Upgrade
or repair your laptop
Upgrading and Repairing Laptops (2nd Edition) 2005 Ebook. 912 pp.
Reviews.
Laptops--call them notebooks, portable computers, or whatever else
you like--are tightly engineered items. It's hard to get all the
required components to obey stringent performance and power-management
requirements, and still fit into a small case. The job usually requires
a custom motherboard and other specialized components, and so the
laptop owner who wants to upgrade his or her machine faces a much
more difficult task than the owner of a desktop machine with a similar
wish. One can swap out the hard drive, add more RAM, and make tweaks
in software, but almost everything else requires the addition of
external components, which kind of defeat the purpose of a laptop.
That's the message the reader takes away from Scott Mueller's Upgrading
and Repairing Laptops. It's not Mueller's fault that such computers
are hard to do much with, and that your best upgrade procedure is
often a visit to an auction site.
That said, Mueller does a great job of explaining how laptops work--how
the engineers went about cramming all those heat-generating components
into those miniature chassis in the first place. He also explains
a lot of interesting component theory, such as how magnetic hard
drives store data and how various DVD standards differ. The information
makes for good reading, and comes in handy when you're shopping.
He also demonstrates his skill--long well-reputed among builders
and repairers of desktop machines--in teaching diagnostics. He explains,
for example, how to test a laptop power supply, and why you should
consider it a prime suspect in a malfunctioning computer even if
the LEDs come on and the cooling fan spins. A CD-ROM features videos
that show disassembly procedures--a strategy that works better than
photographs and numbered steps. --David Wall
Topics covered
How portable computers work (and sometimes fail to work), and
how to diagnose their woes. Sections address general troubleshooting
concepts, system disassembly, and various subsystems such as memory,
CPU, storage, and video. Coverage of PCMCIA (PC Card) is particularly
good. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition
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Book Description
Scott Mueller has gone where no computer book author has gone before
— right past all the warranty stickers, the hidden screws,
and the fear factor to produce a real owner's manual that every
laptop owner should have on his desk. Upgrading and Repairing Laptops,
Second Edition shows the upgrades users can perform, the ones that
are better left to the manufacturer, and how to use add-on peripherals
to make the most of a laptop. This second edition has been updated
to include:
* The latest processors and motherboards
* Complete assembly and disassembly information
* Updated memory standards
* Upgrading your hard drive to increase performance
* Changes in networking and firewalls
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