O'Reilly Media | A+, Network+, Security+ Exams in a Nutshell

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

The A+ Essentials exam is the first of CompTIA's two exams required for completing the A+ certification. The A+ certification is an entry-level certification for those individuals who wish to pursue their careers in computer hardware and software support. The candidate must pass two exams in order to get his A+ certification. You can choose one of the other three elective exams—IT Technician Exam 220–602, Remote Support Technician Exam 220–603 or Depot Technician Exam 220–604—to get an appropriate A+ certification. The second part of this book (Chapters 4, 5, and 6) covers the elective exams.

The main focus of the A+ Essentials exam is to test your knowledge on the basics of computer hardware. The exam focuses on your skills to install, build, upgrade, repair, configure, troubleshoot, optimize, diagnose problems, and to perform preventive maintenance of personal computers and the installed operating systems.

Aside from testing your knowledge of computer components and operating systems, this exam also covers networking concepts and printing and scanning devices. It has recently been revised to include newer areas of study, such as computer security, safety and environmental issues, and communications and professionalism. Another new area is the knowledge of laptops and portable devices. In each of the study areas, you are expected to be skilled in identifying individual computer components as well as in installing, upgrading, and configuring them. You must also have hands-on experience in optimizing performance, using appropriate tools to diagnose problems, and performing preventive maintenance.

The approximate percentage of each section in Exams 220–602, 220–603, and 220–604 is given in Table 1-1.

Table 1-1: A+ Essentials exam domains and percentage of coverage
Domain	Percentage of coverage

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Identify the fundamental principles of using personal computers.
Identify the names, purposes and characteristics of the following storage devices:
- FDD
- HDD
- CD/DVD/RW (e.g., drive speeds and media types)
- Removable storage (e.g., tape drive and solid states such as thumb drive, flash and SD cards, USB, external CD-RW, and hard drives)
Identify the names, purposes, and characteristics of the following motherboards:
- Form Factors (e.g., ATX/BTX and micro ATX/NLX)
- Components:
  - Integrated I/Os (e.g., sound, video, USB, serial, IEEE 1394/firewire, parallel, NIC, and modem)
  - Memory slots (e.g., RIMM and DIMM)
  - Processor sockets
  - External cache memory
  - Bus architecture
  - Bus slots (e.g., PCI, AGP, PCIE, AMR, and CNR)

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

This chapter provides a study guide for the CompTIA A+ Essentials exam. Various sections in this chapter are organized to cover the related objectives of the exam. Each section identifies the exam objective, provides an overview of the objective, and then discusses the key details that you should master before taking the exam.

An overview of the sections in this chapter is as follows:

Personal Computer Components: This section describes the components of personal computers such as the processor, memory, storage devices (such as hard disks and removable drives), display devices, input/output devices (such as the keyboard and mouse), and various ports and types of cables used to connect these components. Installing, configuring, upgrading, and troubleshooting these components are also covered in this section.
Laptops and Portable Devices: This section describes the identification of different components of portable computers. Installing, configuring, upgrading, and troubleshooting these portable computers is also covered in this section.
Operating Systems: This section describes requirements and installation procedures for various operating systems used on personal computers such as Mac OS X, Linux, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. Upgrading a previously installed operating system and troubleshooting common problems is also covered in this section.
Printers and Scanners: This section describes the basics of installing, configuring, optimizing, upgrading, and troubleshooting printers and scanners.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

This part of the A+ Essentials exam deals mainly with the identification, installation, upgrading, and basic troubleshooting of different parts of personal computers. This part of the study guide covers about one-fifth of the exam objectives. As a hardware technician, you are expected to have extensive knowledge of different components of personal computers. These components include storage devices, motherboards, processors, memory, power supplies, and adapter cards. It is also necessary to have a good understanding of ports and cable types that are used inside the computer and for connecting external peripherals. This section provides an overview of these components.

