Upgrading and Repairing PCs (18th Edition) [Hardcover]

Scott Mueller (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0789736977 | ISBN-13: 978-0789736970 | Publication Date: October 7, 2007 | Edition: 18

"...perhaps the most comprehensive book on the subject we've ever seen. It's incredibly well researched, well written, and jam packed with useful information."
--Josh Norem, Reviews Editor, Maximum PC
 
Upgrading and Repairing PCs is the definitive guide to the inner workings of your PC. Whether you're adding a faster processor or bigger hard drive, tracking down a problem, or just want to understand how the components of your computer work together, this book explains everything you need to know. Trust the one book that has become the de facto standard among PC professionals and enthusiasts around the world.
 
World-renowned PC hardware expert Scott Mueller has taught thousands in his week-long seminars and millions through his books, videos, and magazine articles. Major changes in the PC hardware industry--including coverage of new Core 2 processors from Intel, Socket AM2 processors from AMD, and significant advances in motherboard chipsets, Blu-ray, and HD-DVD--make Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 18th Edition, an indispensable addition to every serious computer user's bookshelf...that is, if it ever leaves their desks. Readers from around the world trust their computers to Scott. Upgrading and Repairing PCs is found on the desks of teachers, students, hobbyists, repair technicians, and even law enforcement agencies that use this book to aid them in tracking criminals.
 
New in This Book

• Deep coverage of the new Core 2 (8th gen or "886") processors, featuring the new "Core Microarchitecture"
• Cutting edge coverage of quad-core desktop (Kentsfield) processor versions
• Detailed coverage of AMD’s Socket AM2 processors
• Coverage of evolutionary changes in chipsets, including new versions of Intel's 9xx series chipsets and new 3x series Intel chipsets; coverage of new chipsets from Nvidia, VIA, and SiS has also been added
• Coverage of the new DTX and Mini-DTX motherboard form factors from the newly formed alliance between AMD and ATI
• Beefed-up coverage of Blu-ray and HD-DVD drives/players
• Extensive coverage of new GPUs in addition to heavy-duty coverage of SLI and Crossfire
• Building a PC from scratch--from assembling the hardware to BIOS setup and installing Microsoft Windows XP or Vista

 
On the DVD
DVD contains 2 hours of all new, studio-quality video--playable in your set-top DVD player and your computer! Scott digs deep into networking, showing all the components needed to build a SOHO (Small Office Home Office) network. Coverage includes network adapters, routers, switches, access points, cable/DSL modems, and cabling. Upgrading an existing network to gigabit speeds is also covered, as well as the latest wireless network technology. The DVD also contains a previously published edition of the book as well as technical reference material, a glossary, and an acronym index. Whether you’re building a hot new PC for home or work, or nursing an aging and ailing PC back to health, these materials prove to be worth their weight in gold to the serious PC technician or hobbyist.
 
www.upgradingandrepairingpcs.com
If you don’t have a DVD player or only have a set-top DVD, visit www.upgradingandrepairingpcs.com to download all the video from the DVD in Windows Media Player format as well as the PDFs and other materials on the DVD! Plus, check out monthly articles, FAQs, and video from earlier editions you might have missed!
 
Introduction 1
1    Development of the PC 7
2    PC Components, Features and System Design 25
3    Microprocessor Types and Specifications 39
4    Motherboards and Buses 235
5    BIOS 441
6    Memory 509
7    The ATA/IDE Interface 581
8    Magnetic Storage Principles 637
9    Hard Disk Storage 663
10    Removable Storage 707
11    Optical Storage 747
12    Physical Drive Installation and Configuration 851
13    Video Hardware 885
14    Audio Hardware 987
15    I/O Interfaces from Serial and Parallel to IEEE-1394 and USB 1025
16    Input Devices 1059
17    Internet Connectivity 1103
18    Local Area Networking 1151
19    Power Supplies 1207
20    Building or Upgrading Systems 1295
21    PC Mods: Overclocking and Cooling 1335
22    PC Diagnostics, Testing and Maintenance 1367
 
ON THE DVD:
A    Glossary
B    List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

Editorial Reviews

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. His 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 not only been produced in more than 18 editions, but has also become the core of an entire series of books.

