Computer Hardware and Software Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Correct answer: False

EISA and MCA are rival extensions of the PC bus, electrically and mechanically incompatible, so a machine has one or the other. EISA accepts ISA cards; MCA does not.

Answer: D

Correct answer: System RAM problem

A memory fault stops the machine before it gets far, but the display would still show the POST error. The three plausible causes all lie in the video path itself - card, cable or monitor.

Answer: B

Correct answer: duplexer

A duplex unit takes the printed sheet, turns it over and feeds it back through, so the second side can be printed without the user reinserting the paper.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Manages the use of extended memory

HIMEM.SYS is the extended memory manager: it arbitrates access to memory above 1 MB and provides the high memory area. EMM386 is the one that emulates expanded memory.

Answer: B

Correct answer: EMM386.exe

EMM386 uses the 386's paging hardware to make extended memory look like expanded memory to programs that expect it. HIMEM.SYS manages extended memory itself and must be loaded first.

Answer: D

Correct answer: RAM

RAM is volatile: it loses its contents the instant power is removed. That is why unsaved work is lost in a power cut, and why a computer must load the operating system from disk into RAM at every start-up. The other three are non-volatile and retain data without power. ROM holds firmware written at manufacture; a hard disk stores data as magnetic patterns; a flash drive uses floating-gate transistors that hold charge indefinitely. RAM divides in two, and the difference matters. SRAM stores each bit in a flip-flop, needs no refreshing and is fast, so it is used for cache - but it takes several transistors per bit and is expensive. DRAM stores each bit as charge on a tiny capacitor which leaks and must be refreshed thousands of times a second; it is far denser and cheaper, so it is used for main memory. The name random access distinguishes both from sequential media such as tape.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Surge suppressor

A surge suppressor clamps voltage spikes coming in on the mains before they reach the equipment. A UPS also supplies power during an outage, which is a different function.

Answer: B

Correct answer: To connect and allow communication between all the components of a computer

The motherboard is the main circuit board of a computer. It holds the processor socket, memory slots, expansion slots and the chipset, and it carries the buses along which all the components communicate. Its chipset determines much of what a board can do - which processors it accepts, how much memory and of what type, and how many devices can be attached. It was traditionally divided into a northbridge handling fast connections to memory and graphics, and a southbridge handling slower peripherals, though most of the northbridge function has since moved onto the processor itself. The board also carries the BIOS or UEFI firmware chip and the CMOS battery that preserves its settings. The other options describe different components: storage is the hard disk or SSD, calculation is the CPU, and converting mains alternating current to the low-voltage direct current the components need is the job of the power supply unit.

Answer: B

Correct answer: serial

A COM port is a communications, or serial, port - it sends one bit at a time. The parallel port is LPT.

Answer: B

Correct answer: video card

The machine is running - lights and noises - but nothing reaches the screen, so the fault is in the display path, and the video card is the part to take. A dead hard drive or supply would produce different symptoms.