FirstTry
Objective 5.1220-1201

5.1 Given a scenario, troubleshoot motherboards, RAM, CPUs, and power.

Objective 5.1 sits in Hardware and Network Troubleshooting, which carries 28% of the A+ Core 1 exam. The questions below are original, written from the official objective title above, and each explanation cites the CompTIA page it rests on.

Objective title verbatim from the official objectives. CompTIA exam page ↗

A worked example

Shown solved, with the whole explanation open: this is what every question here carries.

5-1Hardware and Network TroubleshootingModerate

A desktop restarts at random times. The System log holds Event ID 41 with a bug check code of zero and a PowerButtonTimestamp of zero, and nobody held the power button. What is the most likely cause?

Drained CMOS batteryA flat CMOS cell loses clock and firmware settings at boot and leaves a running system alone.
Corrupt display driverA display driver fault raises 0x116, and Windows writes that code into the event data.
Failing system diskA dying disk shows read errors and long stalls well before it takes the machine down.
Faulty power supplyCorrect · your answerCorrect. Nothing was captured, which is how an interrupted feed looks in the log.

Correct.

Concept

Windows records a stop code only when it stays alive long enough to write one. An entry that carries no error data at all describes a machine that lost its feed rather than one that crashed.

Why D

Both values sitting at zero mean nothing was captured before the machine went down, and an interruption at the supply is the documented reading of that pattern.

Source

#power#event-log#stop-error

Now you: objective 5.1 questions

No account needed. The explanation opens when you answer.

Sample question 1 of 3

5-1Hardware and Network TroubleshootingHard

A user overclocked a workstation and it now stops with WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR during long renders. Which action matches the documented cause of that stop code?

Sample question 2 of 3

5-1Hardware and Network TroubleshootingModerate

A technician fits two extra memory modules and the machine now stops with PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA at varying addresses. Which hardware cause fits this pattern?

Sample question 3 of 3

5-1Hardware and Network TroubleshootingEasy

A technician researching a MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION stop finds that current Windows releases rarely raise it. Which bug check now reports that class of fatal hardware fault?

That’s 3 of the full A+ Core 1 bank.

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Read the sources

These are the official pages the questions above cite. Reading them is studying the objective from the primary source, which is what the explanations point you toward anyway.

More objectives in Hardware and Network Troubleshooting