Troubleshooting Your PC - Softcover

Aspinwall, Jim; Todd, Mike

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0764575090 ISBN 13: 9780764575099

Publisher: Wiley, 1999

Synopsis

Troubleshooting Your PC Fourth Edition Save Time, Save Money, and Save Your PC! Completely revised and updated for Windows 98/Windows NT upgrades, the Internet, and networking, this new edition of Troubleshooting Your PC explains absolutely everything you need to know to help figure out what is wrong with your PC — and how to fix it! Whether your machine is sending you cryptic messages, your Windows system is crashing over and over again, or you just cannot get that modem to work, do not give up. With this definitive reference guide close at hand, you will quickly and easily get the answers you need to fix it yourself — and get right back to work. Packed with detailed illustrations and troubleshooting diagrams! Get a Problem?

• Getting your PC started
• Configuring drivers
• Booting up
• Maximizing memory
• Multitasking user interfaces
• Installing or upgrading Windows
• Printing
• Compressing files
• Detecting viruses
• Setting up COM ports
• Moving files
• Networking two or more PCs
• Getting on the Internet

Look for the Symptom, Suspects, and Solutions icons to get right to the core of the problem!

• Trial version of Norton Utilities 3.0 Utilities
• System information from Watergate Software's PC-Doctor
• Trial version of Eurosoft's PC Check
• Freeware from Steve Gibson
• The Rosenthal Utilities suite
• Netscape Communicator 4
• WinZip 6.3

Shareware programs are fully functional, free trial versions of copyrighted programs. If you like particular programs, register with their authors for a nominal fee and receive licenses, enhanced versions, and technical support. Freeware programs are free, copyrighted games, applications, and utilities. You can copy them to as many PCs as you like—free—but they have no technical support. www.idgbooks.com

About this title

Review:

An unfortunately large percentage of the population regards repairing a personal computer as comparable in difficulty to fixing a Boeing 747. The truth is, it's not nearly that hard--anyone can debug the components that make up a modern PC. Troubleshooting Your PC makes the task easier by providing readers with information on the systems that make up an IBM-compatible microcomputer.

This book excels at providing background information on various kinds of components. It also does a fine job of decrypting acronyms and explaining how different subsystems relate to one another. The authors attack systems--such as the video system, disk drives, and serial devices--individually, listing symptoms, likely causes, and potential fixes for each. Unfortunately, they don't outline solutions in much detail: they advise replacing your hard drive in certain situations, for example, but don't adequately describe how.

Some of the information in these pages seems stale--there's no explicit explanation of how to install RAM modules, and there's no mention at all of modern PC-100 RAM. Similarly, the authors neglect not only the Intel Pentium III but also the well-established Celeron and Xeon chips. It's as if they updated an old edition of this book a little too cursorily. A companion CD-ROM includes a collection of software, plus an evaluation version of Symantec Norton Utilities 3.0. --David Wall

From the Publisher:

Inside you'll find complete coverage of PC troubleshooting:

Assemble the tools of the trade, from software utilities to tweezers Prevent problems before they happen: backups, tuneups, and virus protection Diagnose problems using the unique "Symptoms, Suspects, and Solutions" features Decipher cryptic Windows error messages and resolve typical OS difficulties Handle networking and Internet glitches, from security to IP addressing Resolve system configuration, BIOS, memory addressing, and other hardware issues Deal with disk difficulties, from bad drives to partitioning and caching woes Solve compatibility, configuration, and other audio-video troubles Tackle printer, scanner, keyboard, and SCSI snafus with confidence Troubleshoot connections, from COM ports and modems to USB and wireless

BONUS CD-ROM includes:
Trial versions of Norton Utilities 2000 and Diskeeper 5.0
WinGate shareware
Demo versions of PC-Doctor for Windows and Windows NT

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0764575090
• ISBN 13: 9780764575099
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 888