a Pentium class computer. Note that each side of each
pin on a SIMM stick is same, where as each side of each pin on a DIMM (Dual Inline Memory
Module) has separate signal flowing. A SIMM has a single row of 72 contact fingers, each
making contact on both sides. An older version of SIMM card contain 30pins, and were used in
386 and 486 machines. A DIMM (Dual-Inline Memory Module) has two rows of connecting
fingers, one row on each side, and the total number of contacts are 168.
2. Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can damage the component at as little as 110 volts. CMOS chips
are the most susceptible to ESD. Static electricity builds up more in cold and dry places. Use
humidifiers to keep room humidity at about 50% to help prevent static build up.
3. Acronyms :a. ISA is an acronym for Industry Standard Architecture.
b. EISA is a acronym for Extended Industry Standard Architecture.
c. PCI is an acronym for Peripheral Component Interconnect.
d. MCA stands for Micro Channel Architecture.
4. Some of the frequently encountered problems using laser printers and probable causes are as
given below:
a. Speckled pages: The causes for this may be a. The failure to clean the drum after printing
properly, or b. The drum might have developed scratches.
b. Blank pages: The causes for white pages may be, A. The toner would have dried out, replace
the toner. B. The transfer corona, that is responsible for transferring the toner to the drum might
have failed. C. The High Voltage Power Supply (HVPS) failure will also result in white pages.
c. Ghosted Images: Ghosting occurs when previously printed pages are printed again, though
much lighter than the present image. The most likely cause is that the erasure lamp might not
be working properly, thus leaving some charges representing the earlier image

left on the

photosensitive drum before new image is written. Also check the cleaning blade, which is
responsible for scaping the residual toner.
d. Smudged images: If the fusing fails, the toner will not bond with the paper. Check the halogen
lamp responsible for heating.
5. To determine the COM port assignments, or which COM ports are being used for what, you can
use any of the following commands:
a. MODE command
b. DEBUG command
c. MSD
d. Corresponding device applet in the control panel
6. Given below are important bus types and their characteristics:-

Bus
Type
8bit ISA
ISA
EISA

Data bus
width
8 bit
16 bit
32 bit

VISA
PCI
64bitPCI
PCMCIA
AGP

32
32
64
32
32

bit
bit
bit
bit
bit

Speed

Bandwidth

8.3 MHz
8.3 MHz
8.3 MHz

7.9 mbps
15.9 mbps
31.8 mbps

33 MHz
33 MHz
66 MHz
33
Speed of
processor

127.2 mbps
127.2 mbps
508.6 mbps
-----------

Comments
Not used in modern computers
In use, use jumpers to configure
Compatible with ISA s/w or jumpers
configurable
Backward compatible with ISA cards
Supports plug and play
Supports plug and play
Used in laptops, also know as PC card
Used in video cards.

7. All Pentium / 586 class processors use socket 7 type of socket for the processor. Pentium Pro,
Pentium II and Pentium III processors use a slot rather than a socket.
8. A good fuse will show close to zero ohms ( typically less than 1 ohm). A bad fuse, will have
open contact, and will show open.
9. Key boards come with two types of connectors. They are DIN-5 & Mini DIN-6. DIN-5 are used
with AT style keyboards. DIN-5 has 5 pins. Mini DIN-6, also known as PS/2 connector has a
round port with 6 pins, one of which being a square pin used for alignment.
10.Given below are some commonly used color depths and the number of bits required to store
the color information per pixel:
a. 1 bit (mono) : 2 colors.
b. 2 bits: 4 colors
c. 4 bits: 16 colors
d. 8 bits: 256 colors
e. 16 bits: 64K colors
f.

24 bits: 16.7M colors

11. The centronics cable, used for parallel printing will have a male DB-25 connector at one end
and a female 36 pin connector at the other end.
12. The interface cables used widely have the following pin count:
a. floppy-34 pin
b. IDE-40 pin
c. SCSI-50 pin
d. SCSI Ultra wide-68 pin
13.144-pin small outline DIMM (so DIMM) is commonly used in notebook computers. 144-pin
micro-DIMM is still smaller than the so-DIMM and used in sub-notebook computers. 72-pin
SODIMM was used in older laptops.
14.Pentium class of processors make use of parallel processing, and they have 64 bit data bus.
15.IsoPropyl Alcohol (IPA) is recommended for cleaning PCAs such as motherboards. Mild
detergent can be used for cleaning the outside cabinet or the keyboard.
16.PDL stands for Page Description Language. PDL treats everything on the page as graphics.
PostScript is an example of PDL.

