Problems due to faulty RAM can be difficult to diagnose. If a system’s RAM has gone bad the user can experience program crashes, spontaneous reboots, sudden system freezes, BSODs (Blue Screens of Death), corrupt data, and more. The problem is those symptoms could also be caused by a bad CPU. Or a bad motherboard. Or glitchy power. One classic method of diagnosing RAM problems is to replace the RAM and test to see if the symptoms disappear. But with CompTIA’s new emphasis on practical application in A+ certification, an A+ certification candidate should know which tools can make you sure. After all, no one wants to buy new RAM only to have their A+ certified tech then tell them, “Oops, I guess maybe it was the CPU. Or the motherboard. Or … ”

Hardware RAM testers exist, but are rare, and an A+ certified tech rarely would have access to one in the field. Software RAM testers are less reliable, but are often free and easy to include on a flash drive as part of a software toolkit. That makes them a go-to tool when the symptoms suggest bad RAM. False negatives are common—bad RAM will often be reported as A-OK after a scan. But if your RAM tester tells you your RAM is bad you have a smoking gun clearly implicating the culprit.

MemTest86 has long been the classic software tool for this job and it does the job well. A downside is that you must restart your computer, since MemTest86 can’t test your RAM while your operating system is using it. Thankfully, for those quick and dirty jobs, HCI Design has given us MemTest for Windows. It’s a Windows executable, so you just run the program and it starts testing away while Windows and maybe other apps are happily clicking away. If you think that MemTest for Windows can’t test RAM currently being used by other programs, you’re right. That may be a deal breaker for some, but MemTest for Windows will wait for currently used RAM to become available, and will test it when it does.

The end result is that the A+ certified tech can be confident that if they run MemTest for Windows for x hours, then one can be confident that the system is capable of running for x hours without any RAM related problems. Clever A+ certification candidates might realize that they could simply run a computer for x hours without any testing software, and prove that the system could run for x hours. But remember, the A+ certified technician is looking for that smoking gun that leads them to the culprit. If MemTest for Windows does throw an error, the A+ certified tech has closed the case with solid evidence.

CompTIA alerts A+ certification candidates that diagnosing RAM problems is covered in Domain 2.0: Troubleshooting, Repair & Maintenance on the A+ Essentials certification test, and Domain 1.0: Hardware on the A+ Practical Application certification test.

MemTest86 and MemTest for Windows are both freeware.

MemTest86

MemTest for Windows

CompTIA’s A+ test objectives include Domain 5.0: Security, which among other things, requires A+ certification candidates to know about “Data wiping / hard drive destruction / hard drive recycling”. If an A+ certification student is working in the industry it’s likely that their organization has some kind of hard drive disposal policy, usually involving the wiping of the hard drive. This can either take the form of software which electronically randomizes the bits, or a device which magnetically erases the information.

However, nothing beats the finality and satisfaction of physical destruction, but most A+ certification candidates have no direct experience with this method. Fortunately a company called SSI Shredding Systems has produced a series of videos demonstrating their products, which include a hard drive shredder. For fun I recommend their videos of other items being shredded, even if they have nothing to do with A+ certification. My favorite is the VW Hippie Bug.

Other companies have used YouTube to demonstrate their wares, and their commercials can be instructive and interesting.

On the flip side of the coin, a British program called The Gadget Show tested a couple of rugged storage systems by subjecting them to water, then explosives. The results were as entertaining as they were illustrative.

Though CompTIA updates their A+ objectives every few years sometimes the information you find in books and websites that are supposed to help with A+ certification is surprisingly out of date. Most A+ certification material I see, especially online, tends to perpetuate old stereotypes about inkjets and laser printers. This material is often carried forward from old A+ certification sources, and is only accurate for old CompTIA A+ certification tests.

Many A+ certification resources preach that laser printers have a lower cost per page, due to the high cost and low capacity of inkjet consumables. Tom’s Hardware has done a comparison study that puts the lie to old thinking about inkjets, laser printers and comparable costs. The truth, it seems, is more complicated than it used to be. The bottom line: if you shop carefully and don’t fall for the cheapest inkjet, you can approach and sometimes surpass the performance and economy of a laser printer with a good quality inkjet.

CompTIA requires A+ certification candidates to know about the pros and cons of inkjets and laser printers inA+ Domain 1.0: Hardware.

Inkjet Vs. Laser: An End To Stereotypes

During a recent class discussion on RAID, a student recommended I look into Drobo, an external storage unit that promises some real advantages over standard RAID arrays. The basic Drobo unit plugs into either a USB or Firewire connection on your computer and holds up to four hard drives, which you can supply, or which you can buy with your Drobo.

One cool feature is that unlike standard RAID arrays, the drives don’t have to be equal in size. You can throw a newer, larger hard drive in right next to an older, smaller one and Drobo intelligently manages the data and parity information so that if either drive fails you don’t lose any data.

Cooler yet is that Drobo makes any old drive hot-swappable. While your system is running and accessing Drobo you can open it up, eject a hard drive by pressing a button, and insert a replacement. I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen their video, which I recommend.

CompTIA doesn’t ask about Drobo on the A+ certification test, but RAID is covered in Domain1.0 Hardware, and NAS (network attached storage) is mentioned, though not directly asked about. Still, Drobo represents an interesting, if proprietary, step forward from the hardware basics CompTIA covers in the A+ certification exams. CompTIA prefers A+ certified technicians to have 500 hours of hands-on experience. That emphasis is reflected in the new CompTIA A+ Practical Application exam. Keeping abreast with new technologies like Drobo, and how they differ from the RAID arrays asked about on the A+ certification tests, helps frame CompTIA’s A+ certification exam objectives in a real world context.

Drobo

All A+ certification books describe the difference between regular cable and plenum cable in a fire, but would you like to see the difference? L-com sells cable and put together a series of videos so that customers can see what they’re paying for when they spend extra for plenum rated cable. Fortunately their videos are a great illustration for anyone pursuing CompTIA A+ certification, since this topic is covered in the Networking domain of the CompTIA A+ certification exam.

L-com’s Plenum Cable Flammability Tests Videos