Dell SmartStep 150D User manual

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DELL CONFIDENTI
DELL CONFIDENTIDELL CONFIDENTI
DELL CONFIDENTIAL – PRELIMINAR
AL – PRELIMINARAL – PRELIMINAR
AL – PRELIMINARY 2/19/02
Y 2/19/02Y 2/19/02
Y 2/19/02
www.dell.com | support.dell.com
Dell™ SmartStep™ 150D

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DELL
DELLDELL
DELL CONFIDENTIA
CONFIDENTIACONFIDENTIA
CONFIDENTIAL – PRELIMINAR
L – PRELIMINARL – PRELIMINAR
L – PRELIMINARY 2/19/02
Y 2/19/02Y 2/19/02
Y 2/19/02
HINT: A HINT indicates important information that helps you make better
use of your computer.
NOTICE: A NOTICE indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of
data and tells you how to avoid the problem.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates a potential for property damage,
personal injury, or death.
For a complete list of abbreviations and acronyms, see the Tell Me How help
file. To access help files, see page 22.
____________________
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2002 Dell Computer Corporation. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Computer
Corporation is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell, the DELL logo, SmartStep, Dimension,Inspiron, Latitude,
OptiPlex, Dell Precision, DellPlus, and DellNet are trademarks of Dell Computer Corporation;
Intel is a registered trademark and Celeron is a trademark of Intel Corporation; Microsoft and
Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities
claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Computer Corporation disclaims any
proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.
This product incorporates copyright protection technology that is protected by method claims of
certain U.S. patents and other intellectual property rights owned by Macrovision Corporation
and other rights owners. Use of this copyright protection technology must be authorized by
Macrovision Corporation, and is intended for home and other limited viewing uses only unless
otherwise authorized by Macrovision Corporation. Reverse engineering or disassembly is
prohibited.
February 2002 P/N 1N016 Rev. A00

Contents 3
Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
When Using Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Ergonomic Computing Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
When Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1Setting Up
Connecting a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Parallel Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Installing the Printer Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Setting Up a Home and Office Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Turning Off the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2Solving Problems
Finding Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Accessing Help Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Start-Up Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Video and Monitor Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
If the screen is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
If the screen is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4Contents
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
If your computer has speakers, use this section
to solve speaker problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
If you cannot print to a parallel port printer . . . . . . . . . . 27
If you cannot print to a USB printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Modem Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
If you cannot save a file to a floppy disk . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
If you cannot play a music CD or install
a program from a CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
If you have a hard drive problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Microsoft®Windows®Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
General Program Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
A program crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
A program stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
A program error causes the system to lock up . . . . . . . . . 35
A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
A program is designed for an earlier
Windows operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Internet Connection Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
If you have a problem with your Internet connection . . . . . . 36
E-Mail Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Resolving Other Technical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Contents 5
Reinstalling Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Using the Windows XP Device Driver Rollback . . . . . . . . . 39
Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities . . . . . . . 40
Using System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Creating a Restore Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Restoring the Computer to an Earlier Operating State . . . . . . 43
Undoing the Last System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Reinstalling Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3Adding Parts
Front and Back View of the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Removing the Computer Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Rotating the Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Looking Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
System Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Adding a 3.5-Inch Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Adding Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Removing Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Adding Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Replacing the Computer Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4Appendix
Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Standard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Viewing Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
System Setup Program Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

