Troubleshooting Your PC, Second Edition

Troubleshooting Your PC, Second Edition provides fast answers to problems that can arise when using a Microsoft Windows XP-based PC. The book explains how to use the Microsoft Windows XP operating system to troubleshoot PC crashes, screen flaws, keyboard and mouse errors, glitches in floppy disk drives and CD-ROM drives, and many other hardware problems. Each section features a diagnostic chart with clear, step-by-step solutions to try right away, plus alternate solutions to try if the problem is more complex. Screen images illustrate what users see on their computer as they work through the steps.

Anyone who's ever used a service manual to identify and correct a flaw in an automobile will find the format of Troubleshooting Your PC familiar. This book, which aims to show its readers how to fix problems related to the hardware components of their Intel-compatible personal computers, relies on troubleshooting trees similar to those that have long appeared in automotive handbooks. To find the page that explains how to solve your particular problem, you work your way through a sort of flow diagram, answering yes-and-no questions and taking different paths through the diagram based on your answers. The flow diagrams are more like tables of contents than real aids to troubleshooting themselves, but they are effective in guiding the reader to the appropriate page.

Each problem or condition gets its own spread of a page or two. On those pages, readers find a section called "Source of the problem" that explains, in prose, what's going on and what strategy is appropriate for fixing the trouble. A second section, called "How to fix it," is a step-by-step procedure that walks the reader through the recommended fix. Both of these sections would be stronger if they relied more heavily on diagrams, since not everyone can visualize mechanical procedures that are described in words. Nonetheless, the material here should help you straighten out most consumer-fixable hardware difficulties on post-1997 personal computers. --David Wall

Topics covered: Personal computer hardware troubleshooting for people who aren't experienced in the area. The authors address the resolution of critical problems--blank screens at startup, ominous noises, that kind of thing--and hardware upgrade procedures, such as installing hard drives and DVD-ROM drives.