Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ Guide: PC Technician Lab Manual (Exams 220-602, 220-603, & 220-604) Mike Meyers Dennis Haley New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 0-07151016-8 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-226363-6. All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. 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Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inabil- ity to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise. DOI: 10.1036/0072263636 This book is dedicated to all of you who want to become great techs. —Mike Meyers I dedicate this book to all of my students, past, present, and future. They inspire me to do my best. I also dedicate this book to Theresa, who is always there for me when that inspiration wanes. —Dennis Haley About the Authors Mike Meyers, lovingly called the “AlphaGeek” by those who know him, is the industry’s leading authority on CompTIA A+ certifi cation. He is the president and co-founder of Total Seminars, LLC, a provider of PC and network repair seminars, books, videos, and courseware for thousands of organizations throughout the world. Mike has been involved in the computer and network repair industry since 1977 as a technician, instructor, author, consultant, and speaker. Author of numerous popular PC books and videos, Mike is also the series editor for the highly successful Mike Meyers’ Certifi cation Passport series, the Mike Meyers’ Computer Skills series, and the Mike Meyers’ Guide to series, all published by McGraw-Hill. Dennis Haley has worked in the Information Technology industry for over 20 years and has spent more than half of that time as a technical teacher. Dennis’ responsibilities have included computer network training for the Oki Data Corporation and site director/instructor for Computer Networking Technologies. Presently he is the administrator and teacher for the E2C and Microsoft IT Academy programs at POLYTECH High School. Dennis holds a BSEET, CompTIA A+ and Network+ certifi cations, and Microsoft MCP, MCSA, MCSE, and MCT certifi cations. Dennis enjoys all aspects of technology; even his hobbies are technical, including electronic music and sound production. Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. Click here for terms of use. For more information about this title, click here Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI Chapter 1 ESSENTIALS REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Lab Exercise 1.01: Study Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Lab Exercise 1.02: Disassembling and Reassembling the System Unit and Identifying Internal Components and Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Lab Exercise 1.03: Creating and Formatting Partitions with the Windows 2000/XP Install CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Lab Exercise 1.04: Performing a Clean Installation of Windows XP Professional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Lab Exercise 1.05: Using Windows Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . 18 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Chapter 2 INSTALLING AND TROUBLESHOOTING CPUS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Lab Exercise 2.01: CPU Removal and Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Lab Exercise 2.02: Exploring CPU Specifi cations with CPU-Z . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Chapter 3 INSTALLING AND TROUBLESHOOTING RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Lab Exercise 3.01: Removing and Installing RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Lab Exercise 3.02: Exploring RAM Specifi cations with CPU-Z . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Chapter 4 WORKING WITH BIOS AND CMOS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 Lab Exercise 4.01: Confi guring and Clearing CMOS Setup Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Lab Exercise 4.02: Confi guring BIOS Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 v vi Contents Chapter 5 INSTALLING INTERNAL DEVICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Lab Exercise 5.01: Installing Expansion Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Lab Exercise 5.02: Using Driver Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Chapter 6 INSTALLING AND TROUBLESHOOTING MOTHERBOARDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Lab Exercise 6.01: Removing and Labeling Components and Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Lab Exercise 6.02: Removing a Motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Lab Exercise 6.03: Installing a Motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Lab Exercise 6.04: Exploring Motherboard Features with CPU-Z . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Chapter 7 INSTALLING AND TROUBLESHOOTING POWER SUPPLIES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Lab Exercise 7.01: Replacing a Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Lab Exercise 7.02: Implementing Power Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Chapter 8 HARD DRIVE TECHNOLOGIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85 Lab Exercise 8.01: Installing Parallel ATA Hard Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Lab Exercise 8.02: Installing Serial ATA Hard Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Lab Exercise 8.03: Confi guring CMOS Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Lab Exercise 8.04: Exploring SCSI, SAS, and SATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Lab Exercise 8.05: Troubleshooting Hard Drive Installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Lab Exercise 8.06: Installing Multiple Hard Drives in Preparation for RAID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Lab Exercise 8.07: Implementing Software RAID 0 with Disk Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Contents vii Chapter 9 INSTALLING AND TROUBLESHOOTING REMOVABLE MEDIA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Lab Exercise 9.01: Working with USB Thumb Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Lab Exercise 9.02: Confi guring Removable Media Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Lab Exercise 9.03: Burning CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Chapter 10 WORKING WITH THE COMMAND-LINE INTERFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Lab Exercise 10.01: Confi guring the Command-Line Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Lab Exercise 10.02: Navigating Basic Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Lab Exercise 10.03: Using Command-Line Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Lab Exercise 10.04: Advanced Command-Line Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Chapter 11 MAINTAINING WINDOWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Lab Exercise 11.01: Examining and Confi guring Log Files in Event Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Lab Exercise 11.02: Using the Advanced Options Menu and the Recovery Console . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Lab Exercise 11.03: Troubleshooting Startup Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Lab Exercise 11.04: Working with Windows XP System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Chapter 12 INSTALLING AND TROUBLESHOOTING VIDEO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Lab Exercise 12.01: Installing Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Lab Exercise 12.02: Troubleshooting Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Chapter 13 SOUND AND MULTIMEDIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Lab Exercise 13.01: Installing Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Lab Exercise 13.02: Recording Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 viii Contents Lab Exercise 13.03: Exploring Windows Media Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Chapter 14 PORTABLE COMPUTERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Lab Exercise 14.01: Researching Laptop Upgrade Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Lab Exercise 14.02: Replacing and Upgrading RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Chapter 15 MAINTAINING AND TROUBLESHOOTING PRINTERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Lab Exercise 15.01: Installing a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Lab Exercise 15.02: Maintaining and Troubleshooting Printers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Chapter 16 LOCAL AREA NETWORKING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 Lab Exercise 16.01: Sharing Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Lab Exercise 16.02: Testing Your LAN Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Chapter 17 THE INTERNET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 Lab Exercise 17.01: Identifying Internet Connectivity Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Lab Exercise 17.02: Installing and Confi guring an Internet Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Lab Exercise 17.03: Exploring Windows Firewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Lab Exercise 17.04: Implementing Windows Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 Lab Exercise 17.05: Upgrading and Tweaking Internet Explorer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Lab Exercise 17.06: Confi guring Wireless Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Contents ix Chapter 18 COMPUTER SECURITY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 Lab Exercise 18.01: Users, Logon, and Simple File Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Lab Exercise 18.02: Groups and Standard File Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 Lab Exercise 18.03: Local Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Lab Exercise 18.04: Cleaning and Protecting a Client’s Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 Key Terms Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Chapter 19 THE COMPLETE PC TECHNICIAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Lab Exercise 19.01: Scenario #1: Computer Obsolescence and Expense of Replacement . . . . . . . 290 Lab Exercise 19.02: Scenario #2: Hardware Failure, or I Can’t See Anything! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 Lab Exercise 19.03: Scenario #3: What Do You Mean, a Virus? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Lab Exercise 19.04: Scenario #4: No Documents, No E-mail, and I Can’t Print! . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 Lab Analysis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 INDEX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 This page intentionally left blank