Dell 1526 - Inspiron - Laptop User manual

www.dell.com | support.dell.com
Dell™ Inspiron™ 1525/1526
Owner’s Manual
Model PP29L

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.
___________________
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.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell, the DELL logo, Inspiron, Wi-Fi Catcher, and Dell MediaDirect
are trademarks of Dell Inc.; Intel and Core are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation.; AMD, AMD
Turion, Athlon, Sempron, ATI Radeon and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro
Devices, Inc.; Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Vista are either trademarks or registered trademarks
of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries; Bluetooth is a registered
trademarkownedbyBluetoothSIG,Inc.andisusedbyDellunderlicense.Blu-rayDiscisatrademark
of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
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 PP29L
October 2007 P/N NN491 Rev. A01

Contents 3
Contents
Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1 About Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Bottom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2 Setting Up Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . 32
Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . 33
Windows Easy Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . 36

4Contents
3 Using the Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Adjusting Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Switching the Video Image From Your
Computer Display To a Projector . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Setting Display Resolution and Refresh Rate . . . . . . 38
4 Using the Keyboard and Touchpad . . . . . 39
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . 41
Dell™ QuickSet Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . 41
Adjusting Keyboard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
5 Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Dell QuickSet Battery Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Microsoft®Windows®Battery Meter . . . . . . . 47
Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Contents 5
Conserving Battery Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Configuring Power Management Settings . . . . . 48
Using the Sleep Power State . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Replacing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6 Using Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Playing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Playing Media Using
Dell Travel Remote (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Copying CD, DVD, and
Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
How to Copy a CD, DVD or BD . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Using Blank CD, DVD, and BD Media . . . . . . . 55
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Adjusting the Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Adjusting the Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Using Dell MediaDirect™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Connecting Your Computer to a TV or
Audio Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
S-Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
S-Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . 62
Composite Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . 64
Composite Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 66
Component Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . 68

6Contents
Component Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 71
HDMI (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Enabling the Display Settings for a TV . . . . . . . 74
7 Using the Optional Camera . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Accessing the Camera’s Help File . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Manually Adjusting the Camera Settings . . . . . . . . 76
Creating a Picture or a Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
8 Using Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
ExpressCards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
ExpressCard Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Installing an ExpressCard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Removing an ExpressCard or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Memory Card Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Memory Card Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Installing a Memory Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Removing a Memory Card or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 81
9 Setting Up and Using Networks . . . . . . . 83
Connecting a Network or
Broadband Modem Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Setting Up a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Contents 7
Wireless Local Area Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
What You Need to Establish a
WLAN Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Checking Your Wireless Network Card . . . . . . 84
Setting Up a New WLAN Using a
Wireless Router and a Broadband Modem . . . . 85
Connecting to a WLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Mobile Broadband
(or Wireless Wide Area Network) . . . . . . . . . . . 88
What You Need to Establish a
Mobile Broadband Network Connection . . . . . 88
Checking Your Dell Mobile Broadband Card . . . . 89
Connecting to a Mobile Broadband Network . . . 90
Enabling/Disabling the
Dell Mobile Broadband Card . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Dell Wi-Fi Catcher™ Network Locator . . . . . . . . . 91
10 Securing Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Security Cable Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
If Your Computer Is Lost or Stolen . . . . . . . . . . . 94
11 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Dell Technical Update Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Dell Support Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Dell Support 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
DellConnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

8Contents
Network Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
PC TuneUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
PC CheckUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Optical drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Hard drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . 104
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
ExpressCard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
IEEE 1394 Device Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
External Keyboard problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Unexpected characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Lockups and Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
The computer does not start . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
The computer stops responding . . . . . . . . . . 113
A program stops responding or
crashes repeatedly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
A program is designed for an earlier
Microsoft®Windows®operating system . . . . . 114
A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Dell MediaDirect problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Other software problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Mobile Broadband
(Wireless Wide Area Network [WWAN]) . . . . . 117
Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Contents 9
Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
No sound from integrated speakers . . . . . . . . 120
No sound from external speakers . . . . . . . . . 121
No sound from headphones . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . 123
If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . 124
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . 125
Troubleshooting Software and
Hardware Problems in the Windows Vista®
Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Restoring Your Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Using Windows Vista System Restore . . . . . . . 128
12 Adding and Replacing Parts . . . . . . . . . 133
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Before Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . 134

10 Contents
Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Removing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Removing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Replacing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Removing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Replacing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Removing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Replacing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Removing Memory Module . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Replacing Memory Module . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Subscriber Identity Module (Optional) . . . . . . . . . 146
Wireless Mini-Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Removing Mini-Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Replacing Mini-Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Flash Cache Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Removing the FCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Replacing the FCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Broadcom®Media PC Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Internal Card With Bluetooth®
Wireless Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Removing the Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Replacing the Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152