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CompTIA A+ (2006 Objectives) Tutorials

BIOS & CMOS / Sample Test Questions




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Let's go through some sample test questions on the CMOS and BIOS and ah, help get you up to speed for this exam. First up. Let's take a look at this first question. What is the boot sequence for a PC? Now this is one of those questions that you're just going to have to memorize this, and I actually covered this in a previous video, so let's take a look at these. First of all, their first option is CPU, then Power Good, then Boot Loader, then Operating System, then POST. And I'm going to show you all these and then we'll talk about them. B. Power Good, POST, then the CPU, then the Boot Loader, then the Operating System; C. CPU, then Power Good, then POST, then Boot Loader, then Operating System; and, D. Power Good, then the CPU comes up, then the POST, then the Boot Loader, then the Operating System. Now this is, if you're not really sure about the boot sequence for a PC, becomes a really tough question because not one of these really shows up as the wrong one if you don't know. Now, let's go over these first of all and I'll show you some things visually here. First of all, CPU, Power Good, Boot Loader, Operating System, POST; the POST does not happen last. Remember Power On Self Test. So there's no way that this is going to happen after the operating system. So that tells us right there, A is no good, if you at least know that much about the boot sequence and you shouldn't be taking the test if you don't know at least that much about the boot sequence. A whole other issue, right? But now look at these next three. Now this is a tough question because if you're not sure there really aren't any questions here that are easily thrown out. They all contain the same information, just arranged in different order. Then to make matters worse, notice these last three have Boot Loader and Operating System for the last options, so the only difference is in this area on these three that make the difference and two of these have the same right here on POST, okay. So you'll just have to work through these. Power Good, then POST, then CPU. That won't work because you've got to have the CPU on to kick off the POST, right? So you've got to use the CPU because it's got to report back to the CPU, so we'll kill that one. So now we're down to these two. CPU comes up then it gets the Power Good telling it that it's got enough power to run the PC, then the POST takes place, Power On Self Test, then the Boot Loader, it actually goes out and tries to find the boot files and it ah, is usually is pointed to a hard drive, then the Operating System comes up. Now that's pretty good, there. Now let's look at the next one. Power Good, then CPU, then POST, well, wait a minute, where does the Power Good, where does it report to if the CPU isn't up yet? So this one's probably not right. So really this becomes a 50-50 between C and D. And so, what do you think? Um, if you went with C that's the correct answer. Now this is an example of what I would call a tough question. Again, if you're not sure about the Boot Sequence. But this is one of those things you just need to memorize: What is the Boot Sequence for a PC, and just make sure that you read over this a few times so that you will get ah, a question ah, if, if you get a question you'll be able to figure it out. Now, notice something about any of these certification exams. They're not going to ask you like out of order, most of the time. They won't be as simplistic as: Which are these are part of the Boot Sequence? Or What is Power Good, part of the Boot Sequence, not part of the Boot Sequence. What they will ask you are questions that determine whether or not you understand how these pieces fit together. So the first thing you need to learn is what all the pieces are and then, the most important thing, is how do I make them fit together? And on the test you need to be able to understand, or infer from one part of the question, what's happening in another part of the question. Here's another example. Which of the following devices do not need BIOS? A little bit of a trick question here. Is it USB ports? Video cards? Maybe they don't need BIOS. Now this is the real tricky one: Modern Hard Disks. It's very easy to get tricked into this kind of ah, what am I trying to say here, this, this kind of verbiage if you will. That word modern; we, we like this thing about technology moving forward and all kinds of cool stuff happening with each new release, and it's real easy to fall into this thing, that Ooh, modern hard disks don't need BIOS, there's some sort of you know fancy something going on. Well the actual answer is: All devices need BIOS, Basic Input Output Services. So, no matter what device is in that computer it needs those BIOS files, or device drivers to let ah the CPU know how to communicate with that device. So here the correct answer is D. And that's just an understanding that everything does have to have BIOS and ah, even modern hard disks or ultra modern USB ports. So watch for those kinds of things on the exam. You need to know your stuff. Where are device drivers stored? On the hard disk, in CMOS, in BIOS, or Flash BIOS. Well, the correct answer here, of course, is A, stored on the hard disk, and if you remember what CMOS and BIOS is, BIOS is those first few programs that actually run as part of the original first part of the boot strap. CMOS is where information is stored that's needed in the BIOS. Flash BIOS is just a manner in which we can replace or update the BIOS, and a hard disk is where the device drivers are stored. Now, they're stored there because the hard disk is not volatile. It will retain the information even if the machine is shut down, so it will always be there. Plus there's another trick to remembering this, any time you put a CD in, let's say you put a TV tuner card in your computer, and it asks for the drivers, you know they're on a CD. Well, as soon as you put the CD in, you'll actually see in the dialog box that it says, copying files, usually some INF file or something like that to the hard disk. And so, anyway, those device drivers are stored in the hard disk. I hope these sample test questions help you kind of understand how the test is going to check whether or not, first of all you know what the terms are, but then you understand how these various terms and pieces and parts of the computer interrelate to make the computer function as the device that we know it as. I hope this helps. Those are your sample test questions on the BIOS and CMOS.

Tutorial Information

Course: CompTIA A+ (2006 Objectives)
Author: Mark Long
SKU: 33804
ISBN: 1-934743-16-X
Release Date: 2007-10-05
Duration: 9 hrs / 113 lessons
Captions: For Online University members only
Compatibility: Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux
QuickTime 7, Flash 8

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