Written by best-selling PC repair author and educator Jean Andrews, the fifth edition of A+ Guide to Managing, Maintaining, and Troubleshooting maps fully to CompTIA's 2009 A+ Exam objectives. This full-color guide is the most complete, step-by-step book available for learning the fundamentals of supporting and troubleshooting computer hardware. At the same time, it prepares readers to successfully pass the A+ 220-701 and 220-702 exams. The new edition is formatted to support any teaching or learning style and course format, featuring an essentials-to-practical organization within each chapter and inclusion of tabs distinguishing exam content. Further content and live demonstrations with Jean Andrews are available on the accompanying CD, making this new edition a total solution for hardware maintenance and repair.
Even though the CompTIA A+ exam objectives changed in 2006 from the old version of hardware and software, that is still the way that most people teach and learn the material. Therefore, this book and its companion volume CompTIA A+ Guide to Software cover all the material for the exams 220-601 A+ Essentials, 220-602 A+ IT Technician, 220-603 A+ Remote Support Technician and 220-604 Depot Technician.
These books have a number of great features. First is the exam objective map in the front cover of each book. It maps the exam objectives for each of the four exams to the chapters in the books. The second is the side marks; on each page there are either green or blue sidebars marking what part of the page is for what exam, or if it is not. (See Image) The extensive Appendixes in this book include:
o Appendix A How an OS Uses System Resources o Appendix B Electricity and Multimeters o Appendix C Supporting SCSI and Legacy Devices o Appendix D Disassembling a Notebook o Appendix E CompTIA A+ Acronym
These are very helpful and really should be essential reading for certification exam prep. Both books also have an extensive glossary; each word that is in the glossary appears in blue in the text of the book. From there the books become very different. The CD that comes with this book includes the Course.com test software and the Certblaster test software, as well as a slew of other resources to help you. If however you are working on this by yourself, get the Instructors book. It is the same book but the CD has extra features like test generation software, textbook answer keys, and powerpoint presentations for each chapter.
The Chapters are: 1.Introducing Hardware 2.PC Repair Fundamentals 3.Form Factors and Power Supplies 4.Processors and Chipsets 5.Motherboards 6.Upgrading Memory 7.Hard Drives 8.Installing and Supporting I/O Devices 9.Multimedia Devices and Mass Storage 10.PCs on a Network 11.Notebooks, Tablet PCs, and PDAs 12.Supporting Printers and Scanners
I have seen two or three other A+ books that friends have used, and none are as well laid out or designed for learning as these two. I have gone back and referenced these books a number of times, and use them almost every week. Worth the investment in a good resource for your IT tool box. The best thing about IT is realizing that you cannot know it all. A good IT person knows how to troubleshoot, how to research, and continually builds a network or contacts that they can draw upon. These two books will teach the first and give you a good start on the second. Other resources for you to draw upon are the CompTIA IT Pro forums, the CompTIA Facebook group, the CompTIA Certification site and the CompTIA LinkedIn groups.
Jean Andrews is a noted author of Computer and Software books, This is an excellent choice for those teaching as well as those learning, It covers all the basics and is outlined to help prepare the student to take the Comptia A + exam, noting all the required knowledge base. It offers up step by step how to do, and chapter reviews as well as critical thinking questions
Of course I read this as part of the class assignment but found it a great aid and one I will keep and use for a reference guide going forward, whether your a student or wanting to learn on your own this is a great choice.
This volume says 2009. For 2009 it is terribly dated. All it describes is some old desktop technology. And it is very basic. And it has way too many pages for a basic book. Yes, some pages are still relevant, but the information is less than on an Wikipedia page.