On 10 Jul 98 at 8:03, Dave Souza wrote:

> Stephen Bigelow has written several computer repair references
> that I have found invaluable.  His books are well written and easy
> to understand.  They cover from basic building to advanced
> troubleshooting of PCs.  Just what you'd need for students.

  Bigelow writes a column which appears in Computer Currents.
Although his explanations tend to be clear, it seems to be normal for
1-3 of them (he answers 3-4 reader questions in each column) to be
incorrect[*], sometimes seriously.
  It's possible that his books receive better proofreading than the
column, but without knowing for sure, I'm reluctant to recommend
them.

[*] In the June 16 issue on my desk, he responds to a problem with a
Cyrix PR200+ failing at its normal 2.0x75 setting (apparently due to
newly-installed memory that probably can't handle 75 MHz).  He
recommends running the chip at 3.0x60 or 3.0x50.
  But the querent's letter, as printed, doesn't mention MMX.  The
non-MMX Cyrix versions suport only the 2.0 multiplier, so his
suggestion is going to slow the system waaay down.  [I would not
recommend running any modern CPU at less than 66 MHz.  And in this
case, I'd replace the memory upgrade with something that will work
at 75 MHz....]

David G