Exemplar for internal assessment resource Digital Technologies for Achievement Standard 91081 Exemplar for Internal Achievement Standard Digital Technologies Level 1 This exemplar supports assessment against: Achievement Standard 91081 Implement basic procedures for servicing a personal computer system An annotated exemplar is an extract of student evidence, with a commentary, to explain key aspects of the standard. These will assist teachers to make assessment judgements at the grade boundaries. New Zealand Qualification Authority To support internal assessment from 2014 NZQA 2014
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Digital Technologies for Achievement Standard 91081 Grade Boundary: Low Excellence 1. For Excellence, the student needs to efficiently implement basic procedures for servicing a personal computer system. This involves diagnosing and troubleshooting to identify and resolve given installation and configuration faults in a system, in a manner that is economical in time, effort and resources. The student has diagnosed faults with a computer s memory a video card in a logical and accurate manner, has resolved both issues in a manner that economises time, and did further testing to ensure the future reliability of the computer for its memory (1). This was supported by the assessor in the assessment process in terms of economy of time, effort and resources. For a more secure Excellence, the student could have had a chart of beep error codes available, and it would have been useful to know the maximum resolution of the monitor for the video settings. NZQA 2014
Student 1 Low Excellence The teacher had set up a number of faults on one computer The first fault was that went the computer booted there was a series of beeps and the computer failed to boot. I checked on the internet and the most likely reason for this fault is a problem with the memory. I opened the case and checked the memory was seated in the slot correctly it was. I decided to remove and reinstall the ram just in case there was a problem with the electrical contacts. Having done this the computer then booted. I decided to check the Ram using Memtest to be sure that it was not faulty. Memtest reported back that the memory was fine so reseating the ram had fixed the issue. The second fault was that the display was large and grainy this is usually a sign of either the video driver being missing or the setting being wrong. I went to device manager and checked that the correct driver had been loaded. Device manger reported that it was so I then went into the settings and changed the video resolution to a suitable size to match the monitor and user.
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Digital Technologies for Achievement Standard 91081 Grade Boundary: High Merit 2. For Merit, the student needs to skilfully implement basic procedures for servicing a personal computer system. This involves: showing accuracy and independence in following standard procedures for installing and configuring hardware, software and peripherals of a personal computer system showing accuracy and independence in diagnosing and troubleshooting to identify and resolve given installation and configuration faults in a system. The student has described the connection of the hard drive to the computer. From the text it can be seen that student has worked with some accuracy and has tried to be independent in the standard procedures being carried out (1). Independence was supported by the assessor in the assessment process. The student has diagnosed the fault with the hard drive in a logical and accurate manner and has resolved the issue (2). The student has also done this independently. This was supported by the assessor in the assessment process. To reach Excellence, the student would need to have evidence of working economically, for example working quickly to carry out the process or diagnosis using the minimum of resources and effort. NZQA 2014
Student 2 High Merit I was given a choice of hard drives that I could fit to the computer both SATA and PATA drives were available. I checked the mother board manual and also visually checked the mother board and discovered that the mother board has interfaces for both types of Drives. On checking the Drives themselves the SATA drive had a larger capacity and was faster. The drive also had power interfaces for the 4 pin Molex as well as the SATA power connector so I decided to use this one. I placed it into the hard drive cage in the case using 4 screws to attach it securely. I then connected a SATA cable from the mother board to the hard drive and plugged in the SATA power connector. I checked that the connections were all pushed home properly and that there was no chance of the wires fouling the fan or getting pinched in the case. Whilst installing the hard drive I used an antistatic strap to ground myself to the computer case before removing the drive from its packaging and during the install process. On powering up the hard drive was detected in the bios correctly when I checked. 1 The teacher had supplied a computer with a number of faults Fault 1 2 h The computer would not find the hard drive and had a symptom on boot up of operating system not found There are 3 possible scenarios the bios has an error in it the hard drive has failed the hard drive is disconnected I firstly checked the bios and all the settings were fine but the hard drive did not show up in the bios I then opened up the case and checked that all the connections were correctly made and they were. I then substituted a second hard drive to test and it was detected and I was able to load the operating system. I suspect that the hard drive has failed but some further testing may be needed to confirm this I then removed the failed hard drive and fitted the second hard drive in the interests of getting the computer functional again.
