PC Repair Bench Book

A get-in, get-out Power Pack guide that focuses strictly on what PC technicians and serious hobbyists need to know to maintain, upgrade, and repair PCs Each chapter focuses on one particular hardware feature, briefly explaining its design, operation, characteristics, features, and purpose, with information and tips on installing, upgrading, troubleshooting, diagnosing, and problem solving Highly-illustrated approach-at least one figure for every two pages Find-a-Fix tool takes readers through all the most common symptoms of computer problems, helps them refine a diagnosis, and provides immediate solutions Ron Gilster is bestselling author of A+ Certification For Dummies, Second Edition (0-7645-0812-1) with more than 250,000 copies sold in all editions CD-ROM provides valuable diagnostic software, searchable text of the entire book and Find-a-Fix tool

User review
not a bad reference,,,,
although more information can be found on Google nowadays than ever before. This book sits on my shelf since I find it easier and faster to open a browser and google my questions.

User review
There Are Much Better Books On The Subject
Hendrik Olaerts is 100% correct in his review (19 May 2006), when he describes this book as `outdated.` But I feel more needs to be said, and my opinion of this book differs greatly from most of the earlier reviewers. What I fear is that someone might be looking for a good technical book on legacy PCs. Gilster's book would NOT be a good choice!

I've spent most of the last eleven years traveling in third world countries, after leaving a long-term job running and maintaining a PC lab at a community college. I fear that someone working in these more remote places might want to buy this book as a technical introduction to legacy PCs, because such PCs are common in much of the world outside the U.S. and a few other industrialized countries. One can still find PC ATs and even XTs.

Having read the whole book, I feel the author has made a number of technical errors, used misleading and confused explanations for many technical subjects, glossed over numerous important nitty-gritty configuration topics, and dwelt much too often on unnecessarily detailed treatment of relatively trivial matters. For anyone new to PC technology (i.e., anyone without enough technical knowledge to be able to recognize the mistakes and misconceptions), this book would be a very poor choice.

For only about $6 more, you can buy the latest edition (currently 17th) of Scott Mueller's excellent book: Upgrading & Repairing PCs, which I highly recommend. For those interested in legacy systems, Mueller's book has always included a CD with earlier editions in PDF format. You can go as far back in PC history as you like.

Let the uninitiated be forewarned. There's probably a good reason why Wiley Publishing, Inc., has never issued a second edition of this book. I'm used to expecting better than this from Wiley.


User review
out dated
Well, this is a book for and from the previous millennium ; talks about A:/fdisk ; disks smaller then 512 Mbyte. Pages all about IDE-hard disk, their connectors with photographs and all; in short : out of time.

User review
More than a tech manual is this book.
Being involved with computers for over 15 years now, I have learned that there is always something new to learn. Everyday this industry changes and keeping up it can and is a full time job. The book is written by someone with over 35 year experience and the material covered is nothing short of great.

When I started reading this book I thought is was another text for the A+ Exam, and while you could use it as a study tool, the book is more in line for the technician. What the book covers is hardware mostly, from the motherboard through printers and everything in between.

There is coverage of C3 and Itanium processors, binary conversions, AT Commands, video and monitors and so much more. Ron Glister has given you a real reference manual and a great addition to my technical library.

The text is technically and material wise up to date with the latest information. Also there is a cd included with a host of utilities, most of which a trialware or shareware. About everyone should find a few of them useful in some way and overall if you are serious about fixing and repairing than you have a first rate source to work with.

User review
Excellent Book
Agreeing with the previous review 100%. This is an excellent book, and I can lift it over my head, so it won't be such a pain in the butt to drag around with me. At around 800 pages, it's still a hefty reference, but a little more manageable than some of the bigger books out there. The language is plain. The organization is sensible, and I appreciate the many genericized diagrams in addition to photos. Photos are nice, but the diagrams make it easier for me to figure out what I'm looking at from machine to machine. I wish more hardware books were put together like this one.