6Contents
Clearing Forgotten Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Replacing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Dell Technical Support Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Definition of "Dell-Installed" Software and Peripherals . . . . . 83
Definition of "Third-Party" Software and Peripherals . . . . . . 83
Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Contact Numbers and Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Returning Items for Warranty Repair or Credit . . . . . . . . . 99
Regulatory Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
FCC Notices (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Battery Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
NOM Information (Mexico Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Limited Warranties and Return Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
90-Day Limited Warranty (United States Only) . . . . . . . . 105
One-Year Limited Warranty (United States
and Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (United States Only) . . . . . 110
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Safety Instructions 7
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DELL CONFIDENTIA
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Use the following safety guidelines to protect yourself and your computer.
When Using Your Computer
CAUTION: Do not operate your computer with any cover(s)
(including the computer cover, filler brackets, front-panel inserts,
and so on) removed or opened.
•To help avoid damaging your computer, be sure that the voltage
selection switch is set to match the AC power available at your
location:
– 115 V/60 Hz in most of North and South America and some Far
Eastern countries such as South Korea and Taiwan
– 100 V/50 Hz in eastern Japan and 100 V/60 Hz in western Japan
NOTE: The voltage selection switch must be set to the 115V position
even though the AC supply in Japan is 100 V.
– 230 V/50 Hz in most of Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East
Also be sure that your monitor and attached devices are electrically
rated to operate with the AC power available in your location.
•To avoid shorting out your computer when disconnecting a network
cable, first unplug the cable from the network adapter on the back of
your computer, and then from the network jack. When reconnecting a
network cable to your computer, first plug the cable into the network
jack, and then into the network adapter.
•To help avoid possible damage to the system board, wait 5 seconds
after turning off the computer before disconnecting or connecting a
non-USB device from the computer.
11 5 V

8Safety Instructions
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•To help prevent electric shock, plug the computer and device power
cables into properly grounded power sources. These cables are
equipped with 3-prong plugs to help ensure proper grounding. Do not
use adapter plugs or remove the grounding prong from a cable. If you
must use an extension cable, use a 3-wire cable with properly grounded
plugs.
•To help protect your computer from sudden, transient increases and
decreases in electrical power, use a surge suppressor, line conditioner,
or uninterruptible power supply.
•Be sure that nothing rests on your computer’s cables and that the
cables are not located where they can be stepped on or tripped over.
•Do not spill food or liquids on your computer. If the computer gets
wet, contact Dell (see page 84).
•Do not push any objects into the openings of your computer. Doing so
can cause fire or electric shock by shorting out interior components.
•Keep your computer away from radiators and heat sources. Also, do not
block cooling vents. Avoid placing loose papers underneath your
computer; do not place your computer in a closed-in wall unit or on a
bed, sofa, or rug.
Ergonomic Computing Habits
CAUTION: Improper or prolonged keyboard use may result in
injury.
CAUTION: Viewing the monitor screen for extended periods of
time may result in eye strain.
For comfort and efficiency, observe the following ergonomic guidelines
when setting up and using your computer:
•Position your computer so that the monitor and keyboard are directly
in front of you as you work. Special shelves are available (from Dell and
other sources) to help you correctly position your keyboard.
•Set the monitor at a comfortable viewing distance (usually 510 to 610
millimeters [20 to 24 inches] from your eyes).
•Make sure the monitor screen is at eye level or slightly lower when you
are sitting in front of the monitor.

Safety Instructions 9
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•Adjust the tilt of the monitor, its contrast and brightness settings, and
the lighting around you (such as overhead lights, desk lamps, and the
curtains or blinds on nearby windows) to minimize reflections and
glare on the monitor screen.
•Use a chair that provides good lower back support.
•Keep your forearms horizontal with your wrists in a neutral,
comfortable position while using the keyboard or mouse.
•Always leave space to rest your hands while using the keyboard or
mouse.
•Let your upper arms hang naturally at your sides.
•Sit erect with your feet resting on the floor and your thighs level.
•When sitting, make sure the weight of your legs is on your feet and not
on the front of your chair seat. Adjust your chair’s height or use a
footrest, if necessary, to maintain proper posture.
•Vary your work activities. Try to organize your work so that you do not
have to type for extended periods of time. When you stop typing, try
to do things that use both hands.

10 Safety Instructions
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When Working Inside Your Computer
As you use your computer, observe the following safe-handling guidelines.
CAUTION: Do not attempt to service the computer yourself,
except as explained in this guide and elsewhere in Dell
documentation. Always follow installation and service
instructions closely.
1Perform an orderly computer shutdown using the operating system
menu (see page 18).
2Turn off your computer and any devices.
monitor screen at or
below eye level
wrists relaxed
and flat
computer positioned
directly in front of
user
arms at desk
level
feet flat on the
floor