The Complete PC Upgrade & Maintenance Guide, 12th Ed. (Hardcover)

by Mark Minasi (Author) "Basically, PC hardware boils down to three kinds of devices: the central processing unit (CPU) (or, as more and more machines offer multiprocessor capabilities, the..." (more)
Key Phrases: repairing floppy drives, floppy subsystem, video aperture, Pieces of the Picture, Pentium Pro, Control Panel (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Updated every year, this book immediately distinguishes itself from similar titles with its sheer volume and comprehensive coverage. Minasi, CNN's resident computer expert, covers basic tasks such as disassembling a PC to advanced topics like formatting SCSI devices. This edition includes helpful illustrations of common upgrades a first in the book's 12-year history as well as two CDs (one is an hour-long instructional video, and the other contains more than 25 diagnostic tools). The latter are likely to get lost or stolen, but the book's text still stands strongly on its own. A more affordable but less in-depth guide is Preston Gralla's How To Expand & Upgrade PCs (Computer Media, LJ 6/1/01). Minasi's title is highly recommended.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
This extensively revised and updated 12th edition of the best-selling guide to PC upgrading and maintenance includes updated information on memory, modems, sound boards, disk drives, printing problems, operating system upgrades, video capture, digital audio, networking, combo printers, vendor guides, memory, and more.

--Written in a friendly, easy-to-follow style, the book provides essential background and conceptual information that teaches readers how computers work.

--Loaded with more than 1,600 pages of hardcore information, this is the one book no professional, student, or serious home user can afford to be without!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1664 pages
• Publisher: Sybex Inc; 12th Bk&Cr edition (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0782129900
• ISBN-13: 978-0782129908
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.6 x 2.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,442,051 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, August 12, 2001

By A Customer

I have been looking forward to the release of Minasi's 12th ed. and I was not disappointed! I found it to move way beyond just "the basics". If you take the time to read this book from cover to cover you will not have many pc questions that go unanswered. This book does a great job of introducing you to the basics while guiding you into the more advanced areas of pcs. The way the info in the book is sectioned makes it very easy to reference back to quickly. Wether you have never touched a computer before or have many hours into pc repairs, this book will help. I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in learning about pcs.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most authoritative book I've ever owned or read, March 23, 2002

By	Andy Kim "couch21" (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews

I've taken several technical support certification courses, and this was the textbook I used in half of them. Mark Minasi is an excellent writer who is able to "dumb down" all the minute details and translates very well the technical jargon of the trade. Minasi is also the writer of several Windows 2000 books which I've also read, and I've taken a fondness for his ability to start really big and progress quickly into smaller details without ever losing my interest or attention.

The chapters on hardware installation and introduction to networks are the best written and most authoritative material I've used to learn the subtle aspects of TCP/IP, ethernet, and token/bus ring topologies. Also, the chapters on computer upgrading and "building a dream computer from scratch" are well laid-out and detailed for avid geeks like me who like to destroy and build machines from scrap piles. I guess the best thing to say about this book is that it fostered an even deeper interest in computers than I had before reading.

One of the best perks of this book is that there is a moderate balance of graphics, charts and diagrams to go with his text. There is hardly anything intimidating about his presentation; novice and intermediate learners will have no problem getting to grasp every topic in this book. The twelfth edition also makes several revisions, particularly with misstated bandwidth numbers for Firewire and USB in the last edition). I haven't had a chance to test out the CDROMs, but several of my peers have recommended the video installation procedures, where Minasi goes over all the basics (like how to ground yourself properly, installing master/slave IDE devices, setting up SCSI cards, etc.)

I don't like giving heavily-biased support for any book, product or service, but in all honesty, this is by far the best and most authoritative source I've ever used to fix any hardware-related issue with a computer. There is no topic I can think of that doesn't get covered, and he throws in a little history and conceptual technology as well to spur more interest in the future technology.

In conclusion, the book is well worth the price, and I highly doubt most beginning and intermediate-level IT people will ever need to go beyond this edition as a reference source.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PC UPGRADE AND MAINTENANCE GUIDEt, October 10, 2001

By	Mr. Murel N. Smith (Douglas, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This book is very well written in language that is easy
to read and understand. As a novice in the maintenance
of PC's this book better explains the problems that I
am encountering.