This section will explain the basic qualifications of a A+ Certified Technician and how they can benefit your company. Registration Number: 1-800-77-MICRO or visit 2test.com and register on-line. Passed the A+ Certification March 17th, 1999. The test consisted of 2 parts. Listed here are the test objectives that you should know in order to pass the exams, sponsored by COMPTIA.

• Test Number: 220-102
• Passing Score: 65%
• Number of Questions: 63 and 6 customer service questions
• Current Cost: $ 128 US Dollars
• Time Allowed: 60 Minutes

Identify basic terms, concepts, and functions of system modules, including how each module should work during normal operation.

Identify common peripheral ports, associated cabling, and their connectors. Identify proper procedures for installing and configuring IDE/EIDE devices. Identify proper procedures for installing and configuring SCSI devices.

Identify common symptoms and problems associated with each module and how to troubleshoot and isolate the problems.

Identify the purpose of various types of preventive maintenance products and procedures and when to use/perform them.

Identify potential hazards and proper safety procedures relating to laser and high-voltage equipment. Distinguish between the popular CPU chips in terms of their basic characteristics.

Identify the purpose of CMOS, what it contains and how to change its basic parameters.

Identify basic concepts, printer operations, and printer components.

Identify care and service techniques and common problems with primary printer types. Differentiate effective from ineffective behaviors as these contribute to the maintenance or achievement of customer satisfactions.

FRU - Field replacement units

ISA - Industry standard architecture
EISA - Extended industry standard architecture
MCA - Microchannel architecture

16 bit: 8088, 80286
32 bit: 80386, 80486
64 bit: Pentium

Name	MHZ	Data	Size	Mem Addr
8088	4.77	8	16	20
8086	8	16	16	20
80286	8, 10	16	16	24
80386SX	16,20,25,33	16	32	24
80386DX	16,20,25,33	32	32	32
80486SX	25,33	32	32	32
80486DX	25,33,50	32	32	32
Pentium	60,66+	64	32	32

Internal MathCoprocessor: 486dx and Pentium based machines.

Modules/FRU: Mainboard, power supply, hdd, fdd, cabling, backup battery, i/o ports, keyboard & mouse devices.

System Board: Motherboard with built in video, etc.

VDC: Written on modules for power consumption-voltage direct current.

Cabling can have a natural tendency to act like an antenna - it can pick up current from high voltage devices.

Backup batteries - store cmos information.

Cable max length: serial: 50ft parallel: 15ft

EIA: Electronic Industry Association

Primary Signal Lines:
TXD: serial data out
RXD: serial data receive
DTR: data terminal ready
DSR: data set ready

Parallel: Bi-directional or directional: bidirectionals get msgs
from printer (done?) 8 parallel conductors on the wire.

Run system diagnostics on systems before upgrade to avoid bugs/
surprises and make sure that the customer backups.

ESD: Electro static discharge: antistatic measures

I/O Addresses: COM1: 3F8 LPT1: 378


IRQ'S:
0) System Timer
1) Keyboard
2) Cascade PIC
3) COM2
4) COM1
5) LPT2
6) Floppy Drive
7) LPT1
8) Clock
9) IRQ2
10) Avail
11) Avail
12) Mouse
13) Mathco
14) Hdd Controller
15) Available

PIC: Programmable interrupt controller


POST: Power on self test
LED: Light emitting diode
DVM: Digital volt meter

Static RAM	Fast and reliable.
DRAM (Dynamic RAM)	Refreshed every 2 seconds slower then static.
EDO	Slower then SRAM by 25%.

Check module placement and cable routing upon opening any unit especially notebook/laptop.

Wraparound / Loopback plugs: test serial/parallel ports working okay.

SIC: Standard integrated socket - press down on legs to clear bad connection on legs of chips.

CAUTION!: Potential equipment damage.
WARNING!: Potential of personal injury.

No rings or watches while working on pc: Personal injury.

ESD: Electrostatic discharge: wearing electrostatic bracelet or proper packaging in antistatic bags to prevent equipment damage.

2 types of equipment damage: Catastrophic - stopped working
degradation: starts to die, intermittent.

