The A+ exams expect you to have a good understanding of concepts related to computer hardware and software. Hands-on experience is recommended and is good to have. You should be well-acquainted with hardware terminology, operating systems, and basic security concepts, and you should have the basic skills to troubleshoot problems. You will need to review the Study Guide and pay close attention to the areas that are new for you or that you feel uncomfortable with.
This section includes some exercises that you can perform either on a standalone computer or in a network to gain some hands-on experience. Since the A+ exams mainly cover all core basic knowledge skills related to installing, configuring, and troubleshooting computer hardware and software, you will need plenty of experience in these tasks. You must know what specifications to look for when selecting a component and how to correctly install the hardware and device drivers.
It is recommended that you do not perform any of the suggested exercises in your organization or in any running computer network. Create a test environment consisting of two computers for completing these exercises. Even if you just want to view network settings in a production environment, make sure a senior administrator accompanies you. In any case, you should follow the policies of the organization. For most exercises where you need to work on internal parts of a computer, make sure that you are wearing a properly grounded antistatic wrist strap.
Obtain a hard drive with sufficient storage capacity.
Disconnect the old drive and carefully remove it from the computer case.
Set the Master, Slave, or Cable Select jumpers on the new drive.
Select the data cable to which the disk will be connected.
Insert the new drive and reconnect the data cable and the power supply cable.
Turn on the computer and test the new drive.
Open the computer case and inspect the installed memory modules.
Make sure that you have extra slots for expanding memory.
Obtain new memory modules that are compatible with the system bus.
Do not remove the memory modules from protective covering until you are ready to install them.
Remove the old memory module if you are adding more memory to the system.
Carefully insert the new memory modules in the slots with correct orientation.
Turn on the computer and verify the total system memory from the BIOS self-test.
Obtain a new adapter card and ensure that it is compatible with the system bus.
Ensure that the adapter driver is compatible with the installed operating system.
Find an empty expansion slot on the motherboard.
Insert the new card carefully and tighten the screw.
Turn on the system to see whether the operating system automatically detects the new adapter.
If the card is not a PnP device, or if the OS does not recognize the adapter, install the device driver manually using Add Hardware wizard.
Use the Device Manager to verify that the card is working as expected.
Inspect all external connectors to ensure that they are attached properly.
Inspect the LEDs on front panel of the system.
Inspect the LEDs on the adapter cards on the rear panel of the system.
Turn off the computer and open the computer case.
Perform a thorough visual inspection of all components.
Ensure that all adapters and memory modules are seated properly in their appropriate slots.
Ensure that all connectors are properly attached.
Verify that the CPU fan is working and that there is no dust accumulated.
Verify that all ventilation slots are clean.
Check the make and model of the motherboard and obtain its user manual.
Note down the BIOS manufacturer's name and the version number of the BIOS software.
Turn on the computer and listen carefully to the beeps during the Power-On Self-Test (POST).
Note down the number of beeps and whether they are long or short.
Check the meaning of the beep codes from the user manual.
Open the computer case.
Locate an unused power supply cable.
Turn on the computer and measure all DC voltages using a multimeter.
Open the computer case and write down all add-on components.
Find out which components or adapters are rarely used or not necessary and can be removed.
If you need to reinstall the adapters, obtain drivers for each of them.
Remove all these components one by one.
Restart the system without any of these components and note down the startup behavior.
Turn off the system.
Install the components one at a time along with its driver (if required) and restart the computer.
Obtain a USB thumb drive or other USB-compatible device for the laptop.
Turn on the laptop and connect the drive to a free USB port.
Verify that the operating system automatically recognizes and configures the device.
Locate the small icon that appears in the notification area of the Taskbar.
Right-click the icon and click Safely Remove Hardware.
Check the list of devices and click Stop to stop the USB device.
Remove the device carefully.
Obtain a USB mouse and a USB keyboard.
Connect the mouse and the keyboard to the laptop using free USB ports.
Check that the devices are working.
Obtain a color monitor and connect it to the monitor port on the rear panel of the laptop.
Verify that the monitor is recognized and works as expected.
Obtain a laptop with a built-in or add-on wireless network adapter.
Ensure that the network adapter supports the type of available wireless network.
Bring the laptop within the coverage area of the wireless network.
Verify that the laptop detects the wireless network.
Open the Control Panel and configure the wireless settings from the properties of the wireless adapter.
Open the Run dialog box from the Start menu.
Type cmd and press the
Enter key.
Type help in the
command prompt window to view a list of available
commands.
Type attrib /? and
press the Enter key to get help with the syntax of this
command.
Display a directory listing using the dir command.
Copy a file from one folder to another using the copy command.
Make a directory using the md command and copy a few files to
this directory using the copy
command.
Remove the new directory using the rd command.
Click the icon on the top, lefthand corner of the window and click Properties.
Change the properties of the command prompt window.
Type exit and press the
Enter key to close the command prompt window.
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to a folder.
Right-click an empty space, click New, and select Folder.
Type the name of the new folder.
Create a few subfolders within the new folder by repeating steps 2 and 3.
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to a folder.
Right-click the folder and select Properties.
View the attributes of the folder.
Click the Read-Only or Hidden checkboxes to change the folder attributes.