The motherboard or the system board is made up of several components such as the central processing unit (CPU), memory slots, video section, and so on. Each component on the motherboard has a specific job. In this section, we will look at some of the most common motherboard components and their functions. Motherboards are mainly divided into the following two categories:

Integrated motherboards: Integrated motherboards have most of the essential components on them, which are otherwise installed as separate adapter cards on expansion slots. The major advantage of this type of motherboard is that all major functions are handled by a single circuit board. On the other hand, the drawback is that if one of the components fails, you might need to replace the entire motherboard. Most of the new motherboards fall into this category.
Non-integrated motherboards: Non-integrated motherboards do not have all components on them but are installed as adapter cards on expansion slots. These components include video cards, disk controllers, network adapters, and audio circuitry. The main advantage is that if an individual component fails, it can be replaced easily. The disadvantage is that the inside of the computer is full of adapters and wires. Most of the motherboards on older computers fall into this category.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Laptops are built for mobile computing. They are much smaller in size and weight than desktop computers, and they are portable, which means that they can easily be carried from one place to another. Due to their smaller size, the components that make up a laptop have to be compact. Although laptops cannot beat desktops in features, performance, and computing capabilities, their functionality is comparable for everyday computing needs. Laptops use special components that are different from normal desktops, and they need special handling and maintenance. In this section, we will discuss unique features of laptop components, their power management options, troubleshooting techniques, and preventive maintenance procedures.

One of the major differences between a laptop and a desktop is that the laptop is portable while the desktop is not. Some of the other factors that distinguish between a desktop and a laptop are as follows:

Size: A laptop is much smaller than a desktop because all of its components are in a single case. This helps when you do not have sufficient space to keep individual desktop components such as the CPU, the monitor, and the keyboard.
Cost: The cost of a laptop is much more than that of a desktop. It is still about 50 percent more than a standard desktop of comparable configuration, but the gap is reducing fast.
Ease of operation: Desktops offer ease of operation due to a larger keyboard, a bigger mouse, and larger displays. If you are used to working on a desktop, you may find that it takes time to get used to working on a laptop.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Computer hardware, such as the motherboard, CPU, adapter cards, display devices, and I/O devices, are only a part of the entire computer system. To make this hardware work, we need software that acts as an interface between human beings and the hardware. Software can be classified into three major categories as follows:

Operating systems: The operating system interacts directly with the computer hardware and provides a platform for applications and device drivers. It manages computer memory, input, output, disks, and filesystems.
Device drivers: Device drivers act as an interface between the operating system and the specific devices for which the driver software is written.
Applications: An application is the software program that takes commands from the user for a specific task, executes them, and produces the results.

The operating system is the primary software that makes the computer hardware usable. In this section, we will discuss some of the fundamentals of using operating systems, their installation and upgrade methods, troubleshooting techniques, and preventive maintenance procedures.

Once we start discussing various operating systems, we certainly need to know about their revision levels. In this section, we will cover some basics of Microsoft Windows, Apple MAC, and Linux.

Section 2.3.1.1: Windows

Microsoft Windows is no doubt the largest used operating system to date. This operating system evolved from Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS), which had a command-line interface. In contrast to the MS-DOS operating systems, Windows uses a

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Printers are output devices that convert the electronic information into hard copy and reproduce the output on a piece of paper. Scanners, on the other hand, are input devices that read information from a piece of paper and convert it into electrical signals. Both of these devices are electromechanical, meaning that they use electrical/electronic and mechanical parts to do their jobs. Here we will discuss some fundamentals of using printers and scanners and installing them, and take a look at the available tools to diagnose common problems.

Printers and scanners are available in different types and forms, with varying capabilities and pricing, depending on the technology they are built upon. In this section, we will take a look at the printing and scanning technologies, their components, and how they are connected to computers.

Section 2.4.1.1: Laser printers

Laser printers use a sharp beam of light, the laser beam, to produce the text or image on paper. This is called the ElectroPhotographic (EP) process, originally developed by Xerox, and it is based on use of static electricity to transfer the ink, which is in the form of toner, to the paper according to electrical signals received from the computer. They are used for high-quality text and image printing, have faster speed than other printers, and have low cost of printing per page. Laser printers are known as page printers and their printing speed is represented as pages per minute (ppm).

Section 2.4.1.1.1: Components of a laser printer

An internal view of the laser printer is shown in Figure 2-14. Different parts of a laser printer are as follows:

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Networks allow computer users to connect computers together and share resources such as files and printers. Networking also allows better management of data, security, and resources in large companies where hundreds of employees work on computers. In this section, we will cover some basic fundamentals of computer networks, installation of networks, and common troubleshooting methods.

