Dell Inspiron 1150 User manual

www.dell.com | support.dell.com
Dell™ Inspiron™ 1150
Owner’s Manual
Model 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 Dell Inspiron Help file. To access the help file,
see page 9.
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.
© 2004 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, AccessDirect, Inspiron, Dell Precision, Dimension, OptiPlex, Latitude, PowerApp,
PowerEdge, PowerConnect, PowerVault, and DellNet are trademarks of Dell Inc.; 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 Inc. 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 PP08L
November 2004 P/N F7573 Rev. A01

Contents 3
Contents
Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1 A Tour of Your Computer
Front View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Bottom View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2 Setting Up Your Computer
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Modem and Internet Connection Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
E-Mail Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Printer Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4Contents
3 Using a Battery
Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Power Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Removing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Installing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Storing a Battery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Battery and Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
If the battery is not charging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
If battery life is short . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4 Using the Keyboard and Touch Pad
Dell™ AccessDirect™ Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Reprogramming the Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
CD or DVD Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Power Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Speaker Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
External Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Unexpected Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Contents 5
5 Using CDs, DVDs, and Other Multimedia
Using CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
CD or DVD Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
If you cannot play a CD, CD-RW, or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
If you cannot eject the CD, CD-RW, or DVD drive tray . . . . . . . . . . 39
If you hear an unfamiliar scraping or grinding sound . . . . . . . . . . 39
If the CD-RW drive stops writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
If you have a problem with integrated speakers. . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
If you have a problem with external speakers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Copying CDs and DVDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
How to Copy a CD or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Using Blank CD-Rs and CD-RWs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
6 Setting Up a Home and Office Network
Connecting to a Network Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Network Setup Wizard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Network Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Connecting to a Wireless Local Area Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Determining Your Network Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Connecting to a Wireless Network in Microsoft®Windows®XP. . . . . 45
7 Solving Problems
Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
When to Use the Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
If the display is difficult to read. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

6Contents
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
If you cannot save a file to a floppy drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
If you have problems with a hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
PC Card Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
General Program Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
A program crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
A program stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Error messages appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Resolving Other Technical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
If Your Computer Gets Wet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
If You Drop or Damage Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Identifying Drivers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Reinstalling Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Manually Reinstalling Drivers for Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Restoring Your Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Using Microsoft Windows XP System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Using Dell PC Restore by Symantec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
8 Adding and Replacing Parts
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Shutting Down Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Hard Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Modem and Mini PCI Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Replacing the Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Adding a Mini PCI Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
CD or DVD Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Contents 7
9 Appendix
Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Using the System Setup Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Viewing the System Setup Screens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
System Setup Screens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Commonly Used Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
System and Battery Performance Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
System Performance Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Optimizing Power Consumption and Battery Charge Time . . . . . . . . 89
Variable Speed Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Dell Technical Support Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Definition of "Dell-Installed" Software and Peripherals . . . . . . . . . 90
Definition of "Third-Party" Software and Peripherals . . . . . . . . . . 90
FCC Notices (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

8Contents

Finding Information 9
Finding Information
NOTE: Some features may not be available for your computer or in certain countries.
NOTE: Additional information may ship with your computer.
What Are You Looking For? Find It Here
• Warranty information
• Terms and Conditions (U.S. only)
• Safety instructions
• Regulatory information
• Ergonomics information
• End User License Agreement
Dell™ Product Information Guide
• How to set up my computer Setup Diagram

10 Finding Information
www.dell.com | support.dell.com
• Tips on using Microsoft
®
Windows
®
• How to play CDs and DVDs
• How to use standby mode and hibernate mode
• How to change my display resolution
• How to clean my computer
Help File
1 Click the Start button and click Help and Support .
2 Click User and system guides and click User’s guides .
3 Click Dell Inspiron Help .
• Service Tag and Express Service Code
• Microsoft Windows License Label
Service Tag and Microsoft Windows License
These labels are located on
the bottom of your computer.
• Use the Service Tag to
identify your
computer when you
use
support.dell.com
or contact
technical support.
• Enter the Express Service Code to direct your call when
contacting technical support.
What Are You Looking For? Find It Here