Product 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

The included DVD contains one-of-a-kind video showing just what's inside a portable PC. If you have ever wondered what goes on inside your portable PC, how to upgrade/repair it, or how to live on the road with it, this is the one must-have book of the year!

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #383670 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 912 pages

From the Back Cover

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

The included DVD contains one-of-a-kind video showing just what's inside a portable PC. If you have ever wondered what goes on inside your portable PC, how to upgrade/repair it, or how to live on the road with it, this is the one must-have book of the year!

About the Author
Scott Mueller is the most trusted, authoritative hardware voice in the industry. In addition to teaching hardware repair to more than 10,000 computer professionals and enthusiasts, he has sold more than 2 million copies of Upgrading and Repairing PCs, making him a world-renowned hardware author and his book a classic. Scott has taught hardware repair to a host of agencies in the U.S. and foreign governments, and corporations in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. Scott also is a feature writer for Maximum PC, the industry leading PC hardware magazine. The most recent edition of Upgrading and Repairing PCs (16th) published in Sept. 2004.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Welcome to Upgrading and Repairing Laptops, the only book of its kind on the market!

Laptop computers are the largest growing part of the computer industry, with sales that continue to outpace desktop systems. For those in the industry, there has never been a better reason to get into upgrading and repairing laptops, because not only are they selling better than ever, but their higher prices allow you to charge more for services rendered.

But aren't laptops proprietary, which means they cannot easily be upgraded or repaired? Many people are familiar with the fact that desktop PCs normally use industry-standard components, which allow cost-effective upgrades and repairs to be performed. In fact, this philosophy is the basis for my best-selling book Upgrading and Repairing PCs, currently available in a 16th edition, with the 17^th edition currently in the works. However, what many people don't know is that laptop and notebook computers have evolved from being mostly proprietary to using larger and larger numbers of industry-standard components. This means, in plain English, that laptop and notebook computers are more upgradeable and repairable than ever before. Being a long-time user of portable computers myself, I thought the time was finally right to explore this subject in more depth, resulting in this book.

In this book, you will learn about all the components that make up a modern laptop or notebook computer, which components are based on industry standards and which are proprietary, and which components can easily be upgraded or replaced. As most of you know, laptops are more expensive than desktops, so whereas desktop computers are becoming more and more of a commodity, laptops are still somewhat exclusive. They are more difficult to work on, and the components are smaller and more expensive. All of this contributes to upgrades and repairs that are more expensive overall.

You can look at this book two ways: From the perspective of a laptop user, knowing how to upgrade and repair your own system can save you a bundle of money! Using the information in this book, you can effectively troubleshoot a problem; isolate the defective component; obtain a replacement; and finally perform the physical interchange of parts, the actual upgrade, or repair. This capability is useful not only for older systems, where the cost of service might exceed the value of the system, but also with newer laptops, which can be easily upgraded with newer technology such as wireless networking, faster USB or FireWire ports, more memory, larger hard disks, and even faster processors.

From the perspective of a computer technician or support person working in the industry, knowing how to upgrade and repair laptop computers gives you a significant edge over others in the industry who are afraid to open laptop systems. They can be daunting. Many of the laptops on the market today are held together by upwards of 100 screws, often consisting of several different types! They also often include many intricately assembled plastic parts that can easily break or be damaged if you don't take them apart properly. The benefit is that as a repair technician, you can charge more for laptop service and repair, which gives you another edge over other technicians who can work only on commodity-level desktop systems.

Laptops or Notebooks?

I initially struggled with the terms laptop and notebook before even beginning work on this book, not only with how to use them in the content but especially with the title. Although it was not necessarily true in the beginning, in the current context of the industry, these terms are used interchangeably to describe systems. The truth is, there is no consistent industry-wide definition of what is a laptop computer and what is a notebook computer.

Originally, there was some unofficial size differentiation between what was considered a laptop versus what was considered a notebook (the term notebook was used to describe an arbitrarily smaller version of a laptop). However, more recently that distinction has completely disappeared. Standardization on screen technology, screen sizes, as well as keyboard/pointing device layout and size have all served to muddy and eventually dissolve any differences between what was once considered a laptop and what was considered a notebook. The fact that virtually all modern portables include 13-inch (diagonal) or larger screens (which is why innovations such as the ThinkPad 701 "butterfly" collapsible keyboard aren't used anymore) as well as industry-standard keyboard layouts, integrating a pointing device and palm rest, has served to greatly equalize the sizes of such systems. There are still differences in weight and thickness between various makes and models, but in general, modern laptop/notebook systems, from the least to the most powerful and expensive, come in very similar sizes.

So what do we call these systems now? Are they laptops or notebooks? Virtually all manufacturers now use the term notebook to describe all their portable systems, from huge desktop replacements down to ultra-slim or ultra-light models. Unfortunately, outside the advertising and marketing world, few people seem to use the term notebook. Perhaps that is because if you just say "notebook," it seems too generic and could refer to something other than a computer, and thus be easily misunderstood. You almost have to say "notebook computer" for it to become clear what you mean. On the other hand, if you say "laptop," most people immediately know that you mean "laptop computer," because the term is much more widely recognized.

I conducted some informal polls of my own. In the most telling of these, I showed people a picture of a modern portable computer system and asked them, "What do you call this type of computer?" Virtually everybody replied, "A laptop!" In other cases, I asked people what the word notebook means, and I received a variety of answers, not all having to do with computers. Then I asked them what the word laptop means, and almost everybody understood it as a type of portable computer. Maybe I've just been around too long, but I think you'll find as I did that laptop is simply a much more recognizable and familiar term than notebook, whether you actually ever use one on your lap or not.

So, in spite of the industry marketing preferences for the word notebook, and even though laptop computers and notebook computers are the same thing, I decided not to call this book Upgrading and Repairing Notebooks (it even sounds weird), but instead decided to use the more understandable and recognizable Upgrading and Repairing Laptops title instead.

Throughout this book, you'll find that just as is done in the industry, I use the terms interchangeably (that is, I say "laptop" or "notebook," or both), and in almost all cases they mean exactly the same thing.

Book Objectives

I wrote this book for people who want to upgrade, repair, maintain, and troubleshoot laptop computers, as well as for those enthusiasts who want to know more about laptops or portable PC hardware in general. This book covers the full gamut of laptop and portable PCs, from the oldest to the latest in high-end multi-gigahertz mobile workstations. If you need to know about everything from the original Compaq Portable PC to the latest in PC technology on the market today, this book and the accompanying information-packed DVD-ROM are definitely for you.

This book covers state-of-the-art mobile hardware and accessories that make modern mobile computers easier, faster, and more productive to use. Inside these pages you will find in-depth coverage of every mobile processor, from the original 386SL to the latest Mobile Pentium 4, Pentium M, and Mobile Athlon XP-M.

Upgrading and Repairing Laptops also doesn't ignore the less glamorous PC components. Every part of your mobile system plays a critical role in its stability and performance. Over the course of these pages, you'll find out exactly why your mother...