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68 multiple-choice questions and 24 flashcards on Core 1 — Hardware, about 13% of the CompTIA A+ bank. Every one carries a written rationale.
Core 1 — Hardware is one of 9 chapters in CoStudy's CompTIA A+ bank, and it holds 68 of the bank's 540 multiple-choice questions — roughly 13% of the total. That proportion is not arbitrary: chapters follow the certifying body's published exam outline, and the number of questions in each is set by that domain's published weight, so the share of your practice time this chapter takes matches the share of the real exam it accounts for.
Studying by chapter is worth doing once you have a diagnostic score. A single overall percentage tells you whether you are close; it does not tell you which domain is dragging. Working a weak chapter in isolation, and re-testing it in isolation, is the fastest way to move a score that has stalled — and it is why the mock exams in CoStudy report by domain rather than as one number.
10 questions drawn from this chapter, with the full rationale shown — the controlling principle behind the right answer, and why each wrong option tempts and fails.
A high-volume laser printer displays a maintenance message after a set page count. Installing the maintenance kit MOST commonly replaces:
Answer: B — the fuser assembly and the paper feed rollers
B) Correct — maintenance kits bundle the wear items that degrade with page count, principally the fuser and the rollers that move paper. A) Toner is a consumable replaced on its own schedule and is not what a page-count maintenance message means. C) The formatter and network interface are electronics with no scheduled replacement interval. D) Drum and charge components wear too, but a maintenance kit is defined by the fuser and feed path, and calling it drum-only is incomplete.
A discrete GPU requires 8-pin + 6-pin PCIe power connectors. The PSU only has one 8-pin EPS connector. The technician should:
Answer: C — Replace the PSU with one providing proper PCIe power cables (recommended)
EPS (CPU) and PCIe 8-pin have different pinouts — never interchange. Cheap adapters can cause issues at high wattage. Correct answer: PSU with native PCIe cables. Trick A is a dangerous misconception — looks like the same connector but is wired differently.
A technician has a desktop memory module in hand and needs the equivalent part for a laptop upgrade. The correct substitution is:
Answer: A — a SODIMM, which is the smaller module format used in laptops
A) Correct — laptops use the small outline module format, so the technician must order the SODIMM version of the same memory iteration and speed. B) A full size DIMM is physically longer and differently notched; no riser makes it fit a laptop slot. C) Error correction support is an independent question and does not determine whether the small format is needed. D) Form factor is a physical requirement, not a recommendation, and a mismatched module will not seat at all.
A design lab adds a 3D printer that builds parts by curing liquid photopolymer layer by layer. Compared with a filament-based unit, the safety guidance that MOST specifically applies is:
Answer: B — handling uncured resin with gloves and ventilating the work area
B) Correct — liquid photopolymer is a skin and respiratory irritant before curing, so gloves and ventilation are the specific controls for this technology. A) Hot bed caution applies to the filament-based process the question is contrasting against. C) Moisture-sensitive spools are also a filament concern and affect quality rather than safety. D) Nozzle clearing is filament maintenance; a resin printer has no extruder.
A technician installs hypervisor software on a workstation and the installer reports that hardware acceleration is unavailable. The FIRST place to check is:
Answer: A — the virtualization extension setting in the firmware setup utility
A) Correct — processor virtualization extensions are frequently shipped disabled, and turning them on in firmware is the direct fix for an acceleration-unavailable message. B) Edition limits affect licensing and guest counts, not whether acceleration is exposed. C) Free space matters when creating virtual disks and produces a capacity error, not an acceleration error. D) Core count influences how many guests run comfortably but has no bearing on whether the extensions are present or enabled.
Which is a primary characteristic of UEFI vs. legacy BIOS?
Answer: B — UEFI adds GPT support, Secure Boot, and a GUI setup
B is right because UEFI is the newer firmware model, and its practical gains are GPT partitioning beyond the legacy 2 TB boot limit, signature checking of the bootloader, and a modular graphical setup. A reverses the chronology and the interface. C credits legacy firmware with the capability it specifically lacks. D assigns the graphical setup to the wrong firmware. E denies a real architectural difference.
Which RAID level provides striping for performance but NO fault tolerance?
Answer: A — RAID 0
RAID 0 stripes data across multiple disks (faster reads/writes) but has zero redundancy — losing one disk loses all data. RAID 1 mirrors; RAID 5 stripes with parity (1 disk failure ok); RAID 6 with double parity; RAID 10 mirrors stripes.
A tech installs a DDR5 DIMM into a DDR4 motherboard slot but the system will not POST. The MOST likely cause is:
Answer: A — DDR5 is not keyed or electrically compatible with DDR4 slots
DDR5 and DDR4 use different notch positions and different module voltages, so a DDR5 stick will not seat or function in a DDR4 slot. B is the common misconception that firmware can bridge the gap. C blames the module for a keying issue. D invents an ECC requirement.
While rebuilding a desktop, a technician finds a flat L-shaped power connector on the drive cable harness and a rectangular four-pin connector with round pins on the same harness. The four-pin round-pin connector is intended for:
Answer: A — supplying auxiliary voltage to legacy peripherals and fans
A) Correct — the older four-pin peripheral power connector supplies 12 V and 5 V to legacy drives, some fans, and adapter cables, while the flat L-shaped connector is the modern drive power plug. B) Standby power to the front panel is routed through the main motherboard connector and header pins, not a drive harness. C) Processor voltage arrives on a separate square connector at the top of the board, which uses a different keying so it cannot be confused in practice. D) Drive activity signaling travels over the data cable or a front-panel header, never over a power lead.
An M.2 slot is keyed B+M. Which drive types can it physically accept?
Answer: C — Both SATA M.2 SSDs and some PCIe NVMe drives
B+M keyed slots accept SATA M.2 drives and some narrower PCIe NVMe drives; M-key only slots take the wider PCIe NVMe drives and B-key only slots take SATA. A and B each drop half the answer. D confuses storage keying with wireless card slots.
3 cards from the 24 in this chapter.
What is the BIOS / UEFI?
Firmware initializing hardware and loading the OS bootloader. UEFI replaces legacy BIOS — supports GPT, secure boot, faster boot, larger storage.
What is the purpose of a power supply (PSU)?
Converts AC mains to DC voltages required by motherboard, drives, and peripherals (3.3V, 5V, 12V). Rated by total wattage and efficiency (80 PLUS).
What is M.2 and how does it differ from mSATA?
M.2: small form factor for SSDs (B-key SATA, M-key NVMe), Wi-Fi cards. mSATA: older, SATA-only, mostly obsolete. M.2 NVMe is standard now.
These are a sample. The full Core 1 — Hardware chapter runs 92 items with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.