| Devices and their drivers all share a common installation and configuration method. The 70-270 exam tests you on your knowledge of how to install device drivers for every type of peripheral or adapter that you can connect to your computer, including a keyboard or a mouse. The skills you should scrutinize include Installing Plug and Play devices Installing nonPlug and Play devices Identifying and resolving resource conflicts Determining whether a driver is signed Changing the computer's default behavior regarding driver signing Installing a second processor in a computer and configuring its HAL
The following exercises analyze your knowledge of these activities. You may choose to further research these skills by practicing installing a variety of devices, updating their drivers, rolling back the drivers, and making a variety of configuration adjustments to them. You should have at least one Windows XP Professional computer and several different types of peripheral equipment and adapters available to you. Exercises 8.1 Monitor System Performance In this exercise, you assume that your computer was upgraded from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows XP, and now experiences frequent periods of slow performance. You suspect the problem may be related to a database application. Perform the following steps to determine the source of the performance problem: Estimated Time: 15 minutes. 1. | Create a Performance Monitor chart to see whether there is a performance bottleneck when the application is running.
| 2. | To determine the specific cause of the bottleneck, ensure that the application is running, and then press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open Task Manager. On the Processes tab, view the CPU column to see which individual process is using the most CPU time.
| 3. | Assume you discover that the database application causes CPU usage to soar to between 90% and 100% of the CPU capacity when it is running. The application's manufacturer suggests that you upgrade the computer to a multiprocessor computer.
Your computer is multiprocessor capable and ACPI compliant. You decide, rather than purchase an entirely new computer, that you will purchase an additional processor and install it yourself. When the computer had Windows NT 4.0 installed, you were forced to reinstall the operating system whenever you needed to use a different Hal.dll, which you will need to change if you are adding a second processor. However, Windows XP allows you to update the Hal.dll file when upgrading from a single-processor to a multiprocessor computer. You can do this in Device Manager by selecting the Update Driver button on the Driver tab of the computer's Properties dialog box.
| 4. | After installing the second processor, test the computer's performance by running the database application. If the performance is still slow, use Device Manager, under the Processors Device Type category, to see whether two processors are installed or only one. You can use Performance Monitor to determine whether both processors are being utilized.
| 5. | Assume you discover that although both processors are installed in the computer, only one is being used. To force both processors to be initialized and used, you need to edit the Boot.ini file and add the /NUMPROC=2 switch at the end of the line entry that loads Windows XP. You can also test out a different HAL file by adding /HAL=filename.dll at the end of the same entry to force Windows to load a HAL with a filename other than Hal.dll.
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Review Questions | 1. | If you replace your old mouse with a new mouse that uses a special scrolling mechanism, and the scrolling mechanism does not function, what could be the problem? How do you fix it? | | 2. | Where can you view resource conflicts? (List three locations.) | | 3. | What must you have in place to implement smart cards on your network? | | 4. | When you install a printer/fax/scanner multi-function device, which Control Panel applet is used to monitor and manage it? | | 5. | What purpose does driver signing serve? |
Exam Questions | 1. | You have been hired by Joe's Garage to implement a wireless network. Joe's has a single Active Directory domain and all the client computers, including point of sale computers, run Windows XP Professional. The mechanics use laptops specially equipped with a peripheral device that connects to automotive computers for diagnostic purposes, and they need to upload the resulting data to the network application named CARS. One of the mechanics, Sylvia, takes her laptop home and connects it directly to her home PC, which also has a wireless adapter. When she returns, she cannot upload data into the network CARS application. You look at the computer's configuration and find that the wireless icon is not connected. Which of the following advanced options should you choose to resolve the problem and still allow Sylvia to connect at home with the laptop? 
| A. | Select the Automatically Connect to Non-Preferred Networks check box. |
| B. | Select the Computer-To-Computer (Ad Hoc) Networks Only option button. |
| C. | Select the Access Point (Infrastructure) Networks Only option button. |
| D. | Select the Any Available Network (Access Point Preferred) option button. |
| | 2. | You are the network administrator for GLAM Corp. You have been tasked with upgrading several computers with additional processors. You upgrade two computers without a problem. When you attempt to upgrade the third computer, you receive a Stop error that indicates there is a HAL mismatch. The Stop error remains when you attempt a restart. What can you do to resolve this problem and ensure that it does not occur on the remaining PCs? (Choose two.)
