What problems are you having with studying for core exam?

bellboy

i had great problems learning laser printers.

what are you struggling with?

paco

My main problems are cpu's and which sockets they use along with motherboard diagrams.

Rochelle Johnson

I am having the darndest time
remembering the cable connections. Female/Male DB connectors, how many pins and what goes with what. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

Webmaster

Jason at www.mcmcse.com just released a Cables and Connector tutorial which might be useful.

Rochelle Johnson

Thanks Webmaster. I went to the tutorial and was very pleased with the information at that site. Thank You Thank You.......I hope to take the test before the end of the month. I will be staying in touch with the forum as much as I can, studying you know

Webmaster

Your very welcome, just let me know if you're struggling with anything else.

CAME064

I have the hardest time remembering which port connector has how many pins...and male, female...which ones which etc etc...I know all of this stuff but dont look at cable connectors except to plug them in where they go...I just know where they go on the outside of the system and the inside but cant remember the specifics...for example its like driving down the same street all the time but not knowing the street name...

RussS

I always messed up remembering the silly things - like IRQ numbers against available IRQ numbers - that sort of thing.
Laser printers were a mystery until I has a labs session and pulled one to bits - then the cycle was a lot easier to understand.

PaulS

I'm absolutely useless at remembering speeds of processors, etc... and bus widths.

Legacy User

]
I failed the A+ core hardware by 2 or 3 questions. I had trouble on SCSI, what do you need to know on SCSI for the A+? Also alot of the troubleshooting questions were down to hands on experience, that you cannot revice this, and when looking at the options on multiple choice every answer seems to be right to me but obviously some are wrong.
any suggestions?

Webmaster

As for the Sockets and CPUs check out my other post here:

www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=124

Webmaster

For those struggling with laser printers there's a TechNote about printers here.

BlazerAK

I take the A+ Core TOMORROW! I just found this site, it was great with questions I'd not done before. Thanks All!

bellboy

tell us how you get on. we are behind you all the way. good luck.

mah9470

This may sound like a silly question to ask, but does anyone know where I can get printouts of the different types of motherboards? I am studying to take my A+ hardware exam. Any other tips would be appretiated.



Michael

Legacy User

I'm having the most problem finding consistent info on max cable lengths.
I know: thinnet=185m
thicknet=500m
cat5=100m

These are the questionable ones:
usb=5m
serial=50ft
rs232=25ft (isn't that the same as serial)
parallel=6ft

Does anyone have a definitive answer for cable lengths, maybe a website for the Computer Cabling Board of America (yes, I made that up).
Thanks in advance,
Steve

ejhooker

are there any suggestions for memorizing irq's
and other memorizable items? my main problem is that my a+ vocabulary is terrible but if you tell me to perform a hand on task i'm untouchable.

Kittyfresita

For me the hardest topic was remembering the sockets and slots for different processors. I remember when taking practice tests I usually failed those questions related to slots and sockets. But I think you must study everything because you don't know the questions that you will get on the exam.
Be sure to know the laser printing process, that a must on the exam.
Good luck to all !!

oldgearhead

I think a lot of the serial cable length answers, are
safe opinions not fact. I have ran serial RS-485/422 copper line over
4000 feet with no problems and no 'short haul modems'.
If course the 'host in this case was a PLC not a PC.

Many years ago, in Canada, I installed two serial printers 2000
feet from the host, using RS-422. But this was with a mini-
computer (CA Naked Mini), running Centronics serial printers
not a PC. Back then, this was normal practice, and the printers had
large print buffers. These devices were much slower and more robust than a PC.

If you need to extend a PC serial line there is lots of
hardware available that will make it possible. I would
suggest either a 'short haul modem' or a pair of RS232/422
converters.

old

baderIRQ

I had alot of problem studing printers, socket, SCSI, IDE, slave and master also primary and secondery

ghaouf

did have problem with remebering the bus speads and the cpu types and sockets
but did not get any question on them except for the socket

thanks

yanqui

SCSI Cable lengths and network cable!

For memorizing IRQ's, take them two at a time. Add two more, until you can say all 4. And when you can say all of them, carry them on a note card and review them every so often.

All Pentium processors left 32 bit data buses behind.

Twisted pair of stars, Coax me to ride the bus, a ring of fiber optics.
(My own stupid mnemonic device)

for POST errors--SMKFCHN
System, memory, keyboard, floppy, cmos, hard drive, network (Never seen a post error question where the answer was network, so I'm gray on this one) but my mnemonic device here is SMACK for coming home naked.
Silly, but it works for me on the practice exams.

I'll take any help learning SCSI Cable lengths. I understand terminating and the 1 IRQ thing and addressing, but I cannot get the cable limitations down, becuase there are so doggone many types and I can't seem to get a grouping on them that makes sense to me.

For IO memory ,
com1odd number matches,
com2even number matches
com3odd number matches,
com4even number matches,
then the alphabet goes backwards. so it's com 1 is 3f8, com2 is 2f8, com3 is 3e8, and com4 is 2e8.

lazyart

To inject this tidbit for those struggling with the laser printing process:

CCWDTF = "Can Cathy Write Down The Facts?"

Cleaning = Clean drum with cleaning lamp & blades
Charging = Charge drum (Primary Corona) to prepare for:
Writing = Image is drawn onto drum with laser
Developing = Toner applies itself to drum
Transferring = Toner transferred to positively charged paper (Transfer Corona)
Fusing = Toner heated, melts resin, fuses to paper

Some references will put the cleaning cycle last rather than first..just be sure to understand that after fusing come cleaning, and after cleaning comes charging. Primary=first, Primary corona comes before transfer corona.

Forgotten

SCSI drives me nuts. Urghhhh.............

bellboy

here's something on scsi that may help some

http://www.examnotes.net/forums/default.php?ind=61

nickname

I have to agree with mah9470... the motherboard diagrams I've seen on the final sign off tests I've been taking ( I take the big test on Friday) are simply horrible! Very fuzzy and impossible to identify a lot of the components on it. Are the diagrams on the actual test easier to identify? I know my boards well, but I had lots of trouble figuring out what and where the components were. Any way you can see what they look like on the test? I'm not sure how much of the test is going to be 'point and shoot' and I'm afraid if the diagrams are as bad as I've experienced I'll screw up on them. Any suggestions?

RussS

Nope - the graphics on the test when I took it last year looked like something a kid with crayons would draw ... lol

Webmaster

This might seem unfair, I think it actually is a bit unfair, but I've seen, and had to work with worse coming from experienced LAN/WAN engineers, IT managers who think they can do it and even diagrams on paper used to blow your nose

Anyone contacted CompTIA about this? Would be nice to hear their side...

lazyart

I didnt get any of those questions when I sat for OS. I did have to locate something on a motherboard, but it was a line drawing.

But given that you are asked to locate something of the sort, I would think anyone should be able to correctly locate, say a DIMM slot, CPU socket, AGP slot, etc, etc just from knowing the orientation of the board.

Just doesnt seem that difficult to me.

RussS

Yes I understand many have contacted Comptia - af course to no avail.

You would think that with progs like Visio around and things like digital cameras that there would be absolutely no need for substandard diagrams/graphics.

Webmaster

Yes that is typical CompTIA...

You would think that with progs like Visio around and things like digital cameras that there would be absolutely no need for substandard diagrams/graphics.

True, but when you sit at a meeting, things often go on a scratch of paper. Large companies often have people for the job of turning such into a visio. But aside from that I don't see any point in using vague drawings and pictures in an exam. They should have a look at Cisco exams...