Desktop Support Interview Questions and Answers

Describe other duties you undertook that were beyond the scope of your work. Have you interacted with the IT staff?

Communicate your ability to handle different tasks and challenges. Show how you are well versed with special systems and communicate with professionals in your area of expertise. Include coordinating with Information Technology professionals to enhance system communication, peripherals and network operation. You may also relate your experience in installing computer performance monitoring equipment.

What is an interface?

These are the communication channel that enables your computer to exchange information with various devices.

What do you mean by a processing device? What are the various types of processing devices?

The main function of a computer is to process data. The various types of processing device in a computer are Microprocessor, Chipset, BIOS

Differentiates Serial and Parallel port.

Serial port and parallel port are used for transferring data in/out of the computer. In serial port transmission only 1 bit is transmitted at a time. Most serial ports on personal computers conform to the RS-232C or RS-422 standards. A parallel interface for connecting an external device such as a printer. On PCs, the parallel port uses a 25-pin connector (type DB-25) and is used to connect printers, computers and other devices that need relatively high bandwidth. It uses parallel transmission of data

What is a storage device? What is the common classification?

Storage devices are used to store data in the computer. The different types of storage devices are;

Magnetic Devices, Optical Devices, Solid-State Storage Devices.

  

What are the factors affecting the speed of the microprocessor?

The following are the factors affecting the speed of the microprocessor.

 Number of instructions build in the processor,  Bandwidth, Clock Speed,  Number of transistors inside the processor

What are the differences between Multitasking and Multiprocessing?

Multitasking- Enables the processor to do multiple programs simultaneously by fast switching through the programs. Here doesn't have the involvement of multiple processors.

Multiprocessing- Enables the processor to do multiple programs simultaneously by the use of multiple processors.

What the difference between FSB and BSB?

Front Side Bus. Another name for the system bus. The Front Side Bus connects the CPU to main memory. A microprocessor bus that connects the CPU to aLevel 2 cache is called Back Side Bus. Typically, a backside bus runs at a fasterclock speed than the Front Side Bus.

What is packaging a microprocessor? What are the different packaging available?

Packaging is the process of connecting a microprocessor with a computers motherboard. The types of microprocessor packaging are;

PGA, SPGA,SECC, LGA

What is LGA ?

An LGA socket is the connection point for a central processing unit (CPU) to fit into a motherboard. The LGA stands for Land Grid Array.

What is Hyper Threading? What is the use of it?

A thread of execution, or simply a "thread," is one series of instructions sent to the CPU. Hyper-threading is a technology developed to help make better use of spare processing cycles. Hyper-threaded processors have a duplicate set of registers, small spaces of high-speed memory storage used to hold the data that is currently needed to execute a thread. When a CPU core is delayed, waiting for data to be retrieved from another place in memory, it can use these duplicate registers to spend the spare computation cycles executing a different thread. The second set of registers will be pre-loaded with the data needed to execute the second thread, so the CPU core can begin work immediately

What is Nehalem Architecture?

Nehalem is Intel's new microprocessor architecture The Core i7 chips were the first processors ever produced using an architecture called Nehalem.

Which is the processor suitable from Intel family of processors for Server and Workstation?

Intel Xeon.

What is full name of AMD?

Advanced Micro Devices.

What is Heat Sink? What is its use? If it is not in the system what will happen?

A heat sink is a component used to lower the temperature of a device.It is most commonly there on the microprocessor. If it is not properly fixed the system, the system will shutdown automatically to prevent further damage to the processor.

 What are the causes of overheating of microprocessor?

Processor fan may not be properly connected.   Heat sink may be not contacted with the processor, Jumpers may be configured to over clock the CPU, Voltage supply incompatible

No Display. What is the problem?

CPU fan problem,   Heat sink related issue, Power related issues,  Improper Jumper settings

What is Cache memory? What is the advantage if a processor with more cache memory you are using?

Cache memory is the memory area between RAM and Processor. If cache memory increases the speed of the system will also improved.

Differentiate SRAM and DRAM.

SRAM

Static RAM stores each bit of data on six metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors, or MOSFETs. SRAM is used in devices that require the fastest possible data access without requiring a high capacity. Some examples are CPU caches and buses, hard drive and router buffers and printers.

DRAM

Dynamic RAM stores data using a paired transistor and capacitor for each bit of data. Capacitors constantly leak electricity, which requires the memory controller to refresh the DRAM several times a second to maintain the data.

What are VRAM and SGRAM?

VRAM is Video Random Access Memory. Video adapter or video system uses VRAM. VRAM is dual ported. It is costly. But SGRAM is not dual ported and not costly. It is a less expensive approach to graphics functions. Most commonly all low cost graphics cards are using it.

What is ECC/EPP?

