Upgrading and Repairing PCs - Hardcover

Mueller, Scott

4.13

379 ratings by Goodreads

9780789736970: Upgrading and Repairing PCs

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0789736977 ISBN 13: 9780789736970

Publisher: Que Pub, 2008

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

"...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

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

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

Introduction

Welcome to Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 18th Edition. Since debuting as the first book of its kind on the market in 1988, no other book on PC hardware has matched the depth and quality of the information found in this tome. The 18th edition continues Upgrading and Repairing PCs' role as not only the best-selling book of its type, but also the most comprehensive and complete PC hardware reference available. This book examines PCs in depth, outlines the differences among them, and presents options for configuring each system.

More than just a minor revision, the 18th edition of Upgrading and Repairing PCs contains hundreds of pages of new, revised, and reworked content. The PC industry is moving faster than ever, and this book is the most accurate, complete, in-depth, and up-to-date book of its kind on the market today.

I wrote this book for people who want to know everything about their PCs. How they got started; how they've evolved; how to upgrade, troubleshoot, and repair them; and everything in between. This book is for all those professionals and PC enthusiasts who want to know everything about PC hardware. This book covers the full gamut of PC-compatible systems from the oldest 8-bit machines to the latest in high-end 64-bit quad-core processor systems. If you need to know about everything from the original PC to the latest in PC technology on the market today, this book and the accompanying information-packed disc is definitely for you.

This book covers state-of-the-art hardware and accessories that make the most modern personal computers easier, faster, and more productive to use. Inside these pages you will find in-depth coverage of every PC processor from the original 8088 to the latest quad-core processors from Intel and AMD.

Upgrading and Repairing PCs also doesn't ignore the less glamorous PC components. Every part of your PC plays a critical role in its stability and performance. Over the course of this book's 1,600+ pages, you'll find out exactly why your motherboard's chipset might just be the most important part of your PC and what can go wrong when you settle for a run-of-the-mill power supply that can't get enough juice to that monster processor you just bought. You'll also find in-depth coverage of technologies such as new processors, chipsets, graphics, audio cards, PCI Express 2.x, HD DVD and Blu-ray drives, Serial ATA, USB, and FireWire, and more—it's all in here, right down to the guts-level analysis of your mouse and keyboard.

New in the 18th Edition

Many of you who are reading this have purchased one or more of the previous editions. Based on your letters, emails, and other correspondence, I know that, as much as you value each new edition, you want to know what new information I'm bringing you. So, here is a short list of the major improvements to this edition:

A completely updated look at the newest processor families from Intel and AMD as well as the chipsets and motherboards that support them. Dual- and quad-core processors are the latest rage, and their impact on our collective computing experiences is not to be underestimated.
A detailed look at how chipsets and motherboards are evolving, especially with regard to PCI Express. We also examine how the type of bus interconnect technologies implemented for a chipset and CPU affect your entire system's performance.
The landscape of the graphics card market continues to evolve as quickly as any in the PC industry. In this edition, the latest GPU and graphics chipsets are profiled, with an especially watchful eye on the latest developments in using two graphics cards to double your system's video performance using technologies such as NVIDIA's SLI and ATI's Crossfire.
With all the power today's PC hardware craves, the venerable PC power supply of yesterday is no longer up to the task of keeping every power-hungry component well fed. Given that, the power supply chapter has been extensively revised to include new information on power use calculations, and how to save power (and money) using ACPI suspend modes.
As always, we have new, high-quality technical illustrations. Every year we add, modify, and generally improve on the hundreds of figures in this book. These new and revised illustrations provide more technical detail, helping you understand difficult topics or showing you exactly how to complete a task.
Just like last year, you'll find a DVD-ROM plastered to the inside back cover of this book. On it you'll find all the usual standbys, such as the Technical Reference and complete electronic versions of prior editions. Rather than recycle the same video clips from edition to edition as many of my competitors do, I've once again included new video clips for this edition. For this edition, there are two hours of video on home networking components and technologies.

As with every edition, I've done as much research and homework as humanly possible to ensure that this volume is the most consistent and up-do-date text on PC hardware you're going to find in a book.

Book Objectives

Upgrading and Repairing PCs focuses on several objectives. The primary objective is to help you learn how to maintain, upgrade, and repair your PC system. To that end, Upgrading and Repairing PCs helps you fully understand the family of computers that has grown from the original IBM PC, including all PC-compatible systems. This book discusses all areas of system improvement, such as motherboards, processors, memory, and even case and power-supply improvements. The book discusses proper system and component care, specifies the most failure-prone items in various PC systems, and tells you how to locate and identify a failing component. You'll learn about powerful diagnostics hardware and software that enable a system to help you determine the cause of a problem and how to repair it.

PCs are moving forward rapidly in power and capabilities. Processor performance increases with every new chip design. Upgrading and Repairing PCs helps you gain an understanding of all the processors used in PC-compatible computer systems.

This book covers the important differences between major system architectures from the original Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) to the latest PCI Express interface standards. Upgrading and Repairing PCs covers each of these system architectures and their adapter boards to help you make decisions about which type of system you want to buy in the future and to help you upgrade and troubleshoot such systems.

The amount of storage space available to modern PCs is increasing geometrically. Upgrading and Repairing PCs covers storage options ranging from larger, faster hard drives to state-of-the-art storage devices.

When you finish reading this book, you should have the knowledge to upgrade, troubleshoot, and repair almost any system and component.

Is This Book for You?

If you want to know more about PCs, then this book is most definitely for you! Upgrading and Repairing PCs is designed for people who want a thorough understanding of PC hardware and how their PC systems work. Each section fully explains common and not-so-common problems, what causes problems, and how to handle problems when they arise. You will gain, for example, an understanding of disk configuration and interfacing that can improve your diagnostics and troubleshooting skills. You'll develop a feel for what goes on in a system so you can rely on your own judgment and observations and not some table of canned troubleshooting steps.

Upgrading and Repairing PCs is written for people who will select, install, configure, maintain, and repair systems they or their companies use. To accomplish these tasks, you need a level of knowledge much higher than that of an average system user. You must know exactly which tool to use for a task and how to use the tool correctly. This book can help you achieve this level of knowledge.

Over the years I have taught millions o...

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.