Chapter 8: When Upgrades Go Wrong

Overview

You might think that upgrading some part of your PC will make your life a little easier, perhaps even richer in terms of the capabilities of your PC that you enjoy.

Often enough, this is very true.

But what about those other times when you perform an upgrade that causes you more headaches than it fixes? There will be those times, trust me. It happens to us all.

While some of the snags you may encounter during an upgrade will simply be annoyances or disappointments, some upgrades can lead directly into a full-scale disaster scenario. The PC that worked OK but could work better before the upgrade turns into hefty corpse that won’t respond to your most earnest efforts to resuscitate it.

Much of this chapter focuses on working around a monstrous upgrade or upgrade-precipitated disaster, but you should feel free to use this chapter proactively to avoid the common pitfalls that can turn a good upgrade into an unwelcome calamity.

Note 

You’ll hear a great deal about protecting your data by backing it up before you perform an upgrade. While most upgrades go like clockwork, you must be prepared for those that don’t.