Scott has authored many books over the last 20+ years, including Upgrading and Repairing PCs (1st through 18th and Academic editions); Upgrading and Repairing Laptops (1st and 2nd editions); Upgrading and Repairing Windows; Upgrading and Repairing PCs: A+ Certification Study Guide (1st and 2nd editions); Upgrading and Repairing PCs Technician’s Portable Reference (1st and 2nd editions); Upgrading and Repairing PCs Field Guide; Upgrading and Repairing PCs Quick Reference; Upgrading and Repairing PCs, Linux Edition; Killer PC Utilities; The IBM PS/2 Handbook; and Que’s Guide to Data Recovery. Scott has produced several video training packages covering PC hardware, including a 6-hour, CD-based seminar titled Upgrading and Repairing PCs Training Course: A Digital Seminar from Scott Mueller. Scott has also produced other videos over the years, including Upgrading and Repairing PCs Video, 12^th Edition; Your PC: The Inside Story; and 2+ hours of free video training included in the 10th and 12^th through 18th editions of Upgrading and Repairing PCs as well as several editions of Upgrading and Repairing Laptops and Upgrading and Repairing Windows.

 

Contact MTR directly if you have a unique book, article, or video project in mind, or if you want Scott to conduct a custom PC troubleshooting, repair, maintenance, upgrade, or data-recovery seminar tailored for your organization:

Mueller Technical Research

3700 Grayhawk Drive

Algonquin, IL 60102-6325

[phone]

[phone] Fax

Internet: [e-mail]

Web: http://www.upgradingandrepairingpcs.com

http://www.scottmueller.com

Scott has a private forum exclusively for those who have purchased one of his recent books or DVDs. Visit http://forum.scottmueller.com to view the forum. Note that posting is only available to registered members.

 

Scott’s premiere work, Upgrading and Repairing PCs, has sold well over 2 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.

 

If you have suggestions for the next version of this book, any comments about the book in general, or new book or article topics you would like to see covered, send them to Scott via email at [e-mail]. When he is not working on PC-related books or on the road teaching seminars, Scott can usually be found in the garage working on anything with wheels and an engine.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Welcome to Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 18th Edition. Since debuting as the first book of its kind on the market in 1988, no other book on PC hardware has matched the depth and quality of the information found in this tome. The 18th edition continues Upgrading and Repairing PCs' role as not only the best-selling book of its type, but also the most comprehensive and complete PC hardware reference available. This book examines PCs in depth, outlines the differences among them, and presents options for configuring each system.

More than just a minor revision, the 18th edition of Upgrading and Repairing PCs contains hundreds of pages of new, revised, and reworked content. The PC industry is moving faster than ever, and this book is the most accurate, complete, in-depth, and up-to-date book of its kind on the market today.

I wrote this book for people who want to know everything about their PCs. How they got started; how they've evolved; how to upgrade, troubleshoot, and repair them; and everything in between. This book is for all those professionals and PC enthusiasts who want to know everything about PC hardware. This book covers the full gamut of PC-compatible systems from the oldest 8-bit machines to the latest in high-end 64-bit quad-core processor systems. If you need to know about everything from the original PC to the latest in PC technology on the market today, this book and the accompanying information-packed disc is definitely for you.

This book covers state-of-the-art hardware and accessories that make the most modern personal computers easier, faster, and more productive to use. Inside these pages you will find in-depth coverage of every PC processor from the original 8088 to the latest quad-core processors from Intel and AMD.

Upgrading and Repairing PCs also doesn't ignore the less glamorous PC components. Every part of your PC plays a critical role in its stability and performance. Over the course of this book's 1,600+ pages, you'll find out exactly why your motherboard's chipset might just be the most important part of your PC and what can go wrong when you settle for a run-of-the-mill power supply that can't get enough juice to that monster processor you just bought. You'll also find in-depth coverage of technologies such as new processors, chipsets, graphics, audio cards, PCI Express 2.x, HD DVD and Blu-ray drives, Serial ATA, USB, and FireWire, and more—it's all in here, right down to the guts-level analysis of your mouse and keyboard.

