Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
$20.72 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
or
Get a $11.93 Amazon.com Gift Card
Upgrading and Repairing PCs (18th Edition)
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

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

Scott Mueller (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.


14 new from $37.96 23 used from $16.74
FREE Two-Day Shipping for Students
Join Amazon Student and get FREE Two-Day Shipping for one year with a free Amazon Prime membership ($79 value), as well as e-mail alerts for exclusive promotions. The program is available only for students and there is no cost to join--simply sign up by providing your school and major.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"...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


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, 12th Edition; Your PC: The Inside Story; and 2+ hours of free video training included in the 10th and 12th 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

(847) 854-6794

(847) 854-6795 Fax

Internet: scottmueller@compuserve.com

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 scottmueller@compuserve.com. 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.


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 (30 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #362,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #21 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Software Design, Testing & Engineering > Performance Optimization
    #42 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Hardware > Maintenance, Repair & Upgrading

More About the Author

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

Visit Amazon's Scott Mueller Page

Inside This Book (learn more)


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(7)
(6)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

 

Customer Reviews

30 Reviews
5 star:
 (22)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (30 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Your garden variety cut and paste edition, October 12, 2007
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
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(What's this?)
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the best thats out there
The author scott mueler did an excellent job with this 18th edition. Giving the book a massive index of computer related parts and meanings. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Josefina

5.0 out of 5 stars The 'Bible' for PC repair technicians.
The title says it all, this book is a must have for every PC repair tech. It is well researched and loaded with useful information about PC architecture. Read more
Published 3 months ago by tweak45

5.0 out of 5 stars Up to date ref
Computers are changing so you have to stay up tp date. This a good source of info.
Published 7 months ago by James E. Fluellen

5.0 out of 5 stars Upgrading and Repairing Pcs
Upgrading and Repairing PCs (18th Edition)

This book is a must for computer users if upgrading your PC is essential.



Published 9 months ago by Irene Geerling

5.0 out of 5 stars Best overall book on the market on compter repair.
Best overall book on the market on compter repair. It covers everything from history of the processor to how to build your own PC from scratch. And,it weights about 7 pound.
Published 10 months ago by Earl Adopter

1.0 out of 5 stars What a scam, don't waste your time or money, save yourself!
Computer Repair? Computer Repair? - Just like his "repair Laptops," it has a million pages, it weighs 50 pounds but nothing definitive. Read more
Published 11 months ago by R. Aparicio

5.0 out of 5 stars PC Rescue Help
I had an earlier edition of this book which did not contain information about later hardware, so I decided to purchase this newest edition. Read more
Published 15 months ago by J. Shoemaker

5.0 out of 5 stars Upgrading 18 Ed
Very good book, I have several of Scott Mueller books and this one is even better then the previous versions. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Attackbeast

5.0 out of 5 stars All You Would Ever Want to Know About PC's
This book covers everything having to do with computers and common peripherals, from history to manufacture to repair. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Terri L. Manning

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!
This book is a must have for any IT tech or personal computer hobbyist. Even advanced knowledged users sometimes need a little refreshing on some matters and this does the job... Read more
Published 20 months ago by J. Guzman

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   



So You'd Like to...


Create a guide


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.



Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.