Dell Inspiron PP22L User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 1521 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.; AMD, AMD Turion, HyperMemory, ATI Radeon and combinations thereof are
trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.; Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Vista are either
trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries;
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
September 2007 P/N RT722 Rev. A02

Contents 3
Contents
1 Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2 About Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Determining Your Computer’s Configuration . . . . . . 19
Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Bottom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3 Setting Up Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . 34
Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . 35
Windows Easy Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

4Contents
Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . 38
4 Using the Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Adjusting Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Switching the Video Image From Your Computer Display To a
Projector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Setting Display Resolution and Refresh Rate . . . . . . 39
5 Using the Keyboard and Touchpad . . . . . 41
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Microsoft® Windows® Logo Key Functions . . . 43
Dell™ QuickSet Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . 43
Adjusting Keyboard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6 Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Dell QuickSet Battery Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Contents 5
Microsoft®Windows®Battery Meter . . . . . . . 49
Charge Gauge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Conserving Battery Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Configuring Power Management Settings . . . . . 50
Using the Sleep Power State . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Replacing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
7 Using Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Playing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Playing Media Using Dell Travel Remote . . . . . . . . 57
Copying CD and DVD Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
How to Copy a CD or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Using Blank CD and DVD Media . . . . . . . . . . 59
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Adjusting the Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Adjusting the Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Using Dell MediaDirect™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Connecting Your Computer to a TV or Audio Device . . 62
S-Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
S-Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . 66
Composite Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . 68
Composite Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 70
Component Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . 72

6Contents
Component Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 75
Enabling the Display Settings for a TV . . . . . . . 78
8 Using ExpressCards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
ExpressCard Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Installing an ExpressCard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Removing an ExpressCard or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 81
9 Using the Memory Card Reader . . . . . . . 83
Memory Card Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Installing a Memory Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Removing a Memory Card or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 85
10 Setting Up and Using Networks . . . . . . . 87
Connecting a Network or Broadband Modem Cable . . 87
Setting Up a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Wireless Local Area Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
What You Need to Establish a WLAN Connection . 88
Checking Your Wireless Network Card . . . . . . 89
Setting Up a New WLAN Using a Wireless Router and a
Broadband Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Connecting to a WLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Mobile Broadband (or Wireless Wide Area Network) . 93
What You Need to Establish a Mobile Broadband Network
Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Contents 7
Checking Your Dell Mobile Broadband Card . . . . 94
Connecting to a Mobile Broadband Network . . . 94
Enabling/Disabling the Dell Mobile Broadband Card 95
Dell Wi-Fi Catcher™ Network Locator . . . . . . . . . 96
11 Securing Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Security Cable Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
If Your Computer Is Lost or Stolen . . . . . . . . . . . 99
12 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Dell Technical Update Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Dell Support Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Dell Support 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Dell PC Tune-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Dell PC CheckUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Dell Network Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
DellConnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Optical drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Hard drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . 111
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
ExpressCard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

8Contents
IEEE 1394 Device Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
External Keyboard problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Unexpected characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Lockups and Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
The computer does not start . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
The computer stops responding . . . . . . . . . . 120
A program stops responding or crashes repeatedly 120
A program is designed for an earlier Microsoft®Windows®
operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Dell MediaDirect problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Other software problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Mobile Broadband (Wireless Wide Area Network [WWAN]) 124
Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
No sound from integrated speakers . . . . . . . . 127
No sound from external speakers . . . . . . . . . 128
No sound from headphones . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . 130

Contents 9
If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . 131
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . 132
Troubleshooting Software and Hardware Problems in the Windows
Vista®Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Restoring Your Microsoft®Windows Vista®Operating System 135
Using Windows Vista System Restore . . . . . . . 136
Using the Operating System Media . . . . . . . . 139
13 Adding and Replacing Parts . . . . . . . . . 141
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Before Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . 142
Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Removing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Removing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Replacing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Removing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Replacing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Removing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

10 Contents
Replacing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Removing the DIMM A Memory Module . . . . . . 150
Replacing the DIMM A Memory Module . . . . . 152
Removing the DIMM B Memory Module . . . . . . 153
Replacing the DIMM B Memory Module . . . . . 154
Subscriber Identity Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Wireless Mini Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Removing a WLAN Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Replacing a WLAN Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Removing a Mobile Broadband or WWAN Card . . 160
Replacing a WWAN Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Removing a WPAN Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Replacing a WPAN Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Internal Card With Bluetooth®Wireless Technology . 165
Removing the Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Replacing the Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Coin-Cell Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Removing the Coin-Cell Battery . . . . . . . . . . 167
Replacing the Coin-Cell Battery . . . . . . . . . . 167
14 Dell™ QuickSet Features . . . . . . . . . . . 169
15 Traveling With Your Computer . . . . . . . . 171
Identifying Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Packing the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Travel Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172