Introduction

I've been working with computers for more than 20 years now. The first machines I used were big and slow and very finicky, and as far removed from "user friendly" as you can imagine. It took a lot of trial and error (and blood, sweat, and tears) to get those early PCs to do anything, so users got used to opening up the case and replacing this or the other part just to keep things up and running.

Computers then were kind of like the technological equivalent of an old Model T in a world where everyone had to be their own mechanic.

Fortunately for all of us, computers got smaller and faster and easier to use. They also got more reliable, although they're still far from perfect. Not a week goes by that I don't get a call from some friend or family member telling me that their PC won't do this or that, and pleading for just a little bit of help.

Well, that's what this book offers a bit of help.

Absolute Beginner's Guide to Upgrading and Fixing Your PC will help you in lots of ways. This book will help you better understand how your PC works, so that you can more easily get it to do what you want it to do. This book will also help you upgrade some or all of the components of your computer system, so that it will run faster or more reliably or just be able to do more things better. And, finally, this book will help you when things go wrong you'll learn how to track down and fix all sorts of pesky PC problems.

This book will help you do all those things, even (and especially) if you're an absolute beginner where computers are concerned. You don't have to be a techie to keep your computer up and running. The advice I give you is simple and practical and easy to do for anyone.

That means, of course, that there are some more advanced upgrades and repairs that I don't go into. That's okay; my motto is if you need anything more than a screwdriver, let a professional do it. The good news is that there's a lot of cool and useful stuff you can do with just a screwdriver or even your bare hands!

(By the way, if you're interested in more technically advanced hardware issues than what I cover in this book, I heartily recommend what is now a classic in the computer book publishing industry: Que's Upgrading and Repairing PCs, a 1000+ page tome by the extremely knowledgeable Scott Mueller. It picks up where this book leaves off and then some!)