17.Some of the frequently encountered error codes and their corresponding error messages are
given below:
a. Error Code----Error Message
b. 161 - CMOS battery failure: Replace the CMOS battery
c. 164 - Memory size error : If the error occurs after memory upgrade, run SETUP program.
d. 201 - Memory test failed : RAM chips failed, one or more may need to be replace.
e. 301 - Keyboard error: You may have to check the key board
f.

error code 423: Parallel port test has failed.

18.The following are some of the important DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) standards:
a. DVD R/W: DVD-R/W was the first DVD recording format released that was compatible with
standalone DVD Players.DVD-R/W supports single side 4.7 GB* DVDs (called DVD-5) and double
side 9.4 GB*DVDs(called DVD-10).
b. DVD +R/W: DVD+R/W has some "better" features than DVD-R/W such as loss-less linking and
both CAV and CLV writing. DVD+R/W supports single side 4.7 GB* DVDs(called DVD-5) and
double side 9.4 GB* DVDs(called DVD-10).
c. DVD-RAM : DVD-RAM is the DVD equivalent of CD-RW. It is not compatible with most DVDROM drives and DVD-Video players. Type-I DVD-RAM permanently installs the disks inside the
caddies. Type-2 disks are removable.
19.There are 3 types of PCMCIA cards:
a. Type I cards have thickness of 3.3mm
b. Type II cards have thickness of 5.0mm
c. Type III cards have thickness of 10.5mm
d. All PC cards have dimensions of 85.6mm by 54 mm.
20.DVD (stands for Digital Versatile Disk) comes in single layer (SL) or dual layer (DL). They are
also distinguished as single sided (SS) or double sided (DS). There are four possible
combinations:
a. DVD-S (12 cm, SS/SL): 4.37 GB capacity
b. DVD-9 (12 cm, SS/DL): 7.95 GB capacity
c. DVD-10 (12 cm, DS/SL): 8.74GB capacity
d. DVD-18(12 cm, DS/DL): 15.90GB capacity.
21.+5 and +12 volts are the DC voltages commonly found on PCs
a. 80386/486 operate at +5v
b. Pentium and above operate at +3.3v
c. Power supply wires - yellow=+12v, blue=-12v, red=+5v, & white=-5v
22.ATX power supply provides three different voltages:
3.3Volts, 5Volts, and 12Volts.
23.Sockets :-

a. Socket 370: The FC-PGA (Flip Chip Pin Grid Array) used in Pentium III and Intel Celeron
processors has 370 pins, and known as socket-370.
b. Socket 478: The FC-PGA2 (Flip Chip Pin Grid Array 2) used in Pentium IV processors has 478
pins, and known as socket-478.
c. Socket-423: The OOI (also known as OLGA - Organic Land Grid Array) package used in
Pentium IV processors has 423 pins, and known as socket-423. Note that Socket 603 contains
603 pins and this package type is used in Intel Xeon processors.
24.The general errors and the corresponding failures are shown below:
a. 100-199 : System board failures
b. 200-299 : Memory failures
c. 300-399 : Key board failures
d. 400-499 : Monochrome video problems
e. 500-599 : Color video problems
f. 600-699 : Floppy disk errors
g. 1700-1799: Hard disk problems.
25.You need to memorize the following port addresses before attending the exam.
Port
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.

Base address (in hex)

COM1:
COM2:
COM3:
COM4
LPT1 :
LPT2 :
Floppy Controller:
Hard Drive Controller, 16 bit, ISA:
Monochrome Graphic Adapter:
Color Graphic Adapter:

3F8-3FF
2F8-2FF
3E8-3EF
2E8-2EF
378-37F
278-27F
3F0-3F7
1F0-1F8
3B0-3BF
3D0-3DF

26.The IRQ numbers and relevant Standard Device Assignments are as given below. It is
important to memorize these values before going to the exam, as there would be a few
questions on IRQs, and conflicts.
27.IRQ
0 ...........
1 ...........
2 ...........
3 ...........
4 ...........
5 ...........
6 ...........
7 ...........
8 ...........
9 ...........
10 ..........
11 ..........
12 ..........
13 ..........
14 ..........
15 ...........

