Dell Inspiron 600m User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 600m
Owner’s Manual

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 98.
____________________
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2002–2003 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, and Celeron are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation; Microsoft
and Windows are 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
July 2003 P/N 4N142 Rev. A01

Contents 3
Contents
CAUTION: Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Air Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
EMC Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
California Residents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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

4Contents
Modem and Internet Connection Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
E-Mail Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . . . . . . 37
Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Connecting a Parallel Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Setting Up the Docking Device to Connect to a Network . . . . 41
Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3Using Batteries and Module Bay Devices
Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Removing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Installing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Removing and Installing a Reserve Battery . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
About the Module Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Checking the Charge on the Second Battery . . . . . . . . . . 54
Removing and Installing Devices While the Computer Is Turned Off
54

Contents 5
If the Device Screw Is Not Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
If the Device Screw Is Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Removing and Installing Devices While the Computer Is Running 58
If the Device Screw Is Not Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
If the Device Screw Is Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4Using the Keyboard and Touch Pad
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
CD or DVD Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Radios (Including Wireless Networking and Bluetooth™) . . . . 65
Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Speaker Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
External Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Unexpected Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5Using CDs, DVDs, and Other Multimedia
Using CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
CD and DVD Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
If you cannot play a CD or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
If you cannot eject the CD, CD-RW, or DVD drive tray . . . . . 72
If you hear an unfamiliar scraping or grinding sound . . . . . . 73
If the CD-RW drive stops writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

6Contents
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
If you have a problem with integrated speakers . . . . . . . . . 73
If you have a problem with external speakers . . . . . . . . . . 73
Copying CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Using Easy CD Creator Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Using Blank CD-R Discs or Blank CD-RW Discs . . . . . . . . 75
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
How to Copy a CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Connecting a Television to the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
S-Video Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Composite Video Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Enabling the Display Settings for a Television . . . . . . . . . 82
6Setting Up a Home and Office Network
Connecting to a Network Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Network Setup Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Connecting to Wireless Local Area Networks . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Determining your Network Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Connecting to a Network in Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Finalizing your Network Connection (Security Settings) . . . . 90
7Solving Problems
Finding Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Accessing Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Contents 7
If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
If you cannot save a file to a floppy drive . . . . . . . . . . . 102
If you have problems with a hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
PC Card Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
General Program Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
A program crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
A program stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Error messages appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
If Your Computer Gets Wet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
If You Drop or Damage Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Resolving Other Technical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Manually Reinstalling Drivers for Windows XP . . . . . . . . 109
Using System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Creating a Restore Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Restoring the Computer to an Earlier Operating State . . . . . 110
Undoing the Last System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities . . . . . . 112
Reinstalling Microsoft®Windows®XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Before You Reinstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Reinstalling Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Reinstalling Drivers and Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

8Contents
8Adding and Replacing Parts
Adding Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Adding a Mini PCI Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
9Appendix
Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Standard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Viewing the System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Commonly Used Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Dell Technical Support Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Definition of "Dell-Installed" Software and Peripherals . . . . . 139
Definition of "Third-Party" Software and Peripherals . . . . . . 139
Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Regulatory Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
NOM Information (Mexico Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Limited Warranties and Return Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Limited Warranty for Dell-Branded Hardware Products
(U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . 163
Limited Warranty Terms for Dell-Branded Hardware Products
(Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . 167
Dell Software and Peripherals (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . 167
1-Year End-User Manufacturer Guarantee (Latin America and the
Caribbean Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Intel®Warranty Statement for Pentium®and Celeron®Processors
Only (U.S. and Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Contents 9
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

10 Contents