The intended audience of this puzzling book is not clear. Nearlyall of the information is very dated (so much so that I expected to finda date of 1987, not 1992, on the copyright page).

The content varies between the superficial and the detailed. Itcould be of use to the hobbyist, but additional material would berequired if substantial repair activity were envisaged.

The first three chapters provide an overview of“typical” PC hardware; typical, that is, some years ago.Included are machines from Columbia, Corona, and other names from thepast; they are described in the present tense, however. Hordeski doesnot mention PS/2 systems, or MCA or EISA bus systems. The book makesonly the occasional passing reference to 80386 processors, and none to80486s or Pentiums.

Chapter 4 is meant to cover diagnostic hardware and software. Itconsists mainly of descriptions of a few power-on error codes for IBMmachines (sometimes used by other manufacturers), switch settings forearly IBM PCs, and some simple troubleshooting flowcharts.

Chapter 5 considers floppy disks and hard disks. Again, olderhardware predominates, although the author makes some mention of3.5-inch floppy disks. IDE interfaces are not covered. Chapter 6discusses video displays and video subsystems, and states that the verylatest technology is VGA. No mention is made of anydisplay with higher resolution or more colors than this.

Chapter 7 covers printers; because the technology has not changedmuch in the last few years, it contains a limited amount of usefulmaterial relating to impact printers. Chapter 8 covers network problems;discussion of Ethernet is limited to thick wire (10Base5) systems. Theexistence of thin wire or twisted pair media is not mentioned. The lasttwo chapters cover input devices and general testing techniques; again,a lot of the material is dated.

A general air of suspended animation hangs over the whole book. Forexample, the latest version of DOS mentioned is 3.3; the Nortonutilities are mentioned at version 4.0.

Enthusiasts and those repairing old hardware might find this bookworthwhile and even a reasonable value. I cannot recommendit for use by any person or organization whose hardware is less thanfour or five years old, however.