4.4.2. Laptops and Portable Devices

4.4.2.1. Identify the fundamental principles of using laptops and portable devices

Identify names, purposes and characteristics of laptop-specific:

• Form factors such as memory and hard drives.

• Peripherals (e.g., docking station, port replicator, and media/accessory bay).

• Expansion slots (e.g., PCMCIA I, II and III, card, and express bus).

• Ports (e.g., mini PCI slot).

• Communication connections (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, cellular WAN, and Ethernet).

• Power and electrical input devices (e.g., auto-switching and fixed-input power supplies, batteries).

• LCD technologies (e.g., active and passive matrix; resolution such as XGA, SXGA+, UXGA, and WUXGA; contrast ratio; and native resolution).

• Input devices (e.g., stylus/digitizer, function (Fn) keys, and pointing devices such as touch pad, point stick/track point).

• Identify and distinguish between mobile and desktop motherboards and processors including throttling, power management, and WiFi.

4.4.2.2. Install, configure, optimize, and upgrade laptops and portable devices

• Configure power management.

• Identify the features of BIOS-ACPI.

• Identify the difference between suspend, hibernate, and standby.

• Demonstrate safe removal of laptop-specific hardware such as peripherals, hot-swappable devices, and non-hot-swappable devices.

4.4.2.3. Identify tools, basic diagnostic procedures, and troubleshooting techniques for laptops and portable devices

• Use procedures and techniques to diagnose power conditions and video, keyboard, pointer, and wireless card issues. For example:

  • Verify AC power (e.g. LEDs, swap AC adapter).

  • Verify DC power.

  • Remove unneeded peripherals.

  • Plug in external monitor.

  • Toggle Fn keys.

  • Check LCD cutoff switch.

  • Verify backlight functionality and pixilation.

  • Stylus issues (e.g., digitizer problems).

  • Unique laptop keypad issues.

  • Antenna wires.

4.4.2.4. Perform preventive maintenance on laptops and portable devices

• Identify and apply common preventive maintenance techniques for laptops and portable devices—for example, cooling devices, hardware and video cleaning materials, operating environments including temperature and air quality, storage, transportation, and shipping.