Standard Device Assignment

System timer
Keyboard
Cascade to IRQ9. Can't be used.
COM ports 2 and 4
COM ports 1 and 3
Parallel Port LPT2. Very often used for sound cards.
Floppy drive controller
Parallel Port, LPT1
Real time clock
Unassigned (Also redirected from IRQ2)
Available
Available. SCSI adapter will usually use this IRQ.
Mouse or touch pads
Math co-processor.
Primary hard-disk IDE controller
Secondary hard-disk IDE controller

28.The connector types commonly used for Fiber Optic networking are SC,ST, or MIC connectors.
IDC/UDC is used in Token Ring networks. RJ-45, BNC connectors are commonly used in
Ethernet networking.
29. Screw Drivers :a. Flat blade screw driver has Minus slot
b. Philips screw driver has X shape slot
c. Torx screw driver has star tip or head
d. Hex screw driver has hex head
Philips screw driver uses "#" sign before the number, such as #1 to denote the size of the blade.
Torx screw driver uses "T" sign before the number.
30.The following are most commonly used modem commands:
Modem commands
ATA
ATD
ATH
ATZ
AT&F
AT&W

Command function

....................... Answer the phone

....................... Dial the phone, ATDT for Tone dialing, ATDP for Pulse dialing
....................... Hang up
....................... Reset
....................... Reset modem parameters and settings to factory defaults
..................... Write the current parameter values and settings

31.Level 1 cache is internal to the processor, and level 2 cache is external to the processor, it
resides on the motherboard. In case of Pentium II, L2 cache is built into the catridge.
32.Printer parallel ports come in the following varieties:
a. Unidirectional: Here, the data travels only from the computer to the peripheral(printer) device.
b. Bi-directional: Here, the data travels both from the computer to the peripheral device and viceversa.
c. ECP (Extended Capability Port): ECP mode offers bi-directional data transfer, as well as DMA
for data transfer.
d. EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port): In addition to bi-directional features, it offers an extended control
code set.
33.In memory mapped I/O, memory (such as RAM. ROM) and I/O devices share the same address
space. This type of sharing is simpler to implement, but less efficient. Another type of I/O
device access is I/O mapped I/O. In IO mapping, only the upper 8 address leads can be
connected directly to the io ports or port memory decoders.
34.The following are the 6 steps in the Electro Photographic (EP) print process of Laser Printer:
Cleaning: Cleaning the photosensitive drum includes residual toner left on the drum and
removing the electrical charges left out on the drum. The physical cleaning is done with a rubber
blade and the electrical charge cleaning is done with erasure lamps.
Charging: The next step in printing, is to charge the photo sensitive drum with high negative
charge, this is done with the help of a corona wire.
Writing: A laser (type 3) sweeps the entire length of the drum, creating the static image of the
matter to be printed. The places where the laser travel, the highly charges are nutralized. Other
places of the drum, it remains highly negatively charged.

Developing: Now drum gets in close proximity to the toner. Because the toner is negatively
charged, it gets attracted to the areas where the drum is neutral. It will not be attracted to the
places where the drum is highly negatively charged. Thus the image of the page to be printed
formed on the photosensitive drum.
Transferring: Now, the toner on the drum gets attracted toward the paper, by using highly
positive charges developed on the surface of the paper. The "transfer corona" is used to generate
highly positive charge on the paper surface and to attract the toner from the drum. Thus the
image of the page to be printed formed on the paper. But still, the toner is loose and can get easily
smeared.
Fusing: In order to permanently bond the toner particles to the paper, the paper is passed
through rollers. One of the rollers, the non stick roller is heated by a high intensity lamp,
generating the heat necessary to bond the toner to the surface of the paper.
35.The various CD speeds are as below:
For normal CD drives:
16X, 32X, 48X, 52X etc. Format: [read speed]X
For CD-R drives:
4X24, 8X32, 16X32 etc. Format:[write speed]X[read speed]
For CD-RW:
4X4X24,
8X4X32,
12X10X32 etc. Format: [write speed]X[re-write speed]X[read speed].
36. Connectors :a. 9-pin male connector on system board is serial and usually COM 1 (mouse)
b. 25-pin male connector on system board is serial and usually COM 2 (modem)
c. 25-pin female connector on system board is parallel and usually LPT 1 (printer)
37. Cable Length :Serial cable maximum length is 50 feet
Parallel cable maximum length is 10 feet
38.Various colored books represent various CD standards. The following are the important CD
media book colors and their corresponding representation:
a. Red book: Audio CDs
b. Yellow book: Data CDs
c. Orange book: Recordable CDs
d. White book: Video CDs
39.Two major types of LCD displays :- Passive Matrix Displays & Active Matrix Displays
Passive matrix displays are most commonly used and cheaper than Active matrix displays. Also,
passive matrix displays consume less power. However, the advantages of active matrix display are:
1. They can handle faster screen image transition, and 2. The display is clearly viewable, even
from slant angles.