A computer network refers to two or more computers linked together to share files, printers, and other resources. The network may be as small as just two or more computers linked together at home or in an office, or as big as a corporate network at multiple locations spanned across the globe.

Chapter 8 covers a detailed study of computer networks.

Section 2.5.1.1: Types of networks

The following are main categories of computer networks:

Local area network (LAN): A LAN is a network of computers joined together in a local area such as a small office, home, or building. The area covered by a LAN is usually restricted to a single location. The function of a LAN is to provide high-speed connectivity to all computers and network devices.
Wide area network (WAN): A WAN is a network that connects two or more local area networks. A WAN typically connects separate LANs at different geographic locations. A third-party such as an Internet service provider or a local telephone company is responsible for providing the required dedicated hardware and/or connectivity lines to implement a WAN. These hardware devices include modems or routers that are required to connect the local LANs to the service providers network.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Security was not a big concern when computers were not networked and when the Internet was not as widely used as it is used today. Connecting to the Internet opens your computer or the entire network to the outside world. If security methods are not implemented, the computers or the Internet may be at risk of being exploited. Security threats come in various forms and can cause loss of connectivity or loss of valuable data. As a PC technician, you are expected to have a good knowledge of basic security concepts. In this section, we will discuss some fundamental security concepts.

In this section, we will study some basic elements of computer security. These topics include authentication technologies and protocols, malicious software, and elements of wireless security.

Section 2.6.1.1: Authentication technologies and protocols

Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a person. It is considered the first point of controlling access to a system. In the context of computer security, authentication is the method of verifying that the identity of a person or an application seeking access to a system, object, or a resource is true. For example, if a user wants to access a computer, the identity of the user is usually verified by having the user enter a valid username and password. If the username and password of the user matches the ones stored in the security database of the computer, the user is allowed access. This process is known as the authentication process. Depending on the requirements of an organization, one or more authentication mechanisms can be implemented to ensure security of an individual computer or for the entire network.

The following sections discuss a number of authentication technologies and protocols used in computer networks.

Section 2.6.1.1.1: Username and password

Almost all operating systems implement some kind of authentication mechanism wherein users can simply use a locally created username and password to get access to the system. When the user enters his credentials (the combination of username and password), the local security database is checked to verify that the credentials match the ones stored in the local security database of the computer. If a match is found, the user is granted access; otherwise, the user is not allowed to log on to the system. This is the simplest form of authentication and can be implemented easily, but it also comes with its own limitations. Many organizations document and implement password policies that control how users can create and manage their passwords in order to secure network resources.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

This section is not covered in Exam 220–603.

As a computer technician, you must be aware of safety and environmental issues related to installation and maintenance of computers and their peripherals. This section covers some important aspects of safety and environmental protection.

This discusses identification of safety hazards at the workplace and explains standard procedures to create a safe working environment.

Section 2.7.1.1: Identifying potential safety hazards

A hazard is something that can potentially cause physical harm or injury and that can directly affect the employees (such as exposure to dangerous chemicals), or can affect the environment in general such as waste materials used in the organization. Organizations need to ensure that all hazards, physical or environmental, are identified and appropriate measures are taken to reduce the risks associated with hazardous materials used in the workplace.

In busy workplaces such as an organization using hundreds of computers, a loose and trailing cable, exposed electrical wiring or a slippery surface can all be potential safety hazards. It is important to identify any potential safety hazards. A risk assessment must be done to evaluate the hazards. Identification of hazards requires that you are able to distinguish between the following:

Hazards in the workplace, such as its layout.
Hazards associated with activities of the employees.
Hazards that cause harm to the environment.

Most hazards can be easily spotted or their risk can be reduced. There are still some hazards that are generally ignored and can be dangerous. The following general guidelines can help identify potential health, safety, and environmental hazards:

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

This section is not covered in Exam 620–604.

Communication and professionalism are major components of customer support. A customer support or helpdesk technician should not only be skilled technically but also be a good communicator and well behaved. This is particularly true when the customer support technicians are visiting onsite customer locations for service calls. In this section, we will explain different aspects of communication and professionalism as related to computer customer support.