| A. | Use Device Manager to upgrade the HAL before physically adding the second processor. |
| B. | Upgrade the BIOS so that it supports Advanced Power Management (APM). |
| C. | Upgrade the BIOS so that it supports ACPI. |
| D. | Start the computer using the Windows XP CD to the Recovery Console. Edit the Boot.ini file and add the /HAL= switch to force Windows to load the correct HAL file. |
| | 3. | You are the network administrator for GLAM Corp. Several graphic designers have reported problems with their computers. The graphics design department had recently added pen tablet pointing devices to each of their computers so that the graphic designers can input designs directly into a collaborative application that can function over the wide area network. You want to find out whether the device driver for PEN is signed. How do you discover this information? (Choose all that apply.)
| A. | Click Start, Run, type msinfo32 signed PEN, and press Enter. |
| B. | Click Start, Run, type msconfig signed, and press Enter |
| C. | Click Start, Run, type msinfo32, and press Enter. Open the Signed Drivers node below Software Environment and look for the drivers for the pen tablet. |
| D. | Click Start, Run, type msconfig, and press Enter. Click the Services tab. Navigate to the location for the pen tablet drivers. |
| E. | Right-click My Computer and select Properties. Click the Hardware tab and then click the Device Manager button. Double-click the pen tablet device icon below the Mouse category. Click the Driver tab. |
| F. | Click Start, Control Panel. Double-click Printers and Other Hardware. Double-click Keyboards. Click the Hardware tab. Select the pen tablet. Click the Troubleshoot button. |
| | 4. | You decide you need a log file of all the drivers on each of the graphics department's computers because you discovered several peripheral devices have recently been installed throughout the department. Which of the following commands will produce a text file listing the signed and unsigned drivers?
| A. | msinfo32 |
| B. | msconfig |
| C. | sigverif |
| D. | hddwiz.cpl |
| | 5. | Your tests have verified that not only are the pen tablet device drivers unsigned, but so are a number of the other peripheral devices. You decide you need to stop the graphics department from installing devices that can cause erratic functionality in the computers. Which of the following do you configure?
| A. | Open the System Configuration Utility and configure the option to Warn If Unsigned Drivers Are Being Installed. |
| B. | Open Device Manager and configure the option to Block Any Unsigned Device Drivers from Being Installed. |
| C. | Open the Control Panel System applet and select Driver Signing on the Hardware tab. Configure it to Ignore. |
| D. | Open the Control Panel System applet and select Driver Signing on the Hardware tab. Configure it to Block. |
| | 6. | What should you do if you discover that you are using a device with an unsigned driver after experiencing intermittent computer problems?
| A. | Obtain a new device driver from the manufacturer and, on the Driver tab of the device's Properties dialog box in Device Manager, click Driver Details. |
| B. | Obtain a new device driver from the manufacturer and, on the Driver tab of the device's Properties dialog box in Device Manager, click Update Driver. |
| C. | Obtain a new device driver from the manufacturer and, on the Driver tab of the device's Properties dialog box in Device Manager, click Roll Back Driver. |
| D. | Obtain a new device driver from the manufacturer and, on the Driver tab of the device's Properties dialog box in Device Manager, click Uninstall Driver. |
| | 7. | You are the network administrator for Globell, a scientific research company. The Globell scientists have SMP computers, whereas the rest of the company uses single-processor computers. One of the Globell scientists developed an application named SCI that all the scientists use. It was originally developed when the company was using Windows 95 computers. The application does not run well in Windows XP. Even on the SMP computers, the performance crawls. How can you discover whether the bottleneck is caused by the CPU, memory, or disk usage?
| A. | Open Performance Monitor and add the counters for CPU utilization for both instances, as well as counters for memory usage and disk reads/writes. |
| B. | Use the System Information utility to view performance logs. |
| C. | Use Event Viewer to display bottleneck error messages. |
| D. | Update the HAL on each SMP computer using Device Manager. |
| | 8. | You are working as a network consultant at Joe's Garage. Joe has entrusted his personal computer to you to have a new wireless network adapter driver installed. He tells you that he has extremely important data on the drive and asks that you be very careful to not lose it. After reassuring Joe, you install the new driver. After you reboot, Joe's computer gives you a Blue Screen of Death Stop error before you reach the logon screen. You attempt another reboot and are stopped again. How can you resolve the error and keep your promise to Joe?