EPP/ECP (Enhanced Parallel Port/Enhanced Capability Port) is a standard signaling method for bi-directional parallel communication between a computerand peripheral devices that offers the potential for much higher rates of data transfer than the original parallel signaling methods. EPP is for non-printer peripherals. ECP is for printers and scanners. EPP/ECP is part of IEEEStandard 1284.

What is over clocking?

Over clocking is the process of forcing a computer component to run at a higher clock rate.

What we need to consider before connecting a memory to the system?

Capacity of the RAM required,    Check if installed memory is supported by motherboard and processor,  Form factor of the RAM, Type of RAM needed,  Warranty of the RAM

What is BIOS beep code? What it does mean?

BIOS beep codes are the signs of different issues of the computer. The beep code may vary depends on the manufacture of BIOS. For example in case of Award BIOS the beep code will be,

1 long beep- shows memory problem

1 long beep and 2 short beeps- failure of DRAM parity

1 log beep and 3 short beeps- signifies Video error

Continuous beep- signifies failure in memory or Video memory.

Any 5 BIOS codes and their indications?

AMERICAN MEGATRENDS (AMI) BEEP CHART

BEEPS	ERROR DESCRIPTION
1 Beep	Memory timing error
2 Beeps	Mismatched memory parity
3 Beeps	Memory malfunction
4 Beeps	Motherboard malfunction
5 Beeps	Bad CPU
6 Beeps	Keyboard controller error
7 Beeps	General exception error
8 Beeps	Video memory error
9 Beeps	Bad ROM checksum
10 Beeps	CMOS error
11 Beeps	Bad cache RAM

What is the difference between integrated and non-integrated motherboard?

In integrated motherboard all of the external ports will be present. But in case of  non-integrated motherboard only some important ports will be available instead of all. The non-integrated motherboard is an old type of motherboard which now a day's not commonly available.

What is form factor of motherboard?

The form factor of a motherboard determines the specifications for its general shape and size. It also specifies what type of case and power supply will be supported, the placement of mounting holes, and the physical layout and organization of the board.  Form factor is especially important if you build your own computer systems and need to ensure that you purchase the correct case and components.

What is ATX? How it is different from AT? Which is using now?

AT is a short for advanced technology, the AT is an IBM PC model introduced in 1984. It includes an Intel 80286 microprocessor, a 1.2MB floppy drive, and an 84-key AT keyboard. The ATX form factor specified changes to the motherboard, along with the case and power supply. Some of the design specification improvements of the ATX form factor included a single 20-pin connector for the power supply, a power supply to blow air into the case instead of out for better air flow, less overlap between the motherboard and drive bays, and integrated I/O Port connectors soldered directly onto the motherboard. The ATX form factor was an overall better design for upgrading.

What is PCI slot? How is different from PCI Express (PCI-E)?

Short for PERIPHERAL COMPONENT INTERCONNECT, a local bus standard developed by Intel Corporation. PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards.

  

What is AGP slot? What is its use?

The Accelerated Graphics Port (often shortened to AGP) is a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a video card to a computer's motherboard, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. Since 2004 AGP has been progressively phased out in favor of PCI Express (PCIe).

What is jumper? What is the need?

A metal bridge that closes an electrical circuit. Typically, a jumper consists of a plastic plug that fits over a pair of protruding pins. Jumpers are sometimes used to configure expansion boards. By placing a jumper plug over a different set of pins, you can change a board's parameters.

What CMOS and CMOS battery?

Short for complementary metal oxide semiconductor. Pronounced see-moss. The CMOS chip holds the date, time, and system setup parameters. This chip is powered by a 3Volt  CMOS battery.

What is power supply unit?

A power supply unit (PSU) supplies direct current (DC) power to the other components in a computer. It converts general-purpose alternating current (AC) electric power from the mains  to low-voltage (for a desktop computer: 12 V, 5 V, 5VSB, 3V3, −5 V, and −12 V) DC power for the internal components of the computer.

What is Switching Mode Power Supply?

A switched-mode power supply (switching-mode power supply, SMPS, or simply switcher) is an electronic power supply that incorporates a switching regulator in order to be highly efficient in the conversion of electrical power. Like other types of power supplies, an SMPS transfer power from a source like the electrical power grid to a load (e.g., a personal computer) while convertingvoltage and current characteristics. An SMPS is usually employed to efficiently provide a regulated output voltage, typically at a level different from the input voltage.

What is the use of Molex Power connector?

Molex is a four pin power connector found in SMPS. It is used to supply power to HDD, CD Drive, DVD Drive etc…

What are the different color cables found in Molex connector? What is the Power of it.

-12V –Blue, -5V –White, 0V –Black, +3.3V –Orange, +5V –Red, +12V –Yellow.

What is HDD? What are the different types available in the market now?