40.Proper arrangement in line with appropriate ESD precaution:When working on computers, use special ESD wrist strap. Do not directly ground yourself with a
piece of wire. An ESD wrist strap has built-in resistor to prevent electric shock. Use specially
designed grounded ESD mats. Do not wear synthetic clothing. Place all electronic components into
anti static bags. Anti static bags can be reused. Keep your workplace clean.
41. The most probable cause that the screen is dumping garbled characters is that the
communication settings are not correct. Check the speed, parity, start/stop bits etc. If the
serial port parameters are correct, then you need to check the cable, such as straight/cross
cable and the pin connections.
42.USB enables you to daisy chain upto 127 USB devices. A USB hub is used for this purpose.
Also, USB devices can be plugged in without turning on/off power. I.e. USB devices are hot
swappable.
43. SCSI Cabling :a. 8-bit Internal device SCSI connection: Uses Unshielded 50 pin ribbon cable
b. 8-bit External device SCSI connection: Uses DB-25 or Centronic-50 cable
c. 8-bit External device Fast SCSI connection: Uses mini sub-D connector cable
d. 8-bit cables are considered A-cable by SCSI-2 definition.
e. 16-bit Wide SCSI uses P-cable or (A-cable + 68 pin B-cable)
f.

32-bit Wide SCSI uses Q-cable plus P-cable

44. Types of PCMCIA Cards :a. Type I PC cards are generally used for memory cards
b. Type II PC cards are generally used for Network cards, Modem cards etc.
c. Type III PC cards are generally meant for rotating mass storage devices such as removable
hard disk, CD ROM.
45.The following table gives salient features of Processors:Processor

Socket type

Register

Data Bus

Address Bus

8088
DIP
16 bit
8 bit
20 bit
80286
LLC/PGA/PLCC
16 bit
16 bit
24 bit
80386SX
PGA
32 bit
16 bit
24 bit
80386DX
PGA
32 bit
32 bit
32 bit
80486SX
PGA
32 bit
32 bit
32 bit
80486DX
PGA/SQFP
32 bit
32 bit
32 bit
Pentium
PGA/?
64 bit
64 bit
32 bit
46. The storage capacity of various types of floppy disks that you need to know as part of A+
certification is given below:
DSDD: Double Sided Double Density
DSHD: Double Sided High Density
DSED: Double Sided Extra Density
Size------Type----Storage
5
5
3
3
3

1/4"
1/4"
1/2"
1/2"
1/2"

---DSDD----360KB
---DSHD----1.2MB
---DSDD----720KB
---DSHD----1.44MB
---DSED----2.88MB

47.In an EP process:
a. The transfer corona has positive charge
b. The primary corona has negative charge
c. The toner will have negative charge
48.Socket 7 and Socket 8 were used by earlier Pentium class CPUs and not used recent
processors. Socket 478 uses FC-PGA. S.E.C.C. is short for Single Edge Contact Cartridge. To
connect to the motherboard, the processor is inserted into a slot. Instead of having pins, it
uses goldfinger contacts. The S.E.C.C. package was used in the Intel Pentium II processors
that have 242 contacts. FC-PGA (FC-PGA2) are used by Socket 370, Socket 478.SECC stands
for Single Edge Contact Catridge, and as the name implies it uses edge connector for inserting
into the mother board (Used with PII and PIII).O.O.I (also known as OLGA) uses Organic Land
Grid Array. (Used with P IV).S.E.P. stands for Single Edge Processor. The S.E.P. package is
similar to a S.E.C.C. with some constructional differences. (Used with early Celeron
processors).
49. Slots :AMR slot: AMR stands for Audio Modem Riser. AMR is a riser card that supports sound or modem
function. With increasing CPU computational power, the digital processing job can be implemented
in main chipset and share CPU power.
CMR slot: CNR stands for Communication Network Riser. CNR is a riser card specification that
supports V.90 analog modem, multi-channel audio, phone-line based networking, and 10/100
Ethernet based networking. The digital processing is implemented in main chipset and share CPU
power.
A modem can also be inserted using PCI slot. But, in such case, it will not be using onboard audio
CODEC. The AMR card primarily attends to conversion of analog signals to digital and visa versa.
Slot I is associated with CPU slots.
50.The property of loosing the ability to recharge, after complete drain of charge is known as
Memory Effect.
51.DDR stands for Double Data Rate. It comes in 184-pin DIMMs. Note that Rambus DRAM
(known as RDRAM) also has 184 pins, but not compatible with DDR SDRAM.
52.AT style systems use two power connectors, P8 and P9 to connect to the motherboard. ATX
systems use only one P1 connector to connect to the motherboard.
53. Mounting on the Mother board :a. 8088, 8086 processors used 40 pin DIPs.
b. 80286,80386, 80486, and some Pentium computers (60MHz, 66MHz) used PGA (Pin Grid
Array). Pentium chips (75 MHz and above) used SPGA (Staggered PGA).
c. Pentium II CPUs use cartridge type mounting method, called "slot-1".
54.Nickel

Cadmium

battery

is

not

environmentally

friendly

and

not

as

efficient

as

Nickel/Metalhydride or Lithium Ion. Nickel/Metal hydride, though environmentally friendly, not

as efficient as Lithium Ion. Lithium Ion battery is environmentally friendly and very efficient.

