Customer Rating:  
Summary: PC Upgrade and Repair Bible by Marcia Press, Barry Press
Comment: Not too happy with this book and do not fully recommend it as it does not provide many fixes and some are basically common fixes which you can get off online websites not a great buy for the price and also suggestions supplied did not fix any problem we had with a computer, save your money and purchase another book from another author or go online for better fixes for computer problems
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Reference book
Comment: I bought this Great Book, Talk about a Bible, This Book is Packed full with 1383 Pages of Knowledge based references. As an avid computer geek this book is packed with all my needs with every fact in aiding in repair and upgrades plus it's easy to understand for any novice wanting to keep their computer running at peak efficiency. Thanks.
Customer Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK SHOULD BE RENAMED
Comment: This book should has little to do with repairing computers. If you want to know how a monitor works, how to take a digital image, or set up a computer surveillance system it does a good job of expaining this and how the stuff inside the computer works. If you've been around computers a while you probably will know a lot of this.
The book has 20 pages on diagnosing and repairing computers and 25 pages on building one; this is explained very vaguely.
If it didn't cost so much to ship it back, I would return it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great content, but title could be more descriptive...
Comment: Since I'm not "hardware oriented" when it comes to technology, you have to work hard to help me understand it. One book that does a great job is the PC Upgrade and Repair Bible Desktop Edition by Barry Press and Marcia Press (Wiley).
Chapter list: Getting Ready; Why Isn't the Same Computer Right for Everyone?; PC Overview; Processors, Cache, and Memory; Buses, Chipsets, and Motherboards; Video; Monitors and Flat Panels; Hard Disks and Disk Arrays; CD and DVD; Removable Storage; Modems; Wired and Wireless Networking; Hubs, Switches, Routers, and Firewalls; Configuring a Windows Network; Internet Services, Antivirus, and Anti-Spam; Sound Cards, Speakers, Microphones, and MP3 Players; Digital Cameras, Video Capture, and DVDs; Keyboards and Game Controllers; Mice, Trackballs, and Tablets; Printers, Scanners, and All-in-One Units; Cases, Cooling, and Power; Laptops and Handheld Computers; You're Going to Put That Where?; Diagnosis and Repair; Building an Extreme Machine; Glossary; Index
As I mentioned above, I'm a software developer and I just want my hardware to work. One of the hardest things for me to do would be to try and build a computer from scratch. But watching my son (who has no fear of hardware) has made me a bit more at ease with it. And with this book, I think I could actually try it. Each of the chapters gives an excellent explanation about how that piece of hardware works and how it fits into the larger picture of a full computer. For instance, in the CD chapter you'll get an understandable write-up of how information is stored and read on a CD-ROM disk. Then they transition into how a DVD is read and how the drive functions. And I actually understood it!
The only place where I thought this book was a little weak is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of upgrade or repair instructions. I expected more along the lines of step-by-step pictures and instructions on how to replace or repair certain parts in your machine. There is some of that towards the end when you get into the Diagnosis and Repair chapters, but little as you're working through the book. Some buyers might be a little upset that the title doesn't quite mesh with the content of the book. Still, the actual content *is* quite good... just not what you might expect.
Overall, I like the book a lot as it helps me understand my computer hardware better than I did before. Just a minor deduction for possible title and content confusion...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just the basics
Comment: This book describes just the overall basics.
If you want to know things like:
1 - the difference between the various processors (Intel Prescott Vs AMD Sempron)
2 - RAID 5 needs at least 3 hard disks to work
3 - Differences between various chipsets for motherboards and video cards
4 - ATA Vs SATA (hard disk controllers)
5 - the technology behind all the devices
Then buy another book. This one is just for people starting to look at PC's for the first time - It has nothing to do wit a hardware "bible" - it's just an introduction.
If you want a real book about all this stuff buy "Upgrading and repairing PC's" by Scott Mueller.
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