Customer Reviews

Upgrading & Troubleshooting Your Mac: ibook, iMac, G3/G4, PowerBook with CDROM (Apple Series)

5 star:		(7)
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3 star:		(1)
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I think this is a great book for beginners and would recommend it for anyone who is new to the MacOS or just wants to learn more troubleshooting their product. For more advanced users (i.e. anyone who has previously read beginner's books or used a mac for years), there isn't anything really new. You learn how to get out of crashes, zap pram, do clean installs, and other basics. It also covers SCSI, USB, modems, filesharing, and other common issues.

Try it if you think it will benefit you, otherwise, go to the mac troubleshooting websites. They are up-to-date and free.

It turns out this guide has been my most popular gift to Mac owners from Power PC users right up to iMac and G3/4 users. Gene Steinberg, "Mac Night Owl" is arguably one of the world's leading Mac enthusiasts and one of the best authors in the computer book field. Steinberg is also easy to read and a great organizer. I highly recommend this book.

I am an experienced Mac user. I've worked on a Mac since 1984, having bought the very first model after watching that famous SuperBowl commercial. Despite all the experience I thought I had, I learned lots of new information when I read "Upgrading & Troubleshooting Your Mac." I recommend it for all users, beginners to experienced alike.

Being computer litterate, but knowing just a few facts on Macs. This book has helped me through the transition from "the other platform" as Gene describes it. Easy to follow and fun to read(even for a non-native english speaker as myself). You feel as having an informal conversation with the author thougout. Hard to put down, you will want to finish it as soon as you read the first chapter. If you know a bit of hardware this book is a great guide for conecting and upgrading your Mac.

Our publishing company has 12 newspapers, (3 dailys) and all of them use > Macs for desktop publishing. We started using Macs in 1986 and I've been a > Macintosh systems manager for several years, but even an old dog can learn > a new trick now and then. You have taught me several during the reading of > your book (Upgrading & Troubleshooting Your Mac). > I look forward to your next one.

I have been reading Gene Steinbergs great computer books since I got my first bondi-blue IMac, which was the very 1st Apple IMac - the one that made Apple famous - again! Mine was the second revison of this great computer, made in 1998, and has had one repair under the 4 year aftermarket extended warranty. I finally upgraded to my current IMac G-5, the last of the ones with the old Motorola chips, before the switch to Intel chips. My trust bondi-blue baby - that I still miss - has been set up for a friend, after being serviced, even more ram put in, and set up - so 10 years later - it is still working!
Gene has a neat,simple way of communicating on how to do things - I may use a Apple product - but I am not a genius technical dude - and Gene can communicate to me about how to do things on my mac, and how to help prevent problems. I have also e-mailed Gene for years with problems I have had, and he is the only
author I can think of that has actually taken the time to answer my questions - above and beyond the call of duty for the author of fairly inexpensive books!
Today Gene is also known for his great e-mail newsletter The Night Owl, as well as the Paracast. Gene and his son Grayson are also the authors of "attack of the Rockoids" - a great sci-fi book, written when I believe Grayson was still a teenager.
Overall, a great computer book that you will use again and again, one to keep on a shelf near your computer!

I have had this book for just about a month now and have used it to upgrade my processor, level 2 cache, video memory, RAM, and change my clock battery. I am fairly proficient with Macs (14+ years) and I own 4, which I keep in excellent shape. This book is an excellent reference for the do-it-yourselfer who is not afraid to "get under the hood" of their Mac.

After skimming through other sections, I found many more tips on improving MacOS performance and Web browsing performance. When I think about an upgrade to any of my Macs, I look through my book to see what is involved, and if it is worth the trouble. When my Macs start "acting up" I can usually find the solution to the problem in my book.

All in all, this is an EXCELLENT book for any Mac product owner. It comes with its own CD of demo software and is well worth the cost. If you can find the "Mac Manuals 2.0" CD from James Engleby, you have a pretty complete collection of the tools, manuals, specs, and software you'll need to fix-up ANY Mac.

I can't believe you really read that book. I found tons of things in Mr. Steinberg's book that I didn't know and I've been working with Macs for years. I couldn't name five people who know how to really set up their monitors, for example, yet "Upgrading & Troubleshooting Your Mac" told me how to use the onscreen menus, what all those strange functions mean and how to calibrate the color. I don't know of any other book with this sort of information. Maybe that reader from San Francisco knew all this, but most folks dont.