55.Pentium-II processor class supports Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) as it integrates the
MMX technology to speed up multimedia processing. SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Access)
works by allowing a single instruction to operate on multiple pieces of data. This is useful when
an application is performing repetitive loop.
56. Table below gives some common commands used in building CONFIG.SYS file. Out of these,
files, and buffers commands are most frequently used commands.
a. BUFFERS: Allocates memory for a specified number of disk buffers. This command must be
issued from CONFIG.SYS. BUFFERS=n, where n is the number of buffers (from 1 to 99).
b. DEVICE: Loads a specified device driver into memory. DEVICE=[path] drivername Drivername
is the name of the device driver that you want to load.
c. DEVICEHIGH: Loads an installable device into high (UMB) area
d. FILES:

Specifies the number of files DOS can access at one time. FILES=n, where n is the

number of files (from 8 to 255)

e. LASTDRIVE: Sets the maximum number of drive letters available to DOS
f.

SET: Sets environment variables

g. STACKS: Sets the number of stacks set aside for hardware interrupts.
57. If Autoexec.bat tried to access a drive letter that is not valid, the error message "Current drive
is no longer valid" appears.
58. Command Line Utilities :NBTSTAT This utility displays current NetBIOS over TCP/IP connections, and display NetBIOS
name cache.
NETSTAT Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections since the server was last
booted.
TRACERT Used to determine which route a packet takes to reach its destination from source.
IPCONFIG Used to display Windows IP configuration information.
NSLOOKUP This utility enables users to interact with a DNS server and display resource records.
ROUTE Used to display and edit static routing tables.
59.The log files BOOTLOG.TXT records all the devices and drivers that the Operating System
attempts to load. BOOTLOG records the status of the devices and drivers.
60.The installation process events are logged to file SETUPLOG.TXT. You can analyze the
success/failure of events by going through this file.
61.Windows 95 doesn't need system.ini or win.ini, but it can use them to support 16 bit Windows
3.x programs that can't access the Windows 95 Registry.
62.The first 64 KB of extended memory is known as High Memory Area (HMA). HIMEM.SYS loads
into this area in DOS.
63."Loadhigh" or "LH" is used to load TSRs into upper memory. This statement is used in
AUTOEXEC.BAT.
64.When you power on the DOS machine, you see a message, "Starting MS-DOS". If you press F5
key during this short period, you can bypass AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files.

65.The file load order to start DOS is :

IO.SYSMSDOS.SYSCONFIG.SYSCOMMAND.COMAUTOEXEC.BAT. Note

that CONFIG.SYS,

and AUTOEXEC.BAT are optional to load DOS. IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, COMMAND.COM are required.
66. IMPORTANT DOS FILES USED DURING BOOT UP ARE:
A. File Name: AUTOEXEC.BAT
1. It does: Modifies the PC environment (PATH, SET, and other commands)
2. Default Attributes: Nil
3. Is it required for OS Start up: NO
B. File Name: CONFIG.SYS
1. It does: Loads low level device drivers and does performance tuning
2. Default Attributes: Nil
3. Is it required for OS Start up: NO
C. File Name: IO.SYS
1. It does: Loads basics Input/ Output routines for the processor
2. Default Attributes: Hidden / System/ Read Only
3. Is it required for OS Start up: YES
D. File Name: MSDOS.SYS
1. It does: Defines System File locations
2. Default Attributes: Hidden / System/ Read Only
3. Is it required for OS Start up: YES
E. File Name: COMMAND.COM
1. It does: The file contains internal command set and error messages
2. Default Attributes: Nil
3. Is it required for OS Start up: YES
4. Responsible for Command Prompt
F. HIMEM.SYS
G. EMM386.EXE
H. ANSI.SYS
67. A permanent swap file has what file extension ? (PAR).
68.EMM386.EXE allows access to Upper Memory Area. Please note that the conventional memory
of 1 MB is divided into 1. Lower Memory Area 640 KB, and 2. Upper Memory Area 384KB
(1024KB-640KB).
69.The file DETLOG.TXT is created during the hardware detection process, and tracks detection
and installation of all devices.
70.