Effective communication skills are required for every computer support technician. It does not matter whether you are working as an in-house helpdesk technician for an organization, or whether you have to travel to a customer's place for service and support calls. These include maintaining customer privacy and confidentiality, effective talking and listening skills, and asking the right questions to understand and resolve the problem. At the same time, you will try not to use technical jargon to unnecessarily impress the customer and will refrain from being judgmental. This section explains the essentials of communication skills.

Section 2.8.1.1: Privacy and confidentiality

Due to increasing competition in almost every field today, organizations needs to ensure that its confidential data is not stolen or misused, client confidentiality is maintained, and the support technician completes his work to maintain the mutual trust.

Customer privacy, as related to computer support, refers to the fact that support technicians do not copy, take away, or misuse confidential data belonging to the organization. Most organizations take certain measures to prevent undesired disclosure of data to third parties including computer support technicians. As a support technician, you will need to abide by these rules when you visit a client organization to resolve a computer-related problem. Chances are that you will come across such confidential data stored on a user's computer or her home directory. You are not supposed to copy this data or take it outside the client office in any case. If you do this, you may be subject to legal actions as per the rules of the organization or regulatory consumer privacy laws.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

The material in this chapter is designed to help you prepare and practice for the A+ Essentials exam. The chapter is organized into four sections:

Preparing for the A+ Essentials Exam: This section provides an overview of the types of questions on the exam. Reviewing this will help you understand how the actual exam works.
Suggested Exercises for the A+ Essentials Exam: This section provides a numbered list of exercises that you can follow to gain experience in the exam's subject areas. Performing the exercises will help ensure that you have hands-on experience with all areas of the exam.
Highlighters Index: This section compiles the facts within the exam's subject areas that you are most likely to need another look at—in other words, the areas of study that you might have highlighted while reading the Study Guide. Studying the highlights is useful as a final review before the exam.
Practice Questions for the Exam: This section includes a comprehensive set of practice questions to assess your knowledge of the concepts. The questions are similar in format to the exam. After you've reviewed the Study Guide, performed the Suggested Exercises, and studied the Highlighters Index, read the questions and see whether you can answer them correctly.

Before you take any of the A+ exams, review the exam overview, perform the suggested exercises, and go through the practice questions provided. Many online sites provide practice tests for the exam. Duplicating the depth and scope of these practice exams in a printed book isn't possible. Visit CompTIA's certification web site for pointers to online practice tests (

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

The A+ exams are computer-generated. The exams are timed, and an onscreen timer clock displays the amount of time remaining on the exam. Most questions on the exam are multiple choice. The multiple-choice questions are either one of the following:

Multiple-choice, single answer: A radio button allows you to select a single answer only.
Multiple-choice, multiple answer: A checkbox allows you to select multiple answers. Usually the number of correct answers is indicated in the question itself.

CompTIA reserves the right to change the testing techniques at any time. It is recommended that you visit the CompTIA A+ certification web site regularly to get updates on any changes in exam format. Individuals with adequate hands-on experience who have reviewed the Study Guide, performed the practice exercises, memorized the essentials, and taken practice tests should do well on this type of exam. Individuals who lack adequate hands-on experience and have not prepared appropriately will find the exam hard to pass.

CompTIA suggests the following tips for taking the exam:

Read the question slowly and carefully.
Do not expect to find clues in every question, though they may be present in some.
Be aware of the distractions/confusions in statements. The first choice is often the best choice.
Do not attempt to create situations based on a question. Your answer should be based on whatever information is provided.
If you are retaking the exam, utilize your previous score report to concentrate on areas that need more study or practice.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

The A+ Essentials exam expects you to have a good understanding of concepts related to computer hardware and software. Hands-on experience is recommended and is good to have. You should be very conversant with hardware terminology, operating systems, and basic security concepts, and you should have the basic skills to troubleshoot problems. You will need to review the Study Guide and pay close attention to the areas that are new for you and with which you feel uncomfortable.

This section includes some exercises that you can perform either on a standalone computer or in a network to gain some hands-on experience. Since the A+ Essentials exam mainly covers basic knowledge and skills in installing, configuring, and troubleshooting computer hardware and software, you will need plenty of experience in completing these tasks. You must know what specifications to look for when selecting a component and how to correctly install the hardware and configure device drivers.

