CompTIA A+ (Exams 220-1001 & 220-1002)

Develop IT professional soft skills by mastering troubleshooting, problem identification and analysis, using documentation resources to resolve issues, and delivering fast, friendly customer service through professional communication.

Identify the problem, test possible causes, implement and verify a plan, cycle through untried solutions when needed, and document results for customer documentation and personal references.

Question the customer to determine the scope and possible causes, such as slow performance or hardware changes, then break the problem into smaller parts and prioritize fixes.

Troubleshoot computer issues by spotting obvious causes, backing up settings, and testing one configuration at a time to confirm fixes and consider other connected devices.

Listen closely to the customer and avoid interrupting to gather clues that help resolve their issue, while speaking clearly, minimizing jargon, and using open-ended questions.

Dress professionally, wear your ID, and arrive on time to build trust with customers. Exude confidence, respect privacy, and practice discretion while communicating across cultures and abilities.

Develop professionalism and communication skills for IT support, build a personal knowledge library from vendor resources, and document processes to improve customer interactions, backups, and licensed software use.

Learn to protect yourself and equipment by mitigating electrostatic discharge and handling components safely, while addressing personal safety, environmental risks, high voltage, ergonomics, and disposal and recycling.

Learn how electrostatic discharge can damage computer systems and chips, and apply protective measures, component handling tips, and best practices to prevent esd in any work environment.

Minimize electrostatic discharge by balancing humidity at about 50 percent, using anti-static bags, ESD mats, and ESD straps, and grounding yourself with a simple self-grounding method.

Learn how ergonomic practices reduce discomfort and repetitive strain injuries by eye care, breaks every 15–20 minutes, and proper posture with monitor height and reachable keyboard and mouse.

Learn to recycle and properly dispose of environmental and hazardous waste per federal and local laws, read hazard information and materials safety sheets, and utilize local recycling resources.

Explore safety for you and computer components by identifying hazards—slips, trips, falls, chemical contact, electricity—in various environments and applying PPE, including ESD straps and hearing, eye, and respiratory protection.

Demonstrate electrical safety, hazard awareness, and handling precautions for computer components, including reading warning signs, ESD notes, and UL and CSA safety listings.

Explore how safety rules originate from past incidents and guide field work, with OSHA, CFR, NEC, UL, CSA, noise limits, PPE, and ergonomics.

Follow essential safety practices for IT work, including PPE, battery inspection, electrical safety, dust and eye protection, and hearing protection.

Explore core system components—central processing units, power supplies, storage devices, and integrated circuits—and how data input, processing, output, and storage interact with input/output devices and ports.

Explore how the processor, the brains of a computer, performs calculations at megahertz to gigahertz speeds. See how the operating system manages system resources and memory to drive tasks.

Demonstrate how input is processed by a processor to produce an output and store it in memory, with devices like keyboards, mice, printers, monitors, and storage such as ram memory.

Convert 120 volts ac from an outlet to the computer's internal voltages, with 12 volts as most common and 3.3 and 5 volts used by hard drives and expansion cards.

Examine storage devices such as hard drives, magnetic tapes, flash drives, and solid state drives, noting that SSDs have no moving parts and common interfaces like IDC, SATA, and SSI.

Explore adapter cards and motherboard integrated adapters that enable display and network connectivity, and learn how video cards manage color bits and resolutions such as 1280x1024.

Identify how ports serve as connection points for cables that transfer data between computer and devices, with serial, parallel, usb, and video ports for modems, printers, keyboards, mice, and scanners.

Explore how computers store and retrieve data across storage media, from desktop hard drives to USB flash drives, CDs, and RAM, and learn common interfaces like IDE, SATA, and SCSI.

Explore how motherboards centralize RAM and processors, enable external connections through ports and expandability via expansion slots, cache memory, and the BIOS chip for system communication.

Understand how the motherboard houses the cpu, ram, cache, chipsets, bios and cmos battery, expansion slots, and connectors for mice, keyboards, sound and video cards, with ATX form factors.

Explore motherboard chipsets, focusing on the north bridge and south bridge, and how they route data between the central processing unit, memory, and peripheral buses such as PCI and USB.

Learn how cache memory speeds data access by storing frequently used data, with level 1 integrated in the processor and level 3 shared across cores.

Explore RAM slots and DIMMs, how to install memory, and how dual channel architecture speeds up performance by sending 64-bit chunks, enhancing capacity and functionality.

Describe how the BIOS chip, a read-only memory upgradable via EPROM, controls the boot process and POST, locates the master boot record, and loads the operating system.

Explore expansion slots on the motherboard to add network, sound, and video cards via PCI, PCI-X, PCI Express, and AGP, with plug-and-play support and cnr and emr risers.

Explore how keyboards and mice connect to computers via usb and wireless, enabling user input. Review serial and parallel ports, including rs-232 and db-25 connectors for printers and displays.

Explore how motherboards function, identify front-panel and exterior connectors, and review ram, cache memory, bios and cmos roles in booting, plus expansion options and form factors.

Explore how the data bus moves data from processor to memory, why a 32-bit processor makes two trips to transfer 64 bits, and how the address bus targets memory locations.

