Dell Inspiron 600m User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 500m
Owner’s Manual
Model PP05L
3Y647bk0.book Page 1 Wednesday, April 2, 2003 3:24 PM

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 Glossary in the Tell Me
How help file. To access the help file, click the Start button on the Microsoft®
Windows®XP desktop, click Help and Support, clickUser and system guides, click
User’s guides, and then click Tell Me How.
___________________
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, Inspiron, Dell TravelLite, Dell TrueMobile,
Dell Precision, Dimension, OptiPlex, DellNet, and Latitude are trademarks of Dell Computer
Corporation; Intel, Pentium, andCeleron are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation; Microsoft
and Windowsare registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; Bluetooth is a trademark owned
byBluetoothSIG,Inc.,andisusedbyDellComputerCorporationunderlicense;EMCisaregistered
trademark of the EMC Corporation.
Othertrademarksandtradenamesmaybeusedinthisdocumenttorefertoeithertheentitiesclaiming
themarksandnamesortheirproducts.DellComputerCorporationdisclaimsanyproprietaryinterest
in trademarks and trade names other than its own.
Model PP05L
February 2003 P/N 3Y647 Rev. A00
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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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Bottom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2Setting Up Your Computer
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Modem and Internet Connection Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
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4Contents
E-Mail Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . . . . . . 36
Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Connecting a Parallel Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Setting Up the Docking Device to Connect to a Network . . . . 41
Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3Using Batteries and Module Bay Devices
Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Removing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Installing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Removing and Installing a Reserve Battery . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
About the Module Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Checking the Charge on the Second Battery . . . . . . . . . . 51
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Contents 5
Removing and Installing Devices While the Computer
Is Turned Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
If the Device Screw Is Not Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
If the Device Screw Is Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Removing and Installing Devices While the
Computer Is Running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
If the Device Screw Is Not Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
If the Device Screw Is Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4Using the Keyboard and Touch Pad
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
CD or DVD Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Radios (Including Wireless Networking and the
Bluetooth™ Card) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Speaker Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
External Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Unexpected Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5Using CDs, DVDs, and Other Multimedia
Using CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
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6Contents
CD and DVD Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
If you cannot play a CD or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
If you cannot eject the CD, CD-RW, or DVD drive tray . . . . . 68
If you hear an unfamiliar scraping or grinding sound . . . . . . 69
If the CD-RW drive stops writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
If you have a problem with integrated speakers . . . . . . . . . 69
If you have a problem with external speakers . . . . . . . . . . 69
Copying CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Using Easy CD Creator Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Using Blank CD-R Discs or Blank CD-RW Discs . . . . . . . . 71
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
How to Copy a CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Connecting a Television to the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
S-Video Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Composite Video Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Enabling the Display Settings for a Television . . . . . . . . . 78
6Setting Up a Home and Office Network
Connecting to a Network Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Network Setup Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
7Solving Problems
Finding Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Accessing Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
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Contents 7
Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
If you cannot save a file to a floppy drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
If you have problems with a hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
PC Card Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
General Program Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
A program crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
A program stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Error messages appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
If Your Computer Gets Wet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
If You Drop or Damage Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Resolving Other Technical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Manually Reinstalling Drivers for Windows XP . . . . . . . . . 97
Using System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Creating a Restore Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Restoring the Computer to an Earlier Operating State . . . . . . 98
Undoing the Last System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities . . . . . . . 99
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8Contents
Reinstalling Microsoft®Windows®XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Before You Reinstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Reinstalling Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Reinstalling Drivers and Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
8Adding and Replacing Parts
Adding Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Adding a Mini PCI Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
9Appendix
Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Standard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Viewing the System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Commonly Used Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Dell Technical Support Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Definition of "Dell-Installed" Software and Peripherals . . . . . 127
Definition of "Third-Party" Software and Peripherals . . . . . . 127
Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Regulatory Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
NOM Information (Mexico Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Limited Warranties and Return Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Limited Warranty for the U.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (U.S. Only). . . . . . . . . . 150
Limited Warranty Terms for Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . 155
Dell Software and Peripherals (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . 155
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Contents 9
One-Year End-User Manufacturer Guarantee
(Latin America and the Caribbean Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Intel®Warranty Statement for Pentium®and
Celeron®Processors Only (U.S. and Canada Only) . . . . . . . 158
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
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10 Contents
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