Dell Inspiron 8500 User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 8500
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 (see page 104).
____________________
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, TrueMobile, DellNet, Dell TravelLite, Inspiron,
Dell Precision, Dimension, OptiPlex, 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 by Bluetooth
SIG, Inc. and is used by Dell Computer Corporation under license; EMC is a registered trademark
of EMC Corporation.
Othertrademarksandtradenamesmaybeusedinthisdocumenttorefertoeithertheentitiesclaiming
themarksandnamesortheirproducts.DellComputerCorporationdisclaimsanyproprietaryinterest
in trademarks and trade names other than its own.
Model PP02X
July 2003 P/N 3Y007 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 View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Right View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Bottom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2Setting Up Your Computer
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

4Contents
Modem and Internet Connection Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
About the Module Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Checking the Charge on the Second Battery . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Removing and Installing Devices While the Computer
Is Turned Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
If the Device Screw Is Not Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
If the Device Screw Is Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Contents 5
Removing and Installing Devices While the
Computer Is Running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
If the Device Screw Is Not Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
If the Device Screw Is Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4Using the Keyboard and Touchpad
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
CD or DVD Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Radios (Including Wireless Networking and Bluetooth™) . . . . 63
Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Speaker Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
External Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Unexpected Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5Using CDs, DVDs, and Other Multimedia
Using CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
CD or DVD problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
If you cannot play a CD, CD-RW, or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
If you cannot eject the CD, CD-RW, or DVD drive tray . . . . . 71
If you hear an unfamiliar scraping or grinding sound . . . . . . 71

6Contents
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
If you have a problem with integrated speakers . . . . . . . . . 71
If you have a problem with external speakers . . . . . . . . . . 71
Copying CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Using Easy CD Creator Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Using Blank CD-R Discs or Blank CD-RW Discs . . . . . . . . 73
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
How to Copy a CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Connecting a Television to the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
S-Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
S-Video and Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Composite Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Composite Video and Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Enabling the Display Settings for a Television . . . . . . . . . 84
Enabling S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6Setting Up a Home and Office Network
Connecting to a Network Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Network Setup Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Connecting to Wireless Local Area Networks . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Determining your Network Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Connecting to a Network in Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Finalizing your Network Connection (Security Settings) . . . . 96
7Solving Problems
Finding Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Accessing Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Contents 7
Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
If you cannot save a file to a floppy drive . . . . . . . . . . . 108
If you have problems with a hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
PC Card Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
General Program Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
A program crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
A program stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Error messages appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
E-Mail Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
If Your Computer Gets Wet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
If You Drop or Damage Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Resolving Other Technical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Manually Reinstalling Drivers for Windows XP . . . . . . . . 115
Using System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Creating a Restore Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Restoring the Computer to an Earlier Operating State . . . . . 116
Undoing the Last System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities . . . . . . 118

8Contents
Reinstalling Microsoft®Windows®XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Before You Reinstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Reinstalling Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Reinstalling Drivers and Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
8Adding and Replacing Parts
Adding Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Adding a Mini PCI Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Adding a Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
9Appendix
Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Standard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Viewing the System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Commonly Used Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Dell Technical Support Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Definition of "Dell-Installed" Software and Peripherals . . . . . 149
Definition of "Third-Party" Software and Peripherals . . . . . . 150
Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Regulatory Noticesour cccess the help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
NOM Information (Mexico Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Limited Warranties and Return Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Limited Warranty for Dell-Branded Hardware
Products (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . 174

Contents 9
Limited Warranty Terms for Dell-Branded Hardware
Products (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . 178
Dell Software and Peripherals (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . 178
1-Year End-User Manufacturer Guarantee
(Latin America and the Caribbean Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Intel®Warranty Statement for Pentium®and
Celeron®Processors Only (U.S. and Canada Only) . . . . . . . 181
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

10 Contents