Book Description
Covering hardware and operating systems, "Upgrade and Repair with Jean Andrews" is the most thorough, step-by- step book available for learning the fundamentals of supporting and troubleshooting computer hardware and operating systems. It covers new technologies in CPUs, motherboards, notebooks, printers, and PDAs, as well as Windows 2000, NT, 9x, DOS, Linux, and Mac. The hands-on format is designed to quickly take you from ?just-a-user? to ?I-can-fix-this!?


About the Author
Jean Andrews is the author of the best-selling PC Repair/A+ texts. She also wrote the "PC Troubleshooting Pocket Guide," "A+ CoursePrep StudyGuide" and a brand new text for CompTIA's i-Net+ certification exam, called "I-Net+ Guide to Internet Technologies." Jean has a wide range of educational and industry experience, which has contributed to the body of knowledge she brings to her IT textbooks. Jean received both a BS in Math and a Masters in Physics from Middle Tennessee State College. A PhD in Theology from Logos Christian College rounds out Jean's diverse education. Jean has a long teaching career, and taught in the Computer Science department of Motolow State University in Tennessee for 13 years. She began in the Math department and was soon asked to create their PC Repair course. Little did she know that this was the beginning of history in the making! Frustrated by the lack of quality training materials available, Jean created her own classroom notes and handouts, which in time became the basis of her PC Repair books. Jean resides in Suwanee, GA.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
If you want to learn PC maintenance from first principles through advanced Windows troubleshooting, check out Upgrade and Repair with Jean Andrews.

You may know Andrews￯﾿ﾽs name. Nearly three quarters of a million people have chosen her PC repair and maintenance books. She￯﾿ﾽs also the well-known ￯﾿ﾽe-Voice of PC repair￯﾿ﾽ: her "Ask Jean" column has answered hundreds of questions in its three years online.

Andrews is first and foremost a teacher, and this book shows it. It￯﾿ﾽs carefully organized: Each topic builds on what￯﾿ﾽs come before. The explanations are clear and illuminating, giving you a very solid foundation in the underlying concepts, as well as hands-on expertise.

There are also plenty of diagrams, photographs, and flowcharts. (For example, Andrews uses illustrations to explain the layout of a hard drive and the PC boot process -- and we￯﾿ﾽve rarely seen either topic explained as well.)

The author￯﾿ﾽs approach is thoroughly classroom proven. In fact, this course in PC repair is a direct descendant of the course Andrews designed at Motolow State University in Tennessee when she found herself frustrated with the materials then available in the marketplace.

While Andrews doesn￯﾿ﾽt scant Windows 9x (these are the systems most likely to need repair in the short-term), there￯﾿ﾽs also loads of Windows XP coverage. That includes a full chapter on managing and supporting Windows XP which covers everything from disk quotas and the Encrypted File System to the Internet Connection Firewall. Andrews even offers a brief overview of Linux -- a subject that￯﾿ﾽs often completely ignored in PC maintenance books.

As we said, Andrews begins with first principles: how hardware and software work together; how the components of a computer work together; how CPUs communicate with other devices; even how power supplies work. It￯﾿ﾽs about time you really understood voltage, current, grounding, and so forth.

But it￯﾿ﾽs not just theory: Andrews also walks you step-by-step through troubleshooting power supply problems (including the use of multimeters) and selecting battery backup devices (with one of the book￯﾿ﾽs many detailed feature checklists).

Then, it￯﾿ﾽs on to motherboards -- from CPU and chipset to BIOS, buses, and expansion slots -- with step-by-step installation directions. Andrews covers I/O devices from keyboard to video; and drives, from floppy to CD-RW, DVD, even RAID arrays.

Andrews wraps up with chapter-length introductions to networking and Internet connectivity. The book also contains five useful appendices: everything from a guide to error messages to a handy hexadecimal and memory addressing reference.

By the way: this isn￯﾿ﾽt strictly an A+ guide. (If A+ preparation is your primary requirement, you might consider Andrews￯﾿ﾽs A+ In Depth.) But if your first concern is learning how to upgrade and repair PCs, this book also covers the vast majority of topics on the latest A+ exams. It would be an excellent complement to whatever A+ study resource you do select. Bill Camarda

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks for Dummies, Second Edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Covering hardware and operating systems, "Upgrade and Repair with Jean Andrews" is the most thorough, step-by- step book available for learning the fundamentals of supporting and troubleshooting computer hardware and operating systems. It covers new technologies in CPUs, motherboards, notebooks, printers, and PDAs, as well as Windows 2000, NT, 9x, DOS, Linux, and Mac. The hands-on format is designed to quickly take you from ￯﾿ﾽjust-a-user￯﾿ﾽ to ￯﾿ﾽI-can-fix-this!￯﾿ﾽ