A+ For Helping!

[killergamer]

Hello, My fellow computer friends. I am calling out to all that have some information to share to someone that is very interested in learning. Some of you might have heard of the school program called Skills USA. For those who haven’t, Skills USA is an school program were you can compete other students in almost anything technology related to your skills, such as working with cars, networking, and even fixing fridges!

This is where you guys come in. I need to have as much info crammed into my brain for I will be competing in the computer maintenance competition. I need to pretty much learn anything that is on the A+ Certification. I have taken Computer Construction and Network Design.



Computer Maintenance Technology
The CMT contest requires contestants to identify and repair computer hardware malfunctions, solve configuration problems, and install common components. In addition, the contestants take the A+ Certification exam. Their score on this exam is used as the basis for the written portion of the contest, and contestants who pass the exam receive their A+ Certification.

Here is what I’ve figured I need to learn as much as possible in:
1. Motherboards
2. Processor
3. RAM
4. PSU
5. CD/DVD
6. Hard Drive
7. OS's
8. Virus removal
9. Proper handling of computer hardware.
10. Tools

As I see it, when I win it will be because I had the best possible teachers and the whole TBCS community backing me up. I am thanking Ichbin for helping me get this down right.

[Ichbin]

For OS's, they really only look at windows.

Windows before windows 95 where based off of DOS, everything after windows was based of the "Windows NT" Or "Windows New Technology"

in the A+, it doesnt ask much for OS know how.
(Correct me if im wrong please)

A+ also wants you to know where you find your hardware in the OS.

Right click on My computer. Manage. Then goto device manager. There are all the devices hooked up physically to your Computer. If you find one with a yellow sign on it, it means it detects the hardware, but the drivers are not installed or corrupt.

Some quick stuff

[Drum Thumper]

OS wise with A+, focus on how to operate the OS at a level beyond that of a normal user. Become familiar with disk operations, a bit of command line, and the like.

If you've got the cash, I recommend this book (http://www.amazon.com/Certification-All-One-Exam-Guide/dp/0072229918). Well worth the 37 bucks.

[nevermind1534]

Windows before windows 95 where based off of DOS, everything after windows was based of the "Windows NT" Or "Windows New Technology"

Not everything. windows 98 and ME still used the win9x kernel. Only the business-oriented versions of windows , such as NT and 2000 used the NT kernel, until they were combined for windows xp, and the server OSes were then released separately (i.e. server 2003 (xp), server 2008 (Vista)). The FAT32 file system was introduced with windows 95b. NTFS (New Technology File System) was introduced with Windows NT 3.1, which looked identical to windows for workgroups 3.1, except it was 32-bit, where the regular 3.1 was 16-bit. It was much like xp 32 and xp x64 or server 2003 x64 today. So, going on, 95 wasn't completely based off of dos, but the win9x kernel still relied on it to some extent. The NT kernel did not natively support dos, so that's why some dos apps aren't supported in xp or vista. I believe that vista was partially re-written. Microsoft was originally going to combine the home and pro versions of windows with codename Neptune. This, obviously got delayed until xp. After xp, microsoft started work on a smaller os followup on xp, which was codename whistler, but before blackcomb, and it would be released in 2003. Microsoft eventually decided to scrap it, and started over. It was codename longhorn, which is now better known as vista. Blackcomb was supposed to be more like longhorn became.

Ok, if I don't stop now, it looks like this will go on forever. Let me know if I made any mistakes on any of this info. That's probably mostly stuff that you don't need to know anyways, but it never hurts to learn something new.