Troubleshooting, Maintaining & Repairing PCs, Millennium Edition [Hardcover]

Stephen J. Bigelow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 1999

-- Revised and expanded -- This new edition now includes important Y2K trouble-shooting information and coverage of the new Pentium III
-- Backed by the ETA -- The only book to be approved by the Electronic Technician's Association (ETA) as an official study guide for the CST (Computer Service Technician) exam
-- New exam guide included -- Includes a new CST Study Guide with over 200 approved questions
-- Wide appeal -- Covers a wide market including A+ candidates, PC technicians, computer hobbyists, and more.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Troubleshooting, Maintaining & Repairing PCs combines authoritative reference material on IBM-standard personal computers with condition-specific troubleshooting advice. Author Stephen Bigelow provides loads of technical reference information but combines it with how-to advice that clearly derives from experience in the hardware repair and upgrade industry. An update to popular earlier editions, this book includes new information about the latest processors and peripherals. As he always has, Bigelow distinguishes his work with coverage of hardware jobs others shun, such as the safe disassembly of a video monitor.

The most intriguing feature of this book is its "Symptoms at a Glance" section, in which Bigelow lists hundreds of conditions with references to the pages on which he discusses them. The descriptions of the symptoms are good--"A device driver small enough for the available UMA fails to load there" and "A 096xxxx error code appears" are two examples--but finding your problem in the list can prove challenging because the symptoms are grouped by the chapters in which they appear. Your best bet is to scan the table of contents for the chapters that discuss the likely sources of your problem, and then scan the symptoms listed for those chapters one by one. Once you've found the reference to the appropriate page, you'll be impressed by Bigelow's tight prose and the depth of the experience he shares. --David Wall

Topics covered: The boot process, BIOS variations, motherboards, processors, persistent storage (including magnetic hard disks, CD-ROM drives, and DVD drives), buses, ports, input devices, monitors, and multimedia peripherals.

From the Back Cover

With over 3 times as many PC symptoms and solutions than before, here's the most comprehensive, hands-on guide to PC repair, maintenance and troubleshooting ever! Highlighted by 10 new chapters and 5 new appendices, this thoroughly updated and expanded edition of the best-selling Troubleshooting, Maintaining, and Repairing Personal Computers is your total guide to PC problem-solving. Equally useful to technicians, enthusiasts, and PC students, this mammoth resource reviews the fundamentals of PCs and peripherals and features: a unique, alphabetized "Symptoms at a Glance" section stocked with fully explained solutions to over 1,300 PC problems--900 more than before! New CD-ROM full of shareware and freeware diagnostics and utilities that help you pinpoint the peskiest PC problems. Newly reorganized material that makes locating beep, POST, and diagnostic codes much easier. Fully revised DLS Technician's Certificate II test that also serves an ideal prep for the A+ and ETA certification exams. New Web addresses in all 73 chapters, which offer extra details, self-study aid, and news on manufacturers and organizations. An opportunity to get ongoing troubleshooting, help via a subscription to The PC Toolbox newsletter. Including new guidance on PC standards, new information on PC newsgroups, Windows 95 shortcuts, and a variety of forms you can photocopy, the Second Edition is your quick and dependable cure for every PC ailment. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1616 pages
• Publisher: Computing Mcgraw-Hill; Bk&CD Rom edition (September 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072122234
• ISBN-13: 978-0072122237
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.7 x 2.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,122,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Bang for Your Buck!, October 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Troubleshooting, Maintaining, and Repairing PCs (Hardcover)

As the author rightfully states in his introduction,that this book concentrates on PC symptoms and repair. I own several PC repair books including a recent edition of Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PC's. Where this book excels is in the formatting and content. Its not a computer theory book. Rather symptoms and their corresponding solutions can be quickly discerned. Working as a PC repair technician I don't have time to wade through lengthy discourses,in order to find a solution for uncommon problem.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly outstanding, and it pays for itself, May 19, 2000

By 

Timothy Walker (Orlando, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Troubleshooting, Maintaining & Repairing PCs, Millennium Edition (Hardcover)

This is one of the finest books on PC troubleshooting ever written. Each chapter contains a list of symptoms, suggestions, and solutions in an accessible format, helping a technician solve even the most obscure hardware problem quickly. Any book that keeps you from looking like a fool in front of a customer is worth its weight in gold (and it hasn't let me down yet).

This book is also good for aspiring technicians, presenting exhaustive (but not overwhelming) coverage of topics you are sure to see on the A+ or CST exams. The author is kind enough to include useful diagrams and historical tidbits throughout the work, making the arcane comprehensible and the boring bearable. How many computer books can you think of that accomplish such a feat?

Mr. Bigelow, if you're reading this, I would like to thank you for producing such a wonderful book. Suggesting it to others is the least I can do.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PC repair for everyone, even computer illiterates like me, September 27, 2002

By 

R. Tiedemann "Sunnye" (Bellevue, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Troubleshooting, Maintaining & Repairing PCs with CDROM (Hardcover)

I'm not a computer technician. Heck, I can barely operate a computer! I "grew up" (computer-wise) with Macs, which never seem to need fixing and seldom wear out, but because my husband had a typical PC person's prejudice against Macs, I started using PCs. Toshibas, IBMs, Dells -- each and every one sooner or later had problems. Tired of talking to technicians from Wales to Holland, I decided to take an online course in computer repair and this book was required reading.

Voila! Help at last.

Information is thorough and easy to find. Fixes work.

If you HAVE to have a PC and you run into problems, this is the book to have.