Which of the following statements about the expansion bus is true?
C) The expansion bus crystal sets the speed for the expansion bus.
A separate expansion bus crystal enables the expansion bus to run at a different speed than the frontside bus.
What does a black down arrow next to a device in Device Manager indicate?
A) The device has been disabled.
Which of the following is a serial expansion bus?
C) PCIe
PCIe is a serial expansion bus, while the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP are all parallel expansion busses.
Which of the following form factors dominates the PC industry?
D) ATX
Almost all modern motherboards follow the ATX form factor.
Amanda bought a new system that, right in the middle of an important presentation, gave her a blue screen of death. Now her system won’t boot at all, not even to CMOS. After extensive troubleshooting, she determined that the motherboard was at fault and replaced it. Now the system runs fine. What was the most likely cause of the problem?
C) Burn-in failure
Although all of the answers are plausible, the best answer here is that her system suffered burn-in failure.
Martin bought a new motherboard to replace his older ATX motherboard. As he left the shop, the tech on duty called after him, “Check your standoffs!” What
could the tech have meant?
B) Standoffs are the metal connectors that attach the motherboard to the case.
Solon has a very buggy computer that keeps locking up at odd moments and rebooting spontaneously. He suspects the motherboard. How should he test it?
A) Check settings, verify good components, replace components, and document all testing.
Solon needs to check settings, verify good components, replace components, and document all testing.
When Jane proudly displayed her new motherboard, the senior tech scratched his beard and asked, “What kind of northbridge does it have?” What could he possibly be asking about?
A) The chipset
The tech is using older terminology to refer to the chips—the chipset—that help the CPU communicate with devices.
What companies dominate the chipset market? (Select two.)
A. AMD
B. Intel
C. NVIDIA
D. SiS
A and B
AMD and Intel produce the vast majority of the chipsets used in personal computers.
If Windows recognizes a device, where will it appear?
C) Device Manager
Windows displays recognized devices in Device Manager.
A client's PC will no longer boot following the annual test of a company's back-up generator system. When the client attemps to turn on the system, the display receives no output. Upon arrival, the technician also notices there are no POST beep codes when turned on, however, the system's fans do begin to run after turning on. The client describes the fans as being louder and faster than normal. Which of the following is the MOST likely issue?
B) Motherboard was damaged during the power test.
The motherboard is not working, because there are no beep codes.
Incorrect Answers:
A power test cannot erase a hard drive.
RAM damage could prevent the system not to boot, however, the motherboard would still emit a POST beep code for RAM.
If the power supply was not functional, the fan would not spin.
You are troubleshooting a computer that reboots at strange times. Even when you try and access the CMOS setup, the computer will reboot. What should you check FIRST?
C) Check for blown capacitors
Do a google search for "blown capacitor" and you will see exactly what I'm talking about. That is a rough situation there. When this happens, it will short circuit the conductors that are carrying power, causing random reboots, among many other types of errors.
Incorrect Answers:
While checking to see if your case fan is spinning is a good idea, it's not the FIRST thing to check for in this scenario.
Replacing the CR-2032, or CMOS battery, will just give you a brand new CMOS battery, it won't stop the reboots from happening.
We can't even stay in the CMOS setup screen before the computer reboots, so don't go troubleshooting your OS just yet.
A computer starts to boot, but then quickly shuts down. Which of the following should a technician use to troubleshoot this issue?
C) Power supply tester
Use a power supply tester to make sure your power supply isn't failing. Many early-boot issues like this are due to a failing power supply.
Incorrect Answers:
A toner probe is used to find the port in a patch panel that goes with a particular cable.
Loopback plugs enable you to test your NIC.
You can't look at event logs if you can't boot into your OS.
You are repairing a PC that won't boot after you just replaced its PSU. What should you check next? (Choose two.)
A. CMOS setup settings
B. RAM
C. Motherboard
D. HDD
E. Graphics card
Motherboard and Graphics card
Motherboard & graphics cards have additional connectors that could cause a computer to not boot if they aren't connected during the Power Supply Unit (PSU) replacement.
Incorrect Answers:
RAM does not need any additional power other than what the motherboard supplies to it.
CMOS settings can't be entered yet. It won't boot!
A hard disk drive (HDD), while incredibly important, is not necessary in the boot up process. Although, it will be shortly if you want to load an OS!
A user recently installed a BD-ROM in their PC. After installation, they call you because now their existing DVD-RW and the new drive aren't working. What should you tell them they need to replace?
C) Power supply
Time to upgrade that power supply unit! Looks like the addition of a new drive just tilted the scale and now your PSU can't power all your devices. Get a 1000-watt PSU… you'll never worry about power again.
Incorrect Answers:
The fact that BOTH your DVD-RW and the BD-ROM simultaneously failed is the big clue here. The DVD-RW was probably working just fine before you put the new drive in. And the BD-ROM was brand new. The odds of having to replace that are very unlikely.
Replacing the SATA controller wouldn't be the fix here. Most SATA controllers are soldered onto motherboards. How handy are you with a soldering iron?
Author
dior
ID
361979
Card Set
Mike Myers_Chapter 6_Motherboards
Description
Questions are from the end of the chapter and TotalTester Online.