New in the 18th Edition

Many of you who are reading this have purchased one or more of the previous editions. Based on your letters, emails, and other correspondence, I know that, as much as you value each new edition, you want to know what new information I'm bringing you. So, here is a short list of the major improvements to this edition:

• A completely updated look at the newest processor families from Intel and AMD as well as the chipsets and motherboards that support them. Dual- and quad-core processors are the latest rage, and their impact on our collective computing experiences is not to be underestimated.

• A detailed look at how chipsets and motherboards are evolving, especially with regard to PCI Express. We also examine how the type of bus interconnect technologies implemented for a chipset and CPU affect your entire system's performance.

• The landscape of the graphics card market continues to evolve as quickly as any in the PC industry. In this edition, the latest GPU and graphics chipsets are profiled, with an especially watchful eye on the latest developments in using two graphics cards to double your system's video performance using technologies such as NVIDIA's SLI and ATI's Crossfire.

• With all the power today's PC hardware craves, the venerable PC power supply of yesterday is no longer up to the task of keeping every power-hungry component well fed. Given that, the power supply chapter has been extensively revised to include new information on power use calculations, and how to save power (and money) using ACPI suspend modes.

• As always, we have new, high-quality technical illustrations. Every year we add, modify, and generally improve on the hundreds of figures in this book. These new and revised illustrations provide more technical detail, helping you understand difficult topics or showing you exactly how to complete a task.

• Just like last year, you'll find a DVD-ROM plastered to the inside back cover of this book. On it you'll find all the usual standbys, such as the Technical Reference and complete electronic versions of prior editions. Rather than recycle the same video clips from edition to edition as many of my competitors do, I've once again included new video clips for this edition. For this edition, there are two hours of video on home networking components and technologies.

As with every edition, I've done as much research and homework as humanly possible to ensure that this volume is the most consistent and up-do-date text on PC hardware you're going to find in a book.

Book Objectives

Upgrading and Repairing PCs focuses on several objectives. The primary objective is to help you learn how to maintain, upgrade, and repair your PC system. To that end, Upgrading and Repairing PCs helps you fully understand the family of computers that has grown from the original IBM PC, including all PC-compatible systems. This book discusses all areas of system improvement, such as motherboards, processors, memory, and even case and power-supply improvements. The book discusses proper system and component care, specifies the most failure-prone items in various PC systems, and tells you how to locate and identify a failing component. You'll learn about powerful diagnostics hardware and software that enable a system to help you determine the cause of a problem and how to repair it.

PCs are moving forward rapidly in power and capabilities. Processor performance increases with every new chip design. Upgrading and Repairing PCs helps you gain an understanding of all the processors used in PC-compatible computer systems.

This book covers the important differences between major system architectures from the original Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) to the latest PCI Express interface standards. Upgrading and Repairing PCs covers each of these system architectures and their adapter boards to help you make decisions about which type of system you want to buy in the future and to help you upgrade and troubleshoot such systems.

The amount of storage space available to modern PCs is increasing geometrically. Upgrading and Repairing PCs covers storage options ranging from larger, faster hard drives to state-of-the-art storage devices.

When you finish reading this book, you should have the knowledge to upgrade, troubleshoot, and repair almost any system and component.

Is This Book for You?

If you want to know more about PCs, then this book is most definitely for you! Upgrading and Repairing PCs is designed for people who want a thorough understanding of PC hardware and how their PC systems work. Each section fully explains common and not-so-common problems, what causes problems, and how to handle problems when they arise. You will gain, for example, an understanding of disk configuration and interfacing that can improve your diagnostics and troubleshooting skills. You'll develop a feel for what goes on in a system so you can rely on your own judgment and observations and not some table of canned troubleshooting steps.

Upgrading and Repairing PCs is written for people who will select, install, configure, maintain, and repair systems they or their companies use. To accomplish these tasks, you need a level of knowledge much higher than that of an average system user. You must know exactly which tool to use for a task and how to use the tool correctly. This book can help you achieve this level of knowledge.

Over the years I have taught millions o...

