UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2018/2019
EXAMINATION FOR THE DIPLOMA IN INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
DIT 304: PRINCIPLES OF COMPUTER SUPPORT & MAINTENANCE
DATE: APRIL, 2019 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer QUESTION ONE and any other TWO Questions.
QUESTION ONE: 30 MARKS (COMPULSORY)
a) Briefly describe how you would maintain the following computer hardware components;
(5 Marks)
i) Processor.
ii) Circuit boards.
iii) Keyboard.
iv) System unit.
v) Motherboard.
b) Differentiate between L1 and L2 cache. (2 Marks)
c) List and explain the FOUR sections of a computer that are affected by viruses.
(4Marks)
d) Provide a description of the following concepts; (5 Marks)
i) CMOS.
ii) POST.
iii) BOOT.
iv) BOOT Disk.
v) ESD.
e) Briefly explain what transpires during Power On Self-Test (POST) at phase one of the PC
Boot process. (5Marks)
f) Explain how the following improve the central processing unit performance.
i) Data bus width
ii) Address bus width
iii) Cache memory size.
iv) Register size. (4Marks)
g) Explain FOUR improvements of the ATX motherboard over the AT motherboard
(4 Marks)
h) Differentiate between D.C. and A.C. current (1 Mark)
QUESTION TWO (15 MARKS)
Your personal laptop suddenly starts freezing or hanging at odd times, you troubleshoot and
manage to fix the problem. But before long a blue screen error occurs and an endless reboot loop
begins;
a)
Discuss the three possible causes of the laptop system hanging or freezing at odd times.
(6 Marks)
b)
Discuss how you could solve the endless reboot problem using the Advanced Boot
Options screen. (9 Marks)
QUESTION THREE (15 MARKS)
As a help-desk technician you are supposed to have very good detective skills, list some good
questions you would ask for the following scenarios;
a)
Someone calls saying he has attempted to install a new monitor, but the monitor does not
work. (6 Marks)
b)
A user calls to say, “My PC won’t boot.” (5 Marks)
c) Explain the following terms (4 Marks)
i) System clock speed
ii) Internal data path
iii) External data path
iv) Memory cache
QUESTION FOUR (15 MARKS)
a)
Your personal laptop suddenly starts freezing or hanging at odd times, you troubleshoot
and manage to fix the problem. But before long a blue screen error occurs and an endless
reboot loop begins;
i)
Discuss the three possible causes of the laptop system hanging or freezing at odd times.
(3 Marks)
ii)
Discuss how you could solve the endless reboot problem using the Advanced Boot Options
screen. (6 Marks)
b)
KCA University requires a customized computer system to handle student registration.
The university approached you to assemble a custom computer for them;
i)
Describe the functions of any three major components needed to assemble the computer for
the university. (3 Marks)
ii)
Describe the steps to follow to install the components described above.
(3 Marks)
