Dell Inspiron 9300 User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 9300
Owner’s Manual
Model PP14L

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.
© 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden.
Trademarksusedinthistext:Dell,theDELLlogo,Inspiron,DellPrecision,Dimension,OptiPlex,Latitude,PowerEdge,PowerVault,PowerApp,
PowerConnect,DellNet,and Dell OpenManage are trademarks of Dell Inc.; Intel and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation;
Microsoft, Windows,MS-DOS, and Outlook are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; 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 PP14L
January 2005 P/N G7903 Rev. A01

Contents 3
Contents
Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1 A Tour of Your Computer
Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Bottom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2 Setting Up Your Computer
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Connecting a USB Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3 Using a Battery
Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Dell QuickSet Battery Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Microsoft Windows Power Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Charge Gauge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

4Contents
Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Removing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Installing a Battery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4 Using CDs, DVDs, and Other Multimedia
Using CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Copying CDs and DVDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
How to Copy a CD or DVD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Using Blank CD-Rs and CD-RWs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using MediaDirect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Connecting Your Computer to a TV or Audio Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
S-Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
S-Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Composite Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Composite Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Changing Your Audio Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Enabling the Display Settings for a TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
5 Using the Keyboard and Touch Pad
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
CD or DVD Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Radios (Including Wireless Networking and Bluetooth®
Wireless Technology) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Speaker Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Contents 5
Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6 Using PC Cards
PC Card Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
PC Card Blanks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Extended PC Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Installing a PC Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Removing a PC Card or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7 Solving Problems
Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
When to Use the Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
DVD drive problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Hard drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
IEEE 1394 Device Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
External keyboard problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Unexpected characters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Lockups and Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The computer does not start up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The computer stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
A program stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
A program crashes repeatedly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
A program is designed for an earlier Windows operating system . . . . . 63
A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Other software problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64