Exam 220-1002 All Questions

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Exam 220-1002 topic 1 question 171 discussion

Actual exam question from CompTIA's 220-1002

Question #: 171
Topic #: 1

A technician is called to troubleshoot a user's Windows workstation that fails to boot. The user reports that, after updating the workstation's graphics driver to a beta version, the machine gives a `Stop` error on every boot. Which of the following should the technician complete to resolve the issue?

A. Boot the workstation in safe mode and disable the graphics driver system tray menu
B. Boot the workstation in safe mode with networking and install the latest stable graphics driver
C. Boot the workstation in safe mode and disable Windows driver signing requirements
D. Boot the workstation in safe mode with Command Prompt and enable Driver Verifier with standard settings

Show Suggested Answer

Suggested Answer: A 🗳️

by eldaulo at May 14, 2020, 3:33 a.m.

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BobJenkins2022

Highly Voted 5 years, 1 month ago

Answer should be B I would assume.

upvoted 21 times

ep0ch

3 years, 7 months ago

I believe this is correct. Like others here have said, windows drivers cannot be updated in safe mode. Hardware drivers CAN be installed and removed.

upvoted 1 times

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jmz

Highly Voted 4 years, 11 months ago

you can't install anything during safe mode so i assumed A is the correct answer

upvoted 7 times

YouKownNothingJonSnow

4 years, 5 months ago

Where did you get that? 0_o

upvoted 1 times

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DarkHorseSki

4 years, 8 months ago

upvoted 3 times

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VasiliyFis

Most Recent 3 weeks, 6 days ago

Selected Answer: B

The Stop error (BSOD) is most likely caused by the unstable beta graphics driver. Booting in Safe Mode prevents the problematic driver from loading. Choosing Safe Mode with Networking allows the technician to access the internet and download the latest stable (non-beta) graphics driver to replace the faulty one.

upvoted 1 times

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Jewcano

3 years ago

The wording is poor with the answers, and I'm curious if on the actual test they're phrased differently. Best course of action would be to uninstall the driver in safe mode with device manager or ddu, download the latest stable driver for that gpu (assuming you have networking on in safe mode) or wait till you boot back into regular mode, and download the driver then. Reinstall the driver, and it should be good as new. I thought B at first as well as others, however, it can't be B as other's have pointed out, it's for diag only in safe mode, and installer is disabled (uninstaller still works though).

upvoted 1 times

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JackBond40

3 years, 2 months ago

Course material actually says boot into safe mode and replace graphics driver so the answer is B.

upvoted 1 times

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dHod

3 years, 3 months ago

Based on the following, I think 'A' is the correct answer. "You can't update drivers while in Safe Mode, its a diagnostics mode of Windows and only intended to troubleshoot issues. You could download the drivers, but you would need to reboot into Normal Mode and install them there." Source: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/updating-drivers-in-safe-mode/705435ad-29d0-40fc-a9fa-5c4451120dfa#:~:text=You%20can't%20update%20drivers,Mode%20and%20install%20them%20there.

upvoted 1 times

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Bogeyman1984

3 years, 3 months ago

The key phrase here 'safe mode with networking' so B should be the correct answer.

upvoted 1 times

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_Anas

3 years, 7 months ago

safe mode will load the "Generic PnP Monitor" driver not the installed one, so no Graphics driver icon will be shown since the driver's not loaded in the first place.

upvoted 1 times

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Aisha67

3 years, 11 months ago

You can't update drivers while in Safe Mode, its a diagnostics mode of Windows and only intended to troubleshoot issues. You could download the drivers, but you would need to reboot into Normal Mode and install them there

upvoted 2 times

PullThePlug

3 years, 10 months ago

What Safe mode disables, are non-essential windows services from starting. Even if you would need to use a certain service which start by default in normal mode you could still enable particular services in services.msc (while inside safe mode) . Safe mode does not prevent you from running any particular .exe setup file. Thus you should be able to roll back the driver if you have it downloaded locally ofc; run antivirus scans etc.

upvoted 1 times

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ENGNET81

4 years, 1 month ago

The answer should be B and this is a similar case like this question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp4a8rmGQ2s

upvoted 3 times

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dnbly

4 years, 2 months ago

B is correct. The issue is that the Beta (i.e. experimental) drivers are causing an error so go back to the stable drivers that were used before the user updated them. Option A is a nuclear option “if it doesn't work then just remove it” which doesn't actually fix the problem.

upvoted 2 times

dnbly

4 years, 2 months ago

After a bit more research, A is correct. Safe Mode does not allow driver updates for security reasons. Safe mode only allows driver inspection and enable/disable. The correct method according to the options would be to disable the driver in Safe Mode, then reboot into normal and reinstall the last stable driver. (IRL driver rollback is a potential solution too). https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/updating-drivers-in-safe-mode/705435ad-29d0-40fc-a9fa-5c4451120dfa#:~:text=You%20can't%20update%20drivers,Mode%20and%20install%20them%20there.

upvoted 17 times

dnbly

4 years, 2 months ago

“Always download the fresh copy FIRST. Then remove the current copy and install the fresh copy.” https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/updating-a-driver/a5e6345e-af9b-4099-bef0-8d22254aa1c1 So Knowledge Base would probably agree with A but one expert says B and I thought B originally. So confused.

upvoted 3 times

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DarkHorseSki

4 years, 8 months ago

Uh, the whole point of safe mode is that you CAN repair drivers there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW6W1H4RXtI Answer A would not do a single thing. The system tray icon being disabled doesn't disable the graphics driver. The biggest reason we have safe mode is to do such fixes while utilizing a set of drivers that is far more simple (i.e. it is okay to update your regular graphics driver because you are using the default VGA driver in safe-mode and there is zero conflict.)

upvoted 4 times

Bonz

4 years, 7 months ago

remove yes but windows installer service is one of the things that does not run in safe mode.

upvoted 1 times

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DualPolarity

4 years, 11 months ago

... I mean yeah disabling the driver will work and it'll boot... and run off of the default drivers.. but the original issue isn't resolved, the issue whatever reason the user wanted to upgrade their graphics card driver Seems like a case of "bare minimum effort"

upvoted 2 times

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