Assembling and Repairing Personal Computers

Beeson, Dan L

ISBN 10: 0130819492 ISBN 13: 9780130819499

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 1999

Synopsis

This book divides the personal computer system into subsystems, giving brief theory of operations, installation instructions, and testing procedures. The material is presented in practical, manageable sections to be easily assimilated by the beginning user and easily referenced by the practicing technician. Information on new ATX motherboards,on new AGP video graphics ports,on new USB Universal Serial Bus, on new DIMM memory, and on new Windows 98. Special sections on CD-ROMs, sound cards, optical scanners, and modems/faxes.Offers readers quick reference to the text's tables, figures, chip pin outs, connector pin outs and programs. Evaluation copy of The Troubleshooter provides readers with the opportunity to become familiar with the industry's best diagnostic software. An excellent reference manual for the practicing computer technician as well as for the beginning user.

About this title

Review:

Assembling and Repairing Personal Computers opens with a discussion of basic hardware concepts and the tools that should be in every technician's kit. It then quickly moves on to chapter-length coverage of each of the major PC systems--power supplies, motherboards, memory, disk drives, and more. Each system chapter includes diagrams, photographs, and tables that provide information you might need in the process of building or fixing a PC. The book then features a handy guide to writing DOS batch files (some of which appear on the companion diskettes) and a pretty weak user's guide to Windows 3.x. Since this book came out in 1997, coverage of Windows 95 and Windows NT are conspicuously absent.

Beeson's book distinguishes itself with its information on old PCs-- exactly the sorts of machines that are inclined to break or be in desperate need of upgrades. Beeson even pays attention to 8088-based machines. The book's main shortcoming is its inclusion of highly technical information (such as the physical pinouts for the 80486-DX) with little explanation of how that information can be used. All in all, this book is a fine way to explore older computer hardware.

From the Publisher:

This textbook divides the personal computer system into subsystems, giving brief theory of operations, installation instructions, and testing procedures. The material is presented in practical, manageable sections to be easily assimilated by the beginning user and easily referenced by the practicing technician.

About this edition

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0130819492
• ISBN 13: 9780130819499
• Binding: CD-ROM
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 458