The Irq Book

by Kate Chase

Error messages and system freezes are all too common to PCs as they try to cope with the techno-weight of modems, printers, scanners, video boards, sound cards, and other multiple devices heaped on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071346988
• ISBN13: 9780071346986
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Computing McGraw-Hill
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Good Reference Material

The IRQ book, by Kate Chase, is written as a reference guide that covers what system interrupts are and how they interact with various hardware devices. The book also covers DMA channels and I/O address ranges, and gives troubleshooting advice for several hardware related issues.Although this book is not as comprehensive as some other hardware books, it is easy to read, relatively inexpensive, and is written at a reasonable technical level.The book is becoming outdated now, but that is unavoidable in the computer world. Operating systems covered in The IRQ Book include DOS, Windows 3.x, 95, 98, and NT 4.0. The book does not cover Windows 2000 as it was written well before that software was released. The book also does not cover any other operating systems besides those previously mentioned.The book includes a CD-ROM of diagnostic software. The software is designed to test and report your computer's hardware configuration. The only reference the book makes to the software is that you can "diagnose and fix problems with the companion CD-ROM". There are no instructions or documentation for the sofware anywhere in the book besides the license agreement. The book also does not mention that the "free" software is a 14 day evaluation version.For the price of the book, the software may be a good investment. However, the software runs very close to the Hardware level, and running the software may cause system crashes. This fact is mentioned in the online documentation bundled with the software. On the bright side, the software does give you a fairly detailed report of your system configuration.The IRQ Book was written for intermediate to advanced level computer users. I would recommend this book to any individual with a basic understanding of computers, that wishes to learn more about what is going on inside their computer at the hardware level.

very helpful

Today's computers all seem to be pnp..even so half the devices came out after 98 was released so Kate's book will help the computer installer with some of the most common problems we are all are seeing today.untill computer makers and hardware makers send microsoft the devices drivers on time.. we are all needing a bit of help Great Book ..enjoyed it alot