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Digital Technologies for Achievement Standard 91081 Grade Boundary: Low Merit 3. For Merit, the student needs to skilfully implement basic procedures for servicing a personal computer system. This involves: showing accuracy and independence in following standard procedures for installing and configuring hardware, software and peripherals of a personal computer system showing accuracy and independence in diagnosing and troubleshooting to identify and resolve given installation and configuration faults in a system. The student has described the process of installing windows to the computer s hard drive. From the text it can be seen that student has worked with some accuracy, and has tried to be independent in the procedures being carried out (1). Independence was supported by the assessor in the assessment process. This exemplar does not include the diagnosis and troubleshooting of given faults. For a more secure Merit, the student could ensure that the driver disk was available, and that they had installed the network card drivers before attempting to connect to the internet (accurate working). It may have also been beneficial to check the device manager to see which drivers were needed earlier. It also would have been beneficial to install the antivirus software before downloading anything from the internet, in order to lower the risk of a virus infection (2). NZQA 2014
Student 3 Low Merit On the computer I was fixing I decided to install windows 7. To get rid of any old copies of windows I decided to use disk manager to reformat the hard drive This boots from the CD drive and runs a small software program that removes all of the data from the hard drive. Once I had done this I put in the windows 7 DVD and booted the computer I then followed the process wizard that the Setup follows this includes formatting the drive and loading the windows Operating System 1 I chose English English(New Zealand) and US key board I ticked the box and accepted the conditions I chose Custom Advanced And Disk 0 Then I waited for the wizard to complete the computer restarted a couple of times I used a user name that related to John my client and gave the Pc a easily recognised name I entered the windows key from the case and it was accepted I chose use recommended settings The time and Date settings were correct Finally the desktop
I the plugged in a network cable but I could not get the internet to work 2 I decided to check the device manager screen and found that the network card had not got the drivers loaded other issues included the screen settings and lack of sound. The Motherboard CD was found and I loaded the network card, and Video and sound card Drivers which then gave me internet access I then went on the internet and found the newest Drivers for the mother board for the video card and sound card and downloaded and installed. I had to play around a bit with the screen settings to get the right resolution for the monitor I then loaded Microsoft Security essentials and updated and checked the hard drive for virii. Then I connected to windows update and did all of the updates needed which were 133 updates.
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Digital Technologies for Achievement Standard 91081 Grade Boundary: High Achieved 4. For Achieved, the student needs to implement basic procedures for servicing a personal computer system. This involves: following standard procedures for installing and configuring hardware, software and peripherals of a personal computer system undertaking and documenting a range of appropriate testing procedures to demonstrate the system meets the requirements of a specified personal computer system diagnosing and troubleshooting to identify and resolve given installation and configuration faults in a system. The student has described the assembly of some parts of the computer, using supplied documentation, and followed some antistatic procedures (1). The student has also described installing the operating system and device drivers (2), and installing application software (3). The student has described some standard test procedures on the memory and hard drive (4). The student has provided evidence of testing for given faults on a system, describing how they resolved them (5). To reach Merit, there would need to be evidence of the student working independently and accurately in following standard procedures in both installing and configuring hardware, software and peripherals, and in diagnosing and troubleshooting faults in a system. NZQA 2014
Student 4 High Achieved Before I fitted the motherboard to the case I went and found the manual for it I checked what type of ram was needed and then went and found the correct ram I also visually checked the ram against the slot and when I was happy I fitted the ram which was stored in an antistatic bag. I had previously grounded myself against the computer case to discharge any static electricity. Normally I would wear an antistatic strap but the school had none of these available. I checked the ram was correctly seated and locked home. I fitted the processor and fan also prior to putting the mother board in the case as I have found this to be a problem in the past with getting the cooler to lock on correctly and have had it fall off. Once I booted the computer the fan did not spin and I discovered I had not plugged in the cooling fan to the mother board. I used the motherboard diagram in the manual to make the header connections to the case. On this computer I decided to install Linux mint. The install went well and in 40 minutes the computer was up and running. Fortunately the network card in the computer was known to Linux and installed the driver so I was able to get an internet connection I then at Mr T s suggestion looked for an application called driver manager this enabled me to find out what drivers were missing so I could download and install them (video card shown below) 1 2 I used the software manager to install open office and the gimp which all functioned on testing. Software manger downloads all of the dependencies as well 3
