Dell XPS 720 User manual

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Dell™ XPS™ 720
Owner’s Manual
Model DCDO

Notes, Notices, and Cautions
NOTE: A NOTE 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.
If you purchased a Dell™ n Series computer, any references in this document to Microsoft
®
Windows
®
operating systems are not applicable.
____________________
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden.
Trademarksusedinthistext:Dell,theDELLlogo,XPS,H2C,Inspiron,DellPrecision,Dimension,OptiPlex,Latitude,PowerEdge,PowerVault,
PowerApp, TravelLite, Strike Zone, and Dell OpenManage are trademarks of Dell Inc.; Intel, Pentium,Celeron, and Intel Core 2 Extreme are
either trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation; Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista, and the Windows Vista Start button are
either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Bluetooth is a registered
trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and is used by Dell under license.
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 Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.
Model DCDO
April 2007 P/N KP688 Rev. A00

Contents 3
Contents
Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1 Setting Up and Using Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Front and Back View of the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Front View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Front I/O Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Back View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Back I/O Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Attaching the Computer Stand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Installing Your Computer in an Enclosure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Connecting Monitors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Connecting a Monitor (Without an Adapter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Connecting a Monitor (With an Adapter). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Connecting a Monitor in a Dual Graphics Card Configuration . . . . . . . 25
Connecting Two or More Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Connecting a TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Changing the Display Settings to Support Two or More Monitors . . . . . 28
About Your RAID Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
RAID Level 0 Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
RAID Level 1 Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
RAID Level 0+1 Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
RAID Level 5 Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Configuring Your Hard Drives for RAID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Setting Your Computer to RAID-Enabled Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Using the NVIDIA MediaShield ROM Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Using NVIDIA MediaShield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Copying CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Using a Media Card Reader (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Network Setup Wizard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

4Contents
Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Power Management Options in Windows XP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Standby Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Hibernate Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Power Options Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Power Management Options in Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Sleep Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Hibernate Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Configuring Power Management Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2 Optimizing for Greater Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Understanding Dual-Graphics Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Understanding CPU Overclocking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3 Dell™ QuickSet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Solving Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Battery Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
IEEE 1394 Device Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Lockups and Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Video and Monitor Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Power Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Contents 5
Diagnostic Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Beep Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
System Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
When to Use Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Starting Dell Diagnostics From Your Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Starting Dell Diagnostics From the Drivers and Utilities Media . . . . . . 73
Dell Diagnostics Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Using Windows Device Driver Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Using the Drivers and Utilities Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Restoring Your Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Using Microsoft Windows System Restore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Using Dell PC Restore and Dell Factory Image Restore . . . . . . . . . . 79
Using the Operating System Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Troubleshooting Software and Hardware Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5 Removing and Installing Parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Before You Begin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Preparing to Work Inside Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Removing the Computer Cover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Inside View of Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
System Board Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
DDR2 Memory Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Addressing Memory Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Installing Memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Removing Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

6Contents
Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Removing PCI and PCI Express Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Installing PCI and PCI Express Cards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Removing a PCI Express Graphics Card from a Dual Configuration . . . 100
Installing a PCI Express Graphics Card in a Dual Configuration . . . . . 102
Network Adapter and Sound Card Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
About Serial ATA Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
General Drive Installation Guidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Removing a Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Installing a Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Drive Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Removing the Drive Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Replacing the Drive Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Floppy Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Removing a Floppy Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Installing a Floppy Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Media Card Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Removing a Media Card Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Installing a Media Card Reader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Removing an Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Installing an Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Liquid Cooling Assembly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Safety Instructions for Liquid Cooling Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Removing the Liquid Cooling Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Installing the Liquid Cooling Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Processor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Removing the Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Installing the Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Fans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Removing the Card Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Installing the Card Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Contents 7
Removing the Optional Hard Drive Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Installing the Optional Hard Drive Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
System Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Removing the System Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Installing the System Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Power Supply (PSU) DC Connector Pin Assignments . . . . . . . . . . 143
Removing the Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Installing the Power Supply. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Front I/O Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Front I/O-Panel Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Removing the Front I/O Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Installing the I/O Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Replacing the Battery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Removing the Computer Stand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Replacing the Computer Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
6 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Entering System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
System Setup Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Boot Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Clearing Forgotten Passwords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Clearing CMOS Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Cleaning Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Computer, Keyboard, and Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Mouse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Floppy Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
CDs and DVDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

8Contents
FCC Notices (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Class A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Class B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
FCC Identification Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Contacting Dell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Finding Information 9
Finding Information
NOTE: Some features or media may be optional and may not ship with your computer. Some features or media may
not be available in certain countries.
NOTE: Additional information may ship with your computer.
What Are You Looking For? Find It Here
• A diagnostic program for my computer
• Drivers for my computer
• My device documentation
• Desktop System Software (DSS)
Drivers and Utilities Media
Documentation and drivers are already installed on your
computer. You can use the Drivers and Utilities media to
reinstall drivers (see "Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities" on
page 76), access your documentation or run the Dell
Diagnostics (see "Dell Diagnostics" on page 72).
Readme files may also be
included on your media to
provide last-minute
updates about technical
changes to your computer
or advanced technical
reference material for
technicians and
experienced users.
NOTE: Drivers and documentation updates can be found at
support.dell.com.
• Warranty information
• Terms and Conditions (U.S. only)
• Safety instructions
• Regulatory information
• Ergonomics information
• End User License Agreement
Dell™ Product Information Guide

10 Finding Information
• How to set up my computer Setup Diagram
• Service Tag and Express Service Code
• Microsoft
®
Windows
®
Product Key Label
Service Tag and Microsoft Windows Product Key
These labels are located on your computer.
• Use the Service Tag to
identify your computer
when you use
support.dell.com or
contact support.
• Enter the Express
Service Code to direct
your call when contacting support.
What Are You Looking For? Find It Here