Customer Reviews

The Complete PC Upgrade & Maintenance Guide

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you only own one book as a PC Technician, Mark Minasi's book is the one you should own. It is a highly recomended read (cover to cover) for anyone taking their A+ exams. The writing is clear, entertaining, easy to understand, and informative. In other words, this one won't put you to sleep like most other computer books, and won't give you only half the story like the "For Dummies..." books. I only wish more books were written like this. I have owned an earlier edition of this book for two years now,and it is the only reference manual that I still use and recommend to all techicians, beginners or experts alike.

I thought I was very knowledgeable in pc repair and maintenance, that was until I read this book. I was amazed at the total amount of information packed into the 1500+-page book.

Minasi's ability and knowledge are evident right from the first page. Minasi is able to simply the technical talk while giving you a detailed breakdown of the subject. The read was easy and yet info packed.

The book is for all skill levels, from novice to expert. Everyone has something to learn from this book. Stuffed with pictures, diagrams, tables and figures you'll find just about everything you need to know.

The book comes with 2 cds, 1 with exams and utilities, the other with training videos. About the only thing this book lacked was a toolkit, but there's always an 11th edition coming.

Whether or not you do not know anything about computers orwhether you know alot this book is great. I read all 1600 pages in 7days because I could not put it down. It comes with 1 hrs of video on computers. In this book you will learn to: Install Hardware Configure Software Install MotherBoards, Sound Cards ect. Build a new computer Take care of a old computer Preventive maintance...

Finally, a PC maintenance book that won't end up in storage after the first 2 chapters! Minasi has a gift for turning dry technical concepts and jargon into something the undergrad can understand. Fantastic book!

Minasi knows his content, and knows how to present it in a form that is understandable, and very funny. Incase you don't know, he is CNN's resident computer expert, if I am not mistaken. Buy this book.

This book is highly approachable -- it's big and heavy, but the type is good-sized, and the language is informal. I volunteer helping some older (that means at least 30 years old) people learn about computers, and particularly how to fix them. This is super for them.

It has a lot of history in it. For young people the history part is not going to mean very much, but for people who were in the business world when the PC XT was a very pricy machine, the perspective this book offers is very helpful.

There are two CD-ROMS. One in particular is very useful in demystifying PC repair. On it, the author does such things as change a power supply. It's not exactly stand-up comedy, but it is very refreshing when the author comments that he is a first-rate klutz and tries to do things in a way that he is least apt to mess up.

The book needs a little freshening up after ten editions, however. Occasionally (pages 194, 322, 603 notably) there are places where new technology hasn't been integrated very smoothly, or a chapter written "in the old days" of 1998, perhaps (notably viruses) is just plain incorrect in 2001. There have obviously been a few proofing lapses: on page 225 the text refers to the pictured motherboard having two ISA slots and five PCI slots, while the actual photo has four PCI slots and three ISA slots.

But that's nit-picking. It's a good and very useful book. I expect that the next edition will cure most of these deficiencies, and for someone who wants a painless introduction to the subject with enough subject matter to sustain a major PC reconstruction -- particularly for a Pentium level PC -- this is a very nice way to get it.

This book was much more interesting than i expected. If all you want is a hardware installation guide don't get this book because %75 of it is the history of computers and explaining how different things work which was great for me and will be great for you if you are interested in learning more about computers. bottom line great book

My CD-ROM drive had been gradually failing, and now it wasn't reading CDs at all. The PC maker's support site talked about reinstalling drivers and checking the configuration files. Minasi said, "Clean the drive." So I bought a CDROM cleaning disk and a can of compressed air for about $25, used them, and in just minutes my drive was working fine. Thanks!

I am surprised that Mark delivers the latest components, the DVD decodercard, referring in an incomplete text for the interconnection to a picture of the card actually failing to show the interconnection. The explanation for the interconnections are vague and incomplete to a point that the writing can be considered erroneous. There is no mention that the card is connected to the DVD drive nor how the connection is to be established. The first books from Mark were excellent, but now the quality seems to have deminished looking at this example. My question: Is Mark writing his books or someone else writes for him. I always look at the latest component by upgrade or repair manuals to make my decision if I would benefit from the book. And I make my recommendation or dis-recommendation on that base. Because the preexisting subjects are known to me. In summary: I dont recommend this book for pros, maybe beginners can learn some about the old stuff, as long as they don't relay on anything to new.