Display types:

MDA - Monochrome display adapter
CGA - Color graphics adapter
EGA - Enchained graphics adapter
VGA - Virtual graphics adapter (s-super)

CGA - 4 color, 640x200
EGA - 16 color, 640x350
VGA - 256 colors, 640x480
SVGA - 16MIL colors, 640x1024+

Type I 33mhz 16-bits	Type II 33mhz 16-bits	Type III 33mhz 16-bits
3.3 millimeters 68-pins	5 millimeters	13 millimeters
Memory or Ram	Modem	Harddrive

Modules of video display:
Interface logic board: controls electron color gun horizontal oscillator - high volt power for crt display power supply crt (cathode ray tube) - display/picture tube.

Anode lead: removed for discharge of monitor before repairing.
Suction cup shaped at back of crt tube.


Configuring Floppy Disk (FDD): Contains 34 pins, 1st pin is recognized with either red or blue colors. Enable floppy drive controller on-board with cmos FDD Enable. low/high density floppy (1.44/2.88).

Configuring Hard Disk Drive (FDD): IDE Interface is used to connect to the motherboard of controller card. Pin 1 should be closest to power and is recognized with red or blue colors.

ISA	MCA	EISA	PCI
8-10mhz	33 mhz	16mhz	33mhz
16-bit	32-bit	32-bit	64-bit

Hard Disk Drive Types:
ST506 - Seagate
ESDI - Maxtor
IDE - XT, AT, MCA (Current)
SCSI - Supports 8 Drives on 1 controller.
SCSI2 - Supports new commands and cache support.
SCSI WIDE - Faster, wider path, and larger drive support.


CDROM: Developed by Sony and Phillips. Capacity is 600+ information is burned on the cd-rom using a laser light. CDFS Compact Disk File System is the type of Filing System Cd-Rom's use to store information.

Tape Backup Interfaces:
QIC- Quarter Inch Cartage
SCSI - Small Computer System Interface
LPT1 - Can be used to connect other device not just a printer. Is usually used on newer tape backup programs and uses 8 - bits at a time.

IDE

Troubleshooting Floppy Disk: Disk, Drive, Controller, Cable, Cmos. Clean with 99% isopropyl.

Troubleshooting Hard Drive: HDD, Power, Cable, CMOS, Controller. Verify the disk has been formatted and is on the active partition.

Troubleshooting Tape Drive: Tapes, Drives, Cable, Power, CMOS, Backup Software Setup (Drivers).

Parts of a printer that moves the paper: Platen, Tractor, Feed Assy , Sensors.

Steps to install a printer successfully:

Examine the type of system, physical install., Verify config and connections, powerup the OS, software config/setup, and final diagnostic of entire system.

Dot Matrix printers have 2 modes: Font mode and dot addressable mode.

Thermal Printer: Work by producing heat generation.

Inkjet Printers: Drop on demand with a continuous feed.

Laser Printers:
Components:

Photosensitive drum, cleaning blade, erasure lamp, primary corona, writing mechanism, toner, transfer corona, and fusing rollers.

Six Steps to Laser Printing :
Cleaning, Charging, Writing, Developing, Transferring, and Fusing.

Cleaning: Photosensitive drum is electivally erased via rubber blade.

Charging: Using primary corona, electrical field is established between the corona and the drum primary grid regulates the charge.

Writing: A dot of light on the drum's surface will cause a positive charge at that point and will correspond with a visual dot on the completed page.

Developing: Toner is charged and attached to the drum.

Transferring: A transfer corona wire is used to + charge the paper and attract the toner particles. Held to the page via gravity very weak electrostatic attraction.

Fusing: A quartz lamp is used to heat a non-stick roller toner is fused to the page. And the particles are now bonded to the paper.

Troubleshooting printers: Software, LPT Port, Cabling, Printer Interface, Printer Control Electronics, Printer Mechanical Assemblies, and Paper Faults.

Modems: Mod/Dem Modulation converting the signals from the computer to analog signals and then Demodulating passing them to the receiving computer.

MPC Multimedia Person Computers is group that setups the requirements for the personal computers that are sold by like companies like Dell or Compaq.

Troubleshooting Cd-Rom: Disc, Drivers, Cd-rom device, Power, and Cable.

