Computer Hardware and Software Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: 011

Three jumpers give three bits, and 3 in binary is 011:

\[ 0\times 4 + 1\times 2 + 1\times 1 = 3 \]

So the two low jumpers are shorted and the high one left open.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Direct input method

Direct input reads data that is already in a form the machine can process - a bar code, a magnetic stripe, a mark sheet - without anyone transcribing it. Indirect input requires it to be keyed in first.

Answer: C

Correct answer: A device is recognised and configured automatically when connected

Plug and play means the operating system detects a newly connected device, identifies it, and loads or obtains the appropriate driver automatically, without the user configuring anything. It is easy to underrate because it is now universal. Before it, adding a card meant setting jumpers or switches by hand to assign an interrupt request line, a DMA channel and an address range, and choosing values that clashed with an existing device produced failures that were exceedingly difficult to diagnose. It requires cooperation between the firmware, the operating system and the device itself, which must be able to report its identity. USB was designed around it and added hot swapping, so a device can be connected and removed while the machine runs. A driver is still needed, but the system now finds it - from its own store or over the internet - rather than requiring a disc.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Video controller

A DOS upgrade touches the BIOS interface, the disk structures and the existing files, so all three of those can obstruct it. The video controller is addressed the same way by every version, so it is the least likely to interfere.

Answer: A

Correct answer: floppy drive

In the POST numbering, 6xx is the floppy drive. 1xx is the system board, 3xx the keyboard and 17xx the hard disk.

Answer: B

Correct answer: D

Drive letters are assigned to all primary partitions first, in drive order, and only then to logical drives in the extended partitions. So the first drive's primary is C and the second drive's primary is D.

Answer: C

Correct answer: loop backs (wrap plugs)

A loopback plug connects a port's output pins back to its input pins, so diagnostic software can send data and check that the same data returns. That tests the port itself without needing a device attached.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Head to disk interference

HDI is head-to-disk interference - contact between the flying head and the platter, which is what a head crash consists of. The heads normally fly a fraction of a micron clear.

Answer: C

Correct answer: bad RAM

The parity bit is written with each byte and checked on every read, so a mismatch means the stored bits have changed. That is a memory fault by definition.

Answer: B

Correct answer: tractor feed

A dot matrix printer pulls continuous stationery through by sprockets engaging the perforated edges - the tractor feed - which keeps the paper aligned through many pages.