Exam 220-1001 All Questions

View all questions & answers for the 220-1001 exam

Exam 220-1001 topic 1 question 180 discussion

Actual exam question from CompTIA's 220-1001

Question #: 180
Topic #: 1

A technician has built a custom workstation for an end user. The end user reports that the workstation ran for a few minutes and then crashed. When the user subsequently boots the workstation, it crashes much more quickly.
Which of the following did the technician forget to do when building the workstation?

A. Apply thermal paste.
B. Connect the case fans.
C. Configure integrated GPU.
D. Overclock the CPU.

Show Suggested Answer

Suggested Answer: B 🗳️

by Dom20 at May 14, 2020, 10:01 p.m.

Comments

Submit Cancel

Fyreshade

Highly Voted 5 years ago

This answer is correct. While the thermal paste is indeed important, it will not be the main cause of the computer shutting down faster the next time it boots. If the tech forgot to connect the fans, they are not pulling the heat out and will shut down faster each time it is booted due to the additional heat building up. So yes, the thermal paste is important but without the fans, the case isn't going to cool off from heat generated by any of the other components that produce heat.

upvoted 18 times

marerad

4 years, 10 months ago

I disagree! The answer is "CASE fan" and not CPU! Case fans are not neccessary, only one that is needed is CPU fan. So correct answer for me would definitely be thermal paste, because I had issues with dry thermal paste in the past and when I put a new one between I fixed the problem.

upvoted 3 times

YouKownNothingJonSnow

4 years, 6 months ago

Case fans can cause heat build up, but lack/bad thermal paste is much more likely to do that.

upvoted 1 times

YouKownNothingJonSnow

4 years, 6 months ago

*Lack of case fans, I mean...

upvoted 1 times

...

OCD

4 years, 3 months ago

Most modern CPUs have integrated heat spreaders (IHS) and some fairly sophisticated thermal management setups. This means that if you start up your PC without a CPU cooler attached then they will start to throttle down to keep temperatures below the maximum allowed package temperature. If they hit the lowest throttling point and they still cannot keep the temperature below the maximum then they will shutdown the PC.

upvoted 1 times

...

OCD

4 years, 3 months ago

If there was no fan for the CPU, then, the system would NOT start at all.

upvoted 2 times

user54321

4 years, 1 month ago

Question doesn't mention CPU fan, only case fans. If there is a CPU fan installed but the case fans aren't plugged in this would allow the CPU to cool itself until the temp inside the case raised to the point it caused a reboot. The temp would then be higher on second boot so it would shut down much more quickly since it is already at (or still close to) reboot temp.

upvoted 1 times

...

Load full discussion...

...

FaisalJ

3 years ago

Legend answer

upvoted 1 times

...

ltt

5 years ago

if the lack of fans causes heat buildup then wouldn't the lack of thermal paste cause the cpu to retain heat even more?

upvoted 4 times

pudge27george

4 years, 11 months ago

some computers run a system check to ensure vans are connected. if it detects the fans are there it will shut off for safety. not even the fact that it got hot, that it doesn't detect them

upvoted 2 times

...

cpaljchc

2 years, 7 months ago

I think the reason why is most new cpu has thermal paste applied when bought, even though u have CPU fan, but maybe it is still not enough to get the heat off, so you will still need a case fan.

upvoted 1 times

...

Dom20

Highly Voted 5 years, 1 month ago

How is this not A?

upvoted 6 times

marerad

4 years, 10 months ago

I also think answer should be A.

upvoted 4 times

...

alforg03

Most Recent 1 year, 7 months ago

Selected Answer: B

While the thermal paste is indeed important, it will not be the main cause of the computer shutting down faster the next time it boots. If the tech forgot to connect the fans, they are not pulling the heat out and will shut down faster each time it is booted due to the additional heat building up. So yes, the thermal paste is important but without the fans, the case isn't going to cool off from heat generated by any of the other components that produce heat.

upvoted 1 times

...

Disasterdon

2 years, 4 months ago

A. Apply thermal paste. This is the most likely reason for the reported behavior. If the technician forgot to apply thermal paste, the CPU would quickly overheat and cause the system to crash. Initially, the system may have run for a few minutes before overheating, but on subsequent boots, it would crash much more quickly due to residual heat buildup. B. Connect the case fans. While not connecting case fans could contribute to heat buildup, it is less likely to cause the system to crash as quickly as described.

upvoted 1 times

...