Understand computer architecture, including registers, cache memory, virtualization, and CPU and GPU roles. See how RAM and memory controllers affect performance and how thermal throttling and overclocking risks impact stability.

Explore how chip packaging defines the form factor and delivery of computer chips, covering DIP, PGA, LGA, and single edge contact packages.

Identify processor sockets by socket number and pins, research manufacturer specifications to ensure compatible socket and correct voltage, and verify labeling on the chip side before installation.

Identify processor sockets by reading labels, consulting manufacturer guidance, and using online charts to compare socket types by manufacturer, package type, and voltage.

Explore processor components and installation basics, from sockets and the central processing unit to cache, GHz performance, and core varieties like dual, quad, and Intel vs non-Intel chips.

Explore memory types, focusing on RAM and ROM, including read-only memory, firmware, BIOS, and POST; understand single- and double-sided modules, memory banks, and upgrade compatibility.

Understand the four main memory types (DRAM, SRAM, CMOS RAM, and VRAM) and how refreshing, caching, and video memory speed up data access for CPUs and GPUs.

Understand memory types and roles: volatile random access memory powers quick work with active data, while read‑only memory boots the system and maintains essential instructions.

Learn how four ram types - dram, sram, vram, and synchronous ram - differ in nanosecond speed, addressing by row and column, and volatility.

Describe the two basic read-only memory types, traceable programmable ROM and flash ROM, and how BIOS updates come from the manufacturer's website.

Explore how memory uses parity to verify data integrity during reads, contrasting parity memory with non-parity memory that lacks error checking.

Explore single- and double-sided memory, memory banks, and dual, triple, and quad channel architectures; understand buffered memory and its reliability, plus L1–L3 cache.

Identify memory type, speed in megahertz, and parity to ensure compatibility when upgrading ram. Use CPU-Z to confirm the correct desktop dimm or laptop microdimm and gold-plated pins.

Explore the two basic memory types, ROM and RAM, and how BIOS RAM settings and the Windows memory diagnostic help diagnose problems.

Explore memory types and ram basics, including dimm and sodimm slots and dual channel setups. Use the resource monitor to inspect memory usage and disk or network activity.

Explore the BIOS and CMOS overview, including how BIOS communicates with the system, CMOS inventories drives and RAM, and how updates and advanced settings shape configurations.

Upgrade the bios with the correct firmware for your system brand and bios version, verify the version on the boot-up screen, and keep power connected during the upgrade.

Explore advanced settings in cmos, activate network boot and adjust startup order; protect the mbr with virus protection, and run built-in diagnostics with error logs and system monitors.

Explore the uefi as the modern replacement for bios, highlighting security, faster start up times, hibernation support, larger drives, 64 bit drivers, and backward compatibility.

Explore advanced cpu configurations in firmware, including single-core vs multicore, virtualization, hyper-threading, processor speed via system clock multiplier, overclocking cautions, cooling, and configuring integrated graphics.

Explore the CMOS and BIOS setup utilities, boot order and device configuration, and firmware update considerations, including EFI/UEFI and recovery options.

Explore how to access bios and cmos, use advanced startup options in Windows 10 for troubleshooting, recovery, and startup settings, and boot to different media for repairs.

gain foundational knowledge of hard drives and storage devices, including internal and external drives, solid-state and USB flash storage, SATA, network storage, removable media, and basic installation, partitioning, and formatting.

Learn to install, format, and partition hard drives and storage devices, back up data, troubleshoot failures, and perform check disk repairs for bad sectors and boot issues.

Discover hard disk anatomy—platters, tracks, sectors, clusters, and cylinders—and how the read/write head, the actuator, and partitioned file systems use clusters, seek time, latency, and rpm.

Explore ide devices, including the master-slave daisy chain, pio and dma transfer modes, and how controllers evolved to integrated drives, with devices like cd-roms and tapes.

Explores small computer system interface (SCSI) and serial ATA (SATA) fundamentals, including eight devices on the bus, cabling, hot swap, speeds, and RAID 0, 1, and 5 concepts.

Explore removable storage types—from optical discs and cd-roms to rewritable media and dvds, to solid-state drives with no moving parts, plus usb thumb drives and sd cards.

Optical drives read and write data on optical disks using lasers, evolving from CD-ROM to CD-R/CD-RW, DVD-R/DVD-RW, and Blu-ray, with capacities from 750 MB to 50 GB.

Explore hard drives and storage devices, including internal and external drives, disk partitions, storage spaces, and media devices, and learn to manage space, set default safe locations.

Explore power supplies and voltage, including PSU and UPS connections, power distribution inside a computer, and concepts of energy use and unreliable power.

Explore how power supply units convert wall power into usable voltages for computers, and compare surge suppressors, converters, and uninterrupted power supplies for continuity planning and disaster preparation.

Learn how amps, ohms, volts, and watts measure power in computers, explain electrical current, resistance, potential, and power, and explore power supply units and connectors.

Review the key concepts of power supplies and voltage, including AC to DC conversion, surge suppressors, UPS, ATX form factors, voltage and current regulation, and wattage calculations.