Hardware Interview Questions and Answers

Answer - 21 : - The biggest difference between AGP and PCI graphics cards is that AGP cards can access the system memory to help with complex operations such as texture mapping. PCI cards can only access the memory available on the actual card. AGP doesn't share bandwidth with other devices, whereas PCI cards do. AGP also makes pipelined requests, which means it can execute multiple instructions at one time. PCI cards are not pipelined, which means each instruction has to finish before the next one is run. So, with all these great advantages of AGP, you'd think it would be the clear winner in performance, right? Well, not quite. Tests of similar AGP and PCI graphics cards show they perform almost the same (typically measured in frames per second). The area where AGP really shines is in high-resolution tests, where the direct access to the system memory is most beneficial. If you're installing an AGP or PCI card in your computer, the AGP slot is usually the shortest and should be brown. The PCI slots are slightly longer and are colored white. The actual size of the cards can vary as much as a few inches, though the pins on the bottom of the card should match the correct slot.

Answer - 22 : - The device (digital camera, card reader, scanner, hard drive, cable modem, etc.) will work with the USB 2.0 ports even if the device only has a USB 1.0 or 1.1 connection. The physical connectors are exactly the same for USB 1.1 and USB 2.0. However, the device will only work at USB 1.1 speeds (12 Mbps) and not USB 2.0 speeds (480 Mbps). Conversely, if your computer only has USB 1.0 or 1.1 ports and you would like to use a USB 2.0 device with it, the device will probably work. Again, you will only be able to transfer data at the slower USB 1.1 transfer rate. Most USB 2.0 devices are backwards compatible with USB 1.1, but for data-intensive devices (like a hard drive or iPod), the data transfer is so slow with USB 1.1, it may not even be worth using it.

Answer - 23 : - A CD/DVD reader uses a laser beam to read the data on the disk. This laser beam crosses the protective plastic layer and reads the real recording metal layer. If the protective plastic layer is scratched, the laser will be unable to pass resulting in non-readable disc. If somehow we manage to re-smooth this protective layer then the laser will reach the data and read it, now there are many ways we can achieve this using common household items as written below: 1). Toothpaste - Yups! toothpaste, you can use any non-gel based toothpaste for this, just put a very small amount of it on the scratched area and polish it gently using a cotton swab, sometimes the paste may cause new minor scratches but they are just superficial. Now just wash the cd using water. 2). If the above trick does not work try some metal polish like Brasso gently wiping with a soft cotton ball followed by application of Vasaline. 3). Baking Soda - make a small quantity of baking soda paste and apply using a soft cotton cloth buffing the bad scratch. Clean the baking soda before using the disc. 4). You can also try using some oil as a polishing agent this also works many times. there are many daily use products that can be used to get the cd working just keep on experimenting. another trick             Tweak Firefox for Faster Browsing   Type “about:config” in the address bar and press ENTER key. Scroll down and look for the entries below and alter entries as follows: 1. Set “network.http.pipelining” To “true” 2. Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” To “true” 3. Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to any number say 25. This settings decides how many concurrent requests/connections the browser can make to a server, Please keep in mind that using a high value can trigger flood control limits on some servers and you can be denied access to the website. 4. 5. Right-click and select New-> Integer. Name the new value “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set value to “0?. This value decides the amount of tim

Answer - 24 : - If you log into a limited account on your target machine and open up a dos prompt then enter this set of commands Exactly: cd\ *drops to root cd\windows\system32 *directs to the system32 dir mkdir temphack *creates the folder temphack copy logon.scr temphack\logon.scr *backsup logon.scr copy cmd.exe temphack\cmd.exe *backsup cmd.exe del logon.scr *deletes original logon.scr rename cmd.exe logon.scr *renames cmd.exe to logon.scr exit *quits dos Now what you have just done is told the computer to backup the command program and the screen saver file, then edits the settings so when the machine boots the screen saver you will get an unprotected dos prompt with out logging into XP. Once this happens if you enter this command minus the quotes "net user password" If the Administrator Account is called Frank and you want the password blah enter this "net user Frank blah" and this changes the password on franks machine to blah and your in.

Answer - 25 : - You can increase your Broad bad speed by following tweak. (This also works for some dial up connections...) 1. Type gpedit.msc in run. 2. Under Computer Configuraton, click "+" on Administrative Template. 3. Click "+" on network. 4. Click Qos Packet Schedular. 5. In right pane, double click "linit reservable bandwidth". 6. Its default value is 20%, make it 0%.

Answer - 26 : - There's a simple way to speed up XP startup: make your system do a boot defragment, which will put all the boot files next to one another on your hard disk. When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster. On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently. To make sure that boot defragment is enabled on your system, run the Registry Editor and go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction Edit the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y. Exit the Registry and reboot. The next time you reboot, you'll do a boot defragment.

Answer - 27 : - You will need the following.. Windows 2000 / XP # Basic Knowledge of the Command Prompt # WinRar 1. Gather your image and the files you wish to lodge into it. Here I have a meeting.txt which I will hide inside my toshow.jpg. 2. Add the files you want to hide into a new RAR archive. (so meeting.txt.rar created newly) 3. Open Command Prompt and go to the folder where your files are located, e.g., 'C:\hidden'. 5. At command prompt type 'copy /b toshow.jpg + meeting.txt.rar lizard.jpg' (without quotes). (toshow.jpg is the picture I want to show, meeting.txt.rar is the file to be hidden, and lizard.jpg is the file which contains both. 6. Now test the lizard.jpg by double clicking it, and verifying it still opens. 7. Now try opening that same lizard.jpg file from menu: file->open of WinRar. It will show the original hidden file meeting.txt.

Answer - 28 : - Cleaning Ur RAM U may recognize that ur system gets slower and slower when playing and working a lot with ur pc. That's cause ur RAM is full of remaining progress pieces u do not need any more. So create a new text file on ur desktop and call it .. uhm.. "RAMcleaner" or something... Type FreeMem=Space(64000000) in this file and save it as RAMcleaner.vbs [ You may choose the "All Files" option when u save it ] Run the file and ur RAM may be cleaned :> Of course u can edit the code in the file for a greater "cleaning-progress". FreeMem=Space(128000000)

Answer - 29 : - Steps 1] Browse C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc 2] Find the file named "HOSTS" 3] Open it in notepad 4] Under "127.0.0.1 localhost" Add 127.0.0.2 www.orkut.com , and that site will no longer be accessable. 5] Done! example : 127.0.0.1 localhost 127.0.0.2 www.orkut.com- www.orkut.com is now unaccessable For every site after that you want to add, just add "1" to the last number in the internal ip (127.0.0.2) and then the addy like before. ie: 127.0.0.3 www.yahoo.com 127.0.0.4 www.msn.com 127.0.0.5 www.google.com This also works with banner sites, just find the host name of the server with the banners and do the same thing with that addy. Hope this small tutorial could keep you going in simple way of blocking websites..  

Answer - 30 : - There are a variety of reasons why your windows XP system would boot slowly. Most of the times it this has to do with the startup applications. If you would like to speed up the bootup sequence, consider removing some of the startup applications that you do not need. Easiest way to remove startup apps is through System Configuration Utility. Go to Start then Run and enter MSCONFIG and go to the Startup tab. Deselect/UnCheck application(s) that you do not want to startup at boot time.