Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Answers!: Certified Tech Support

Rating:
Summary: Good book, but not among the best. Beware inaccuracies.
Review: Although this is basically an good book, it is not in the same class as Stephen J. Bigelow's "Troubleshooting, Maintaining & Repairing Pcs, 2nd Ed." or "Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing Pcs, 10th Ed." As an example of Johnson and Stauffer's inaccuracies, note the discussion about types of mice in Chapter 5 where they write: "A bus mouse typically uses an IBM PS/2 style connector ..." and "A bus mouse, when connected to a PS/2 port...". Compare these statements with Bigelow's care (page 834) in distinguishing the bus mouse with a 9-pin DIN (circular) connector from a PS/2 mouse with a 6-pin DIN (circular) connector. Therefore, one could NEVER connect a bus mouse to a PS/2 connector. Note also that Johnson and Stauffer state "Many PS/2 mice come with adapters that plug into the PS/2 connector and turn into serial connectors." The authors fail to warn the reader that a PS/2 mouse can NEVER be attached to the serial port using such an adapter if the design of the mouse does not include the special detection circuits that permit the mouse to determine if it is connected to a PS/2 port or a serial port. Most PS/2 mice DO NOT contain such detection circuits. The book by Johnson and Stauffer is certainly easier to read, but the average reader would be better off to spend additional money to purchase the Bigelow book. The result would be that that of owning a book that is harder to read, but the knowledge found therein is more accurate and more complete and therefore worth the additional effort required to read the book.

Rating:
Summary: Good book, but not among the best. Beware inaccuracies.
Review: Although this is basically an good book, it is not in the same class as Stephen J. Bigelow's "Troubleshooting, Maintaining & Repairing Pcs, 2nd Ed." or "Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing Pcs, 10th Ed." As an example of Johnson and Stauffer's inaccuracies, note the discussion about types of mice in Chapter 5 where they write: "A bus mouse typically uses an IBM PS/2 style connector ..." and "A bus mouse, when connected to a PS/2 port...". Compare these statements with Bigelow's care (page 834) in distinguishing the bus mouse with a 9-pin DIN (circular) connector from a PS/2 mouse with a 6-pin DIN (circular) connector. Therefore, one could NEVER connect a bus mouse to a PS/2 connector. Note also that Johnson and Stauffer state "Many PS/2 mice come with adapters that plug into the PS/2 connector and turn into serial connectors." The authors fail to warn the reader that a PS/2 mouse can NEVER be attached to the serial port using such an adapter if the design of the mouse does not include the special detection circuits that permit the mouse to determine if it is connected to a PS/2 port or a serial port. Most PS/2 mice DO NOT contain such detection circuits. The book by Johnson and Stauffer is certainly easier to read, but the average reader would be better off to spend additional money to purchase the Bigelow book. The result would be that that of owning a book that is harder to read, but the knowledge found therein is more accurate and more complete and therefore worth the additional effort required to read the book.

Rating:
Summary: Easy read and understand
Review: Have read through this book, and it is one of the best I have seen that is written is plain english. It is very easy to understand and the information is very up to date.