Verify that the hidden folder is not visible in Windows Explorer.
Right-click My Computer and select Manage to open the Computer Management Console.
Navigate to the Disk Management snap-in.
View the existing disk partitioning information.
Create a new partition in the unused disk space.
Format the new partition using the NTFS filesystem.
Verify that the status of the new partition is shown as "Healthy."
Open the Disk Management snap-in.
Select a disk partition formatted with the FAT filesystem and write down its drive letter.
Open the Windows command prompt from the Run dialog box in the Start menu.
Use the convert command to convert the partition from FAT to NTFS.
Open the Disk Management snap-in to verify that the partition has been converted to NTFS.
Open the Disk Management snap-in.
Select a partition and open its Properties window.
Click the Tools tab to view the available disk maintenance tools.
Click Defragment Now to defragment the disk.
Examine how the disk analysis and defragmentation takes place.
Open the Run dialog box from the Start menu.
Type msconfig.exe and
press the Enter key.
The System Configuration Utility window is displayed.
Navigate through different tabs to examine the system startup settings.
Open the System Properties window from the Control Panel.
Click the Advanced tab and click Settings under Performance.
Click Advanced and then click Change in the Virtual Memory section.
Change the Initial Size and Maximum Size settings by selecting each disk drive.
Open the System Properties window from the Control Panel.
Click Advanced and then click Startup And Recovery.
Change the Default Operating System to another installed operating system.
Change the Time To Display List Of Operating Systems.
Right-click My Computer and select Manage to open the Computer Management Console.
Navigate to the Event Viewer snap-in.
Examine the Application, Security, and System folders.
Double-click a number of log entries to view the details.
Right-click the Taskbar and open the Task Manager.
Notice the CPU usage and number of running processes.
Click the Processes tab and examine the usage for the CPU, paging file, and memory.
Open some applications and examine the CPU, paging file, and memory usage again.
Select running applications one by one and click End Task.
Click the Networking tab and examine the percentage of network utilization.
Right-click My Computer and select Manage to open the Computer Management Console.
Click the Device Manager snap-in.
Examine the installed devices and their properties.
Examine any device flagged as Unknown or unrecognized device.
Click View and select Resources by Type.
Click View again and select Resources by Connection.
Restart the computer and press F8 to access the Advanced Boot menu.
Navigate through the menu options.
Select Safe Mode from the available options and press the Enter key.
Examine how Windows starts in Safe Mode.
Disable the network adapter and restart Windows.
Select the Safe Mode with networking this time and verify whether you can connect to the network.
Enable the network adapter and restart the computer.
Open the System properties window from the Control Panel.
Click the Automatic Updates tab.
Enable Automatic Updates.
Configure Automatic Updates to download automatically but to prompt you before installation.
Obtain a parallel printer and its driver.
Connect the printer to the computer using a centronics cable.
Turn on the printer and see whether the operating system detects it.
Open the Printers and Faxes window from the Control Panel in the Start menu.
Use the Add Printer Wizard to install the printer.
Select the Have Disk option to install the printer driver manually.
Print a test page to verify that the printer is correctly installed.
Open Network Connections from the Control Panel.
Use the New Connection Wizard to add a network connection.
Open the Properties window of the new connection.
Select the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click Properties.
Verify that the Obtain an IP Address Automatically and the Obtain DNS Server Address Automatically options are selected.
Click Use the Following IP Address and enter a valid IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway address.
Close the TCP/IP Properties window.
Ping the loopback address 127.0.0.1 to verify that the TCP/IP configuration is working.
Change the TCP/IP settings back to automatic.
Examine the status indicators on the network adapter.
Open the command prompt window.
Ping the loopback address 127.0.0.1 and examine the output.
Ping the IP address of a computer on the local network segment and examine the output.
Ping the IP address of the default gateway and examine the output.
Ping the IP address of a remote host and examine the output.
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to a shared folder.
Right-click the folder and select Sharing and Security.
Click Permissions and examine the configured share permissions.
Examine what share permissions are available for configuration.
Add a few users and groups and configure different share permissions for each.
Log on to a Windows XP computer and open the Windows Firewall from the Control Panel.
Click the ON radio button to turn on the firewall.
Click the Advanced tab to open advanced firewall settings for the network adapter.
Select the checkbox for the shown network adapter and click Settings. Note that all services are disabled by default.
Select the services that you want to allow.
Click the checkboxes for ICMP messages that you want to allow from the ICMP tab.
Open Windows Explorer and select a shared folder.
Examine Share Permissions from the Sharing tab.
Examine what share permissions can be configured for users and groups.
Examine NTFS permissions from the Security tab.
Examine what NTFS permissions can be configured for users and groups.
Examine what special NTFS permissions are available.
Open the Local Security Policy from Administrative Tools in the Control Panel.
Enable the audit policy for Object Access.
Select both Success and Failure events.
Open Windows Explorer and select a folder to enable auditing.
Open the Properties window for the folder and click the Advanced tab.
Click the Auditing tab and add audit entries.
Open the Local Security Policy folder in the Administrative Tools located in the Control Panel.
Examine the settings for Account Lockout Policy and the Password Policy.
Examine the Audit Policy settings.
Examine the settings for Security Policy and User Rights Assignment.