Common Post Error Codes:

100: System Board
300: Keyboard
400, 500, 2400, and 2500: Video
600: Floppy

SCSI - I	SCSI - II	SCSI - III
5 Mbps	10-40 Mbps	20-100 Mbps
8 devices	8 devices	15 devices
50 pin	68 pin	68 pin

** Windows/DOS Information**

• Test Number: 220-102
• Passing Score: 66%
• Number of Questions: 70
• Current Cost: $ 128 US Dollars
• Time Allowed: 75 Minutes

Identify the operating system's functions, structure, and major system files.

Identify basic concepts and procedures for creating, viewing and managing files and directories, including procedures for changing file attributes and the ramifications of those changes.

Identify typical memory problems and how to optimize memory use.

Identify procedures for loading/adding device drivers and the necessary software for certain devices.

Identify procedures for changing options, configuring, and using the Windows printing subsystem. Recognize Windows-specific printing problems and identify the procedures for correcting them.

Windows 95

Minimum Requirements:

Intel 386DX, 20MHz processor or higher 4MB RAM VGA Video adapter and display 20MB free hard disk space

Features:

32-bit using protected mode for all WIN APPS.
PnP Support
Networking Support
Multimedia support with sound and 3d effects.
Support for mobile computing with laptops.
Support for long file names up to 256 char.

Core Files Used in Windows 95: Krnl,Gdi,User

VxD = Virtual Driver
DLL = Dynamic Link Library
INF = Information Files contains information on a related
device.

Boot Files:

Ms-Dos.sys (read-only and hidden) contains routines for boot-up and graphic interface.
IO.Sys, Command.Com.

Registry Files:

System.Dat and User.Dat (Backups created each time Windows 95 is booted up System.Da0 and User.Da0)

VCache: 32-bit protected mode cache driver which replaces the real-mode SmartDrive

Windows 95 Requires that you have himem.sys not necessarily loaded in config.sys.

Device Manager located in control panel lets you view i/o, irq's, and other devices in Windows 95.

SETUPLOG.TXT is used to log installation of Windows95. Will note last utility run prior to a system halt.

DETCRASH.LOG is used to log hardware detection during setup. Readable only by setup to determine which module was running when the system halted.

MODEMLOG.TXT is used to identify when the modem is being used and what commands are being processed. This file is enable in the registry or the modem applet.

Windows 3.1

Minimum Hardware Requirements for Windows 3.x: 286 computer (will only run in standard mode on a 286) MS-DOS 5.0 or above previously installed 2mb of disk space for an upgrade from previous windows version; 5mb for a new installation 640k conventional and 1024k extended memory for enhanced mode; 640k conventional and 256k of extended memory for standard mode Pointing device Video card that has a compatible Windows 3.x driver

WIN.INI: Contains settings to customize windows environments, such as color, wallpaper, sounds.

SYSTEM.INI: Settings for windows to meet hardware device needs, such as i/o devices, memory, and video.

Windows 3.1 requires that you load himem.sys in config.sys.

Be sure to backup all the .ini and .grp files for Windows 3.1 to retain the same settings.

Temporary Swap File WIN386.SWP
Permanent Swap File 386SPART.PAR

DOS ( Disk Operating System )

16 - bit Operating System.

Boot Files -

Io.sys (Input/Output), Msdos.sys, Config.sys (Drivers are loaded in this file "device=" or "devicehigh=", Command.com (Contains command interrupter and internal commands like cd or del), Autoexec.bat (this is where you load stuff "lh" or create a path = statements.

When receiving the message "Bad or missing Command Interrupter" command.com is either missing or corrupted. Using the command sys.com usually resolves this issue.

Commands:

Name /? list switches available.	Function
Fdisk	Used to partition the hard drive.
Mem	Used to display the amount of memory.
Format	Used to create a filing system.
Del	Deletes information
CD	Used to change directories
Dir	Display directory listing.
Ftp (File Transfer Protocol)	Transfer information two computers.
Sys	Transfer system files to disk.
Attrib	Change file attributes.
Edit (requires qbasic.exe)	Text file editor.
Copy	Copy single files.
XCopy	Copy directories of files.
Deltree	Delete a directory tree structure.
Chkdsk	Check hard drive for disk errors.

Memory Structure:

1088 - Extended Memory

1024 - 1088 HMA (High Memory Area). This area is loaded with the driver himem.sys in the config.sys file. device=himem.sys

640k - 1024 Upper Memory Area.

640k Conventional Memory addressed up to 640k