Computer Hardware and Software Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: Scanner

A scanner converts a physical document or image into digital form and feeds it to the computer, so it is an input device. The other three are all output devices, sending information from the computer to the user: a printer produces a paper copy, a monitor displays it and a speaker sounds it. The common input devices are the keyboard, mouse, scanner, microphone, webcam, joystick, light pen, barcode reader, OMR and OCR readers, MICR readers used on cheques, and biometric sensors. A few devices are both, and those are worth naming because they are frequently examined: a touchscreen displays and receives touch; a modem both sends and receives; a network card does the same; and storage devices such as a hard disk or a USB drive are read from and written to. The test is simply the direction in which information travels.

Answer: D

Correct answer: cold and dry

Charge cannot leak away through dry air, and cold air holds little moisture, so static builds and discharges most readily in cold, dry conditions.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Define the circumstances of the problem

Nothing can be diagnosed until it is known what happens, when, and what changed. Establishing that comes before opening the case or telephoning anyone.

Answer: B

Correct answer: EMI Electromagnetic Interference

A power cable carries alternating current, which radiates a magnetic field, and that field induces noise in a signal cable running alongside it. Crossing them at right angles, or separating them, is the remedy.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Toner cartridges

A toner cartridge is designed to be returned, cleaned and refilled, and manufacturers provide the packaging to send it back. Boards, batteries and cathode ray tubes all contain hazardous materials and need specialist treatment.

Answer: A

Correct answer: there are a lot more I/O addresses than IRQs.

A PC has hundreds of free I/O addresses but only sixteen interrupt lines, several of them already taken by the keyboard, timer, floppy and disk controllers. Scarcity is what makes IRQ clashes the common case.

Answer: B

Correct answer: + 5 volts

The first Pentium-class processors, the 60 and 66 MHz parts, ran their cores at 5 V. Later Pentiums moved to 3.3 V and lower to keep the power dissipation manageable as the clock rose, which is why the answer depends on which generation is meant.

Answer: A

Correct answer: regular backups

Defragmenting and checking the disk keep it healthy but save nothing when it fails. Only a backup preserves the data through a failure, which is what the question asks about.

Answer: A

Correct answer: 9

On the 16-bit ISA bus the second interrupt controller is cascaded through IRQ2, so a device requesting IRQ2 is actually serviced as IRQ9. The two are the same line seen from either side.

Answer: D

Correct answer: IEEE 1284

IEEE 1284 defines the parallel port, including the bidirectional EPP and ECP modes. RS-232 is the serial standard and CAT 5 a cable specification.