Computer Hardware and Software Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Correct answer: Starting a computer and loading its operating system

Booting is the process of starting a computer and loading its operating system into memory. The word comes from bootstrapping, from the impossible image of lifting oneself by one’s own bootstraps - the machine must run a program in order to load a program. The sequence is fixed. The processor executes firmware - BIOS or UEFI - from a chip on the motherboard; the POST checks the essential hardware; the firmware finds a boot device according to the configured order; it loads the bootstrap loader from it; and that loads the operating system kernel, which then starts the rest of the system. A cold boot starts from a powered-off state and runs the full self test; a warm boot restarts a running machine, skipping some checks - the reset combination Ctrl + Alt + Del. Dual booting means having more than one operating system installed with a menu to choose between them.

Answer: B

Correct answer: SIMM

SIMMs come with 30 or 72 pins; DIMMs have 168 or more. So a 30-pin slot is a SIMM slot.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The CPU

The central processing unit executes instructions and performs calculations, which is why it is loosely called the brain of the machine. It has three parts. The arithmetic logic unit performs arithmetic and logical operations. The control unit fetches and decodes instructions and directs the rest of the machine. The registers hold the operands and results being worked on. It operates in a repeating fetch–decode–execute cycle, driven by a clock whose frequency is measured in gigahertz. Clock speed alone is a poor measure of performance, since the number of cores, the instructions executed per cycle and the cache size all matter as much. The other components have distinct roles: the hard disk stores data permanently, RAM holds what is currently in use, and the motherboard is the board connecting everything. A processor with several cores can execute several instruction streams genuinely at once.

Answer: D

Correct answer: 3f8

The standard serial addresses are COM1 at 3F8, COM2 at 2F8, COM3 at 3E8 and COM4 at 2E8.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Ozone filter

The corona wires produce ozone, and the filter that absorbs it saturates and must be cleaned or replaced. The mirror is cleaned but not vacuumed, and the toner cartridge is simply exchanged.

Answer: B

Correct answer: The colored line in the cable goes to pin #1

The stripe along one edge of a ribbon cable marks the conductor carrying pin 1, and pin 1 on the board is marked with a square pad, a dot or a number. Aligning the two is the whole of the rule.

Answer: B

Correct answer: 640 x 480

Standard VGA graphics is 640 by 480 pixels in 16 colours. The higher resolutions belong to SVGA and its successors.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Mass storage device

ATAPI - the AT Attachment Packet Interface - extends IDE beyond hard disks to other mass storage devices such as CD-ROM and tape drives, by carrying SCSI-style command packets over the IDE cable.

Answer: D

Correct answer: I/O controller

An I/O controller is a bare circuit board dense with semiconductors, and static discharge is exactly what damages those. A monitor, a power supply and floppy disks are all far more robust.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Interrupt the CPU to request service

An interrupt request line lets a card signal that it needs attention, so the processor can attend to it when it is ready instead of polling. Data itself travels over the bus, not over the IRQ line.