It is recommended that you do not perform any of the suggested exercises in your organization or on any computer running in a production network. Create a test environment for completing these exercises. Even if you just want to view configuration settings for different components of a personal computer in a production environment, make sure a senior administrator accompanies you or you get permissions from your supervisor. In any case, you should follow the policies of the organization. For most exercises where you need to work on internal parts of a computer, make sure that you are wearing a properly grounded antistatic wrist strap.

Open the PC's case.
Examine the motherboard.
Determine the motherboard's Form Factor.
Determine whether it is an integrated or non-integrated motherboard.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

In this section, we've attempted to compile the facts within the exam's subject areas that you are most likely to need another look at—in other words, the areas of study that you might have highlighted while reading the Study Guide. The title of each highlighted element corresponds to the heading title in the A+ Essentials Study Guide. In this way, if you have a question about a highlight, you can refer back to the corresponding section in the Study Guide. For the most part, the entries under a heading are organized as term lists with main points that you need to memorize for the exam.

This subsection covers a summary of highlights from the "Personal Computer Components" section in the A+ Essentials Study Guide.

Types of motherboards

There are two types of motherboards: integrated and nonintegrated.
Integrated motherboards natively possess most essential components (a video adapter and network interface card are two examples) on it.
A nonintegrated motherboard needs such components to be installed as add-on cards.
Most new personal computers have integrated motherboards.
The Form Factor specifies the design of the motherboard as well as details such as size and layout of components.

ATX

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

You have just been hired as field technician with a computer support company. Which of the following types of motherboards are you most likely to see more than others while on the job?
- ❍ A. AT
- ❍ B. Baby AT
- ❍ C. ATX
- ❍ D. NLX
Answer C is correct. Although you can find any of the listed motherboards in the field, the most popular of the given designs is the ATX and its variations. The AT and Baby AT designs are almost obsolete. The NLX design also did not become very popular.
Which of the following motherboards uses a riser card for providing expansion slots?
- ❍ A. AT
- ❍ B. Baby AT
- ❍ C. ATX
- ❍ D. NLX
Answer D is correct. The NLX design specifies the use of a special riser card to provide expansion slots. The expansion or add-on cards become parallel to the motherboard when installed on the riser card. In all other designs, the expansion slots are available directly on the motherboard, and the add-on cards are installed in a vertical position.
Which of the following is another (and official) name for IDE and EIDE drives?
- ❍ A. ATA
- ❍ B. SATA
- ❍ C. SCSI

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

After you have passed the A+ Essentials exam, you must pass one of the three available elective exams to complete your A+ certification. These exams are numbered 220–602, 220–603, and 220–604 and are for getting your IT Technician, Remote Support Technician and Depot Technician credentials, respectively. As noted earlier in this book, the A+ certification is an entry-level certification for those individuals who wish to pursue their careers in computer hardware support. The elective A+ exams let you choose the right role in the computer support industry where you intend to work or want to demonstrate your skills. Unlike the A+ Essentials exam, the elective exams are designed to test your skills beyond basic identification, installation, upgrade, and troubleshooting of personal computer hardware. The areas of study for these exams depend on the track you choose to complete your certification. The following tracks are available:

IT Technician: The IT Technician Exam 220–602 is meant for those individuals who work or intend to work in a corporate or mobile environment, which has a high level of face-to-face client interaction. Job titles for these skills may include Enterprise Technician, IT Administrator, Field Service Technician, or PC Technician. According to CompTIA, this certification may also be useful for some nontechnical positions such as students, sales personnel, and small business office managers.
Remote Support Technician: The Remote Technician Exam 220–603 is meant for those individuals who work or intend to work in a remote-based hardware support environment where client interaction, client training, operating systems, and connectivity issues are important. Job titles for these skills may include Remote Support Technician, Helpdesk Technician, or Call Center Technician.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Install, configure, optimize and upgrade personal computer components.
- Add, remove, and configure personal computer components, including selection and installation of appropriate components.
Identify tools, diagnostic procedures, and troubleshooting techniques for personal computer components.
- Identify and apply basic diagnostic procedures and troubleshooting techniques.
- Recognize and isolate issues with peripherals, multimedia, input devices, internal and external storage, and CPUs.
- Identify the steps used to troubleshoot components (e.g., check proper seating, installation, appropriate components, settings and current drivers).
- Recognize names, purposes, characteristics, and appropriate application of tools.
Perform preventive maintenance of personal computer components.
- Identify and apply common preventive maintenance techniques for personal computer components.