PythonWolf

2 years, 9 months ago

Selected Answer: B

270 | The Official CompTIA® A+® Core 1 and Core 2 Student Guide (Exams 220-1001 and 220-1002) - Note: When purchasing a CPU, most CPU fans included already have thermal paste applied to the bottom of the CPU fan. If there is no thermal paste applied or the CPU didn't come with a CPU fan, then you'll need to purchase a separate tube of thermal paste. It must be B.

upvoted 1 times

...

Jamiu88

2 years, 11 months ago

This is a type of question that should have said "Choose Two"

upvoted 2 times

...

iLikeBeagButt

3 years, 3 months ago

Selected Answer: A

Thermal Paste

upvoted 1 times

...

iLikeBeagButt

3 years, 3 months ago

I think it's thermal paste, I read somewhere that it's more common for people to forget to add the thermal paste when building computers. Case fans are huge and not easily missed.

upvoted 1 times

...

QAI

3 years, 3 months ago

The anser is A. thermal paste Thermal paste fills these gaps and transfers heat through them so that heat does not get trapped and cause problems. What happens if you don't use thermal paste on your CPU? It will turn on and work although, your CPU heat spreader will not be perfectly flat against the CPUcooler block, which is also not perfectly flat. This will create air gaps that build up heat between the two. This heat will cause thermal shutdown if you are lucky, the death of the CPU if you are not.

upvoted 1 times

QAI

3 years, 3 months ago

For what the case fans are concerned. What is important to know is that next to all modern computers wont even start without functional cooling element to the CPU! And in this case we are talking about a case fan and NOT a CPU fan. While it is good and you need to have proper ventilation of the machine it is not critical. But it can cause the same issue, but far from this fast! What you wil notice is that the computer case wil warm up and starts to radiate some heat. A clear indication that there is something wrong with the flow of air and the heat is trapped. Since there is no mention of heat buildup and this is a new custom PC that fails on "first startup". forgetting to apply thermal paste is more more likely the culprit

upvoted 1 times

...

drock538

3 years, 5 months ago

I checked another testing site, and it gave the same answer as this one so, that is what I am going with.

upvoted 1 times

HisFave

3 years, 5 months ago

dude, all the sites pretty much all copy each other with the answers, and there are lots of sites like this one, so whatever

upvoted 2 times

...

ronah

3 years, 7 months ago

Selected Answer: A

because the question says minutes before it shuts down. having no cpu fan will quickly heat up and quicky shuts down it says it takes 20sec. while thermal does take minutes and when you turn on back again the the computer and open a app then it will increase teh temp but not that fast.

upvoted 1 times

...

123123321123

4 years, 3 months ago

The key detail is that the PC crashes after a few minutes. Lack of thermal paste will cause the PC to crash eventually if under heavier operational conditions. But a completely inactive CPU fan is more likely to cause a crash to occur within a few minutes of boot.

upvoted 3 times

...

michael_owen

4 years, 3 months ago

Option A/B are good and based on the definition I have the thermal paste will help to make a complete contacted between CPU and Heatsink. in easy words it fills up the gap air between these two components. This is a good but it still the natural airflow that goes through a PC case it won't be as strong as having a FAN connected to CPU or a FAN attached to the case that pushes fresh air into the motherboard. Providing a better airflow to cool the components in this case CPU! based on this analogy i will go with option B.

upvoted 2 times

...

Ty_ty

4 years, 5 months ago

imma rock out with A on this one boys. I cant recall where but somewhere when I was taking a practice test it said something about Thermal Paste being easy to forget. and I think that applies here.

upvoted 1 times

...

binayD

4 years, 7 months ago

Lets look at the problem in a different way ….Let us assume there is a CPU fan in place and working but the technician forgot to put thermal paste. Will the CPU overheat and stop ?

upvoted 2 times

YouKownNothingJonSnow

4 years, 6 months ago

Yes, It happened to me. Didn't forgot to apply thermal paste, but the paste applied was not appropriate to the amount of heat generated by the CPU. There were heat build up and the PC were shutting down several times.

upvoted 1 times

...

ilovemen69

5 years, 1 month ago

why isn't the answer A?

upvoted 5 times

...