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Summary: A personal biography and comments about the new edition
Review: I live in the Chicago area, and from there operate a small business called Mueller Technical Research. The two main functions of my business are to teach PC hardware related seminars and to write PC hardware related books and materials. I am best known as the author of the book "Upgrading and Repairing PCs", which is now being released in a 10th anniversary edition, having been published and updated for more than 10 years!On a personal note, I have a wife Lynn and together we have two children, a daughter Amanda (age 18), and son Emerson (age 9). Besides my family, my passions are computers, automobiles and motorcycles. Current project vehicles include an '89 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am (Buick V6 turbo engine), a '94 Chevy Impala SS (LT4 'vette engine), a '95 Chevy Caprice 9C1 (police package), and a '97 Harley FLSTS Heritage Springer. My computer career started in the late '70s. At that time I had an Apple II+ system and by early 1982 I began teaching a serie! s of traveling seminars to corporate America on Visicalc (the first spreadsheet program), dBase II, and even programming in BASIC. I toured the country in a small truck with between 25-50 Apple II+ computers, floppy drives and monitors. I set up the equipment on Sunday, taught from Monday-Friday, then packed everything up and drove on to the next city on the weekend! Not exactly like being a Rock Star, but it was fun. <g> This lasted about a year and a half, by then interest seemed to die out in the Apple systems as the newly introduced IBM PC began to catch on in the business community. I stopped teaching the Apple based seminars, and during nearly a year hiatus from teaching I spent time at a small independent computer retailer in the Chicago area, mainly in tech support and doing small training classes for new users. After realizing that the IBM PC would be the next popular business PC, in '84 I went back on the road this time teaching seminars on PC compatible systems. I was teaching Lotus 123, dBase II, DOS, and a new class I created solely to cover the PC hardware. By early '85 I had written a 150-page course workbook on PC hardware to go with my class. This course book was essentially the first draft of what would later become "Upgrading and Repairing PCs". From '85 through '87 I wrote and rewrote the materials several times to keep up with the changes in the industry, and as it grew, I began to think about having it published professionally. I made initial contact with Que in 1987 at Comdex, and signed up as a technical editor for the new "IBM PS/2 Handbook" they were working on. I ended up as writing so much new material they made me a co-author, which opened the door for more projects with Que. At that time OS/2 had just been introduced, and Que wanted me to work on their first OS/2 book, but my heart was really in the subject of PC hardware, so I tried to convince them to publish a book on PC hardware to be titled "Upgrading and Repairing PCs". Initially there wasn't any interest on their part, but within a few months, an acquisitions editor at Que called me back and said they were interested! I set to work on rewriting my seminar course book during the 2nd and 3rd quarters of '88, and the 1st edition of Upgrading and Repairing PCs was released in December of '88. Back then the PC industry moved a lot slower than it does today, so the first edition was out for several years before it became necessary to update it. The second edition was a fairly major rewrite with a great deal of new coverage added. After the 2nd edition, it became obvious that to keep up with the ever-increasing rate of change in the PC industry, it would be necessary to update the book annually. From the 3rd edition to the present, we have been on a cycle of annual updates, and that shows no sign of changing for the future. The new 10th anniversary edition is the result of more than 15 years teaching classes and seminars covering PCs and PC hardware, as well as writing articles, books and seminar manuals. It is something that has evolved over countless hours of writing, revising, and rewriting. This new edition represents a significant update, more so than many of the previous annual updates. Over 500 pages of new material has been added, and the rest has been thoroughly revised. During the 10 years that this book has been published, it has consistently remained the best selling book of its kind, something for which I am both proud of and very grateful. I attribute the success of the book to several factors, one is timing. Upgrading and Repairing PCs was the first and only book of it's kind on the market when it first came out. At that time it filled a niche, a need which had not been filled by any other book. Although there are many competitor books out there today, many with similar if not virtually identical titles, none have the track record, comprehensive content, or reflect the years of industry experience that this book does. Another primary reason I believe the book has been so successful is because of how it is written. The contents of this book come directly from my PC hardware training seminars, which were the first of their kind on the market, and which I still teach to this day. The writing style is that of a teacher talking to students, relating information at a level which the students can understand. Years of practice in the teaching environment has given a clarity and depth to the writing which is both easy for people to understand and yet not overly simplistic or condescending. All of my explanations and topics are essentially rehearsed many times in my live seminars before they end up in the book. This means that when I am explaining something, the explanation has been time tested and debugged through many seminar iterations before ending up in writing. Many people who attend my seminars comment that when they are reading the book they feel as if they are right back in the class and I am speaking to them. Some readers even tell me th! ey read the book from cover to cover like a novel, not some! thing which you normally expect for a technical reference manual such as this! As an author, I have chosen not to widen my focus to write books in subject areas which I am not well versed. Instead for more than 10 years I have focused specifically on that which has become the passion of my life: PC hardware. If I am not writing this book then I am teaching a seminar on the subject and when I am not teaching then I am rewriting this book. (Other than that you might find me in the garage working on one of my auto or cycle projects. <g>) One feeds off the other and they compliment each other well. This subject is my passion, and has become my life and my livelihood. I will continue to pursue this path through future editions and future seminars as long as there is a need for this information. So far that looks like it could be for quite some time! I am very grateful to all at Que and all of the loyal readers who have made this possible! I hope you enjoy the new edition, Scott.