This section is not covered in Exam 220–603.

Identify the fundamental principles of using laptops and portable devices:
- Identify appropriate applications for laptop-specific communication connections such as Bluetooth, infrared, cellular WAN, and Ethernet.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

This chapter provides a study guide for CompTIA A+ Exams 220–602, 220–603, and 220–604. Various sections in this chapter are organized to cover the related objectives of the exam. Each section identifies the exam objective, provides an overview of the objective, and then discusses the key details that you should grasp before taking the exam.

Note that the Exam 220–602 includes all sections given in this chapter. Some sections are omitted in Exams 220–603 and 220–604 and have been noted at appropriate places in the chapter. An overview of the sections in this chapter is provided in the following paragraphs:

Personal Computer Components: This section covers the basic steps involved in installing, configuring, upgrading, and troubleshooting personal computer components, such as processor, memory, and storage devices, including hard disks, removable drives, display devices, and input/output devices. Preventive maintenance of these components is also covered in this section.
Laptops and Portable Devices: This section covers a discussion of communication technologies used for laptops and mobile devices; installation and optimization of laptop specific hardware; and basic diagnostic procedures to troubleshoot and resolve problems. This section is not covered in Exam 220–603.
Operating Systems: This section discusses configuring various components of the operating system, performance optimization, troubleshooting tools and techniques, and preventive maintenance procedures. This section is not covered in Exam 220–604.
Printers and Scanners: This section covers the basics of printing and scanning processes, optimizing performance, troubleshooting techniques, and preventive maintenance of printers and scanners.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

This part of the A+ exam deals mainly with installing, upgrading, and basic troubleshooting of different parts of personal computers. As a hardware technician, you are expected to have good knowledge of installation and upgrading procedures for different components of personal computers, including storage devices, motherboards, processors, memory, power supplies, adapter cards, ports, and cable types used both inside the computer and for connecting external peripherals. This section provides an overview of installation, optimization, troubleshooting, and preventive maintenance procedures for these components.

Chapter 2 includes a detailed discussion of various components of personal computers, their identification, characteristics, and basic installation and troubleshooting procedures. I encourage you to review the fundamentals one more time before you take Exams 220–602, 220–603, or 220–604.

Every component inside and outside a computer needs to be installed or upgraded using certain standard procedures. Most of these procedures come in the form of instructions from the vendor. In some situations, when no predefined procedure or instructions are available, you might have to use your common sense, knowledge, skills, and experience to complete the given task. The installation and upgrade process starts right from selecting an appropriate component, installing it, and testing it to verify that it works as expected. This section provides a discussion of some basic procedures to install, remove, and upgrade computer components.

Section 5.1.1.1: Storage devices

Hard disks, floppy disks, CD-ReWritable (CD-RW), and DVDs are all categorized as storage devices in computers. Among these, the hard disks remain the primary means of data storage. The normal size of a hard disk drive is 3.5 inches (as opposed to 5.25 inches for CD and DVD drives). When installing additional drives, you might require appropriate screws to fix the drive into the cage. It is a good idea to test the screws for their size before installing a drive in the drive cage. In this section, we will look at adding, removing, and upgrading procedures for these devices.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

This section is not covered in Exam 220–603.

Laptops are portable computers that use less power and make less noise than ordinary desktops. They are a little more expensive than desktops but have become very popular due to sharply falling prices. They have limited processing and graphics capabilities compared to desktops. They can work on AC power as well as DC power supplied through a built-in battery pack that runs for a few hours depending on what applications are running, what devices are connected, and how the laptop is configured to conserve power. Laptop components produce very small amounts of heat. This section discusses some fundamentals of laptops as well as installation and troubleshooting methods for components such as power devices, external monitors, and keypads.

