Question 4
A mobile phone powers on by itself as soon as battery is inserted into it and switches off intermittently. State two:
- Causes of the problem;
- Solutions to the problem.
The questions here tested Candidates’ knowledge of troubleshooting and fault finding, Candidates’ performance was poor. Less than 3% of the candidates who attempted this question scored below half of the maximum marks. They could not state two causes of phone switches on and off intermittently and the solutions to the problems.
Observation
The expected answers are:
(a) Causes of phone switching on and off intermittently
- Short circuit on the PCB caused by dirt, water or other conducting fluid
- Corrupt memory
- Virus attack
- faulty power switch
- Damaged SIM card
(b) Solutions to causes identified in 4(a)
- Short circuit on the PCB caused by dirt, water or other conducting fluid: wash the PCB with recommended fluid and dry it properly
- Corrupt memory: flash the phone / reheat some components
- Virus attack: scanning storage devices with installed antivirus programs /formatting the phone memory
- Faulty power switch: Replace power switch
- Damaged SIM card: change SIM card