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Summary: The AVI files on the CD-Rom from this book are great!!!!
Review: With these AVI files and the texts together, will make anybody a computer repair person. Everything you will need is in this book for upgrading and repairing any computer. It will open your eyes to see and learn computers like you never thought you could. Very easy to understand. If you repair and upgrade computer, their no better book than this one. It's a must to have.
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Summary: by far the most outstanding book
Review: the book was all I thought it would be plus alot more.It was easy to understand and was very thorough and very good for someone who wants to maintain and upgrade there own pc.It is worth the money if you are serious about pc care and maintenance.
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Summary: Excellent
Review: The writing style of Scott Mueller has no equal that I have found in the computer book world so far. He writes in a simplistic and easy to follow way that even the beginner can follow. He also includes extrememly detailed specifications for the seasoned computer pro. There is enough knowledge in this book for people just starting out to be able to troubleshoot their own systems or make an informed choice on buying a new system. At the same time, if the reader chooses, there is the opprotunity to gain the knowledge of all aspects of the modern PC. This book contains everything from a history lesson on the first computers all the way up to the newest choices in home computers. You can learn what a hard drive is or what it really does, or by the same token, you can check what every single pin on a pentium processor does. I found this book to be an easy and enjoyable read from start to finish. It was not written in the cold, hard, robotic form that most computer books are. I would recommend it to ANYONE interested in knowing what goes on in their computer and how to fix it without having to depend on, or more importantly, PAY someone else to do it. END
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Summary: Amazing reference!
Review: I am currently an A+ Certified Technician and during the course of studying in preparation for my test I used this book extensively! It is now a permanent source of reference for my technical library and journals.
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Summary: My Favorite Book
Review: If you could have only one book on Computers in your library this is the one. This is textbook that I was assigned to study hardware in school. Now that I am working in the computer industry it is still on my bookshelf and is used frequently. I don't know what I would do without it.
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Summary: Excellent book - Buy this
Review: A few months ago, I was looking for a book to assist me with troubleshooting and upgrading PC's for my small business. After reviewing every single book, I chose this and was pleased. Each chapter is based on a component in the computer. It goes into detail with every component, how it works, standards, etc, and then upgrading and finally troubleshooting the part. Whether you're extremely accomplished, or just need a little info for installations, this book Will help!
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Summary: The Hardware Guru's Handbook!!!
Review: This is the book series I've been using for 4 years now! As of last semester, I started using it as the "required text book" for the PC Repair course I teach at the community college.
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Summary: Accuracy, detail and simplicity all in one!
Review: This is one of few books I recommend to anyone beginners and advanced alike. I consider myself above average in computer literacy but before I reached the third chapter, I was amazed at how much I had not known and finishing the last page was like opening a new door to the world of computing
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Summary: I DO NOT KNOW HOW I GOT ALONG BEFORE THIS BOOK!
Review: Imagine the feeling you had when you first understood some complex idea (e.g. Calculus). That feeling comes to you many times in each chapter of Scott Mueller's book. I learned more about PC's in the first few chapters of this book than I did from a year's subscription to a computer magazine. Tremendous, amazing book!!
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