Dell Inspiron 1520 User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 1520 Owner’s Manual
Model PP22L

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 is a registered trademark and Core is a trademark of Intel Corporation;
Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Vista are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation in the United States and/or other countries; Blu-ray Disc is a trademark of the Blu-ray
Disc Association; 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 PP22L
October 2007 P/N UX862 Rev. A03

Contents 3
Contents
Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1 About Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Determining Your Computer’s Configuration . . . . . . 21
Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Bottom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2 Setting Up Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . 36
Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . 37
Windows Easy Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

4Contents
Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . 40
3 Using the Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Adjusting Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Using a Projector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Making Images and Text Look Bigger or Sharper . . . 41
Microsoft®Windows®XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Windows Vista®. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Using Both a Monitor and Your Computer Display . . . 43
Microsoft Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Setting Display Resolution and Refresh Rate . . . . . . 44
Microsoft Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4 Using the Keyboard and Touchpad . . . . . 47
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . 49
Dell™ QuickSet Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . 49
Adjusting Keyboard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Contents 5
Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5 Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Dell QuickSet Battery Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Microsoft®Windows®Battery Meter . . . . . . . 55
Charge Gauge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Conserving Battery Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Power Management Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Standby and Sleep Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Hibernate Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Configuring Power Management Settings . . . . . . . 58
Accessing Power Options Properties . . . . . . . 58
Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Replacing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
6 Using Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Playing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Playing Media Using Dell Travel Remote
(Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

6Contents
Copying CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) Media . . . 64
How to Copy a CD, DVD, or BD . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Using Blank CD, DVD, and BD Media . . . . . . . 65
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Adjusting the Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Adjusting the Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Using Dell MediaDirect™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Connecting Your Computer to a TV or
Audio Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
S-Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
S-Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . 73
Composite Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . 75
Composite Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 77
Component Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . 79
Component Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 81
Enabling the Display Settings for a TV . . . . . . . 84
7 Using ExpressCards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
ExpressCard Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Installing an ExpressCard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Removing an ExpressCard or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 89
8 Using the Memory Card Reader . . . . . . . 91
Memory Card Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Installing a Memory Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Removing a Memory Card or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Contents 7
9 Setting Up and Using Networks . . . . . . . 93
Connecting a Network or Broadband
Modem Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Setting Up a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Wireless Local Area Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
What You Need to Establish a WLAN
Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Checking Your Wireless Network Card . . . . . . 95
Setting Up a New WLAN Using a
Wireless Router and a Broadband Modem . . . . 96
Connecting to a WLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Mobile Broadband (or Wireless Wide
Area Network) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
What You Need to Establish a Mobile
Broadband Network Connection . . . . . . . . . 100
Checking Your Dell Mobile Broadband Card . . . . 100
Connecting to a Mobile Broadband
Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Enabling/Disabling the Dell Mobile
Broadband Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Dell Wi-Fi Catcher™ Network Locator . . . . . . . . . 102
10 Securing Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Security Cable Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
If Your Computer Is Lost or Stolen . . . . . . . . . . . 105

8Contents
11 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Dell Technical Update Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Dell Support Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Dell Support 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Dell PC Tune-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Dell PC CheckUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Dell Network Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
DellConnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Optical drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Hard drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . 117
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
ExpressCard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
IEEE 1394 Device Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
External Keyboard problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Unexpected characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Lockups and Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
The computer does not start . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
The computer stops responding . . . . . . . . . . 127
A program stops responding or
crashes repeatedly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
A program is designed for an earlier
Microsoft®Windows®operating system . . . . . 127
A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Contents 9
Dell MediaDirect problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Other software problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Mobile Broadband (Wireless Wide Area
Network [WWAN]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
No sound from integrated speakers . . . . . . . . 135
No sound from external speakers . . . . . . . . . 135
No sound from headphones . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . 138
If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . 139
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . 140
Troubleshooting Software and Hardware
Problems in the Microsoft®Windows®XP and
Microsoft Windows Vista®Operating Systems . . . . 143
Restoring Your Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Using Microsoft Windows System Restore . . . . 145

10 Contents
Starting System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Using Dell™ PC Restore and Dell Factory
Image Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Using the Operating System Media . . . . . . . . 150
12 Adding and Replacing Parts . . . . . . . . . 153
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Before Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . 154
Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Removing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Removing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Replacing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Removing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Replacing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Removing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Replacing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Removing the DIMM A Memory Module . . . . . . 163
Replacing the DIMM A Memory Module . . . . . 165
Removing the DIMM B Memory Module . . . . . . 166
Replacing the DIMM B Memory Module . . . . . 167