A+ hardware
| Domain | % of examination |
| Installation, configuration and upgrading | 35% |
| Diagnosing and troubleshooting | 21% |
| Preventive maintenance | 5% |
| Motherboard/processors/memory | 11% |
| Printers | 9% |
| Basic networking | 19% |
| Total | 100% |
A+ OS technologies
| Domain | % of examination |
| OS fundamentals | 28% |
| Installation, configuration and upgrading | 31% |
| Diagnosing and troubleshooting | 25% |
| Networks | 16% |
| Total | 100% |
Topics on A+ hardware
- Installation, configuration and upgrading -- 35%
- Identify physical parts
- Motherboard
- Firmware
- Power supply
- Storage devices
- Memory (physical vs. cache)
- Portable storage devices
- Network cards and network cables
- Printers
- Identify IRQ, I/O and DMA settings
- Legacy devices
- Identify port types
- Serial
- Parallel
- Infrared
- Wireless
- SCSI
- RAID (0,1,5)
- Diagnosing and troubleshooting -- 21%
- Hardware vs. software problems
- Troubleshooting techniques
- Tools of the trade
- Cooling systems
- Adapters
- Portable systems
- Preventive maintenance -- 5%
- Cleaning compounds
- Non-static vacuums
- Ventilation
- Hard drive maintenance (defrag)
- UPS (uninterruptible power supply)
- Motherboard/processors/memory -- 11%
- Popular CPU chips
- Voltage
- AT/ATX power supply
- Speeds
- Cache (LI, LII, LIII)
- Memory types (FPM, EDO, RAMBUS, SIMM, DIMM)
- USB, AMR, CNR
- CMOS settings
- Plug-and-play BIOS
- Printers -- 9%
- Printer types (laser, ink jet, dot matrix)
- Interface types (serial, parallel, USB, SCSI, IEEE1394)
- Local vs. network printing
- Troubleshooting
- Error codes
- Basic networking --19%
- Cable types (coaxial, UTP, STP, fiber)
- Connector types (BNC,RG45)
- Concepts
- Installing network cards
- Addressing
- Bandwidth
- Protocols
- Topologies (LAN, WAN, DSL, CABLE)
- Topology wiring
Topics on A+ operating systems
