Customer Reviews

Pocket PCRef

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I volunteer two nights a week helping train people to recycle
"old" donated PCs so we can farm them out to people who
cannot afford new ones and to not-for-profit organizations who just
have a basic word processing/e-mail need.

Therefore, any given
night I might see ten different PCs varying from a 386 being stripped
of useful parts, to a high end 486 being upgraded for one last cycle
of usefulness, to occasional Pentiums. It goes without saying that
none of them come with any documentation at all, and a lot has changed
in the past 8 - 10 years in the PC world.

I got my hands on [a
recent edition] of this book...about a month ago, and it is dog-eared
already. It's saved a fair quantity of old hardware, such as disk
drives, that we would have junked otherwise, simply because we could
find out about them. It's saved many hours of fiddling around in old
BIOS. Its chronology of DOS and Windows even saved some time recently
when I had to say how many years I had worked with particular releases
of software.

I call it my "Magic Book", and so do the
people I'm training. When you do what I do, it's almost as valuable
as a nut driver, and probably saves more time.

As a young technician 11 years ago I had very little reference material. Every subject was covered in huge hard to understand books, had I known about Pocket PCREF then troubleshooting would have been a whole lot easier.

Packed into this pocket book is a world of computer information that would make a great supplement to the study for A+ certification. From the ASCII codes to number conversions and keyboard shortcuts, hard drive reference tables, pc hardware and so much more are all included.

The book has enough detail that the information is a real help in the technical arena. Every one can benefit from what this book gives. As an instructor for A+ certification, this book has become a standard for every student to receive.

Looking for the one book that covers about twelve others, look no further than the Pocket PCREF and you'll find your answer. Sequoia Publishing has a whole host of other reference books as well stop by their website and take a look, you're money will be well spent.

I have used this book to determine HD sizes of old drives. Finding it an excellent reference, a definite MUST for all PC support and repair individuals.

This is the BEST bok that I have ever usued for computer repair. This book keeps me from lugging 4 or 5 other computer references with me. This is the ONLY general computer ref. worth buying!

This book is great for anyone that might need to look up almost anything about a PC, from hard drive configurations to DOS commands. I would really suggest anybody having anything to do with PC support or repair to get this book and keep it handy.

This book is a God-sent for working with DOS 6.22 and before. It unfortunately is VERY outdated for todays Operating Systems. It either needs to be updated in new editions or have a new series started for DOS prompt commands associated with Win95, Win98, and Win NT. I would buy any such upgrade in a heartbeat because this book is so highly detailed and easy to use and understand (in the DOS 6.22 environment).

This book has just about everything. It has BIOS beep codes, on screen error codes and what they meen, hard drive info, phone numbers to manufacturs, video info, modem info... Just name it. Probably the most useful little book I have ever had.

This is a truly fantastic arrangement of reference material. Too bad it is so out of date. I would eagerly purchase a newer updated version.

I am editing this review after having owned this book for several months to LOWER my original rating. I was originally disappointed because it was somewhat out of date. This disappointment has increased as I have realized that it has almost nothing of value to offer with newer equipment. In fact, I find that the only reason I ever reach for it is because I've made important notes in the flyleaves.

Original review follows:

Just got the "hot off the presses" 11th edition (hot as I write this anyway). While it's somewhat updated and the best yet, it leaves a lot of room for disappointment. Perhaps its time to replace the resistor color code tables with summaries of the IEEE and ITU standards, certainly someting more needed in the 2001 world of PCs. When was the last time anyone changed a resistor in a PC other than at the component manufacturer site? And it doesn't yet contain a power supply wire color code, which would be far more useful than resistor codes. There is info on Win98 but not on Win2K or ME (or even NT). The processor and socket list is expanded (long overdue) but still hopelessly out of date and incomplete (and wrong in at least a couple of places). Fixed disk drive lists are way behind the times with only the most minimal information to help keep the confusing IDE/SCSI/EIDE PIO 1/2/3/4/5 ATA33/66/100/133 drive, BIOS, MB chipset and cable standards straight.
This is a good book for troubleshooting, repairing and maintaining the older PC, but it is not even treading water well in a world of P4 or Thunderbird processors, multi-gigabyte drives or 400Mhz RIMM memory. Still, I have to give it four stars (would be 4.5 if Amazon allowed) because there simply is nothing better out there except keeping file folders full of manufacturer specs, white papers and web page printouts.

While they say "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" I'm trying anyway. As a broken down old HVAC mechanic, I've worked IN hard drives. Time to work ON them.

Over the past few years I've been doing a great deal of computer work from programming to desktop/laptop repair. I've gain enough experience to REALLY appreciate all the knowledge that this book has to offer.
From it's initial Troubleshooting Tools section, followed by Command & OS Reference, Hardware & Wiring,Storage,General Info sections I'll use this as much, if not more, than Google searches.

Includes everything for Win 7 and prior.
Unix command section is included for those of us diving into Ubuntu and beyond...
OpenSource Rocks !!!

While still a "Geek Wannabe" I will say that this is a definite "gotta have" for REAL pros as well as "enthusiasts" like myself.
I've yet to see a better resource for troubleshooting!!!
My ONLY problem with the book is it's small print.
Thank God Walgreen's has those "3 for" sales on reading glasses!!!

To the Glovers & Youngs Thank You!!!