Customer Reviews

Upgrading & Fixing Laptops For Dummies

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While I may be getting more comfortable with opening up my desktop machine, I'm still less-than-thrilled if the laptop starts acting up. Upgrading & Fixing Laptops for Dummies by Corey Sandler does a very nice job in covering the hardware components of laptops and how to make sure they keep working when you need them to...

Contents:
Part 1 - Putting a Computer in Your Lap: A Field Guide to the Common Laptop; How to Treat a Laptop
Part 2 - Explaining What Could Possibly Go Wrong: Things That Go Bump in the Night (or Day); When to Repair and When to Recycle; Surviving Basic Training; Brain Matters: Memory, Microprocessors, and BIOS
Part 3 - Laying Hands on the Major Parts: Easing In to Hard Disks; Floppy Drives: Relics and Memories; Going Round and Around: CD and DVD Drives; Tripping the Keyboard Fantastic; Putting Your Finger on Pointing Devices; Seeing the Light: LCDs and Video
Part 4 - Failing to Communicate: Networks, Gateways, and Routers; Feeling Up in the Air; Modems: The Essential Translators; Breaking Out of the Box: PC Cards, USB, and FireWire
Part 5 - The Software Side of Life: Installing a New Operating System or Migrating Upwards; Adding or Removing Software, for Better or for Worse; Essential Utilities for Laptop Users
Part 6 - The Part of Tens; Ten Quick Solutions; Ten Essential Dos and Dont's; Ten of My Favorite Things
Index

Many of my cohorts in the IT world are long-time laptop users. They're consultants, they're on the road a lot, and they live and die with their laptops. The vast majority of these people have probably done most of the things in this book at least once, and there might not be much new information for them. But take my dad. He's past retirement age, he travels around, and he got a laptop so he could "check email while they're on the road". For him, it's all a confusing jumble of technology that doesn't make a lot of sense. A book like this would allow him to understand the core parts of the laptop, know how they should be maintained, and more importantly know when things aren't working quite right. For instance, defragging a hard drive is second nature to me. For him, it's "de-what?". Clean the screen with Windex? No, Dad... Why can't you play a DVD? Because you have a CD reader... not a DVD reader. Things like that... :)

If you're more at ease with technology, you still might find some benefits here. I fortunately haven't had many issues with my laptop. But what if the screen started to fade? This book would give me a clue as to what was happening and what options I might want to pursue. Water spill on the keyboard... repairable? (The kids did it, and in this case it was.) While you might not find the exact answer you're looking for here, it will at least reduce your stress level as you figure things out.

Nice book, fun read, and the material just could prevent some problems down the road...

The organization and layout makes getting the information you want easy and quick. There's obviously no need to read this book from front-to-back (as with all dummy-series books). The introduction also gives the reader advice on how to use this book wisely.

There are six parts:

Part 1: Putting a Computer in Your Lap.
Part 2: Explaining What Could Possibly Go Wrong
Part 3: Laying Hand on the Major Parts
Part 4: Failing to Communicate
Part 5: The Software Side of Life
Part 6: The Part of Tens

If you have a laptop and want to maintain it, prevent future dilemmas, and correctly troubleshoot problems, "Upgrading and Fixing Laptops for Dummies" can help newbies and/or the computer illiterate.

Easy to read, but does not have much factual information. Frequently
asks the reader to refer to instructions that came with the computer, but
maybe it does make it a little easier to read those instructions.

This book is helpful for basic computer issues and gives the reader an idea of what to do in the event of routine problems. It does not go into significant detail on troubleshooting and repairing major hardware and software problems. It is primarily a general guide on how to address computer problems such as crashes, freezes, battery and power issues and other such glitches. If one wants to do indepth and complex repairs, he should invest in a technical manual for the specific computer owned.

This book is a nice introduction to laptops and how you can upgrade or fix them. Many folks I know don't know how to upgrade a laptop (and some never do). But this book closes that gap well.

Here are some good stuff covered by the author:
* How to treat your laptop properly
* How to diagnose and troubleshoot common laptop problems
* How to install a new operating system, e.g. Windows Vista
* How to add cool peripherals to enhance your laptop experience
* How to make your laptop more durable

Overall, a great, highly readable book.