Dell Dimension 5100 User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 5100 and 5150
Owner’s Manual
Model PP07L and PP08L

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.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
For a complete list of abbreviations and acronyms, see the Tell Me How help file. To access
the help file, see page 80.
____________________
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2003 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, AccessDirect, UltraSharp, Inspiron, Dell Precision, Dimension,
OptiPlex, Latitude, Dell TrueMobile, and DellNet are trademarks of Dell Computer Corporation; Intel, Pentium,and
Celeron are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation; Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation; EMC is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation; Bluetooth is a trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG,
Inc. and is used by Dell Computer Corporation 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 Computer Corporation disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names
other than its own.
Model PP07L and PP08L
July 2003 P/N M1708 Rev. A02

Contents 3
Contents
CAUTION: Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Air Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
EMC Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
When Using Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Ergonomic Computing Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
When Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Battery Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1A Tour of Your Computer
Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Bottom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2Setting Up Your Computer
Adjusting Font and Icon Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Adjusting Font Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Adjusting Icon Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

4Contents
Dell™ QuickSet Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Clicking the QuickSet Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Double-Clicking the QuickSet Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Right-Clicking the QuickSet Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Modem and Internet Connection Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
E-Mail Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . . . . . . 36
Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3Using a Battery
Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Power Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Removing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Installing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Contents 5
Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Battery and Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
If the battery is not charging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
If battery life is short . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4Using the Keyboard and Touch Pad
Dell™ AccessDirect™ Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Reprogramming the Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Speaker Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
External Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Unexpected Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5Using CDs, DVDs, and Other Multimedia
Using CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
CD or DVD Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
If you cannot play a CD, CD-RW, DVD, or DVD+RW . . . . . . 56
If you cannot eject the CD, CD-RW, DVD, or DVD+RW drive tray 56
If you hear an unfamiliar scraping or grinding sound . . . . . . 56
If the CD-RW or DVD+RW drive stops writing . . . . . . . . . 56

6Contents
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
If you have a problem with integrated speakers . . . . . . . . . 57
If you have a problem with external speakers . . . . . . . . . . 57
Connecting a Television to the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
S-Video Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Composite Video Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Enabling the Display Settings for a Television . . . . . . . . . 62
6Setting Up a Home and Office Network
Connecting to a Network Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Network Setup Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Connecting to Wireless Local Area Networks . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Determining Your Network Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Connecting to a Network in Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Finalizing Your Network Connection (Security Settings) . . . . 71
7Solving Problems
Finding Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Accessing Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
If you cannot save a file to a floppy drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Contents 7
If you have problems with a hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
PC Card Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
General Program Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
A program crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
A program stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Error messages appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Resolving Other Technical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
If Your Computer Gets Wet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
If You Drop or Damage Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Reinstalling Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Manually Reinstalling Drivers for Windows XP . . . . . . . . . 91
Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities . . . . . . . 92
Using System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Creating a Restore Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Restoring the Computer to an Earlier Operating State . . . . . . 93
Undoing the Last System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Reinstalling Microsoft®Windows®XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Before You Reinstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Reinstalling Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
8Adding and Replacing Parts
Before You Add or Replace Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Modem and Mini PCI Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Adding a Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

8Contents
Adding a Mini PCI Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
CD or DVD Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
9Appendix
Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Using the System Setup Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Viewing the System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Commonly Used Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
System and Battery Performance Optimization . . . . . . . . . 124
System Performance Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Optimizing Power Consumption and Battery Charge Time . . . 124
Variable Speed Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Dell Technical Support Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Definition of "Dell-Installed" Software and Peripherals . . . . . 125
Definition of "Third-Party" Software and Peripherals . . . . . . 126
Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Regulatory Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
NOM Information (Mexico Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Limited Warranties and Return Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Limited Warranty for Dell-Branded Hardware Products (U.S. Only)
145
"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . 148
Limited Warranty Terms for Dell-Branded Hardware Products (Canada
Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Contents 9
"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . 151
Dell Software and Peripherals (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . 152
1-Year End-User Manufacturer Guarantee (Latin America and the
Caribbean Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Intel®Warranty Statement for Pentium®and Celeron®Processors
Only
(U.S. and Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

10 Contents