Upgrading and Repairing PCs

by Scott Mueller

Overview

For 20 years, Upgrading and Repairing PCs has been the industry’s #1 guide to PC hardware: the single source for reliable, step-by-step information on identifying and fixing problems, adding hardware, optimizing performance, and building new PCs from scratch. Now, this 19th Edition has been completely updated to focus on today’s technologies and today’s maintenance challenges!

From processors and motherboards, memory to storage, video to power, and networking to Internet connectivity, it’s all here: technical details, practical insights, and step-by-step solutions to difficult problems. Updates include new CPUs like the Intel Core i Series and AMD’s Phenom family...solid state drives (SSDs) and hard disk drives...motherboard form factors, chipsets, power supplies, DDR3 memory, Windows 7 readiness, and a whole lot more!

Your guide, Scott Mueller, has taught thousands in his legendary personal seminars and millions more through his books and videos. Nobody knows more about choosing, installing, troubleshooting, repairing, and maintaining PC hardware. Whether you’re a professional technician, a small business owner who doesn’t want to pay for service calls, or a home PC enthusiast, this is the one book you need!

NEW IN THIS EDITION

• Intel’s and AMD’s hottest new processors, including the Intel Core i Series and AMD Phenom family
• The latest PC system designs and form factors, including the new mini-ITX and DTX motherboard form factors
• State-of-the-art graphics cards, GPUs, and chipsets from NVIDIA and ATI/AMD
• Terabyte-class hard disks, solid state drives, and other data storage innovations
• Revamped coverage of building PCs from scratch—from selecting and assembling hardware to BIOS Setup and troubleshooting

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780768694895
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	12/10/2009
Series:	Upgrading Repairing
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	1176
Sales rank:	329,703
File size:	41 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Scott Mueller is president of Mueller Technical Research (MTR), an international research and corporate training firm. Since 1982, MTR has produced the industry’s most in-depth, accurate, and effective seminars, books, articles, videos, and FAQs covering PC hardware and data recovery. MTR maintains a client list that includes Fortune 500 companies, the U.S. and foreign governments, major software and hardware corporations, as well as PC enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. Scott’s seminars have been presented to several thousands of PC support professionals throughout the world.

Scott personally teaches seminars nationwide covering all aspects of PC hardware (including troubleshooting, maintenance, repair, and upgrade), A+ Certification, and data recovery/forensics. He has a knack for making technical topics not only understandable, but entertaining as well; his classes are never boring! If you have 10 or more people to train, Scott can design and present a custom seminar for your organization.

Although he has taught classes virtually nonstop since 1982, Scott is best known as the author of the longest-running, most popular, and most comprehensive PC hardware book in the world, Upgrading and Repairing PCs, which has become the core of an entire series of books, including Upgrading and Repairing PCs, Upgrading and Repairing Laptops, and Upgrading and Repairing Windows.

Scott’s premiere work, Upgrading and Repairing PCs, has sold well over two million copies, making it by far the most popular and longest-running PC hardware book on the market today. Scott has been featured in Forbes magazine and has written several articles for PC World magazine, Maximum PC magazine, the Scott Mueller Forum, various computer and automotive newsletters, and the Upgrading and Repairing PCs website.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1: Development of the PC 5

Chapter 2: PC Components, Features, and System Design 19

Chapter 3: Processor Types and Specifications 31

Chapter 4: Motherboards and Buses 171

Chapter 5: BIOS 313

Chapter 6: Memory 375

Chapter 7: The ATA/IDE Interface 435

Chapter 8: Magnetic Storage Principles 489

Chapter 9: Hard Disk Storage 513

Chapter 10: Removable Storage 557

Chapter 11: Optical Storage 585

Chapter 12: Video Hardware 671

Chapter 13: Audio Hardware 739

Chapter 14: External I/O Interfaces 765

Chapter 15: Input Devices 801

Chapter 16: Internet Connectivity 837

Chapter 17: Local Area Networking 865

Chapter 18: Power Supplies 913

Chapter 19: Building or Upgrading Systems 997

Chapter 20: PC Diagnostics, Testing, and Maintenance 1033

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
In 2003, there has been a bumper crop of new PC technology. And to help you assess it, implement it, fix it, Scott Mueller produced the indispensable 15th edition of his legendary Upgrading & Repairing PCs.

For example, this edition includes detailed coverage of AMD's Opteron, the revolutionary 64-bit processor that delivers remarkable performance without sacrificing compatibility. Intel's latest innovations are here, too -- notably the new Hyper Threading Technology, which gives you two "virtual processors" inside the same Pentium 4.

These processors have immense performance potential, but you'll need new motherboards, memories, and chipsets to deliver on it. Mueller covers the latest, hottest stuff -- from higher bus speeds to dual-channel memory architecture. Along the way, he addresses everything from processor slots to form factors, cases, and power connectors -- the details wherein the devil often hides.

He's equally strong on the "almost new" technologies now coming into widespread use. For example, as part of a detailed chapter on optical storage, he demystifies the bewildering menagerie of DVD standards (DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW). Which ones are likely to last? How do you minimize your risks? What do you need to know about copyright protection and other, umm, realities?

As the value of computers increasingly moves to the network, Mueller has increased the book's coverage of networking, from LANs to broadband Internet connectivity. This edition covers all of today's Wi-Fi wireless standards, slow to fast, cheap to expensive -- with a focus on interoperability issues.

Most computers that need repair or upgrading aren't brand new, so Mueller presents systematic coverage of mainstream technologies, including every significant PC component. You'll find entire chapters dedicated to your PC's BIOS; to hard drives; to audio hardware; to I/O devices ranging from ancient RS-232 to contemporary USB 2.0, Serial ATA, and IEEE-1394b. Where you can upgrade existing devices to get the performance offered by newer interfaces, he tells you.

He covers myriad removable storage media from today's external USB 2.0 and FireWire drives to those failed media formats that doubtless hold your Great American Novel. His detailed coverage of backup/restore issues includes exceptional guidance on trying to recover data that seems irretrievably lost (even data on formatted, repartitioned, or erased hard drives and formatted flash memory devices).

In recent editions, Mueller added a detailed troubleshooting index that identifies hundreds of common PC hardware problems and points you directly to the solutions. That's still here, but the 15th edition adds new coverage on resurrecting dead systems and tracking down the flakiness in flaky systems.

Last but definitely not least, there's a DVD-ROM with two full hours of thoroughly updated digital video, in which Mueller walks you through a laundry list of current PC maintenance and repair tasks. Thankfully, the DVD will run on your home DVD player -- so if you've taken your computer apart and you've got no idea what to do next, you can still have Mueller show you. Bill Camarda

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks for Dummies, Second Edition.