PC Hardware Annoyances

Rating:
Summary: A great book to have around "just in case"...
Review: O'Reilly has a series of Annoyances books on the market, and I recently had a chance to review the PC Hardware Annoyances book by Stephen J. Bigelow. It's a really good book with an enormous number of tips and tricks to fix misbehaving computer components.

Chapter List:
Desktop Annoyances: Setup Annoyances; Keyboard Annoyances; Mouse Annoyances; Startup Annoyances; BIOS/CMOS Annoyances; Memory Annoyances; Processor Annoyances; Card and Port Annoyances; Maintenance Annoyances
Laptop/PDA Annoyances: Setup/Startup Annoyances; Battery Annoyances; LCD Annoyances; PC Card Annoyances; PDA Annoyances; Maintenance Annoyances
Graphic Annoyances: Configuration Annoyances; Driver Annoyances; Upgrade Annoyances; Desktop Annoyances; Monitor Annoyances; 3D Annoyances; Video Capture/Playback Annoyances; Player Software Annoyances
Sound Annoyances: Configuration Annoyances; Setup Annoyances; Speaker Annoyances; CD Audio Annoyances; Music Player Annoyances
Hard Drive Annoyances: Configuration Annoyances; Performance Annoyances; Maintenance Annoyances; Backup and Restore Annoyances
CD/DVD Drive Annoyances: Configuration Annoyances; Performance Annoyances; Playback Annoyances; Recording Annoyances; Rewriting Annoyances; Burning Software Annoyances; DVD Player Annoyances
Network Annoyances: Configuration Annoyances; Modem Annoyances; Cable Annoyances; DSL Annoyances; Wireless Networking Annoyances; General Networking Annoyances; Printer and File Sharing Annoyances; Firewall Annoyances
Printer and Scanner Annoyances: Setup Annoyances; Performance Annoyances; Maintenance Annoyances; Color Printer Annoyances; Paper Annoyances; Scanner Annoyances
Index

As you can see, Bigelow covers a lot of ground in the book. I almost view this as a combination between a Hacks book and a compilation of questions asked by readers. And in fact, the compilation angle is pretty accurate. O'Reilly solicits annoyances from a number of sources, and these submissions make up a large part of what the author writes about. The questions can range anywhere from pretty basic ("my cursor skips all over the screen, and the mouse doesn't seem to be controlling it very well") to pretty advanced ("I get an HPF9XDR0 error whenever I try to print to my HP printer"), and Bigelow covers all of them with complete and often humorous information. In between the annoyance/fix entries, you will find a number of warnings, tips, and tools that will make your interactions with your hardware much more error-free.

The "bad" thing about a book like this is that *your* particular annoyance may not be covered. Unfortunately, there's not a lot you can do about that. But the breath of questions covered should give you some insights that can be applied to your problem if it isn't answered directly. This is a book you probably want to have around your bookshelf "just in case" something goes wrong. Very well done.

Rating:
Summary: many "Hacks"
Review: This is, more or less, an O'Reilly Hacks book. But reformatted in a different series, with a more colourful appearance. What Bigelow has done is summarise a litany of common hardware gripes, and what you could do in response. Some of these will draw knowing smirks. Like the the keyboard with dirty or stuck keys. Very common in public libraries and some crowded internet cafes. Luckily, Bigelow avoids speculation as to the various possible contaminants of the keyboard. [But I will not.] Food and drink ejecta, and snot, for example. [Just thought I'd share that with you.]

The book also includes discussion of laptops, PDAs and various accessories like printers and scanners. Note carefully that in the section on wireless networking, there is one overriding caution. Look up the advice on keeping your communications private. So many users remain in blissful ignorance. You should not.

There do seem to be an amazing number of hacks. For this breadth alone, you may want to consider this book.