REVIEW:Upgrading and Repairing PCs; Technician's Portable Reference - by Scott Mueller - Review

TELECOMWORLDWIRE-30 January 2001-REVIEW:Upgrading and Repairing PCs; Technician's Portable Reference (C)1994-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com

Upgrading and repairing PCs can be a very daunting task as companies are always striving to build the fastest and most powerful components possible. These components will often not be compatible with early models or different types, making the specification of a computer hard to get right. It would be useless trying to replace a CPU with one that does not have the same pinout, electrical requirements or is incompatible with the motherboard, as it will not run.

As the knowledge that people need to acquire in the field of computers is vast, it would be difficult to keep all of the information stored in our

brains and it is not ideal to carry around huge volumes of computer books while out on a job for example. So we need a handy little reference guide where the information is condensed and easy to digest allowing us to get the job done quickly and efficiently. This is where Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs; Technician's Portable Reference comes in very useful.

Even though this book is aimed at technicians, it is still suitable for anyone who has knowledge of computers and their components, however this knowledge is a necessity as the book helps you to find answers rather than problems so therefore you must be able to acknowledge and understand these problems on your own before tackling the answer. The book would also be very useful to students, I for one wish I had the aid of this book while completing my Information Technology course, as it would have produced a very useful starting point for my research and a good reference for various essays relating to the topics outlined in the book.

As this is a reference book it ideally needs to contain the most vital information in the smallest format possible without losing any of the detail. I feel that this book successfully matches this criteria. Its size is less than an A5 sheet, allowing it to fit nicely in to a briefcase or handbag providing transportation without any hassle.

The method used in the layout is first-rate. The majority of the information is displayed in a clear concise table format which allows access to the various knowledge in a quick and easy to understand way. There are also detailed illustrations, extensive pinouts, schematics and diagrams which help you diagnose and repair PC problems.

Indexes in books normally appear to be thrown together at the last second, yet in this book the pages of the index has a grey border on the edge allowing the index to be easily recognised when the book is closed. This style allows the reader to home straight in on the index saving you valuable seconds when looking up the subject which is going to save the computer or, more importantly, your job.

The first chapter is a general technical reference which includes a table showing the major PC subsystems, where to configure them and which chapters contain relevant information on the item; a glossary of essential terms and definitions; a table showing all of the hexadecimal/ASCII conversions for every character you can dream up - it shows the decimal, hexadecimal, octal and binary codes for each character.

Another really useful table incorporated in the book lists the hardware tools that everybody needs when fiddling with computers. This table includes their purposes and brief notes and then goes on to list the tools you will need to have to undertake specific tasks.

There are notes throughout the book which inform you of important information which is of relevance to the current information, while others inform you that you can find more information in a separate, accompanying book. However, it is not necessary that you have this version to.

CONCLUSION:An outstanding reference book which provides concise, yet detailed, technical support at your fingertips.

Title:Upgrading and Repairing PCs; Technician's Portable Reference (2ed) Author:Scott Mueller Published by:QUE ISBN:0-7897-2454-5 Price:GBP14.50 Reviewer:Caroline Turner This book was provided for review by Computer Manuals (http://www.computer-manuals.co.uk).

((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))

.END .PUB 430 >PD JANUARY 30, 2001 >JN TELECOMWORLDWIRE .PRICEDATE NOT APPLICABLE .DAY

COPYRIGHT 2001 M2 Communications Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group