Before installing the operating system on the hard drive I decided to test the memory of the computer using memtest86 this was loaded on a bootable CD and the computer was restarted and I needed to set the DVD Drive to boot 4 Sample images from http://www.memtest86.com/screenshots.htm The test showed that there were no issues with the memory I also run the Seatools for Dos from a bootable CD which also confirmed there were no errors with the hard drive. Mr T provided a Windows computer system that was not functioning well. 5 It had a few problems The computer would not connect to the internet The network card was functioning.this had me stumped but I did a google search on another computer and I found that I needed to check the IP address which was set to a different number than the schools network changed the setting to automatically detect and it then could browse the internet. The image was huge and fuzzy on the screen. On checking the device manager the correct video drivers were not present so I down loaded and installed the correct driver. The DVD drive would not open so I checked internally and the power lead had not been plugged in so I plugged it back in with the power off and then retested and it was able to read a CD The printer would not print I checked all the connections and they were fine unplugging and replugging the printer was detected by windows on checking there was no driver so I installed from a CD and the printer worked
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Digital Technologies for Achievement Standard 91081 Grade Boundary: Low Achieved 5. For Achieved, the student needs to implement basic procedures for servicing a personal computer system. This involves: following standard procedures for installing and configuring hardware, software and peripherals of a personal computer system undertaking and documenting a range of appropriate testing procedures to demonstrate the system meets the requirements of a specified personal computer system diagnosing and troubleshooting to identify and resolve given installation and configuration faults in a system. The student has described the assembly of some parts of the computer using trial and error (1). They have done some basic troubleshooting (2). There is information on connecting a peripheral (3) and installing the Operating System (4). The student has some evidence of basic testing, and has confirmed that the system met the specifications (5). This exemplar does not include diagnosis and troubleshooting to resolve given faults. For a more secure Achieved, the student could use documentation to help assemble the computer, and ensure that standard procedures had been followed. The student would need to use further testing tools such as memory and hard drive checking software. The troubleshooting needs to be done using given faults, rather than troubleshooting as things occurred during the assembly process. NZQA 2014
Connecting the mother board Student 5 Low Achieved I placed the motherboard into the computer and connected all of the cables to it from the case and the power supply. Once the mother board was in place I inserted the processor and using some heat sink compound fitted the cooler. I then added the ram which I had difficulty trying to fit I discovered that I had the wrong ram at first It was DDR 1 instead of DDR 2 once I found the correct ram I put it in. The hard drive was put into the case and the connections made to the motherboard. I then powered up the computer and it did not boot I turned off the power and then checked I found 3 things wrong the ram was not completed seated, I had forgotten to put in the 4 way ATX connector and I had some of the Mother board headers were connected wrong. Peripherals I connected the printer using a usb cable the computer detected the new printer but when I went to test the printer would print nothing happened I then realised I needed to load the device drivers from the printer CD once I did this I was able to print a test page Software I decided to reinstall windows to fix the issues with the computer. This went smoothly I was able to get windows to appoint where it booted and then found the mother board CD and installed the drivers on it The computer could then connect to the internet and windows was able to update its self and I could download and install an antivirus program Testing 1 3 2 4 Once I had the computer up and running I did some tests I first opened up Device manager 5 I checked that all of the device drivers where loaded (no red or yellow flags) I also ensured the antivirus was up to date and that there were no virii present on the computer. I then checked that all the programs worked and that I could print and surf the internet. The computer was returned to the client in a fit and working state and met his specifications
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Digital Technologies for Achievement Standard 91081 Grade Boundary: High Not Achieved 6. For Achieved, the student needs to implement basic procedures for servicing a personal computer system. This involves: following standard procedures for installing and configuring hardware, software and peripherals of a personal computer system undertaking and documenting a range of appropriate testing procedures to demonstrate the system meets the requirements of a specified personal computer system diagnosing and troubleshooting to identify and resolve given installation and configuration faults in a system. A sample of work is not available for this grade boundary. In order to reach an Achieved grade, the student s work would typically demonstrate evidence of: items from the list of components, peripherals and software given in Explanatory Note 3 following the correct procedures such as using antistatic precautions resolving faults that were set up in a given system documenting the testing procedures ensuring the system meets the requirements of the specifications. NZQA 2014