A hard disk drive (HDD; also hard drive or hard disk) is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It is the secondary storage media. There are different types of hard disk, based on the the intefaces they used we can classify  them as IDE, SATA, SCSI etc...

What is SATA?

Serial ATA (SATA or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) is a computer businterface for connecting host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives. Serial ATA was designed to replace the older parallel ATA (PATA) standard (often called by the old name IDE), offering several advantages over the older interface: reduced cable size and cost (7 conductors instead of 40), native hot swapping, faster data transfer through higher signalling rates, and more efficient transfer through an (optional) I/O queuing protocol.

In Speed how SATA is different from IDE?

SATA- Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) is high speed serial interface designed to replace IDE and EIDE drive standard SATA has a seven pin connector. SATA transfer speed of data up to 600 MB per second. Now a day use SATA.

IDE- Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) it has a 40/80 pins connector. IDE transfer speed of data up to 100/133 MB per second few time ago mostly use IDE.

What is eSATA?

External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment or eSATA is an external interface for SATA technologies. eSATA cables are narrow and can be up to 6.56 feet (2 meters) in length. eSATA requires its own power connector. It is still an excellent choice for external disk storage.

What is SCSI? Is the SCSI Hard Disk is needed for a home purpose?

SCSI is Small Computer System Interface , is a type of interface used for computer components such as hard drives, optical drives, scanners and tape drives. SCSI is a faster, more robust technology than IDE amd SATA, and has traditionally been utilized in servers. Aside from speed, another great advantage over IDE and SATA  is that the SCSI card can connect 15 or more devices in a daisy chain. The controller assigns each device its own SCSIID, allowing for great flexibility towards expanding any system. It is more costly. It is not needed for a home purpose.

What is IEEE 1394 Interface?

The IEEE 1394 interface is a serial bus interface standard for high-speed communications. The interface is also known by the brand names of FireWire (Apple), i.LINK (Sony), and Lynx (Texas Instruments). IEEE 1394 replaced parallel SCSI in many applications, because of lower implementation costs and a simplified, more adaptable cabling system. The original release of IEEE 1394-1995 specified what is now known as FireWire 400. It can transfer data between devices at 100, 200, or 400 Mbit/s. EEE 1394c-2006 was published on June 8, 2007 that provides 800 Mbit/s.

What are Solid State Drive means?

A solid-state drive (SSD), sometimes called a solid-state disk or electronic disk, is adata storage device that uses solid-state memory to store data. SSDs usemicrochips which retain data in non-volatile memory chips and contain no moving parts. Compared to electromechanical HDDs, SSDs are typically less susceptible to physical shock, are silent, have lower access time and latency, but are more expensive per gigabyte (GB).

Differentiate between NTFS & FAT.

NTFS is the current file system used by Windows. It offers features like security permissions (to limit other users' access to folders), quotas (so one user can't fill up the disk), shadowing (backing up) and many other features that help Windows.

FAT32 is the older Microsoft filesystem, primarily used by the Windows 9X line and Window could be installed on a FAT32 parition up to XP. In comparision, FAT32 offers none of what was mentioned above, and also has a maximum FILE (not folder) size of 4GB, which is kind of small these days, especially in regards to HD video.

What is loop back. 
Loopback address is 127.0.0.1, An address that sends outgoing signals back to the same computer for testing.

Differentiate between FIREWALL/ANTIVIRUS. 

Antivirus:
The prime job of an anivirus is protect your system from computer viruses. Your computer may be standalone or part of network or connected to Internet you need an antivirus program. It actively monitors when you are using your system for any virus threat from different sources. if it found one it tries to clean or quarantine the virus ultimately keeping your system and data safe.

Firewall:
Firewall is in other hand a program which protects your system from outsider/intruder/hacker attacks. These attacks may not be virus type. In some cases hackers can take control of your system remotely and steal your data or important information from system. If your system is directly connected to internet or a large network than you can install a software firewall in your PC to protect your self from unauthorized access. Firewall is available either in software or in hardware form. For a single PC you may need a software firewall while a large corporate implements hardware firewall to protect all of their systems from such attacks.

What is APIPA.

Stands for Automatic Private IP Addressing
APIPA is a DHCP fail over mechanism for local networks. With APIPA, DHCP clients can obtain IP addresses when DHCP servers are non-functional.
APIPA exists in all modern versions of Windows except Windows NT.
When a DHCP server fails, APIPA allocates IP addresses in the private range 169.254.0.1 to 169.254.255.254.

What is wins server.

Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) servers dynamically map IP addresses to computer names (NetBIOS names). This allows users to access resources by computer name instead of by IP address. If you want this computer to keep track of the names and IP addresses of other computers in your network, configure this computer as a WINS server.
If you do not use WINS in such a network, you cannot connect to a remote network resource by using its NetBIOS name

What is the Windows Registry.

The Windows Registry, usually referred to as "the registry," is a collection of databases of configuration settings in Microsoft Windows operating systems.