| A. | Restart the computer in Safe Mode and use the Rollback feature in Device Manager to revert to the previous driver. |
| B. | Restart the computer using the Last Known Good Configuration option. |
| C. | Use the network RIS server to wake up the PXE network adapter and download a new Windows XP image. |
| D. | Start the computer from the Windows XP CD. Edit the Boot.ini file to add the command switch /NETWORK=NO. |
| | 9. | You are the network administrator for Globell. The network consists of two Active Directory domains: one for confidential testing and research, the other for less-sensitive corporate data storage. The laboratory computers all run Windows XP Professional. Some of the laboratory scientists use laptops that they take into the field for external testing scenarios. They also use very specific laboratory testing devices that connect to USB ports. To accommodate all these devices, the scientists often use multiple USB devices configured in a serial chain, each drawing power from the USB bus. One of the scientists calls you from the field. She attaches one of the devices to a hub port, and a Windows XP message appears stating that the port was shut down. When she attaches the device to the laptop's USB port rather than to a hub port, it works fine. Unfortunately, when she does that, she cannot use the other devices for lab testing. What do you do?
| A. | Replace the USB cable with a shorter one. |
| B. | Remove one of the hubs from the chain because there are too many. |
| C. | Use a hub that has more ports available. |
| D. | Use a hub that has its own power source rather than one that is powered from the USB bus. |
| | 10. | You are the administrator for Globell. All the computers on the network use Windows XP Professional and connect to your Active Directory network. The laboratory scientists use laptops to facilitate field testing. Guy, a lab tech, uses a local user account on his laptop when he is in the field. He has received a new USB device that can detect and record detailed water conditions, such as contaminants and oxygen content, in an XML data sheet. The device provides an additional function of "printing" the results to a logical file. You change the Driver Signing function to warn about unsigned drivers, from the default of blocking all unsigned drivers from being installed. You install the device on Guy's laptop, noting that the driver installation warned you that the drivers were unsigned. When you restart the computer with the device connected, Guy logs on but does not see the device icon in the Printers window where it should be. What can you do? (Choose two.)
| A. | Make sure the device is connected and turned on. |
| B. | Have Guy log on with his Active Directory user ID and password instead of his local user ID. |
| C. | Change the default behavior for the computer so that unsigned drivers are either ignored or warned but never blocked. |
| D. | Run sigverif to sign the unsigned driver and validate it for use. |
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Answers to Review Questions | 1. | A mouse that has special capabilities requires a special driver. If you just replace the existing mouse, the old mouse driver likely remains, and it does not have the ability to control the special scrolling mechanism. To resolve the problem, you should uninstall the old mouse driver, obtain a new mouse driver from the manufacturer, and then install it. | | 2. | You can see resource conflicts in Device Manager, in a single device's Properties dialog box under the Resources tab, and in the System Information utility under Sharing/Conflicts. | | 3. | Smart cards require you to have smart card readers attached to each computer, and the capability to enroll for digital certificates from a CA. | | 4. | Windows XP installs multiple device drivers for a multifunction device. Each device driver manages a specific aspect of the printer/fax/scanner. You therefore can see each of the device driver icons in Device Manager, and can manage the fax and printer functions in the Printers and Faxes Control Panel applet, plus manage the scanner function in the Scanners and Cameras Control Panel applet. | | 5. | Driver signing provides quality assurance for device drivers, resulting in fewer operating system malfunctions caused by poor device driver implementation. |
Answers to Exam Questions | 1. | D. You should change the Advanced settings so that the computer is able to connect to either ad hoc networks, which Sylvia used at home, or to wireless networks that use access points, which you have implemented at Joe's Garage. Answers A, B, and C are incorrect because none will allow Sylvia's laptop to connect to both the wireless network at work that uses an access point and the ad hoc wireless network that Sylvia needs at home. | | 2. | A, D. To resolve the problem for the future computers, you can update the Hal.dll file to the multiprocessor HAL before installing the second processor. To resolve the problem for the current computer, you can edit the u file to force the other HAL to load. Answers B and C are incorrect because the HAL is having problems with the additional processor, not with the BIOS or power management. | | 3. | C, E. You can find whether the pen tablet device driver is signed by looking at the pen tablet's Properties