Dell Inspiron XPS User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ XPS
Owner’s Manual
Model PP09L

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 18.
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.
© 2004 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, TrueMobile, Dell TravelLite, Inspiron,Dell Precision, Dimension, OptiPlex,
Latitude, PowerEdge, PowerVault, PowerConnect, PowerApp, DellNet, Axim, and Dell OpenManage are trademarks of Dell
Inc.;Intel,Pentium,andCeleronareregisteredtrademarksofIntelCorporation;MicrosoftandWindowsareregisteredtrademarks
of Microsoft Corporation; Bluetooth is a trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG and is used by Dell Inc. under license; EMC is a
registered trademark of EMC Corporation.
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 PP09L
May 2004 P/N M3551 Rev. A02

Contents 3
Contents
CAUTION: Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
SAFETY: General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
SAFETY: Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
SAFETY: Battery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
SAFETY: Air Travel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
SAFETY: EMC Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
When Using Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
SAFETY: Ergonomic Computing Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
SAFETY: When Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
SAFETY: Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge . . . . . . . . . . 14
SAFETY: Battery Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1 A Tour of Your Computer
Front View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Bottom View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2 Using Your Computer
Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Configuring Graphics Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Settings and Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Connecting Your Computer to a TV or Audio Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
S-Video and Standard Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
S-Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Composite Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Composite Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4Contents
Enabling S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Setting Up the Dolby Headphone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Enabling the Display Settings for a TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Connecting Monitors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Using CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Copying CDs and DVDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
How to Copy a CD or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Using Blank CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVD+Rs, and DVD+RWs . . . . . . . . . 46
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3 Optimizing Performance
DDR Memory and Processor Front-Side Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Hyper-Threading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4 Using a Battery
Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Dell™ QuickSet Battery Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Microsoft®Windows®Power Meter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Charge Gauge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Removing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Installing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Storing a Battery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5 Using the Module Bay
About the Module Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Removing and Installing Devices While the Computer Is Turned Off . . . . . 55
Removing and Installing Devices While the Computer Is Running . . . . . . 56

Contents 5
6 Using the Keyboard and Touch Pad
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
CD or DVD Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Radios (Including Wireless Networking and PC Cards With
Bluetooth®Wireless Technology) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Power Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Speaker Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Customizing the Touch Pad and Track Stick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Changing the Track Stick Cap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7 Setting Up a Home and Office Network
Connecting to a Network Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Network Setup Wizard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Connecting to a Wireless Local Area Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Determining Your Network Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Connecting to a Wireless Network in Microsoft®Windows®XP. . . . . 67
Configuring Security Settings (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
8 Solving Problems
Using the Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
When to Use the Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
If the display is difficult to read. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

6Contents
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Hard Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
If you have problems with a hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
PC Card Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
External Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Unexpected Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Printer Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
E-Mail Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Modem and Internet Connection Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Network Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
General Program Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
A program crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
A program stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Error messages appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
CD or DVD Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
If you cannot play a CD, CD-RW, or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
If you cannot eject the CD, CD-RW, or DVD drive tray . . . . . . . . . . 89
If you hear an unfamiliar scraping or grinding sound . . . . . . . . . . 90
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
If you have a problem with integrated speakers. . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
If you have a problem with external speakers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Resolving Other Technical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Identifying Drivers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Contents 7
Using Microsoft®Windows®XP System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Creating a Restore Point. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Restoring the Computer to an Earlier Operating State . . . . . . . . . . 97
Undoing the Last System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Reinstalling Microsoft®Windows®XP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Reinstalling Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
9 Adding and Replacing Parts
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Shutting Down Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Mini PCI Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Hard Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Subwoofer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
PC Card With Bluetooth®Wireless Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Removing the Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Installing the Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Keyboard Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Fans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Hinge Covers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Display Latch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Video Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Processor Thermal-Cooling Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Removing the Processor Thermal-Cooling Assembly . . . . . . . . . 129
Installing the Processor Thermal-Cooling Assembly. . . . . . . . . . 130

8Contents
Palm Rest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Processor Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Removing the Processor Module. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Installing the Processor Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Flashing the BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Reserve Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
System Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Removing the System Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Installing the System Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Display Latch Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Pin Assignments for I/O Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
USB Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Video Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
S-Video TV-Out Connector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
IEEE 1394 Connector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
DVI-I Connector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
10 Appendix
Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Using the System Setup Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Viewing the System Setup Screens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
System Setup Screens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Commonly Used Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Enabling the Infrared Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Dell Technical Support Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Definition of "Dell-Installed" Software and Peripherals . . . . . . . . 152
Definition of "Third-Party" Software and Peripherals . . . . . . . . . 152
Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Regulatory Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
NOM Information (Mexico Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Contents 9
Limited Warranties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Limited Warranty for Dell-Branded Hardware Products
(U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Limited Warranty Terms for Dell-Branded Hardware Products
(Canada Only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Dell Software and Peripherals (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
1-Year End-User Manufacturer Guarantee
(Latin America and the Caribbean Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Intel®Warranty Statement for Pentium®and Celeron®
Processors Only (U.S. and Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

10 Contents