What is the difference between L1 and L2 cache?

L1 (level 1) cache - L1 cache stores information for use by the processor. L1 cacheis extremely quick but also expensive. Most processors have an L1 cache dividedinto space for data and space for instructions.L2 (level 2) cache - L2 cache is the next step down from L1 cache. Most processorstoday have L2 cache, which increases cache performance. Most desktop processorshave an L2 Cache of about 256KB, but some high-end processors can have as muchas 2MB.

What is TCP/IP?

 TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic communicationlanguage or protocol of the Internet. It can also be used as a communicationsprotocol in a private network.

What is RAID?

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks and it basically involvescombining two or more drives together to improve the performance and the faulttolerance There are number of different RAID levels:Level 0 -- Striped Disk Array without Fault Tolerance: Provides

data striping

 Level 1 -- Mirroring and Duplexing: Provides disk mirroring.Level 2 -- Error-Correcting Coding:Level 3 -- Bit-Interleaved Parity: Provides byte-level striping with a dedicated paritydisk.Level 4 -- Dedicated Parity Drive: provides block-level striping (like Level 0) with aparity disk.Level 5 -- Block Interleaved Distributed Parity: Provides data striping at the bytelevel and also stripe error correction information.Level 6 -- Independent Data Disks with Double Parity: Provides block-level stripingwith parity data distributed across all disks.Level 0+1 -- A Mirror of Stripes:Level 10 -- A Stripe of Mirrors:Level 7: A trademark of Storage Computer Corporation that adds caching to Levels3 or 4.RAID S: (also called Parity RAID) EMC Corporation's proprietary striped parity RAIDsystem used in its Symmetrix storage systems.

What are 10Base2, 10Base5 and 10BaseT Ethernet LANs?

10Base2 an Ethernet term meaning a maximum transfer rate of 10 Megabits persecond that uses baseband signaling, with a contiguous cable segment length of 200 meters (185mts). Known as Thinnet.10Base5 an Ethernet term meaning a maximum transfer rate of 10 Megabits persecond that uses baseband signaling, with a contiguous cable segment length of 500 meters. Known as Thicknet.10BaseT an Ethernet term meaning a maximum transfer rate of 10 Megabits per second that uses two pairs of twisted-pair baseband signaling, with a contiguouscable segment length of 100 meters.

What is MBR.
Short form Master Boot Record, a small program that is executed when a computer boots up. Typically, the MBR resides on the first sector of the hard disk. The program begins the boot process by looking up the partition table to determine which partition to use for booting

 What is Bit Locker.

BitLocker is an encryption feature available in Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Windows 7 and Vista,
To encrypt an entire drive, simply right-click on the drive and select Turn on BitLocker from the context menu.

Your .pst file got corrupted, your manager wants to check his mails, butit's not getting open, what will you do ?how u will solve this problem

Run the scanpst to solve this issue from the following locationC:\program files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033\SCANPST.EXESelect the path of the PST, and scan it.If the PST file is in shared drive, check the authentication for the user. (Permission-from the Security settings), if permission is denied to user, give the permission toparent folder and child folders

What are the differnt file system in windows?

Windows supports the FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS file systems.

What is Peer to peer Network?

Peer to peer is an approach to computer networking where all computers shareequivalent responsibility for processing data. Peer-to-peer networking (also knownsimply as

 peer networking differs from client-server networking, where certaindevices have responsibility for providing or "serving" data and other devicesconsume or otherwise act as "clients" of those servers.

What are Cold Boot and Warm Boot?

A hard reboot (also known as a cold reboot, cold boot or cold start) is when power toa computer is abruptly turned off, then turned back on.A soft reboot (also known as a warm reboot) is restarting a computer undersoftware control, without removing power or (directly) triggering a reset line.

What is Spyware and Firmware?Spyware

is a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and whichcollects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge. Thepresence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's personal computer.In electronics and computing,

firmware

is a term often used to denote the fixed,usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control variouselectronic devices

What’s the relation between SSL and TLS?

  Transport Layer Security (TLS) extends SSL by providing cryptographicauthentication.

How would you troubleshoot a printer?

Printer does not have power indicator

Cables not connected properlyPrinter error (orange or blinking light)No paper or paper jamPrinter

What is the difference between a switch and a hub?   
Switch sends the traffic to the port to which its meant for. Hub sends the traffic to all the ports.  

What is bootloader?

Answer: Boot loader facilitates loading of operating system on the system. It enables the booting process and gives OS options to the user while starting the system. 

How to recover files if the system detects virus?

Answer: Firstly, install another operating system with latest patches and upgraded antivirus protection. Now, connect the main infected hard disk to the system. Run the antivirus and scan the secondary HDD. Once the hard disk is cleaned, copy the files to another system.        

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