In this section, we will focus our attention on communication technologies for wireless communications, power devices for laptops, and components of the LCD.

Section 5.2.1.1: Communication technologies for laptops

Laptops can be connected to a corporate network or to the Internet using wired or a wireless solution. In this section, we will take a brief look at how laptops can use different network communication methods.

Section 5.2.1.1.1: Bluetooth

Bluetooth wireless networking technology provides short-range communications between two or more laptop and desktop computers. It is designed to overcome the limitations of IrDA technology. It supports transmission speeds from 1 Mbps (Bluetooth 1.0) to 3 Mbps (Bluetooth 2.0) and works over the unlicensed frequency range of 2.4 GHz. The devices must be within a short range of less than 10 meters, and 2 or more Bluetooth computers form an ad-hoc wireless network that offers high resistance to electromagnetic interferences. Bluetooth devices consume very little power.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

The A+ Essentials exam tests your knowledge of introductory concepts of operating systems. Exams 220–602, 603, and 604 test your ability to identify and use tools and utilities to manage operating systems and diagnose common problems related to the components of operating systems. In this section, we will discuss commonly used tools and utilities to manage the operating system, utilities to troubleshoot startup and recovery problems, and the maintenance of disks and filesystems. The two major desktop operating systems covered on the A+ exams are Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional. A majority of the tools and utilities covered in the following sections are available on both of these operating systems.

There are some overlapping objectives covered in A+ Essentials and Exams 220–602, 220–603, and 220–604. I encourage you to review the fundamental concepts of operating systems covered in Chapter 2.

This section focuses on identifying, locating, and using command-line utilities, as well as disk and system management tools. These utilities are very helpful in diagnosing and resolving common system problems.

Section 5.3.1.1: Command-line functions and utilities

Most of the system management tasks can be accomplished using command-line utilities, which are available in both Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP operating systems. Although most system administrators and technicians prefer to use the graphical user interfaces (GUIs) or wizards to perform everyday administrative tasks, the command-line utilities are considered more powerful than the GUIs. Windows commands can be used in batch files and scripts to automate most of the everyday administrative tasks. This section covers the most basic command-line utilities and their usage.

The commands used in Windows operating systems are not case-sensitive. You can either use upper- or lowercase characters to run a command. We have used a mix of upper- and lowercase in this chapter for the purpose of clarity only.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

This section of the study guide covers essential information required for support jobs related to printers and scanners. Printers are used in every computing environment, and support technicians are expected to attend to service calls for printer installation and troubleshooting on a regular basis.

As a support technician, you are expected to have a good understanding of the processes involved in printing and scanning. You must also be aware of basic troubleshooting and preventive maintenance procedures. This section covers a brief study of these topics.

Section 5.4.1.1: The printing process

The following is an overview of the process that takes place on Windows desktops when a user sends a document for printing:

When the document is submitted for printing using an application program, the application calls the Graphics Device Interface (GDI). The GDI further calls the driver installed for the selected printer.
The print job has specific data type. Print jobs submitted by Windows XP and Windows 2000 have the enhanced metafile (EMF) data type. Many other applications use the RAW data type, which is usually in ready-to-print format.
The GDI and the printer driver work together to convert the document format into a language that the printer understands. This data is passed on to the print spooler, a special folder on the hard disk that holds print jobs in a queue until the printer is ready to accept the print job. The local print provider, which is a component of the print spooler, helps write the print job to the spooler.
The local print provider polls the print processor, which identifies the print job's data type and receives the print job. The print processor then converts the print job according to its data type.

Additi

Table of Contents

Section 2.3.1.1: Windows

Section 2.4.1.1: Laser printers

Section 2.4.1.1.1: Components of a laser printer

Section 2.5.1.1: Types of networks

Section 2.6.1.1: Authentication technologies and protocols

Section 2.6.1.1.1: Username and password

Section 2.7.1.1: Identifying potential safety hazards

Section 2.8.1.1: Privacy and confidentiality

Section 5.1.1.1: Storage devices

Section 5.2.1.1: Communication technologies for laptops

Section 5.2.1.1.1: Bluetooth

Section 5.3.1.1: Command-line functions and utilities

Section 5.4.1.1: The printing process