The Complete PC Upgrade and Maintenance Guide: (With CD-ROM)

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Summary: Relax and learn
Review: In all my life working with PC , I always find problem occuring from time to time. This book shows me in depth knowledge of how to solve problems I could never imagine I can. I could, for example, ever fixed 2 hard drives with corrupted DOS boot record and brought it to life again with nothing lost. I'm not a techie but with an assistance of the book I can do it all. With his relaxed writing style, this book don't make me feel so terrified learning what I have never known. Pick it on your shelf. You'll find it useful when you've got problems with your own PC.

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Summary: A great book to get if your thinking of building your own!
Review: Initially, I bought this book because of my new position at work. But, as I read more and more of it, I felt more confident about working with a computer's insides, and also about the prospect of building my own 'puter. And I finally did just that; built a Pentium II system. For the most part, it went very smooth, thanks to the wealth of information Mark Minasi provides (knowing how to connect certain cables and finding the #1 pin has made this operation less worrisome). The only negative, was the lack of info. on newer hardware such as the LS-120 drive or AGP, but hey, there's nothing one can do about that. Overall, this is a fine book, to get you from passive user, to "I built my own 'puter" :)

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Summary: A fine piece of work
Review: Minasi has done it again. This was a treat to read and as in previous editions skillfully walks the reader through the minefield of modern technology. Mark makes it seem easy and reading his work it is. The index is also very thorough which is essential when your on a new project and trying to piece together where you are., For us non techie types its easy to get lost in the middle of a problem. The index helps you find your way back. A great piece of work overall. F.C. Wendell

Rating:
Summary: Great, easy reading book that packs a punch.
Review: Minasi's writing style is relaxed and fun. This comes about when someone has depth of knowledge on a particular subject and is comfortable with it. The book covers all the areas dealing with PC repair and goes into considerable detail on hard drives. Well worth the investment. Two gnarly thumbs up.

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Summary: Check the back of the book.
Review: One guy here wrote on July 4 of last year that the cd was unhelpful because it only included lectures. Apparently he did not make it to the back of the book, where the excellent utility cd is located. There are two cd's with the hardcover edition.
I agree that the history is interesting and may be helpful in legacy troubleshooting, but one of the most difficult techie things is staying abreast with the new developments. No one can write a paper text that is up to date unless they are using one of the new technology "smartbooks" that are self updating. It will be interesting to see if there is a book about repairing smartbooks.

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Summary: Too much old info.
Review: Save your money. Well written but contains info on lots of old hardware, practically nothing on recent developments.

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Summary: Painfully behind the times, even when just released.
Review: This book explains a lot about early PCs, from the original IBM PC with its 8086 CPU, through the i486 CPU--the last of the pre-Pentium machines. It is a huge book, and goes into great detail, but was simply outdated from the start. The CD wasn't much help either; I was expecting more of an interactive troubleshooting guide, but it was simply the exact contents of the book on disc.

Rating:
Summary: Painfully behind the times, even when just released.
Review: This book explains a lot about early PCs, from the original IBM PC with its 8086 CPU, through the i486 CPU--the last of the pre-Pentium machines. It is a huge book, and goes into great detail, but was simply outdated from the start. The CD wasn't much help either; I was expecting more of an interactive troubleshooting guide, but it was simply the exact contents of the book on disc.

Rating:
Summary: Easy Reading of Very Difficult Subject Matter
Review: This book is light and interesting. It explains very technical material in an easy to read and understand manner. Don't take this one to bed to help you fall asleep, it's too entertaining.

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Summary: Revision/updating was done in inconsistent manner.
Review: This book is marred by the fact that the author did a very uneven job of the revision and updating of previous editions. Most of the time the narrative is obviously dated. Other authors also to the 8th edition of their books revised the text to reflect the current states of computers. Too freqnently, Minasi talks as if the average system "today" is a 486. In one place he even has left in the text his remarks of years ago about preparing the book on an IBM-XT computer. I think people learning from this book are going to be confused by the excessive details on MFM hard drives and 286 and earlier computers. I would like to suggest that when the next revision (edition) is prepared, that most of the material dealing with computers prior to 1991 be removed and included on the CD-ROM. One method to do this would be to include the 8th edition on the CD-ROM. There is no sufficient details on new concepts such as why/when one wants use IEEE 1284 printer cables, the differences to be found in motherboards for classic Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium MMX, and Pentium II. The chips sets VX, TX, and FX should be discussed. The various voltage requirements for the newer processors, etc. There is no warning in the book about the fact that there are at least 2 wirings used for the ribbon cables that connect the motherboard serial ports to the 9-pin and 25-pin D-connectors. I get the definite impression that the author had a great deal of hands-on bench work up until perhaps 6 years ago and that in the years since he was been too busy lecturing and revising the various editions. I teach people to recycle older computers for K-12 classroom use. But, even here, most schools will not permit teachers to accept donations that are older than 486. I have taught people how to find $5 used 386 and $20 used 486 boards and insert these in IBM XT-cases. Nowhere does Minasi touch on the vital point that the original IBM-PC cases have different cut-out for keyboard and slots that are at spacing that were changed with the introduction of the IBM-XT. Therefore, IBM-PC cases are only good for the junk-pile, whereas IBM-XT cases can even hold a Pentium motherboard.