dialog box from within Device Manager. Click the Driver tab to view the current version. You can also find whether a particular driver is signed by viewing the System Information utility, which you can start in the Run box by typing msinfo32. Answer A is incorrect because it uses an incorrect command switch. Answers B and D are incorrect because msconfig is the wrong command. Answer F is incorrect because pen tablet point-and-click input devices are located in the Mouse applet, not Keyboards. | | 4. | C. The sigverif command opens the File Signature Verification utility, which can be configured to create a text file named Sigverif.txt to contain a list of signed and unsigned drivers. Answer A is wrong because msinfo32 displays system information; it does not create a specific file for signed drivers. Answer B is wrong because msconfig is used to make system configuration changes. Answer D is wrong because hddwiz.cpl is the Hardware Wizard found in Control Panel. | | 5. | D. You can control how Windows XP treats unsigned drivers in the System applet of Control Panel, under the Hardware tab, by clicking Driver Signing. The option to select to prevent unsigned device drivers from being installed is to BlockNever Install Unsigned Driver Software. Answer A is incorrect because it does not prevent users from installing unsigned device drivers. Answer B is incorrect because this option is found in the System applet, not Device Manager. Answer C is incorrect because it does not even notify a user if an unsigned device driver is being installed, much less block the installation. | | 6. | B. If you are using an unsigned driver and experience problems, you can update the driver with a new one from the manufacturer. This is done by opening Device Manager, double-clicking the device icon to open its Properties dialog box, selecting the Driver tab, and then clicking the Update Driver button. When prompted for a location for the new driver, you should click Have Disk. Answer A is incorrect because it does not install the new driver. Answer C is incorrect because it rolls the current driver back to a previous version, if any. Answer D is incorrect because it removes the current driver version rather than install the new one. | | 7. | A. Performance Monitor can display the statistics for processor usage, as well as memory and disk usage. The resulting performance chart displays which of these resources is most utilized. Answer B is incorrect because System Information does not provide you with running statistics. Answer C is incorrect because a bottleneck is not logged as an error. Answer D is incorrect because updating the HAL does not determine which component is the performance bottleneck. | | 8. | B. Because you never actually logged on to the computer, you could restart the computer and use the Last Known Good Configuration. If you were able to log on and then received a stop error, you would probably need to use the Device Driver Rollback feature, but it isn't necessary in this case. Answers A, C, and D are incorrect because they are measures you might take if you were unable to use the Last Known Good Configuration method, for whatever reason. | | 9. | D. A hub that actively provides its own power to devices is less likely to shut down a port. USB hubs shut down ports when a device connected to that port requests more power than the hub is able to provide. Answer A is incorrect because the length of the cable, if too long, might cause the device to not be detected, but it would not shut down a port. Answer B is incorrect because you should not connect multiple bus-powered USB hubs, but you can daisy-chain multiple devices on ports of a bus-powered hub. Answer C is incorrect because the device caused a problem when it was attached singly to the existing bus-powered hub. | | 10. | A, C. Guy could not see the device because the computer's default behavior was to block the unsigned driver from being installed under his user ID. You can change the default behavior for the entire computer to ensure that the device driver will load. Answer B is incorrect because logging on to the network is not useful in the field where Guy uses a local account. Answer D is incorrect because Microsoft performs the driver signing process, not sigverif. |
Suggested Readings and Resources The following are some recommended readings on the subject of implementing, managing, and troubleshooting input/output devices and drivers Windows XP Professional: Websites Troubleshoot Device Driver Problems, from the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/mcfedries_03may12.mspx Infrared Implementation, from the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/default.asp?url=/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/sag_irdaconcepts_102.asp WPAN (short for wireless personal area network), article includes information on infrared technology. From the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/reskit/en-us/prdc_mcc_sbzp.asp NetworkingSymmetric Multiprocessing, from the QNX Software Systems website at http://www.qnx.com/tech_highlights/symmetric_multiprocessing/ PC/SC Workgroup, which develops standard specifications for smart cards, discusses the process at its website at http://www.pcscworkgroup.com/
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