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1584 pages
• Publisher: Que; 18 edition (October 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789736977
• ISBN-13: 978-0789736970
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #521,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > Computers & Technology > Hardware > Maintenance, Repair & Upgrading

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Your garden variety cut and paste edition, October 12, 2007

By 

Adam Leff - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Upgrading and Repairing PCs (18th Edition) (Hardcover)

When I first started reading the Upgrading and Repairing PCs series at 15th Edition, I thought it was an outstanding reference manual. While it's still quite an order of magnitude superior to other general PC architecture references out there, I no longer feel it is conforming to its own standards of in depth coverage.

The book claims to extensively review Core 2 micro architecture. If you expect a half page summary complete with marketing information you can already find on Intel's website, then this book is for you. I was hoping for better.

The book still does not cover PCI-Express in-depth. He points you to the PCI-SIG website. PCI-Express has been out long enough for Upgrading and Repairing PCs to provide detailed coverage. I would rather have more extensive PCI-Express coverage than say an extra ten pages of PC evolution and history. Also, there is virtually zero attention spent on Intel's new EFI ROM technology or the GUID Partition Table. There is very in-depth coverage provided in the Mac OS X Internals book, but Upgrading and Repairing PCs doesn't even so much as talk about them. Surely you can do better than the Macintosh book?

The included DVD video leads me to believe that networking is not Scott's area of expertise. It's OK for your typical neophyte, but I was previously led to believe that Scott places a lot of emphasis on accuracy and I cringed every time he said "Private Shared Key" in the video. It's "Pre-Shared Key" dude.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I am a Fan of this book, but ...., May 10, 2008

By 

Kurt Stucker (Central Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Upgrading and Repairing PCs (18th Edition) (Hardcover)

I am a machine control technical person where my main focus is not on PCs, but I sometimes have to work on PCs as they are often associated with machine control systems. Over a year ago my 2003 vintage OEM PC motherboard stopped working. I felt I was ready to put together my first PC using as much of the previous PC components as possible. Based upon the advice of a friend I purchased a copy of the 13th edition as it was written in the time frame of my PC. The book was extremely helpful as it put a spot light on a lot of "fuzzy" knowledge I had gained over the years, or had heard talked about. I ended up reading the majority of the book. Anything in the book that applied to my situation at home or at work I read about and I felt filled to the brim with the information I gathered from the book.

Recently, my wife's PC motherboard stopped working. I gave her my 2003 vintage PC and started work on building a brand new PC for me. The first action I took was to purchase the 18th edition of Upgrading and Repairing PCs. When I progressed with trying to determine my future PC components and needed to understand questions of SATA & Multi-Core theory & PCI Express 1 PCI Express 2 & CPU comparisons & knowledge on the latest System memory RAM, I went straight to the 18th edition book. But I just did not feel like I got the warm feeling inside which knowledge and understanding gives you. Compared to what I got out of the 13th edition (which was appropriate to my vintage of PC) to what I got out of the 18th edition (which was appropriate to the build of my newest PC), I felt like the authors have not been on top of "updating" the "upgrading" book.

So with hopefulness, I attempted to go to the author's website. upgradingandrepairingpcs. com and found it led me to another website called informit. com. It appears the author has banded with a group of other technical people to share their knowledge and expertise on this informit website & buying the 18th edition book allows free access to a lot of this web site. But this website was not satisfying for a person with a specific problem or question who is trying to link up with an answer. I ended up gathering a lot of my knowledge and understanding from the multitude of technical websites available on the internet. Including information on what a person has to do to repair Windows XP in order to use a hard drive from a broken PC on a different hardware platform. I would have thought that situation would be very common for "Upgrading and Repairing" a PC.

With that all said, I am giving the book 4 stars and I really wanted to be able to give the book 5 stars. The author is very good at explaining things in just the right manner. The knowledge & understanding I have gained from the books was well worth the full retail price for one book and made me a groupie of the book. But the next time I have to build a new PC in a few years, I won't be buying the latest edition without making sure it has been given a healthy dose of updating.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Reference, February 8, 2008

By 

R. Brunsvold (Western North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Upgrading and Repairing PCs (18th Edition) (Hardcover)

If you are building a new computer from scratch, this is a useful resource. Has a lot of basic information (goes back too far with historical information in my opinion). Publishing time makes it somewhat dated for leading edge technology, but that is the nature of a dynamic computer industry. Also, would be somewhat helpful in trouble shoothing an older system. Check the internet for very lastest info.