Overview
The Complete PC Upgrade and Maintenance Guide is a problem-solving wonder. In simple, easy-to-follow language, it shows you how to prevent disasters, fix the ones that occur, and maximize your PC's power and longevity. Based on author Mark Minasi's popular seminars, this book is an unbelievable value—for only $59.99 U.S., it teaches you everything you need to know to meet your PC challenges.Coverage includes:
- Preventing hardware disasters
- Installing new components
- Upgrading memory
- Replacing power supplies
- Installing EIDE hard drives
- Adding SCSI ports and devices
- Partitioning and formatting EIDE and SCSI drives
- Protecting your PC from viruses
- Solving data backup challenges
- Adding and repairing removable media devices CD-ROMs, floppies, and others
- Troubleshooting printers
Installing communications devices - Upgrading mice and keyboards
Installing video and sound cards - Tackling networking issues
Choosing a new PC - Troubleshooting Internet connectivity problems
- Building your own PC
- Solving special laptop problems
- Upgrading mice and keyboards
On the first CD, you'll find over one hour of instructional video in which PC expert Mark Minasi teaches you his field-proven upgrade and repair techniques. Based on his popular $800 seminars, these videos are a great resource and an unbeatable value. On the second CD, you get over 20 system tune-up and diagnostic tools—utilities that help you monitor and fine-tune your PC's performance, restrict access to important data, and recover quickly when disaster strikes.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewMark Minasi's legendary guide to PC hardware -- based on his $800 live seminars -- has just been thoroughly updated for the latest gear: USB, DSL, cable modems, video capture hardware, MP3, Athlon processors, and lots more.
Of course, the friendly, expert tone remains. It's obvious from the get-go that Minasi knows his stuff -- and knows how to share it. The book is full of inside tips and anecdotes (How can you make sure it's not a software or virus problem before you crack the hood? Why might a certain brand of printer become less reliable when the seasons change?).
This 1,500-page book now also includes QuickStep sections that walk you through the most widely-performed upgrades at double-speed. Since there's no substitute for seeing it, you also get a CD-ROM with over an hour of digital movies that walk you through upgrading processors, motherboards, power supplies, memory, DVD drives, hard disks, and audio cards. If you have any plans for A+ certification, a second CD-ROM contains nearly 400 practice questions for both the CompTIA's core and Windows/DOS exams.
If we have any gripe, it's that the editors have been a little slow to retire some of the book's older coverage -- but hey, a lot of old PCs are still chugging along, and you just might have one of them. (Bill Camarda)
Bill Camarda is a consultant and writer with nearly 20 years' experience in helping technology companies deploy and market advanced software, computing, and networking products and services. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.